Atomic Romance

Happy Veterans Day

2011-11-11T18:11:00.000-08:00

I'm outing myself here but yes I was in the Army way back when.

As you can tell from the photo I was still a gen-x geek even while in uniform as attested by such things as:

The spike Gremlin in front of the pentium computer.

The empty bag of chips on the floor

A copy of PC Gamer on the Chair

Hellraiser Puzzle box on the coffee table

and the Call of Cthulhu RPG books on the shelf

-Swinebread

Captain Power... I remember

2011-10-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

-Swinebread

Hauptmann Amerika

2011-07-28T23:06:00.000-07:00

This has got to be one of the weirdest things for me in the Universe... Captain America in German!

I think I heard something in there about sending the Führer to hell

Here is trailer two in German

The Red Skull sounds awesome!

-Swinebread

An Unexpected Delight

2011-07-28T18:36:00.000-07:00

Holy Crap! The Irish Times call Captian America "An unexpected delight."

See Link Here

Maybe folks overseas will like movie Steve Rogers after all.

-Swinebread

Ave Marvel

2011-07-23T05:39:00.000-07:00

In all of the SDCC news dump this small tidbit jumped out for me. It's been announced that Strikeforce: Morituri is being delvoped into a Movie.

SFM would actually work quite well as film since all of the characters would be under a death sentence. They tried to get a TV version of of this in 2003 so I'm not holding my breath though.

see link here

Rotten Tomatoes is Manipulating Captain America's Score

2011-07-21T07:54:00.000-07:00

Currently Cap is barely getting a Fresh Rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Yesterday, It was Rotten with only a few reviews. I'm Calling BS on this as Warner Brothers owns RT and Cap is MARVEL/Disney.

From Comic book Movie:

Rotten Tomatoes is indeed owned by Warner Brothers, the company behind the recently released Harry Potter movie. As the reviews roll in it would seem that the RT score is being manipulated to be presented as low score and in fact rotten. As I write this the score stands at 58% with a 7/10 rating, 14 positive reviews and 10 negative. Wow? 7/10 still, and it sits at a 58% rating? A little odd I might say. I've been scanning the web all day and I know for a fact there are way more than 14 positive reviews from major critics out there, and maybe there are more than 10 negative reviews from major critics but I don't see them. In fact every negative review that I see on the web is updated on RT, but there are still tons of positive reviews yet to be released. I also find it odd that of those 10 negative reviews 3 of them don't actually seem negative and they all have a score over 60%, is RT actually reading these things?

I don't think it's a stretch to think that RT is sitting on a ton of great reviews until the very last minute, or at least as long as they can. It's almost like they're deliberately waiting for a negative review to come in until they put up another positive one, perhaps to keep that score down as long as possible? I don't think it's a coincidence that of the first 8 reviews posted 6 of them were negative. Where have we gone since then? Positive has gone up by 12 and negative only by 4. Huh? maybe I'm just a conspiracy theorist but that does seem a little odd.

It is the day before the movie opens and there is no consensus on RT yet... TOTAL BS

-Swinebread

Full Article here

A thread from superhero hype here

They are deliberately keeping the score low to damage the 1st weekend of Cap.

Happy 4th!

2011-07-04T08:43:00.000-07:00

It's the 4th and Cap coming soon!

Have fun and be safe!

The Sentinel of Libation

2011-06-29T16:05:00.000-07:00

I'm SO excited because two movies with two of my favorite characters are coming out this summer...

therefore a mashup is in order... ...CAPTAIN CONAN!

Yeah it's already been done...

A long time ago...

...in the 1980s

-Swinebread

2011-06-26T22:28:00.000-07:00

The passing of one of the Greats... Gene Colan 1926 – 2011

Happy Fathers Day

2011-06-19T09:06:00.000-07:00

-Swinebread

Comic Acquisitions 6-12-11

2011-06-15T23:27:00.000-07:00

-Swinebread

2011-06-11T08:39:00.000-07:00

"the class of 1967, which is growing reflexively hostile to government spending, needs to realize the interest it shares with the class of 2011: Unless today’s young people ascend into well-paying jobs, it won’t be possible to finance Social Security and Medicare for tomorrow’s seniors"

Link

-Swinebread

Top Ten TV Cartoons (plus Three Honorable Mentions)

2011-06-01T12:39:00.000-07:00

-Swinebread

Wanna Get It Out of Your Head?

2011-05-28T20:32:00.000-07:00

Q Lazarus' Goodbye Horses will forever be associated with the Buffalo Bill scene from the Silence of the Lambs but how do you experience this wonderful song on it's own terms?

First you must attach it to a video of a totally different nature to blow away your preconceived notions...

watch this and I'll see you on the other side:

Now go on and just listen... here

-Swinebread

Crappy Comics in My Collection

2011-05-27T23:50:00.000-07:00

-swinebread

Recent Comic Buys

2011-05-20T22:20:00.000-07:00

Post 2

2011-05-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

Swinebread's Vlog Post

2011-04-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

Long Time No See

2011-04-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

Haven't Been Blogging but I thought I'd give a heads up on what I'm Reading right now.

Vietnamerica

swinebread

2010-07-28T19:13:00.000-07:00

It's so obvious it is funny!

-Swinebread

R.I.P Harvey Pekar

2010-07-12T18:27:00.000-07:00

The great master of the autobiographical comic is gone... See Here

Harvey Pekar

October 8, 1939 – July 12, 2010

-Swinebread

Great Moments in Comic Book History

2010-05-06T19:32:00.001-07:00

HULK SMASH... GIANT WILLY!

-Swinebread

Random Comic Cover

2010-02-26T20:00:00.001-08:00

-Swinebread

Happy Birthday Lincoln

2010-02-12T17:57:00.000-08:00

-Swinebread

Tomb of Horrors!

2010-01-21T16:09:00.000-08:00

Any old-school D&D player could tell you about Gary Gygax's infamous meat grinder adventure module "Tomb of Horrors." The module exemplified everything that was great about old school D&D: an emphasis on roleplaying, a sense of dread that your beloved character would meet it's maker and perhaps most importantly an emphasis on actual puzzle solving rather than rolling dice.

It's no surprise that gamers talk about that module in reverential terms. Surviving the module was a badge of honor among those that played early editions of D&D. It was almost certain you would most, if not all of your party, before you got halfway through the adventure.

So it was with no small bit of surprise that I read today that Wizards of the Coast is releasing an updated version of the module for 4th edition D&D. I'm pretty disappointed with this announcement.

Terabytes of data have been expended in debating the merits of the most recent version of D&D, so I have no interest of hashing that out here. I personally find the emphasis on character balance and dumbing-down of game mechanics to be off-putting. I can't shake the feeling when I play 4th edition games that I've played this game before online when it was called World of Warcraft.

Tank + Blaster + Wizard + Healer for the win = teh boring.

The prospect that you can take a module that contains only one monster but tons and tons of clever traps instead and translate it into the 4th edition rules with it's emphasis on fighting, player survival and rolling dice rather than roleplaying seems highly dubious to me. They're going to have to nerf the damned thing and if they do that they're entirely missing the point.

--Dean Wormer
-

Been Readin'

2010-01-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

Well a lot of time has passed and the holidays... WHEW!

Everything went OK with the move except for the usual annoying stuff (like not having heat for four days).

The funny thing is I'm not hooked up to the internet at home and I don't have a have a TV right now so I've been reading quite a bit.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T16:57:00.001-08:00

New Year's Greetings from Swine and and the gang! Just a short post to say:

May all your wishes come true, and Good Luck follow you!

Now go here to watch the ball drop in New York!

This one got to me

2009-12-28T15:49:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody, last week I was perusing the Huffington Post ‘s Impact section when I came across Lucia Duran’s story and it really struck a cord with me and so I decided to donate a few dollars to help her out. This charity drive is part of the 12 families, 12 cities, and 12 days that the Huffington Post is running to raise modest sums for various families in need this holiday season.

Lucia’s story of recovery from various periods of domestic violence and her will to strive for a better life for herself and her kids just broke my heart.

After reading the article last week on Christmas Eve, just couldn’t get her son’s picture out of my mind. He’s so young and yet he has already had to deal with such awful problems. I have to say that I have been, well, haunted by his intense, yet hopeful face, but why? I guess I saw both my son and myself together in his expression. This is something heavy that I haven’t quite worked out but it has knocked me for loop. So I sent a few bucks. It would be so great if the cycle of violence ended with Lucia’s son, Juan Pablo and her daughter, Fatima.

