Edshugeo The GodMoor

Iron Man was great! I'm not good at writing reviews, so I'll leave it at that. It was awesome. Can't wait to buy the DVD or Blu-Ray. Though if I buy the Blu-Ray, I'll have to wait till I have a player to watch it.

Had to wait over an hour in line for my free comics at Midtown Comics (near Times Square). Not exactly local, but that's where I liked to go for comics before I started relying on Amazon.com for just about anything.

Even though purchase wasn't required, it seemed quite a few people shopped in addition to picking up their freebies (a good thing for the store) which is one reason the line was slow in moving. Another reason - a lot of fucking people on the line.

I too, made a few purchases; The Batman/Grendel compilation (didn't know this was out till recently), the latest Black Panther trade (Little Green Men), first volume of Y: The Last Man (trying something new), a 50 cent preview of Grendel: Behold The Devil, a 50 cent (given free) preview of the new Crisis mini-series called DC Universe 0, which I read on the way home (it sucks, of course) and Giant Robot magazine #53. Hadn't read that in a little while.

I won't go into the free titles except to say I got 27 free comics, which was already compiled by a store worker. Should keep me busy for a little while.

Labels: Awesome, comics, good deal, movies

Around this time for the past few years, participating comic book shops have given away free promotional comics to capitalize on the potential for new customers generated by big budget superhero films like Spiderman, and now Iron Man.

I always, always, always miss it, and I'm always, always, always pissed when I get home that Saturday and find out it was Free Comic Book Day. Except for one or two times when I knew about it, and just had other concerns or things to do.

Well not this time. Grand Theft Auto IV killed my XBox 360, or maybe it was a co-inky-dink that the inevitable (for about 33% of 360 owners) Red Rings Of Death just happened to follow an increasing number of freeze ups I experienced while playing that game. I then put in San Andreas which froze up, and upon re-starting the machine, gazed in horror, upon the three flashing red lights.

It's going back to Microsoft after talking to what sounded like a thirteen year old boy over at support. Now that I think about it, I better make damn sure it's actually going to Microsoft and not some teen-aged hacker who's somehow manage to redirect XBox calls to his house. If he had an Indian accent, I'd be less suspicious. I dunno what their child labor laws are like over there.

Anyway, the point was, I've nothing better to do* so I might as well get some free comics and maybe check out Iron Man, which I was looking forward to seeing for a while now.

*Okay, "nothing better to do", doesn't include a number of things I ought to be doing, but it's gonna be interesting to see how much more productive I become in the next 3 or 4 weeks without the 360. I still have a PS2 and a bunch of unfinished/unplayed games, but I know I won't spend as much time on them. Then again....

Free Comic Book Day

Another casualty of GTA IV/RROD

Labels: Anticipay-yay-shun..., comics, DANGER WILL ROBINSON DANGER, good deal, movies, PS2, video games, XBox 360

But I do.

Labels: Awesome, comics, death, funny-ass shit, independent film-making, movies, youtube and other video

From The NY Times;

Time Warner is no longer the sole proprietor of Superman.

A federal judge here on Wednesday ruled that the heirs of Jerome Siegel — who 70 years ago sold the rights to the action hero he created with Joseph Shuster to Detective Comics for $130 — were entitled to claim a share of the United States copyright to the character. The ruling left intact Time Warner’s international rights to the character, which it has long owned through its DC Comics unit.

And it reserved for trial questions over how much the company may owe the Siegel heirs for use of the character since 1999, when their ownership is deemed to have been restored. Also to be resolved is whether the heirs are entitled to payments directly from Time Warner’s film unit, Warner Brothers, which took in $200 million at the domestic box office with “Superman Returns” in 2006, or only from the DC unit’s Superman profits.

Still, the ruling threatened to complicate Warner’s plans to make more films featuring Superman, including another sequel and a planned movie based on the DC Comics’ “Justice League of America,” in which he joins Batman, Wonder Woman and other superheroes to battle evildoers.

If the ruling survives a Time Warner legal challenge, it may also open the door to a similar reversion of rights to the estate of Mr. Shuster in 2013. That would give heirs of the two creators control over use of their lucrative character until at least 2033 — and perhaps longer, if Congress once again extends copyright terms — according to Marc Toberoff, a lawyer who represents the Siegels and the Shuster estate.

Wow! That is awesome. Assuming it's not reversed on appeal.

The whole article at the NYT, plus another at Newsarama where I first read this news.

Labels: Awesome, comics, feats of strength, Heroes, nostalgia

Minoriteam

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Saw this at AfroNerd and laughed myself silly. Adult Swim is some sick shit. I don't watch that much of it cuz I don't smoke weed, but every now and then something brilliant happens over there.