All the families that the Huffington Post is highlighting are very deserving, but I felt I just had to bring more attention to this one story. So if you have a few dollars to spare and still feel a little more holiday spirit, take the plunge and donate to a lady that is really trying to pick herself and her children up by the bootstraps.

I read the article, and I just wasn’t the same

The 12 families, 12 cities, and 12 days event ends on the 1st of January so there is only three days left. There is still time to a little that can make a big difference.

Lucia and her kids have received a lot help from the Homeless Prenatal Program and they're worth checking out too.

Thanks

Happy New Year everyone

-Swinebread

Geektastic Holidays Ahoy!

2009-12-28T14:11:00.000-08:00

Wormer here.

Lots of geek stuff happening for me personally. In no particular order of importance---

Swiney lent me trades of the entire Preacher series because he loves it and probably because I'm such a fan of Garth Ennis' "Battlefields" series.

I've read through the first three and "Ancient History" which covers the backstory of some of the secondary characters and I have to say I love it. It's a weird combination of things that Ennis mixes into his tale but it happens to be stuff that's right up my alley: westerns, Catholic theology (I'm a reformed Catholic,) vampires and such. There's also a faint subtext of Douglas Adams in much of the dark humor mixed into the story. Great stuff.

I got rid of my comics box a couple of months ago but picked up a ton of comics for the kid's stockings as I do every year. One of the titles was "The Marvel Zombies Return."

The original Marvel Zombies is a darkly hysterical take on an alternative universe where an infected superhero comes to earth, quickly turns the Marvel Zombies into the undead and they, in turn, eat everybody on earth in a matter of hours. Unfortunately the mini-series that followed this brilliant debut didn't quite measure up in terms of creativity with the zombie Spiderman and company conquering their hunger, becoming vegetarians and essentially nerfing the harder edge that had made the title stand out.

MZR has the series back to form. The zombies have been cast to other alternative realities where they suddenly regain their hunger and go all all you can eat buffet again. The first title has Spiderman falling into his own storyline from the 70's and trying to be a hero but winding up eating each and every archvillain that ever faced him, ultimately causing the plague all over again.

In my own Christmas Stocking were copies of the Weird War 2 expansion for the Savage Worlds rpg, the "Temeraire" series of books which Peter Jackson is going to make into a television series and Left For Dead 2 for the PC which will suck up some of my time when I get a chance.

I've played video games since I was a kid with a penchant for computer games. This means I literally have decades of experience tweaking settings, loading floppies, updating drivers or whatever the hell I have to do to make a particular bit of gaming software work.

At the top of my son's Christmas list was a game called "Section 8." It's a 3-D shooter set in the future, sort of a mix of Battlefront and Halo. He was especially excited to unwrap the thing.

What followed was about three days of hell as I struggled to get this software running. It will come as no surprise that Microsoft is the publisher of this monstrosity. Much of the problem can be traced to Microsoft's DRM scheme. They require an internet connection to their Windows Live gaming network even if you're playing single player. Naturally this didn't work and the game would crash every time it tried to connect.

After searching the net I found that we weren't alone in facing this problem and that many, many people who had bought the game had struggled with the same issue. Complicating this was the fact there was no one solution but a mix of removing and reinstalling Games for Windows and removing and installing Section 8 seemed to be what resolved the problem for most people.

The only reason I can assume that this software was released in this poor of a state has to be that Microsoft really wants to kill computer gaming so everybody that games will buy an XBox. No other theory makes sense.

--Dean Wormer
-

DEMOCRAT NO MORE!

2009-12-18T20:09:00.000-08:00

Hi folks, I've been busy with the new place post move and work has been crazy but I wanted to let you know how I've been feeling. It's seems that Dean Wormer and I have come to the same conclusion at about the same time. See his excellent post here.

I didn't think we'd get all the progressive stuff we wanted, maybe 50% (and I would have taken even 25%), but to get absolutely NOTHING! It's simply just too much. All the political capital that has been wasted in the last year coddling conservatives, insurance lobbyists and the list goes on.

I'm done with 'em 'cause the Dems really don't give a crap about the folks in their own party. So maybe if I leave it they'll start paying attention. ...Yeah right.

All that hope... and now it's gone...

-Swinebread

PS I'm also pissed because Dean is gonna post all his pop and entertainment news on his own blog now 'cause he can't bring himself to talk politics anymore. grrrrr

Update On Swinebread

2009-12-08T16:15:00.000-08:00

I just spoke to him on the phone.

No, he's not dead.

Nor has he suddenly been bitten by a radioactive insect, discovered his parents were actually gods or aliens, walked into the path of an atomic experiment or any other thing that would have bestowed him with superpowers. He can't have superpowers. For one thing he's not single. We all know only single people have superpowers.

Swinebread is not serving time in an intergalactic prison, banished to the Phantom Zone or trapped in a giant block of ice to be revived thousands of years in the future. Neither he nor the city he lives in have been shrunken down so they can sit on the mantle of some super schlub.

He's definitely not a zombie or any other form of undead.

On the other side of the coin he hasn't been trapped on Paradise Island to be fawned over by hundreds of 6-foot tall Amazonian women that look suspiciously like Lynda Carter. So he doesn't have that going for him.

He's simply without computer access since the move. He plans on continuing this blog and sends his love to y'all.

So Commisioner Gordon you can stop shining the Swinebread Spotlight into the sky to call him out of his Swine Cave. He'll be back to fight crime, talk comics and piss me off when he fails to agree that Joss Whedon is the second coming of Christ before you know it.

-Dean Wormer-
--

Moving

2009-10-07T18:03:00.000-07:00

As you all have noticed, posts have become quite sparse here at old Atomic Romance. Part of that is do to being a Daddy now while another part is due to all kinds of craziness at work. But for October things get really insane because the Swinebread gang is moving. I will have no time at all for extras. So I guess I'm taking a short break to get through the next month.

take care

Swinebread

Great Moments in Comic Book History

2009-09-22T19:28:00.001-07:00

Cabaret or Suicide! Vance Astro was pretty depressed about life in the 31st century but luckily his Guardians of the Galaxy buddies whisked him off for adventures in deep space so he didn't end up offing himself.

Cabaret or Suicide... with a panel like that you just know this comic must have been written in the 1970s.

From Marvel Presents #3

-Swinebread

Patrick Swayze has Died

2009-09-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

We all knew it was coming but it's still very sad.

2009-09-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the eight year anniversary for 911.

Hard to believe...

-Swinebread

Happy Labor Day

2009-09-07T08:41:00.000-07:00

This "Joe Worker: The Story of Labor" comic sure could use a better cover but think it still might be worth reading.

-Swinebread

Comic Book Meth

2009-09-03T18:57:00.000-07:00

Cops bust a meth ring which used comic books to launder drug money. See here

The police seized half a million dollars works of comics.

I wonder if those plastic cover on those graded books would hold out the meth taint.

-Swinebread

Random Comic Panel

2009-09-02T19:10:00.000-07:00

ah wha...?

-Swinebread

Disney Buys Marvel 3... ...and Swinebread's Thoughts

2009-08-31T18:59:00.000-07:00

Disney buys Marvel and the pop culture world shakes… Some folks are upset, some think it’s great, some are wait and see. Me? I’m feeling a little worried about it as Disney can be quite a hog when it comes to pop culture. Plus, the house of mouse has an image that doesn’t exactly appeal to the average male. On the other hand Marvel has been screwing up most of their characters lately so why not. Disney could sure use the help too because it’s all but tapped out when it comes to creativity. The idea of Marvel and Pixar working together gets the fanboy similes going regardless.

The weird thing about all this for me is that it completes a setup of the big 2 comic companies that I think is backwards. DC has been a part of Time/Warner for a while now but you know what? It never sat right with me. Superman and Batman don’t belong with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck imho. DC has always been the goodie two-shoes universe and so they belong with the goodie two-shoes Disney characters. I’ve always thought the nebulous morality of the LT cartoons lent them selves better to the angst ridden Marvel Universe. Warner has done some great things with the DC animated shows so my bias has been tamped way down but with the sale of Marvel to Disney it jumped back up to the forefront. Spiderman and the Hulk with Mickey and Donald? Yuck….!
And since Disney owns the Muppets too I just know they will come out with Muppet versions of the Marvel Supers too, although that’s not so bad.