Labels: Awesome, comics, funny-ass shit, tv, youtube and other video

In a discussion about Marvel and Del Ray producing imitation manga featuring the X-Men and Wolverine comes this quote (which comes from a previous story) from C.B. Cebulksi:

...OEL is not manga. It is manga influenced. If we want to split hairs, in my opinion "OEL Manga" is actually an oxymoron. (Aside from the three or four original manga stories produced by Japanese artists for the non-Japanese market...) I'm going to spoil one of my points in an upcoming interview here, but I think it's important I point out that, despite how much people like to say ""Manga" is Japanese for comics.", it's not! "Komikusu" (the transliteration of "comics") is Japanese for comics. There's a big difference. I've had this conversation a thousand times and argued both sides, from the American and Japanese POV, but the simple fact is, if you ask any Japanese manga reader, writer, artist, editor or publisher, the term "manga" is Japanese for "Japanese comic". Plain and simple. Trust me, the Japanese are very specific in their comic terminology. Manga means Japanese comic. AmeComi is American Comic. BeDe or Bande Desinee is for anything produced in Europe. Manwha is Korean. Manhua is Chinese. And so on.... They're sticklers for their labels. Now I've spoken with editors at many of the major Japanese publishers, and at lots of the smaller ones too. They all agree on one thing; this "OEL" boom they hear about coming from the States is a marketing ploy. They don't appreciate it being branded as "manga". So much so that (and I don't want to piss off other fellow comic creators here any more than I already have), the Japanese already have a term for it. What we call "OEL", they're calling "Nissei Comi", which can be translated to mean "second generation" or "fake" comics. Look, agree or diasgree, I'm just stating facts here. Offering up a side of the discussion most people don't get to hear. Yes, this will rock the boat a bit and I know that, but I'm just trying to give another perspective on the discussion. Manga is purely Japanese and that's just how it is.

from Newsarama.com

I've never actually heard the two words spoken, but it would seem to me that Manwha and Manhua would sound identical when spoken. No?

Labels: comics, japanese, Truth

There's a great gallery of comicbook covers that accompany an article on the truly legendary Tony Wong. Most of the work represent early issues of Dragon Tiger Gate (Oriental Heroes). Dragon Tiger Gate was recently made into a not so good movie and Kaiju Shakedown laments what could have been (while linking to the above article in the first place and allowing me to find it).

Labels: comics, fun, kung fu

The last time I noticed something like this, it was a projectionist who made known his opinion of some movie before it was widely released.

This time it's an editorial director at a gaming site I used to check out regularly. The firing may've been motivated by the huge amount of advertising on Gamespot by Eidos for their apparently not so great game, Kane And Lynch.

While this controversy shines an unflattering light on the Gamespot site, other sites could very easily learn the wrong lesson from this. Luckily, it's easier than ever to get opinions from fellow gamers, as well as playable demos to help guide the choices we make.

In any case, I won't be needing Gamespot, as there are a ton of other videogame news sites, and I certainly won't be giving any Eidos titles a benefit of the doubt. If Eidos actually makes a kick ass game, I'll probably check it out, though.

Labels: advertising, bullshit, comics, video games

Pretty much what I've been doing for a while. This is like my theme song. Comes from a relatively recent album by Sparks, called Hello Young Lovers, which is badass in a Bohemian Rhapsody meets Meatloaf, though not really kinda way. I thought those guys were just a new wave group from the eighties, but there's way more to them than that. I vaguely recall an old Saturday Night Live appearance, where I thought the keyboardist was named Roland because of the prominent logo on the instrument. I also recall they had the movie rights to Mai, The Psychic Girl, and they were gonna make it a musical directed by Tsui Hark. The idea frightened me at the time, but now I wish it got made. Wonder if they went ahead and wrote any songs for it.

I'm still digging Bad Brains' Build A Nation. I used to like the idea of Bad Brains more than I did their records. Now they've made a album worthy of a Punk/Reggae band, though now it's more heavy rock, than punk, in my opinion.

Video Games.

Played through Me And My Katamari on the PSP. The controls are painful compared to We Love Katamari on the PS2, but I love the 8 bit version you get at the end. Sorry if that's a spoiler. Also love the theme, Katamari on the Funk. I doubt I'll get the 360 version (Beautiful Katamari) unless it's cheap and I have nothing better to do, which, I guess, is inevitable. Starting Killzone Liberation on the PSP. Demo was cool so I picked this up a week or two ago (I know it's been out for a while).

Still have to finish We Love Katamari on the PS2. I want to be done with all my games on the PS2 and then say goodbye to them. There's a bunch. I'm bad at finishing games, but lately I'm a bit more into it. Having the XBox 360, it would be easy to move on, but I can't. I won't. Grand Theft Auto 3 was a birthday present dammit! So was Dynasty Warriors 2, I think. And I just bought two or three PS2 games like 6 or 7 weeks ago (Shadow Of The Collossus, Socom II - Socom was used - 5 bucks, and one other?) in addition to a few other decent titles just sitting around like War Of The Monsters. So I will finish them and maybe pass them on to friends.

Finished BioShock and Halo 3 on the XBox 360. Bioshock is the better of the two games, though I've yet to try out the online multiplayer function of XBox Live. I actually let my free one month gold membership lapse without trying it out. Wanted to be a better player first. I can barely shoot straight even at this point, but I'm gonna join up next week or so.

I also play various demos, or Burnout Revenge if I want a quick gaming session. I just bought The Orange Box, primarily for Portal, but it includes Half Life 2 and Team Fortress. Looks like fun. Haven't opened it yet.

Movies.