Ultimately all this probably means nothing except that the Marvel Superheroes will eventually get overexposed and Marvel might get much more litigious.

I do have one caveat to all of this in that it was pretty cool when Duck Dodgers joined the Green Lantern Corps. Maybe will see Super Goof join the Guardians of the Galaxy?

-Swinebread

Disney Buys Marvel 2

2009-08-31T12:22:00.000-07:00

--Dean Wormer
-

Disney Buys Marvel

2009-08-31T11:41:00.000-07:00

--Dean Wormer
-

Random Comic Cover

2009-08-27T18:07:00.000-07:00

I've always thought the best westerns had helicopters as part of the plot.

-Swinebread

Ted Kennedy

2009-08-26T18:07:00.001-07:00

There is a lot of things to be said about Sentor Kennedy's life and death but I'll let others do that.
See here for a good one

I sure hope we can get a "good" health care reform bill passed.

-Swinebread

2009-08-25T19:22:00.000-07:00

A Few Things

I’ve been watching SyFy’s (I F-ing hate the name change btw) new hit show Warehouse 13. Essentially it’s a show about that “secret government warehouse” you’ve been hearing about all these years. All kinds of supernatural relics or advanced artifacts are acquired and stored here so the general public is kept safe. Every episode usually revolves around the lead characters tracking down an object after some weird/supernatural occurrence happens. It’s not a perfect show as the investigations are laughable but it has a Buffy-esque charm that plays well. W13 could easily devolve into an artifact of the week akin to a monster of the week show but thankfully it’s mostly a character driven program with moments of humor. Probably the best things about the show (besides the excellent casting of Saul Rubinek) is that W13 is one of the best possible ways to do a “fantasy show” with a limited budget. It’s had a few hiccups but I feel it’s on good footing for a first season. It’s interesting to note that 50% of the audience for W13 is female which is a huge jump for the SyFy channel. The first season hasn’t even finished its run yet and a second season has already been green lit. On a comic book geek note CCH Pounder who plays the government agent Amanda Waller in Justice League Unlimited plays a similar role here as Warehouse 13’s Shadowy boss.

I’ve also been enjoying the BBC’s Being Human about a Vampire, Werewolf, and Ghost sharing a flat together. It sounds really corny and it kinda is but like Warehouse 13 I like that fact that there is almost no budget for the show consequently so much relies on the dialog and the personality of the characters. It rips off tons from the World of Darkness games (among other things) but BH has a certain charm. The first episode was confusing though because I felt that I had missed an episode and indeed I had. There was a pilot that had two of the three major characters cast with different actors and of course that pilot was not shown in the states. Check it out if you like “Thrift Store Horror.”

I tried to think of something fun to give my niece last month and for some reason Galaxy High School popped into my head. Why I thought a 23 year old Saturday morning cartoon would entertain a modern high schooler, I’ll never know. But my intuition was on the money as apparently she’s been watching the DVD set over and over like crazy. It’s too bad it only had one season.

I saw program about exoplanets over the weekend on the science channel. What the was really cool is that the show nicknamed planets that orbit pulsars as Zombie Planets because they are dead worlds created from the debris after the destruction of a whole system. Hmmm…

-Swinebread

2009-08-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting foodie experience at Trader Joes last weekend. The wife was feeding a sample of gnocchi to Jr. and he was enjoying it so much that I decided to give it a try as well. I grabbed a cup and while I brought a spoonful of the gnocchi to my mouth I noticed that there was some sort of tomato sauce with zucchini on it. Not thinking much of it, I popped the food in my mouth. I noticed that it had a wonderful sweet-earthy taste and I actually thought to myself this sauce was real peasant food. Then I had the image of Anton Ego’s reaction to eating Remy’s Ratatouille dish. After savoring another bite I thought, “hmmmm Ratatouille must really taste similar to this.” I looked over at the sample stand to see what the sauce was and the sign read Ratatouille.

I’ve never had ratatouille in my life… and I had no idea what it looked like or the ingredients in it beyond the Disney film. It’s weird. Ratatouille is a great film but I never realized that it actually had the power to impart what something actually tastes like.

see here for a picture of Trader Joe's Ratatouille.

-Swinebread

Is A Group Of Zombies Called A "Herd" Or A "Pack?"

2009-08-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

This is going to sound really sexist but I get worried when Zoe Saldana states that she's going to fight to have Uhura wear pants. Apparently she just doesn't get the character. This is akin to Zachary Quinto arguing that Spock shouldn't have pointy ears or Shatner playing Kirk without a hair piece. It's just wrong.

---

This io9 article on the preponderance of zombies in comics really rubbed me the wrong way. For one thing it opens with this tripe:

First, DC Comics unleashed a legion of undead characters in its Blackest Night event. Now, Marvel has announced Necrosha, an upcoming X-Men storyline that will bring back lots of dead mutants. When did zombie superheroes become the hot new thing?

Serious fans of comics of which I don't include myself will immediately see the problem with that opening statement. Put that aside there's much more history to zombies and comics, especially surrounding the comics code, that the author appears oblivious to. Don't write about something you don't know.

---

Put me in the David Tennant for Bilbo crowd.

---

Here's an interview from Comic con with the great Hayao Miyasaki. My favorite bits- Miyasaki doesn't watch movies or television and still won't commit to retirement. He's going to make movies until he drops.

---

I just finished all the League of Extrodinary Gentlemen GNs including 1910. Wonderful, dense work as usual from Moore. The only criticism I might level is that the books suffer (especially 1910) from a preponderence of too many characters who often have nothing to actually DO. It's really a minor quibble with some fine work.

---

Me and the fam are plodding through season 5 of Buffy. That's the season where Buffy's sister Dawn is introduced. The first three episodes at least have incredibly clever/ funny dialog that's still light years ahead of most stuff on television. Great show.

-----Dean Wormer
-

It is good news and strange news that Marvel Comics now has the rights to Marvelman

2009-07-24T21:46:00.001-07:00

It’s weird because I was thinking the other day “what ever happened to Marvel Comics' strong push to get the rights to Marvel Man (Miracle Man),” and now here we are. Honestly, from a comic book standpoint this is the biggest and most important news to come out of Comic Con. I just don’t see anything else as earthshaking being announced. (see here)

Marvel Man has a long history and it doesn’t behoove me to try to get through the whole thing here, so check the Wikipedia page out for more detail. The article is actually quite detailed. Simply put, one of the main reasons that Marvel Man is important is because it showcases work by Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman (and some great artists too). This is Moore before Swamp Thing, Watchmen, and V for Vendetta; and Gaiman before Sandman (sorta).

Marvelman was originally a British knockoff of Captain Marvel and essentially the UK’s first superhero. His adventures were good, silly fun in the tradition of the big red cheese. Marvelman had a nine-year run from 1954 to 1963.

Alan Moore reinvented the dormant character in the 1980s and all the notions of modern comics that we associate with Watchmen were actually first explored in Marvelman. The irony of ironies, is that Marvelman had to be renamed Miracleman in the US as Marvel Comics was not interested in buying this strange adult character (unlike what DC did with V for Vendetta) and was none to pleased that another comic company (Eclipse) could publish MM’s stories using their company’s name. It’s my understanding that the birth scene really freaked them out. It was a big missed opportunity by Marvel at the time, but obviously Marvel has come to realize how important MM is and that they really need more Alan Moore comics in their intellectual property inventory to make gads of cash like DC does.

Anyhoo, Gaiman picked MM after Moore was done but only got about one third of the way into his storyline before Eclipse went bankrupt and MM was abruptly cancelled. The rights were tangled up badly for almost two decades with everybody claming to own all or part of the character and it was beginning to look like Marvelman would never see the light of day again. But now we have Quesada’s announcement that MM is back and Marvel has him and what’s even better is that they have worked out the rights with the original creator, Mick Angelo too.

What this all means (hopefully) is that Alan Moore’s run on the title will be collected and published again; Neil Gaiman will finally be able to finish his MM storyline; and the original 1950s-1960s stories will be collected for the first time as well.

What is maybe not so good is that it sounds like Marvel will bring MM into regular Marvel continuity somehow. That might not work out so well but we’ll wait and see I guess. An alternate MM is kinda already a part of the Marvel Multiverse via Moore’s work on Captain Britain. That might possibly be the way to do it but I’m not holding my breath.