Transformers was fun, but got annoying during the second hour (I think) with the comedy bit with them searching for glasses while the robots try to hide from the parents and the big bad government goons showing up. Turned into E.T. for a little bit. I was never a fan of the cartoon, though the animated Transformers: The Movie was pretty decent.

Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang was awesome, though. Picked it up at the supermarket a while back for six or seven bucks and finally checked it out. Funny as a muh-fug. Really looking forward to Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man.

Also went to see Jodie Foster's Death Wish movie, The Brave One. I liked it. Not great, but good enough. Really looking forward to seeing Terrence Howard in some kinda armor in Iron Man or maybe it's sequel.

TV?

Finished Heavenly Sword, Dragon Sabre (2003), which finishes up the Condor Heroes Trilogy, though it's not really a sequel, in my opinion. In the order I watched them, this followed the 1983 version of Legend Of The Condor Heroes and the 2006 Return Of The Condor Heroes (simply called Condor Hero in the U.S. release).

After the 2007 Legend Of is released with subtitles (fansubs perhaps), I may revisit the trilogy, following with the anime version titled Legend Of but which is actually Return Of (I have some but not all of this series) and then cap it off with the 1986 New Heaven Sword And Dragon Sabre. I also have a few volumes of the comic book adaptations of Louis Cha's novels. Legendary Couple by Tony Wong is based upon Return, and Heaven Sword Dragon Sabre was adapted by Ma Wing Shing. Both were published in English by Comics One, which went out of business before completing either story.

I've got Heroes stockpiled on my cable DVR, but haven't watched any of this season, yet. I will soon.

Audio Books.

eMusic has a audio books subscription service separate from their music downloading site. I joined, but will probably cancel after my second month. Listened to After Dark by Haruki Murakami and started A Briefer History Of Time by Stephen Hawkins. The first was a novel and was a breeze to get through, despite some audio glitches here and there. The second, not so much. Though meant to be lighter reading (listening) than Brief History, it requires a bit more of my attention than I can give it during a morning commute, or while shopping. I have to take a different approach, and will, later.

My previous experience with audio books was limited to Al Franken's Lies and The Lying Liars That Tell Them. A great audio book, but I didn't hold it up as an example of the medium, because it's a collection of funny stories delivered by a comedian who knows well how to perform his work. I've been told that normally, one should avoid audio books read by the authors themselves. Consider Al Franken an exception to this rule.

Comics.

Blood Sword back issues and the new re-translated, digitally enhanced volumes (Chinese Hero - Tales Of The Blood Sword). I'll talk about those another time, but I'll say the new volumes are great, mostly.

My creative endeavors?

All I do now is dick around, but when I get back to recording, I'll use the Vox page to blog about it rather than only using it for audio links and writing a separate blog.

Labels: comics, dorama, DVD, kung fu, movies, music, music video, PSP, tv, video games, wu-xia, XBox 360, youtube

Batman's origin often comes to (my) mind whenever the Ku Klux Klan and/or Birth Of A Nation is being discussed and vice versa. Last week, a 1911 entry from the Encyclopedia Britannica was discussed on the Undercover Blackman's site and this passage caught my eye;

“[The Ku Klux Klan] began in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee, as a social club of young men. It had an absurd ritual and a strange uniform. The members accidentally discovered that the fear of it had a great influence over the lawless but superstitious blacks..."

There's a famous line in Batman's origin where he says something along the lines of "criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot" just before a bat inspires him to go out in public dressed up as a guy in a cape and tights.

I first* made the Klan/Batman connection, after seeing a documentary on TV (I was probably flipping channels) years ago which included a clip from Birth Of A Nation, where there's some guy chillin' on the lawn somewhere and he sees a couple of Black kids playing. Soon some other kid comes up with a sheet over her (his?) head who scares the crap outta the young ones. This gives the guy on the grass an idea and the rest you can figure out.

Bob Kane was Jewish, I think. Bill Finger, I don't know much about. They're not likely to be big fans of the Klan, but by some reports, BOAN was a box-office success equivalent to a film making $300 million, in today's dollars. A lot of people saw it.

Still, maybe it's a stretch. Though, I always wondered if the fact that superheroes are largely an American phenomenon had to do with the fact that we actually have masked vigilantes in our history seen as heroes in the decades leading up to the early years of comicbooks.

Speaking of Batman, I came upon this "remix" of Detective Comics #27 a couple of days ago, following a link on James Hudnall's blog (the second one). It's called Dusk-Man. I thought it was pretty funny.

*I'm sure I'm not even close to being the first one to think about this. I was referring to the first time it occurred to me.
About three years ago I noticed an ain't it cool news talkbacker used the phrase "Birth Of A Notion" in a thread about the then upcoming Batman Begins. And certainly, connections between the Nazi's raping of Nietzsche's Ubermensch ideas and Superman (created by two Jews) has been brought up time and time again.

Labels: comics, funny-ass shit, movies, society

This is gonna be so awesome! Click on the art to enlarge or go here for those above and more.