I could go on about how important the Marvelman is to me personally. I was a teen when MM was published by Eclipse Comics. It blew my mind. I had never read anything so adult and so deep in comic book form before and when it comes to supervillians I got two words for you, Kid Marvelman. Never has a bad guy done so much, to so many, in quite such a horrific way. It was so delicious that my folks thought I was engaged in some light kidde stuff when in reality I was exploring the dark side of the superhero soul. This is what could have and maybe what should have happened to characters like Superman and Captain Marvel but obviously will never happen.

If you are a fan of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Atomic Age superheroes, or are interested in the development of the “modern” superhero,” Marvelman is one of the true blues that changed the comic industry forever. Once you read MM, you’ll see how it has been ripped off and imitated countless times since it was created. I’m looking at you Sentry!

Make Mine Marvelman.

PS. I’m not saying MM is perfect but I am saying it’s very important. Plus it’ll be very funny if MM does become a top tier, mainstream Marvel Comics character because a very British Superhero will now carry the Marvel identity… now that is ironic and random strange.

Oh and one last thing... if you like comics and superheroes and don't think this is an big deal then tah hell with ya! :)!

-Swinebread

He's 1!

2009-07-22T20:26:00.000-07:00

I wish I had more time to jot something down, but I just wanted you all to know that Swinebread Jr. is One-year-old today!

We had a birthday party this last weekend. It was so much fun. It was just family but everyone had a wonderful time especially Swinebread Jr.

Of course the party's theme was spiderman... except for the cake which was Looney Tunes.

Junior's headband says Taisho, which means big boss.

I just can't believe it's been a whole year!

Happy Birthday Oh son of mine.

-Swinebread

Non Sequitur Comic Panel

2009-07-17T19:43:00.000-07:00

random word: Wombat

-Swinebread

Computer Problems

2009-07-14T20:58:00.000-07:00

I can't Log into my email anymore; I think it's been hacked. If you have received an email from "me" on July 5th or later. It wasn't really from me. Basically, I've lost most of my contact info for all my connections. I'm in the process of setting up a new email account. If you wondering why I haven't emailed you back... now you know why.

Also, my CPU is in the shop for a couple reasons one of which being that a CD is really stuck in the disk drive.... (and yes I did try everything)

-Swinebread

Jr. No-No's

2009-07-13T18:17:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking that playing Axis & Allies is NOT something that I should do in my household.

Little Swinebread would have to play Germany all the time so he wouldn't deveolop some sort of complex... and that, in and of itself, would make him absolutely develop one.

Can you imagine him creating an atomic bomb and using it in this game?! *shiver*

I guess I'll have to stick with Arkham Horror and Samurai Swords (formally known as Shogun).

I've had board games on the mind lately... not that I have the time or opportunity to play them...

-Swinebread

Weevils Wobble...

2009-07-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

We've been catching up on the BBC's Doctor Who spinoff series "Torchwood" and are currently about halfway through the second season. Here's some of my thoughts on the series in general as tempered by those of my wife and kids--

The family consensus: this show is frustrating. It's frustrating because it's difficult to think of another example of a television show that swings so wildly between episodes that are sublime to those that are just plain awful. This show is incredibly erratic.

Much of the blame for this falls on series creator Russell T Davies. A lot of Who fans dislike Davies and credit him with some of the worst episodes of that show. The most frequent criticism is that Davies has a tendency to sway into ham-fisted melodrama and the lack of science fiction in much of his science fiction.

While this is true to a degree, I find it hard to hold much of a grudge against Davies. More than anyone else he's responsible for the revival of Doctor Who, a show that occasionally borders on fantastic. To my way of thinking he's earned the right to toss a few lemons at us.

Where Davies really drops the ball in Torchwood is in his envisioning of the main character of Captain Jack Harkness played by John Barrowman. As the character was introduced in Doctor Who he is an immortal, omnisexual imp from some sort of future Time Police. In "Torchwood" Harkness is more of an angry, omnisexual curmudgeon. The character's humor has been largely exercised for dramatic reasons to make him more of a brooding hero slumping under the weight of some dark secret involving his brother.

Here are my two favorite episodes of the series and why I think they work--

Episode 1x5: "Small Worlds." - The team investigates "fairies" who are protecting a small child. I especially love the subplot in this which touches very deftly on Jack's immortality and it's consequences but the fairies were menacing as a force of nature not entirely good or evil.

Episode 1x6: "Countrycide." - The team investigates a series of disappearances in the woods. Naturally it turns out to be a local village who slaughter and eat travellers every 10 years. A big rip off of American horror films but scary just the same.

Probably the two biggest clunkers of episdodes in my estimation --

Episode 2x4: "Meat." The team rescues a giant, regenerating sentient alien being kept alive in a warehouse so that a meat company can cut off chunks and sell them. Ham-fisted message and the alien looked horrible even by BBC standards.

Episode 1x12: "Captain Jack Harkness." Jack and Tosh are thrown back in time to a dancehall in WW2 England. Jack falls for the real Air Force Captain Jack Harkness from which he had stolen his name. The episode ends with a groanworthy scene in which the two Jacks dance in front of a room full of WW2 servicemen culminating in a romantic kiss that made no sense under the bland dialog between the two characters leading up to that moment.

2009-07-09T22:19:00.000-07:00

When I see a picture like this, it reminds me that the sentiment that women don't like science fiction is total bullshit.

Image from this post at i09

-Swinebread

Name This Character

2009-07-07T19:30:00.001-07:00

UPDATE: Randal Graves wins with Al Gorn!

-Swinebread

2009-07-06T20:07:00.000-07:00

My wife is so awesome. I've been working a lot of overtime and she felt kinda bad for me so Mrs. SB bought me a couple of books to sooth my doldrums.

The first book is Yokai Attack! It's a nice guide to traditional Japanese monsters. I've always enjoyed creature tomes but this is the best one I've come across. It has the more famous yokai like the the onibaba, the Kappa and the Tengu but also contains weirder stuff like the woman with a mouth in the back of her head, the hand washing demon and the tree with human faced peaches. My personal favorite is the slash-mouthed woman. Yokai Attack is presented as a survival guide, but what really makes this work so well is that it concisely describes the various monsters while putting them in a cultural context that's easy for a westerner to understand. The readability of the test is due to the biracial husband and wife team that wrote the book. It's worth noting that the art is wonderful too. It's a nice cross of modern manga styles and traditional wood block printing. Highly recommended to creature fans and folks interested in Japanese culture.

Here is a video about the writers of Yokai Attack! (and uh Halloween in Japan)

Yokai Attack also makes a nice companion volume for fans of Japanese horror films.

The 2nd book Mrs. Swinebread got for me was a volume of Oishinbo (the Japanese Cuisine story). Oishinbo is one of the most popular manga series of all time. I was quite surprised that portions of it are now being adapted into english because, well, Oishinbo is about food. It had a huge affect on Japanese culture so I guess, now that I think about, it was just a matter of time for Viz to publish it. Now when I tell folks that comics can really tell any kind of story I'll have an edition of Oishinbo to prove it. One of the guys I work with is a Gourmet, and he's salivating to to borrow my this book once i'm done with it. here's copy from VIZ website:

Each volume of Oishinbo follows Yamaoka and his colleagues through another adventure on their quest for the Ultimate Menu. Now, the highlights from the hundred-plus volume series have been selected and compiled into A la Carte editions: bite-sized chunks of story arranged by subject that add up to a full-course manga meal!

Japanese Cuisine introduces us to the fundamental ingredients--rice, sashimi, green tea, and dashi (cooking stock)--that constitute the soul of the Japanese kitchen. In each story we learn about the proper preparation and presentation of different dishes, as well as their history and cultural significance. The result is a moveable feast of a book, as informative as it is engaging.

Now those of you that love food but say you don't like comics no longer have any excuse.

-Swinebread

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-04T06:59:00.000-07:00

Have a safe, happy holiday to my fellow Americans and to rest of the world... I hope for Freedom, Peace, and Justice.

Yeah, I know that's a tall order.

and now for those of you that need something a little more patriotic and stuff:

-Swinebread

Karl Malden RIP

2009-07-03T15:49:00.001-07:00

Karl Malden was real actor, not one of those lameos you get at the five and dime.

Don't Leave Home without 'em

-Swinebread

What's been going on in blurbs.