Labels: comics, fun, funny-ass shit

Some projectionist submitted a negative review of "Rise Of The Silver Surfer" and got canned after the studio (Fox) threatened the theatre chain. Most agree that if a confidentiality agreement had been signed (or otherwise consented), then fine. However that isn't apparent at this time (he denies it), and Fox's bullying tactics might not be the type of publicity they want right now.
I was already leaning towards not seeing this film until it was available in some digital manner. I disliked (didn't hate it) the first one, and didn't see how the same crew could do any better this time. So, the controversy, if it has any legs, is mostly a non-issue for me. I am interested to see what it leads to, if anything.

Speaking of movies, I attempted to see Knocked Up over the weekend with a friend, and found the screening sold out. If theatre attendance is really declining the way it's been described, then this sort of thing shouldn't be happening anymore, should it? Or is Hollywood only worried about their shitty movies?

Labels: bullshit, comics, downloads, movies

On TV

Craig Ferguson
is what David Letterman was like, about twenty years ago and Conan O'Brien was less than ten years ago (before Andy Richter left). Funny. A guy trying to make the best of what the network will spring for.
Apparently, multiple shows are recorded on the same day (which ruins the topicality of some shows). Also it's not shown in HD, which might be a good thing as Hi-Def has made Conan harder to look at (Dude looks ghastly).

No complaints about Jay Leno's show which is a solid, entertaining late night show in the tradition of Johnny Carson, whom he replaced. I have way more respect for the guy now than I did when he first took over The Tonight Show. I don't really make it a point to watch the show, though. If I think I can stay up, it passes the time till CF comes on.

The Showbiz Show With David Spade
here's where showbiz news belongs, aside from Entertainment Tonight, which isn't quite as funny. He should be on five nights a week.

The Sopranos
Do I keep HBO now that it's done? Hmmm. Maybe, if not, I'll need another HD movie channel. I thought it was a great ending. It won't please everybody, though.

The Daily Show and sometimes The Colbert Report.

House M.D.
I normally come in during the last ten - fifteen minutes. There's no way I'm gonna guess what's wrong with the patient anyway.

On PSP

Return Of The Condor Heroes (2006)
The box set in U.S. stores is simply called Condor Heroes, but it's based on the sequel to Legend Of The Condor Heroes, a serialized novel by Louis Cha. The anime, which is titled Legend Of... pulls the same trick, though in that case it isn't only the U.S. version, but the Japanese version as well that's mis-titled.

Anyway, it may not be completely necessary to see the prequel to enjoy this, but if you don't, you might get the impression that West Venom, Ouyang Feng is simply a crazy, funny old guy as I did when I first encountered the character in The Legendary Couple (only read the first four volumes), a comicbook adaptation of Return from a few years back (It only lasted 8 volumes in the U.S.). It remains to be seen (by me) whether his true colors re-emerge.

Prior to this, I watched the fifteen disc (59 episode) 1983 version of Legend, and decided to follow with the 2006 version of Return, instead of the eighties version with Andy Lau (which I don't have, anyway). I was gonna wait for the 2007 version of Legend, but said eff it, and bought the DVD set of the 80s version instead. Great series, but it didn't need 59 episodes to tell that story.

I downloaded the 2006 Return of... from usenet, and the 2004(?) version of the third part of this story, Heaven Sword, Dragon Sabre, from D-Addicts, which I'll watch next. I also have a 1986 version of HSDS starring Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, but I'll save that for another time.

I'm up to episode eight (of forty-one). I stopped for a bit, and re-read the first four volumes of the comicbook, 'cuz I remembered some other stuff happening near the begining that didn't seem to be covered here, particularly, Yang Guo's relationship to Guo Jing's and Huang Rong's daughter, the Wu brothers, and his first meeting with Ouyang Feng. I'm seeing some of that stuff pop up in dialog and flashbacks now. Also, I found watching Yang Guo (Yang Gor) as a young boy annoying with all the crying and what not. I thought we'd be past that when he grew up (end of ep 3), but at this point he's still wandering around yelling for his Gu-gu. Otherwise, it's starting to get pretty good, though confusing with all the characters popping up outta nowhere.

I'm concerned about what's gonna happen when he finds out who killed his father, the douche-bag, Yang (Wayan) Kang. Also, that thing that happens to Gu-gu/Mistress Dragon is pretty disturbing both here (ep 6?) and at the end of vol. 4 of the comic.

The effects are very well done, but the action is a bit floaty.

Demi-Gods & Semi-Devils (1982)
TV series also based on a serialized novel by Louis Cha. A few of the episodes I had of Return Of The Condor Heroes were found to be corrupted (particularly the subtitles), so while I searched for replacements and re-read The Legendary Couple (the four volumes I had), and started this series. I now alternate between this and Return.
I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a prequel the Condor Heroes trilogy, but the Beggar Clan figures prominently as well as their two well known techniques, The Dog Beating Stick and The Eighteen Dragon Repelling Palms (passed on to Huang Rong and Guo Jing in Legend Of). It clearly takes place during the Song Dynasty, where Condor is close to the end.
Wikipedia places Demi-Gods at the 11th Century, Legend at the 12th, Return at the 13th, and Heavenly Sword at the 14th.

Initially, I wasn't sure if this show would hold my interest, but now that Leung Kar Yan has shown up (as Beggar chief Master Kiu), things have gotten much more interesting. Especially the fighting.

Tuen Yue who was the focus, up until recently (I'm somewhere around ep 18), is a bit annoying to me. He does have a fascinating dilemma, though; His father was such a player, any girl Yue meets is potentially his half sister. This has only ruined one relationship, so far, but I doubt it'll be the last...

edit: I should mention that the above shows aren't available for the PSP (that I know of). They had to be converted from the DVDs to MP4s using XviD4PSP by Winnydows. There are other tools out there. This is the one I use.

Labels: comics, dorama, downloads, DVD, kung fu, PSP, tv, wu-xia, youtube

Then Shazam! I'm there. I mean, really. What could be more perfect than that?

Labels: comics, movies, nostalgia

Not a dream! Not an imaginary story!

Researchers from mining group Rio Tinto discovered the unusual mineral and enlisted the help of Dr Stanley when they could not match it with anything known previously to science.

Once the London expert had unravelled the mineral's chemical make-up, he was shocked to discover this formula was already referenced in literature - albeit fictional literature.

"Towards the end of my research I searched the web using the mineral's chemical formula - sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide - and was amazed to discover that same scientific name, written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film Superman Returns.

Labels: comics, funny-ass shit, science

Went to the movies today to check out 300, the digital movie adaptation of Frank Miller's comic book. I caught an Imax showing in NYC, not expecting that a Tuesday afternoon screening could be so crowded. Getting a bad seat at any movie theatre sucks. Getting a bad seat at an Imax theatre really sucks, and as I sat there trying to watch the Spiderman 3 trailer, with every body's faces stretched thin at the top, because I'm sitting way too close to the screen, looking up, it occurs to me, "this was a really bad idea." And what's the fucking point anyway? Do I need to see the images that big? No. Though, once I caught an interesting editing glitch at the end of Matrix Revolutions, that I might not have seen on a normal but decent sized movie screen.

I thought the movie was great. Screen issues didn't hurt at all, though I'd noticed some distorted big heads or figures every now and then. Though it's making more than enough money at the box office, I'm thinking of seeing it again (getting to the theatre earlier, this time).

Much is being made of the parallels between events in the film and current events, and why not? I think it works well as pro-war propaganda, and we've needed a good pro-war film (as opposed to just a good war film) for a long time.
It also works as a critique of our weaknesses. The politics and perceived self interests that hold us from doing what must be done (mentioned by numerous others), on the side of the Spartans (or maybe not so much on their side), as well as the overconfidence and arrogance that ultimately hinders our ability to truly be victorious, represented by the antagonists. Despite Xerxes origin in a familiar eastern locale and the fight against "mysticism and tyranny", our enemy is ourselves, as Pogo may've been quoted.

None of this was likely intended by the film-makers or by Miller himself, as far as I know. Like most critics, sometimes I like to bring my own baggage to the table.

Did I mention it was a good movie? It is. Go see it.

I also watched The Host and Curse Of The Golden Flower on DVD.

The Host is an amusing black comedy about a dis-functional family (of course they're dis-functional) who hunts a monster that took their daughter/niece/grand-daughter from them. The special effects in this movie from Korea are surprisingly good, and for the most part would've impressed me in much larger budgeted Hollywood flicks. There's a subplot I didn't quite get, that appears to be suggesting that America sorta pulled the whole bird flu scare out of it's ass, and for no reason. Despite that, I enjoyed it a whole lot.

I didn't like Curse Of The Golden Flower. I thought it was a depressing and pointless piece of shit. Kinda like The Banquet (which also sucked), but more colorful. The kung fu wasn't bad, but more of it wouldn't have helped.

Labels: comics, DVD, kung fu, movies, politics

These are the paperbacks by Barnes And Noble. Spiderman is volumes 2 and 3, and The Uncanny X-Men is volume 1. I picked up the Spiderman books at the B. Dalton in the mall today for just under 5 bucks apiece, but passed on the X-Men. I wasn't a huge fan. I remember trading away some of those issues to get my hands on some of Jim Starlin's Warlock and Captain Marvel comics. Doesn't seem like a smart trade, now, but back then, comics were for reading, not collecting. That's not completely true. Looking back (early 1980s), I can see some of today's stupidity (on the fan side of things) taking root.

I also bought Mad About Superheroes (a Mad Magazine collection) for 10 bucks. I'll probably go back for that X-Men volume, provided it's still there later this week. I suspect they expected to sell more of these in the wake of the Spiderman and X-Men films. And I have to get Spidey volume one at some point.

If you don't like to shop in person, you can get those volumes online, at the sale prices (as of this writing) at the B&N site.

Labels: comics, good deal, online retailers

The upcoming TV series remake of the Jin Yong (Louis Cha) novel that gets remade every now and then. Here's a trailer from YouTube;



There's an anime series with the same title, but it's been misnamed as it's actually Return Of The Condor Heroes. A sequel by the same author. That story has also been published in comicbook form by Tony Wong as The Legendary Couple (at least in it's U.S. release). The English volumes were canceled before the story concluded.