2009-06-30T20:15:00.000-07:00

I’ve sworn off Marvel Comics… well, at least the pamphlet kind. I refuse to pay 4 bucks for a single comic book. Considering their new pricing model now, it seems like the best thing to do. I’ve found myself really tempted by Marvel’s 70th Anniversary titles and the Marvel Pets but I held firm and it feels good. On the other hand, I’m more open to picking up Marvel trades and Hardcovers. My comic shop had a big sale a while ago with either 50% off or a straight price of 10 bucks on hardcovers.

Because of this I picked up
Annihilation: Countdown Volumes One & Two. Great, well written cosmic adventures
Annihilation Classic. I just adore all these cosmic characters especially Rocket Raccoon
Marvel Monsters. A collection of old and new Kaiju-ish stories featuring creatures from Marvel’s age of monsters. The Devil Dinosaur and Fin Fang Four stories rocked.
Marvel Westerns. A collection of old and new stories featuring characters from Marvel’s Western line. The Hurricane story is probably the best Superhero,Weird Western I’ve ever read.
Marvel Visionaries: John Buscema. His early stuff, plus a random smattering of latter stories.

Speaking of cosmic characters, I really enjoyed the Annihilation stuff so much that I went out and bought Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy trades. I got most of them used at Powell’s. (My new goal is to buy mostly used and/or "on sale" comic trades as much as possible) Reading this new Nova series has been great. I’m fan of the original Nova series from way back in the 1970s, but I have been really disappointed with how he’s been depicted since. This current series finally achieves the cosmic potential that the Nova character has always had but was always ignored.

No More My New Comics?
I kinda figured what was the point since I’ve cut down to 0-2 titles a week. I guess I could do a monthly My New Comics but I’ve since fallen out of practice of doing it… It’s just not as much fun with the same few title every month.

The wife and I just watched Dororo. It’s a live-action Japanese adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s manga of the same name. It’s pretty good with all kinds of traditional Japanese monsters and sengoku period swordplay. If you’re interested in fantasy samural stories check it out.

I did see Star Trek but never did a review. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I loved how the film brought back some of the humor of TOS. There were a few story problems especially a bunch of coinkydink stuff that I noticed after I left the theater, but all and all, a very fun film. The only thing I straight up just hated were the engine rooms… that stuff looked just like something out of MST3K. My fears for this film and the Star Trek Universe were unfounded. I’m glad I was wrong. Now Paramount, DO NOT PUT KHAN IN THE NEXT FILM. Try something new please.

Several months ago, YouTube pulled my Devo, Beautiful World, video. It lasted a little over a year.

I’ve been watching Showtime’s new show Nurse Jackie…. It’s very entertaining and Edie Falco’s character here is much more interesting than Carmella Soprano ever was. Some nurses have problems with the show but what’s getting me down is the tiredness I have for ER/hospital shows… couldn’t we have a program about park rangers or Travel agents or science fiction writers… basically the networks and cable stations are Lazy because it’s easy to find the drama in cop, law, and hospital shows.

I happened to see Vol 1 and 2 of the 1990s animated X-men show last month, so I snapped these DVDs right up. Despite the fact that we've got Gambit and Jubilee, instead of Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde) on the regular team, this is as close as we are ever gonna get to good adaptions of the comics. No extra features but that's OK because all the room on the disks went to ensuring the episodes are top quality.

But most of all I've been spending my time taking care of Swinebread Jr. Wow! It's been almost a year since he was born.

-Swinebread

The Two Jacksons

2009-06-27T06:14:00.000-07:00

As we all know, the so-called King of Pop died. I certainly was never a fan and in fact was quite horrified by Michael Jackson. Regardless, his music was a significant part of my childhood. I was there for the whole music video transformation that Thriller started and I remember when a Michael Jackson video was an event not to be missed. I have to admit that he was a gifted singer and dancer, and he worked very hard to perfect his act.

Sure, I have lots of memories (just like most of you folks do) with his different his different songs and but what really gets me down is that I can't separate Jackson (his many surgeries, child abuse allegations, skin bleaching, and crazy behavior) from his music. Gone is the fun I had as a youngster being entertained by Jackson. It's like there were two of him. The memory of what he was and the grotesque parody he became.

I cringe everytime I hear his songs...

Well except Thriller... because Michael Jackson, it turns out, was a zombie after all. I guess he just needed his outsides to match his insides.

So maybe there really wasn't two Jacksons, and that's the saddest thing of all because now I realize that he was crazy the whole time.

here's the prisoner version of thriller:

On a comic book side-note (because I just gotta have one), of course we all remember the Thriller parody/homage in Dazzler #33 right?

-Swinebread

Miyazaki And Zombies and Scooby, Oh My!

2009-06-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

Lots of geek stuff bouncing around my head today. Probably because I got to talk to Swinebread for a while yesterday and that always gets me thinking about this stuff.

The English language version of the trailer of Hayao Miyazaki's new film Ponyo surfaced yesterday. I had the pleasure of springing on my Miyazaki nut daughter leading to her watching the thing at least five times.

In the course of reading up on that flick she saw the rumor that Miyazaki may be making a rare public appearance at Comicon. Now I have her working on me to take a trip to San Diego. Sigh.

Even though I'm a fan of the Marvel Zombies (the first books were works of sick genius in my opinion) the stories have really petered out, predictably as the zombies got "cuddly." With that in mind the announcement that Marvel was bringing on some heavy duty zombie writers for the next iteration of the series raised my interest.

In particular David Wellington's "Monster" series of zombie books were all sorts of scary, so I can't wait to see what he does with the zombified Marvel heroes.

Even though I'm late to this party I have to say that Left 4 Dead is one of the best shooters I've ever played. I got the thing for Father's Day and it's bloody awesome. There's not a lot to the game other than trying to survive zombie attacks while you work your way through a city/ sewers/ base but what it does, it does really well.

Thanks to the library we're working our way through almost every animated version of Batman they have on hand. In the last week we've watched "Batman: Gotham Knight," "Batman: The Brave and the Bold Season One" and "Scooby Doo Meets Batman." Not surprisingly my kid's favorite was that last title. Even though they're older they do love them some Scooby.

I finished reading Brian K. Vaughan's "Pride of Baghdad" last week and you'll have to color me unimpressed. It's disappointing because I loved the concept of pride of lions escaping an Iraqi zoo during the initial U.S. attack in 2002.

I enjoyed the symbolism, heavy-handed as it might be but couldn't by into one of the book's central conceipts- Vaughan and his artist Niko Henrichon specifically riff off of the animation of Disney and the Disney practice of animorphism. Essentially they draw the lions very Disneyesque but then involve the characters in very adult situations. Call me a prude if you will but I found this off-putting.

--Dean Wormer
-

Random Comic Cover

2009-06-23T09:11:00.000-07:00

Princess Pantha Gets her Man.

-Swinebread

News I Missed... A Jericho Comic!

2009-06-22T16:07:00.000-07:00

Well, back in March Devil's Due Publishing announced that they had secured the rights to continue the Jericho story in comic book form. (See here). Obviously I missed that bit of pop news, proboably because i'm busy taking care of Swinebread Jr. As of yet, there is no mockup or cover to go from (it's due in October) but I'm cautiously optimistic despite the fact that the art for such projects can often be less than stellar.

Personally, I think a comic book is a great way to continue the story since Jericho was cancelled (Twice!). A comic gives one that visual connection to the characters that you just can't get with a novel. Plus, several other franchises have been succesfully continued in comic form. Some hardcore fans don't quite agree (see here) but for me it bodes well. I'm really interested in finding out more detail concerning the conspiracy to create the Allied States of America.

I do wonder though, if Dark Horse or Dynamite Entertainment might have been a better fit to publish a Jericho title as DDP are the same guys that are doing Barack the Barbarian.

There is a tiny rumble about a Jericho movie too, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

-Swinebread

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

I so glad there is something wondeful to focus on this Sunday. Today is my first Father's Day! Little Swinebread Jr. is almost eleven months now and is absolutely into all kinds of mischief. Me and the misses have to watch him like a hawk.

-Swinebread

Graphic video of a woman shot On the Streets of Turan

2009-06-20T12:37:00.000-07:00

I'm Sorry for the graphic nature of this image but I feel it's important that we all really understand what is happening.

These people are dying for things we take for granted.