The subtitled 1982 series Legend Of the Condor Heroes; Iron Blood, Loyal Heart can be found here (the torrents can anyway). As of this writing just the first four episodes are up, but more should be arriving, probably over the next coupl'a months. I've previously mentioned watching the first two episodes without subs. If you're into old school Shaw Bros. action, you'll want to check these out.

Not known to me til just now; Heavenly Sword, Dragon Sabre is the third part of the Condor Trilogy. Something I'll keep in mind as I have that series stashed away for future viewing (as well as the 2006 Return Of The Condor Heroes). I've read some of Ma Wing Shing's comicbook adaptation. That too was canceled early.

Labels: bittorrent, comics, dorama, kung fu, tv, wu-xia, youtube

As the folks at Dr Master Books* prepare to launch their remastered version of Ma Wing Shing's classic comicbook epic, Chinese Hero (published in the U.S. as Blood Sword and Blood Sword Dynasty) sometime in 2007, their website has prepared a presentation going into the backstory.

Publishing this story from it's awkward beginings could turn off readers before the series gets running, so the early adventures are presented in a brief recap on the site and the new publications will jump off at the point where the backstory ends. I guess.

I'm mucho excited. There may be some holes in my collection of the Jademan comics run, I should probably fill before this comes out.

*The Dr Master website has quite a few comics on sale, including some early Comics One volumes that are worth checking out if you're into stuff like that.

Labels: comics, kung fu

It's a bird, it's a plane... No! It's ...

Labels: comics, movies, nostalgia

Picked up this graphic novel (comicbook) at an impromptu stop at Barnes & Nobles in Garden City last week. It's published by TokyoPop who mostly publishes manga (Japanese comics) translations and imitation manga. This was neither. I was imediately struck by the cover image of a pierced, slightly heavy-set, red mohawked black chick holding a bloodied toilet plunger. A bad omen, I guess, as I found later that very night, I would be in need of a toilet plunger. I won't be getting into that.
A glance at the back cover and a quick peek inside told me this was probably a girl vs. zombie story. I could live with that as well as the $10 price tag on the 200 page paperback.

Ross Campbell isn't just an excellent artist, he's a damn good sequential artist who's also great at writing dialog. The book is, overall, an enjoyable read, but I'm not too crazy with the direction the story took. This may be my bias against the genre more than anything else, but I'm not sure. And what exactly was the thing about the dumptruck?

Crap:
Ultimate Marvel Flip Magazine #9
I used to get Shonen Jump at the supermarket when I did my food shopping, but it appears the manga compilation either sells out before I get there, or is ordered irregularly. Whatever the case, I've lost track of whatever I was reading in it a year, maybe a year and a half ago. I've always meant to subscribe (which would be cheaper), but never got around to it. At some point I may or may not get the Naruto books. DragonBall and DragonBall Z for sure. I have the first four volumes of DragonBall and will continue those one day. The anime is a bit much. I suppose I could download the whole thing, but I think I attempted that a few years ago and then decided it was way too much trouble. I still think Harmony Gold's version of the first two (or was it the first and the third?) DragonBall movies were much funnier than Funimation's. Wish I still had those on tape or something, but I'm sure they can be found online, somewhere.
Anyway, the only other comics at the supermarket are these flip comics put out by Marvel. You get Captain America on one side, Avengers on the other. At four bucks per issue, I guess it comes out at about two bucks per comic, which is still too much, if I bought these things on a regular basis. I was interested in Captain America, but the story was too far along and I may end up getting the paperback compilation despite knowing who the Winter Soldier is.
A couple of months ago I picked up one of these just for the hell of it. I don't make it to any comics shops too often anymore. It was Spiderman on one side and Arana (or something like that - the Hispanic Spidergirl) on the other. Both stories were okay, but aside from John Romita Jr.'s art, didn't blow me away.
This weekend I spotted one that featured two "Ultimate" titles; Fantastic Four and X-Men. Ultimate X-Men was written by Mark Millar whose work I enjoyed in The Ultimates, a re-working of the Avengers and the only of Marvels Ultimate line I've read so far. Ultimate FF was written by Warren Ellis, of whom I've mostly read good things, but whose works I've never read, I think.
Both stories appear to be crap. Is that because I'm coming in mid-story and this sort of thing reads better in compilation form (the way I read The Ultimates), or are they just crap? I may never find out.
I recently ordered Akira #37 and 38 at Biblio.com. I got 38 (for six bucks) but was never charged for nor sent 37. I'll get it at some point from somewhere. A few years ago (everything happened a few years ago) I searched for the last few issues of that series thinking it ended at 36 for some reason. I think I stopped buying the series because the schedule got real erratic at some point, but I don't remember. Anyway I bought what I thought was the last few issues up to 36 and re-read the whole series, and when I got to the "end", found myself asking "WTF? Is that it?" and just left it alone for a while. At some point I realized there might be more and when I found out for sure I would check every now and then, when visiting comicbook stores or online sites. I'm not payin' twenty bucks for a single issue of any comicbook, though. When I found 'em listed at Biblio at six bucks a piece, I was like, "cool!" Still don't have 37, though. When I get it, I'll read the whole series over again. Hey, it's worth it.
(edit: Also read DC Universe: The Stories Of Alan Moore, which of course is (mostly) not crap. Except for the Green Arrow story (which along with most of the Green Lantern Corps tales, I'd never known about). I don't get how people are still writing comics that features a guy using a bow and arrow in an urban setting while dressed like Robin Hood. I'm not crazy about Hawkeye in The Ultimates, either. Sure, there's a lot of stupid shit in comics, but some shit is just too stupid for comics.

Labels: Anime, comics

The above image is from The Marvel Try-Out Book from back in the eighties. A comic book presented on 11"x17" 2 ply bristol board. A few pages complete but without color. Next a few complete sans color and inks. The pencils were printed in non-repro blue. These were followed by pages without word balloons (but with a script on an opposite page) and with rougher pencil, and then without words or pencils, but with plot, and finally I think, without even plot.
Since I don't have my penciled pages around, I assume they must've been really awful. I rarely throw my work away.
At the time I thought my inking was okay, though I never sent those pages in either. As with the above image (inked over John Romita Jr.'s blue lined pencils), it's pretty clear (now, at least) that some of my embellishments were a bit heavy handed at times, and at others, maybe a bit too sketchy.
It'd be cool if they kept putting out more of these, but I believe one more was created maybe in the nineties, featuring the X-Men. I understand the penciled pages were printed in black which meant the extra hassle of tracing and transferring.

Speaking of J. Jonah Jameson, on one of my recent, barely coherent rants, I discussed some long held ideas I had about Spiderman, but forgot about the publisher of the Daily Bugle. I'd recently read an article at Newsarama.com about some upcoming crap at Marvel. I don't remember the specifics, but some writer or editor stated an intention to cast J. Jonah Jameson in the mold of Rupert Murdoch. Or vice-versa. I don't like what Murdock has done to newspapers and I don't care for the Fox News network. It's also obvious that Jameson's a dick and that little Hitler mustache isn't really doing him any favors. But Jameson is not a Conservative. His concern that law enforcement should be held accountable (not possible with masked vigilantes) is a classic riff of the political left. Especially considering the actual history of the masked vigilante in the U.S. of A.

Speaking of upcoming crap at Marvel, here's a link to a Newsarama article (speaking of newsarama articles) that contains some really cool Dr. Strange artwork. I like the Vincent Price look. In the beginning, Steve Ditko kinda made him look Chinese or something. I'd like to see them do something with that eventually. There's also a new Eternals series by Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr. (speaking of JR Jr.). Mentioned a while back on a Jack Kirby newsgroup, this could lead to a compilation of the original series, which would make me real happy.

There's a reprint collection of 1970's Nova comics in Marvel's Essentials line. Those thick black and white phone book collections. That was one of my favorite books, back in the day, though he and I came from different versions of Hempstead, Long Island. His version of Hempstead High School was all white except for his one Black friend, while my version (Nova might've been cancelled by the time I was high school aged - I forget) was mostly Black and I had a few White friends.

Jenny, Jenny, Everywhere....
Jenny Everywhere is a copyright free e-comic character who exists everywhere at once, so any creator can do whatever they will and not worry about pesky things like continuity and whatnot. Some stories are better than others. Here's one I like: Damn Fine Hostile Takeover - part one and part two.

Labels: comics, dead links, Hempstead, non music projects, nostalgia, These pictures will come back to haunt me one day

I finally got homebrew running on my PSP (2.6 firmware), thanks to this article. Once that was done, I had to look for stuff to play with.

Among my favorites, so far...

KETM - Kill Everything That Moves: To me it's a pretty version of Space Invaders/Asteroids/Galaga, etc., but actually a port of some other game I've never heard of. Lot's of fun, though.

Art Of Fighting 3 - this requires a Neo Geo emulator called NeoCDPSP to run. There are a number of game ROMs available. I've only tried this one (which I like a lot) and Sengoku 2, which is okay, so far. I also have a GBA emulator, but it's slow and apparently soundless.

PSPRhythm - this one has me giddier than a schoolgirl. Here's a quote from it's creators:

Inspired by classic drum machines such as the Linndrum and Roland TR-series, PSP Rhythm has been created to use the simple, yet effective 16 step style drum sequencer. PSP Rhythm incorporates the use of audio sample playback instead of drum synthesis. PSP Rhythm has been directly influenced by one of our favorite modern drum machines, the Elektron MachineDrum. The most significant is our use of "parameter locks" (as used by the MachineDrum). Parameter locks enable you to change the pitch, volume, balance, start and end time per step to create moving, changing melodies and effects. This control over your sounds will give you much more creative freedom and allow you to not only use drums, but to use instruments in your music.

I've barely gotten started with this, and there's still much for me to figure out, but so far it sounds great. There's a great deal of potential here. My portable video game system/movie player/mp3 player/e-book/e-comicbook is now also a pocket song writing tool.

It also means that when Sony releases the next firmware update, I'll have to pass.

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Other stuff on my PSP...

Andy Richter Controls The Universe - why the FUCK isn't this on DVD, yet? I'd downloaded a bunch of these a couple of years ago. I saw a few, but stored the rest. I watched the first ep from the second season, yesterday. Brilliant!