Update Her Name was Neda

and her friend wrote this poem in her honor:

I'm here to tell you my sister died while in her father's hands
I'm here to tell you my sister had big dreams...
I'm here to tell you my sister who died was a decent person... and like me yearned for a day when her hair would be swept by the wind... and like me read "Forough" [Forough Farrokhzad]... and longed to live free and equal... and she longed to hold her head up and announce, "I'm Iranian"... and she longed to one day fall in love to a man with a shaggy hair... and she longed for a daughter to braid her hair and sing lullaby by her crib...

my sister died from not having life... my sister died as injustice has no end... my sister died since she loved life too much... and my sister died since she lovingly cared for people...

my loving sister, I wish you had closed your eyes when your time had come... the very end of your last glance burns my soul....

sister have a short sleep. your last dream be sweet.

via Huffington post

Text from here

A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house.

He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her.

But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim's chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes.

The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St.

The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me.

Please let the world know.

Video at these link on the Huffington Post (note very disturbing)

scroll down to 2:37 PM ET

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/13/iran-demonstrations-viole_n_215189.html

with much sadness

-Swinebread

It's Offical... The Iranian Government Is A Dictatorship

2009-06-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

The killing and repression are well underway. The protesters have the numbers but the goverement thugs have the guns.

How can they shoot their own people?

-Swinebread

Marvel House Ad 1986

2009-06-19T08:37:00.000-07:00

-Swinebread

She-Hulk Invincible!

2009-06-18T06:29:00.000-07:00

-Swinebread

The World Holds It's Breath For Iran

2009-06-16T11:15:00.001-07:00

What ever happens with the outcome of the Iranian protests, one thing is for sure, the Iranian populace will never be the same. I hope for a positive and just outcome for these people yearning and struggling to be free.

We are in uncharted territory now things can go in so many different directions...

-Swinebread

Wilma, Rogers, and Bears OH MY!

2009-06-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

Dynamite Entertainment has built up quite a successful reputation reviving dormant franchises and characters so it came as no surprise that they secured the rights to publish a new take on Buck Rogers. DE's Buck comic looked interesting from the press releases but I have been cutting down on the new titles (that's part of the reason you haven't seen a "My New Comics" in awhile) and so I wasn't so sure I really want to pick up a another monthly. But after stopping by the comics shop this last weekend and flipping though Buck Rogers #1, I came across this Panel:

Needless to say, they had me at this image of a ferocious cyborg Bear. A flashback to Gamma World maybe? Anyhoo, I enjoyed reading this comic so if the next issue is as fun as this one, I'll add Buck Rogers to my box. Seeing as how I've totally bailed on marvel this won't hit my pocket too hard.

-Swinebread

Dave Simons Passed Away

2009-06-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

Comic Artist and Animation designer Dave Simons died last week. RIP

See a great tribute here.

-Swinebread

Stumptown '09 Very Late and Fairly Short

2009-06-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

I realized that I'm never going to have the time to do that extended post on the fest that I wanted, so I'll simply post what had written far back in in April and leave it at that. So here is a few words about my little excursion to this year's Stumptown Comics Fest.

Some of the many kids that came to this years comics fest.

The building was decorated with window art in honor of Jeff Smith and his creation Bone.

I had a good time at the fest this year although I had to cut it short due to personal stuff. The first thing I noticed right off the bat was the amount of kids that were present. This was due to this year’s honored guest Jeff Smith. I knew he had a following with the kids but this was something else… …and you know what? I liked it. It felt great to have youngsters around. I also felt a slight twinge, as little Swinbread Jr. is too young to attend something like this for a while. I can’t wait to discover what his comic interests will be. Anyhoo, The first thing I did was to make a b-line for Gail Simone’s Table. I handed her my first five issues of The Secret Six to sign and we exchanged pleasantries. I additionally thanked her for making such well-rounded characters. Apparently Gail has been at the Fest before but this was the first time that she was a recognized guest. She told me that likes Portland a lot. What was even better was that Gail had her own panel. Which was quite a treat.

Gail Simone was a hair dresser for 15 years when she decided that she really needed to make a change and started the You'll All Be Sorry! column. That eventually led to work with Bongo Comics, (the guys that do the Simpsons stuff). It’s funny because she said that at the time she didn’t really know how pitch a story or write a script. So she had to be kinda sly in getting info from Bongo and she also enlisted her friends in industry for help. She worked her way up to Marvel and DC from there.

Gail said she couldn’t remember the first comic book she read but she was always attracted to the medium going as far back as Carl Barks’ Donald Duck. What really clicked for her though was when she read the Justice League of America for the first time. She just loved how the JSA worked together as a team. See, her home life was “dysfunctional” and the camaraderie and solidarity between the characters was something she longed for. Wonder Woman had a big impact on her too. Gail’s wasn’t a real fan of Fairly Tales because she never saw a Knight coming to sweep her off her feet so she could live happily ever after. Wonder Woman was a princess she could relate to. WW is someone that had to make her own way in the world and was strong and beautiful doing it. (Incidentally Gail said the Wonder Woman animated movie, which she co wrote, was really fantastic) The Barbara Gordon batgirl is also important to Gail as she because she was bullied because of her red hair and she took a lot of inspiration from the character’s strength.

Many questions were asked but I just had to ask her to talk about women in refrigerators. She mentioned that it has moved beyond what she had started. All kinds of folks were looking into the issue of the treatment of female characters in various forms of fiction but it all goes back to her observations in in the mid 1990s.

Note this is where I left off in April, so that's it.

Jeff Smith was very interesting but all these months later what sticks with me the most is that he didn't originally write Bone for kids, it just turned out that children really responded to it and librarians loved it. Some of its appeal is probably due to the fact that the bone characters are patterned after the classic cartoon trio as best exemplified by Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy. Also, Jeff always saw all the comics as one whole story which is very apparent if you read the collected addition as I did.

Another fact that came out about Bone was that Art Spiegelman was really the one to push Jeff Smith to get Bone colored. Apparently he kept bugging Jeff about it. Jeff responded to him with "well Maus is in Black and White."
and Art said "Maus is about the holocaust... Bone is about life. It should be in color." Needless to say, Jeff agreed to the get his cartoon labor of love colored after that. The colored Bone is not just one trade paperback like the collected black and white version but several shorter vloumes. The last Bone volume with color was just published earlier this year.

Here is Ryan Dunlavey the artist on Action Philosophers and Comic Books Comics.

One of the folks from The Center for Cartoon Studies was at Stumptown this year. These guys need start a branch of this school here in Portland damit!

Well this sure would have been more interesting if I had posted it back when the fest happened oh well!

-Siwnebread

Random Comic Panel

2009-06-10T08:45:00.001-07:00

from some random issue of Blade of the Immortal.

-Swinebread

David Carradine December 8, 1936 – June 3, 2009

2009-06-05T07:50:00.000-07:00

I like him best in Death Race 2000 as the fake, cyborg racer Frankenstein.

-Swinebread

Mine is the The "Tank Man" What's Yours?

2009-06-04T08:48:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about the Tiananmen Square Massacre as this sad 20th anniversary occurs. Looking again at the powerful image of the lone man standing in front of a column tanks I realized, that for me, this is the most powerful image taken during my lifetime. There are others that come close but nothing has quite surpassed the Tank Man. I still get choked up about it these 2 decades later.

Here's part one of the Tank Man doc posted in youtube:

link to the playlist for the whole doc here

I was talking to a buddy at work and asked him what he felt was the most important image taken during his lifetime. Since he's older than me, he said the photo of the earth shot from the moon. Interesting!

What image taken during your lifetime is the most important to you?

-Swinebread

2009-05-31T10:29:00.000-07:00

Just a nod to let you all know I'm still here :)

Stop Talkin' About Comic Books Or I'll Kill You by nerd rockers Ookla The Mok.

-Swinebread

Drag Yourself To Drag Me To Hell

2009-05-27T07:53:00.000-07:00

Wormed (pardon the pun) my way into another sneak peak last night. This time it was Sam Raimi's new horror film "Drag Me to Hell." It was exactly what you would expect from Raimi- lots of sick, twisted humor mixed with moments of sheer terror. It was very much in the vein of "Evil Dead 2." If you haven't seen that flick then think Three Stooges meet Poltergeist. If you're like me and a longtime fan of the ED films then this movie is for you.