Romance Of the Three Kingdoms - The kung fu isn't all that great and the male bonding a bit over dramatic, I still find this entertaining so far (I've only watched 3/4 of the first episode).

A few bizarre Golden Age Comicbooks that are apparently in the public domain. A few of these characters have appeared in Alan Moore's Terra Obscura. I may lift a few myself.

Super Spy - I've read the first two and I have the third. There are four more up as of this writing. Got some catching up to do, and I still haven't finished MPD Psycho.

Various mp3s from Hello Gina - standouts are
The Man Machine by Kraftwerk. Do I remember this song, or the song that sampled it in the early to mid eighties?
Catch My Disease by Ben Lee - there are some songs that cause these feel good secretions that I can sometimes feel happening in my brain. Adore and She Loves Me 4 Me by Prince, and Europa And The Pirate Twins by Thomas Dolby are among those. So is this. I love it.
Unite by Tiger Tunes - They can make you dance.

various mp3s from wherever, including:
Battle Without Honor Or Humanity by Tomoyasu Hotei - the fight song from Kill Bill.
Slave by Nadir - I still love this song.
American Woman by Lenny Kravitz - don't look at me like that.
Take Me To The River by The Talking Heads

Prince stuff like Black Sweat, S.S.T./Brand New Orleans, Beautiful Loved and Blessed as well as his recent performances on SNL and the Brit Awards.

and some of my own recent demos and projects as well as the originals to songs I covered by Cry For Life and Sinister Dexter.

Labels: comics, Crystal Walters, dead links, dorama, downloads, fun, music, music making, possibilities for creative expression, Prince, PSP, PSP Rhythm, video games

I think I spelled that wrong. Whatever. Anyway, here's Frank Miller on video discussing his work in progress, Holy Terror, Batman! Looks good. Look at the size of those pages, though. I love Miller, and probably would've stopped reading comics in 1980 or so if not for him. Actually, I did for a minute, I think. His stuff often looks like it could be drawn with Sharpie markers on 8 1/2 x 11 copy paper. Not sayin' that's bad, just that he makes it look that easy.
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Unconfirmed reports at Aint it Cool News about Keanu Reeves possibly playing the Silver Surfer and Yuen Wo-Ping directing an Ang Lee film production of Shang Chi (Master Of Kung Fu) got me thinking about ideas I used to have about about these characters.

First, let me start with Spiderman. I never thought a faithful adaptation of Spiderman could work, but it did, and the first two Sam Raimi films were great. Before he proved me wrong, I had this bizarre concept of Peter Parker being a Haitian-American student played by Will Smith (who basically has Spiderman's personality down) who goes through the traditional origin and then becomes a modern day incarnation of one of his ancestral gods, Anansie, which is what Spiderman basically is. Anansie/Edshu to Brer Rabbit to Bugs Bunny to Spiderman to assorted loudmouthed, charismatic black wiseguys popular in Hollywood cinema today.
I understand that to some, that's possibly the worst idea they will ever hear. Anansie, however is a god in the form of a spider and sometimes spider-man. He predates Marvel's character by possibly thousands of years and is therefore public domain. Somebody is gonna eventually exploit this idea if Marvel itself doesn't do what they've already done with their other spider-related franchises from Spider-Woman to Arana, and get there first.

Where was I? Okay. The Surfer and MOKF.

Lee and Kirby reunited (with Joe Sinnot) near the end of the seventies to produce a graphic novel (not so-called, if I remember the times correctly) which remains among my favorite comics of all time. This is close to equaling a Beatles reunion (not the one that produced Free As A Bird, though). I recall that at some point (late 70's, very early 80's?) a movie based on this book was considered. A musical with a prominent role for Olivia Newton John, but still, I was excited. Never happened. I still consider this story the only one featuring the Surfer and Galactus that matters. The Fantastic Four "trilogy" where the stretchy guy scares the big guy off with that little gun? Nope. Liked it when I first read it, but... nope.

The only place where my ideas veer off a bit is that Zenn La is not Norrin Ladd's home. Norrin, the Surfer is a figure created wholly from Galatus' subconcious. Sorta like the angel that sits on a person's right shoulder in those old cartoons. His memories of home are actually those of his host, Galactus. Everytime Galactus comes across an inhabited world, he does battle with himself, because in spite of what he says, he knows there's not that much difference between him and his food.

Master Of Kung Fu was an attempt to cash in on Bruce Lee by having a martial arts hero be related to Fu Manchu. I dunno, is that kinda like having Luke Cage be related to Rochester from the old Jack Benny show? Dude's name was Shang Chi and he wore the same red pajamas all the time and hung out with some British folks who were trying to take down his father. Now, I'm not Chinese, but I have a feeling this wouldn't play that well in Beijing, Hong Kong or even Taiwan. Still, it might be cool. I know Yuen's not gonna actually direct the film. They'll have him do the action (at most) and let some hack do the rest.

Had an idea for the comicbook, that Fu Shang-Chi was working for his father all along or at least for the organization that he would eventually inherit. The series would pit him against Nick Fury who would always be a step behind the son of Fu.

Labels: comics, fun, kung fu, movies

I have a