I have sort of an interesting history with Raimi. I'm a reluctant fan. When ED2 came out I had a buddy that insisted we see that movie. Even though a "zombie flick" was the last thing on my list to see I had nothing better to do so I gave in. What followed was one of the best experiences I'd ever had at the cinema. The crowd watching the movie with us was rowdier than hell, making the film a participatory experience akin to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" sans toast.

Probably my favorite autobiography is Bruce Campbell's "If Chins Could Kill." There's something so quintessentially American about the story of Rob Tappert, Sam Raimi and Campbell as they pushed their way into the film industry in their late teens. They didn't know what the hell they were doing. They had no formal training. They just had a love of film combined with enough naivete to think it was easy to break in to the business. The fact that all three of those guys got to be successful in their own way tickles me to no end.

Raimi is an incredibly gifted filmmaker so it's been kind of sad to see him burn himself out on the Spiderman franchise. The last film in particular stunk of studio meddling and creative battles lost. Many fans were wondering when Raimi would get back to his old school, low budget style of film. Raimi's triumphant answer to that question is "Drag Me to Hell."

I can't think of the last movie I saw that was as attuned as this one as to the audience reaction it wants to invoke. Not the ephemeral sentimentality of your average film snob waiting in line at the Sundance festival for swag. I'm talking about your popcorn chewing knucklehead who is willing to throw down 10 bucks of their hard earned cast to be entertained. This film is self-conscious entertainment with a capitol "E."

Allison Lohman plays Christine Brown a bank mortgage officer who denies a loan extension to an old gypsy woman. In revenge the old woman curses Christine. Over the course of three days she will be tortured by an evil spirit until she is literally dragged to hell. Unless she can find some way to lift the curse...

Most of the reviews of this flick up at Rotten Tomatoes are positive but Rex Reed of all people posits that the central plot is razor thin thus the film is too mainstream. Yes, the film doesn't sway much from it's main story but to say the film is mainstream is supremely stupid. One of the joys of "Drag Me to Hell" is chock full of stuff that you would never see in a big budget Hollywood film. No thing and no person is safe in this movie. There are things that happen to children and animals (off camera) that would send your average studio executive running from a screening room to take a shower.

That isn't to say this film is in the mold of modern torture porn horror. It's not. The gross stuff in this movie isn't much worse than what you'd see watching "Fringe" or "House." The gross stuff usually follows a jump scare and is intentionally calculated to turn a scream into a quick laugh. I had no problem watching this flick with my 15-year old daughter who isn't usually a fan of horror. She loved the movie more than I did, which is to say a whole heck of a lot.

Finally- for fellow fans of Sam Raimi - The Classic figures prominently in this film. I chuckle everytime I see that car in his movies.

-- Dean Wormer
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Somebody Stake This Idea

2009-05-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

No Buffy without Whedon!

I hope this is a bullshit rumor because it simply won't work with Whedon at the helm.

--Dean Wormer
-

Reviews Of Some Stuff.

2009-05-12T08:34:00.000-07:00

I've been running through what seems like the library's entire graphic novel collection. Here's a few thoughts on some of the stuff I've read lately.

Judgement Day by Alan Moore.

Great idea for a story built around the question of who would judge a superhero if they were accused of killing another superhero. It also had a fun retro vibe to it with historical flashbacks told in the style of the comics of that individual decade.

Essentially Moore's story is a criticism of the massively abused practice of retconning comic universes that's swept through comics in recent years.

The Groo Odyssey by Sergio Aragone.

What is there to say? It's got Groo, cheese dip, frays and Rufferto. "What do you mean "slow of mind?'"

Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland.

I've been interested in reading this since I read that Heath Ledger had based his Joker in part on the Joker in this book. In this story the Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum and embarks on a mission to drive Commissioner Gordon insane.

I have a feeling that the images in this story were probably much more controversial at the time it was first released in the 80's. In particular there's a sequence in which the Joker breaks into Gordon's apartment and shoots and tortures Barbara Gordon. Compared to the hyper-violent scenes depicted in today's comics this sequence, while disturbing, seems almost quaint.

We3 by Grant Morrison.

Arkonbey wrote a positive review of this a couple of months ago and it's been on my mental checklist to read ever since. It a terrific premise involving laboratory animals that have been surgically altered to be military killing machines. The protagonists; a dog, a cat and a rabbit, escape from the lab and head on a trek to get "home." It's "Homeward Bound" if the the cute animals were able to rip you limb from limb without working up a sweat.

There's a lot to love about this story but the thing that tickled me the most is that the animals have rudimentary oral communication skills due to their implants/ training. With just a few lines of dialog Morrison is able to convey the animal's personality to a remarkable degree. The dog is the protector of the group that wants them to stick together. The cat doesn't want to take orders and would rather strike out on his own. The rabbit just wants everybody to get along.

If I had any criticism it would be that the artwork, while excellent, is sometimes confusing making it difficult to understand what's going on. This is usually a cardinal sin with me with comics but this thing is so damned good that it's worth overlooking this minor faux paux.

Batman: Joker's Asylum by Arvid Nelson.

This could be summed up as "Tales from the Crypt starring the Joker." It's an anthology series focusing a short story on several Batman villains including the Joker, the Penguin, Poison Ivy and Scarecrow. Each of these villain's stories is introduced by the Joker from his cell at Arkham Asylum.

These stories are excellent with just the right creepy tone running through them. I was especially moved by the Penguin/ Chester Copperpot tale in which he buys a young woman from slavery and raises her like a daughter. There's a real sense of menace underlying the Penguin's kind overtures towards this woman with a suitably dark ending to the whole thing.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: No Future For You by Joss Whedon.

Whedon's Buffy season 8 comics are well worth reading for a couple of reasons. The first is that many of the writers including Whedon himself who wrote for the series are writers on these books. The other is that we get a more imaginative version of the Buffyverse since they're unconstrained by network or budget concerns.

In this collection of stories several old friends show up including Faith. As a fan of the series I found myself hearing the actors voices when reading this which is a sign of good storytelling.

By twist of fate I had two similar books without pictures arrive out of my holds at the same time. Both involved American warships travelling back in time.

Destroyermen: Into the Storm by Taylor Anderson.

Out of the two books this was the one I was most interested in. During a WW 2 Pacific battle a WW 1 era steam destroyer is thrown back in time. I made it two chapters. It was a good premise that fell apart once the crew was back in time and the giant sailing ship full of lizard people showed up. Oy.

Weapons of Choice by John Birmingham.

This story begins in the year 2021 with a U.S. led international battlegroup preparing to attack an islamic caliphate in the Pacific when they're thrust back to the year 1942 during the battle of Midway.

I almost quit this book after the first chapter as well. The characters were paper thin and the set up for time travel perfunctory. The book was written in 2002 so Birmingham made some interesting assumptions (the flagship of the fleet is the "USS Hillary Clinton" named after our first female president) but also some lame assumptions (the first female vice president was Condi Rice. Yeeeechh!)

I decided to at least give the book the chance of seeing how he handles this modern fleet fighting WW 2 era navies with their lack of satellites, missiles, computers and everything that signifies modern navies. I'm glad I held out to see what happens.

I had assumed this book would be like Harry Turtledove's Guns of the South series where modern weapons find their way back in time, in that case the civil war, and have a grand affect on the outcome of that conflict. That's true in a way with Weapons of Choice but in this case the sleek warships with their AI are only the second most dangerous thing the modern navy brings back. The ideas they represent are a bigger threat to the world of the 40s and not just to the Axis powers.

Imagine the WW 2 era U.S. navy and it's lack of racial integration having to deal with a modern U.S. navy with female officers, service men and women of all races and sexual orientations. How would intergrating these navies strategically work? We take things for granted that took decades to change. How quickly could Admiral Spruance who led the Midway group deal with an African-American captain who happened to be a lesbian?

It's a fascinating book in true sci-fi form that forces you to think about things we take for granted. Well worth reading.

-- Dean Wormer
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Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T15:31:00.001-07:00

Even Patrick, the Wolf boy, has a mom.

-Swinebread

They're Not "Super Broads."

2009-05-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

I'm not a fan of Marvel's Joe Queseda and even less so after reading his defense of sexism the new Marvel Divas where superheroines spend time talking about boys and shoes rather than kicking supervillain ass.

Says Queseda:

...The cold hard reality of publishing and trying to sell our books to as many people as possible, so here's an example of what happens more often than you may think here at Marvel. From time to time, we'll be launching a title that doesn't focus very heavily on the super heroic.

Look, I'm not going to bitch about female superheroes having bodacious ta-tas and being drawn like some combination of Aphrodite and Raquel Welch. Both male and female superheroes are drawn with unrealistic, biologically impossible features as part of the convention of comics. It would be nuts to complain that super humans are drawn, well, superhuman.

But portraying superheroines as somehow empty-headed ditzes is not cool for a variety of reasons. It sets a poor example for young female readers of comics, the numbers of which have grown legion of the last few years. It implies that superheroines are somehow less heroic because of their gender. It's just stupid.

If I wanted to expose myself to something featuring women talking about shoes I'd turn on the CW. Get your shit together Marvel.

-- Dean Wormer

Star Trek Shouldn't Be Entertaining.

2009-05-06T10:33:00.000-07:00

I know some of you guys have legitimate worries about the new Trek film but there are some that are just determined not to like it no matter what. I thought this was pretty funny.

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

-- Dean Wormer

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Happy May Day

2009-05-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

Superman, the commie one, bids you a happy May Day!

2009-04-30T21:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been absent from the blog but Swinebread Jr. has been pretty sick. There is so much I want to talk about and I haven't even been able to... I still need to post about the Stumptown Comics Fest. :(

Just when when I think my son is getting better, he relapses again. :(

Also, I wanna thank Dean Wormer for keep things going around here. :)

-Swinebread

Chuck Me

2009-04-28T08:13:00.000-07:00

My family's favorite genre network show "Chuck" has been on the bubble for renewal. The gossip is that NBC wasn't really interested in renewing it anyway because next year they're going with Jay Leno five nights a week. NBC has changed the designation of last night's season finale to "series finale" on their website. Classy.

"Chuck" isn't the best sci-fi action-comedy show that I've watched but it is the most consistently entertaining and it does have that rare quality of appealling to everybody in my family, including Mrs. Wormer who is more at home with period dramas on PBS. It's a show chock full of geek Easter Eggs for those paying attention. Last night's finale had nods to Tron, The Matrix, old school Mac fans, STYX, Quantum Leap, Back to the Future, Spiderman and a bunch of other nerdy stuff to numerous to list out here.

It's also got a great cast chemistry between Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski and Adam Baldwin. Baldwin in particular has been fun to watch this season as he started the season with orders to kill Chuck and ended it by displaying a grudging admiration for his spy-challenged ward.

It's a great show which, more than anything, spells it's doom. This is part of the reason why network television is dying. Anything that's this creative, intelligent and half way entertaining is doomed from the start.

- Dean Wormer

Today I'm The Walking Dead

2009-04-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

I was overjoyed to discover this week that the local library has quite a large collection of graphic novels (not to mention manga.) As I poured through the shelves the first thing I decided to check out was a copy of the first volume of Robert Kirkman's "The Waking Dead." I believe Swinebread has been reading these books in comic and trade form, so they've been on my mental "to read" list for a while.

Wow. This story is absolutely brutal. It's some of the darkest narrative I've ever come across, unrelenting in it's abuse of every single character contained within it's pages. There are some to the most disturbing scenes I've ever seen imagined, much less illustrated, in these books.

And it's all positively addictive.

I just finished the 4th volume last night and let me start by saying that any incoherence you detect in this post can be directly attributed to some of the stuff that happened in this novel. These comics are filled with scenes of torture, decapitations, amputations, rape, stabbings, suicides and all of that paled in comparison to some of the final panels in this volume. There were a couple of deaths of protagonists that literally caused me to lose sleep last night they were so disturbing. So I apologize in advance for the fact I'm not typing this on a full tank of gas.

Ostensibly this is a story about officer Rick Grimes who wakes up from a coma to find himself smack in the middle of a zombie apocalypse with his family nowhere to be found. It follows Rick as he searches for, and finds his wife and son and joins a group of survivors who eventually make a "safe" home in an abandoned prison. For the first three volumes I kept thinking how closely the story followed one of my favorite childhood novels: "Watership Down."

This story is not about zombies. The zombies are an ever present menace, but they're never the most frightening thing in this story. The real monsters are the surviving humans. All the zombies want to do is devour the living. That evil pales in comparison to the horrible things these humans do to each other and themselves. We are the monsters here.

Obviously, this sort of thing isn't for everybody. I'm not the strictest parent in the world but these were books I kept out of the hands of my mature kids. But if you have the fortitude to make it through these books I think you'll be rewarded for it. There's a lot of food for thought about the human condition and even the nature of evil in "The Walking Dead." It was well worth the read, and the lack of a good night's sleep.

- Dean Wormer

Happy Earth Day

2009-04-22T07:18:00.000-07:00

It's gonna take a super-heroic effort to save the planet but we can do it!

Also, Yes I did go to Stumptown but I just haven't had time to post about it. eventually...

-Swinebread

More Evidence that Star Trek Will Suck?

2009-04-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

An article here notes that Star Trek is not tracking with the 18-25 group... it doesn't look good folks.

We can't be sure at this point but this is another sign to be worried.

I don't think the film will please the old guard nor will attract a new audience.

This film is made by a man the doesn't like Star Trek for The Hills crowd. Star Trek seems to be a reimagining that dumbs it down rather than lifting up.

Hey I could be wrong but I haven't seen one thing yet that gives me any hope...

OK maybe there is some Zachary Quinto as Spock love but that's as far as it goes.

If I'm wrong I'll cop to it, but it's looking more and more like we're getting a turkey in the vein of Phantom Menace

-Swinebread

Reverse Non Sequitur Comic Panel

2009-04-16T22:15:00.000-07:00

I started a new post type today. The Reverse Non Sequitur Comic Panel. In this instance. I choose the panel and randomly get a quote using a quotation website (there's more to the process but let's keep it simple). Instead of the image being random the quote is.

So this is the opposite of the Non Sequitur Comic Panel mmm-kay.

This bit of wisdom came from Jean-Paul Sartre.

-Swinebread

Set Phasers To Verklempt.

2009-04-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

I know a lot of Trek fans, including the owner of this blog, see the pending new Trek movie through skeptical eyes. That's a pretty rational position considering how often Hollywood screws up established products. The odds are against any remake of anything if the grubby little fingers of Hollywood suits get into the mix.

As someone who watched the original show every day after I got home from school, pieced together models of the Enterprise and it's bridge, played with toy phasers and holds that show in the highest esteem among all things Trek I have to say I'm optimistic. With that in mind this video sort of choked me up...

- Dean Wormer

Random Comic Cover

2009-04-13T07:07:00.001-07:00

-Swinebread

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T10:14:00.001-07:00

I wonder if the boys at Marvel were making a joke with the "Enter the White Rabbit" tag-line or they really were that clueless... It sure does paint Easter in a whole new light though...

-Swinebread

My New Comics

2009-04-12T09:59:00.000-07:00

This week’s best cover is The Amazing Spider-Monkey #1.

Last Reign #5, Boom Studios. The ending lest you know there will be more mini-series for Last Reign but at four bucks a pop I won’t be picking them up.

Warlord #1 DC Comics. On the fence with this one. I like The Warlord a lot so we'll see if the get any better.

Marvel Apes: The Amazing Spider-Monkey #1 Marvel Comics. I had sworn off $3.99 titles… but this is just a one-shot so I couldn’t resist.

Army of Darkness #18, Dynamite Entertainment.

Army of Darkness #19, Dynamite Entertainment. Two this week hmmmmm....

You’ll notice that I didn’t pick up Marvel Zombies 4….

Also I dropped Doctor Who Classic, it’s just too expensive per issue plus the collected trade will be cheaper anyway. I deduced that I rather get Astounding Wolf-Man instead.

-Swinebread

R.I.P. Dave Arneson.

2009-04-09T15:28:00.000-07:00

I'm sure Swinebread would like to pay tribute to Dave Arneson, co-founder of Dungeons and Dragons. Anybody who has rolled a die that had fewer or more than six sides owes that guy a debt of gratitude.

I love that he, along with the late Gary Gygax, as adults had such pronounced imaginations that they still could come up with their wonderful worlds. It's an astounding thing when you think about it. The imagination seems to be the first thing to go as you get older.

Thank you and rest in peace, Dave.

- Dean Wormer

EDIT: I just want to add that it was very sad to hear that Dave is gone, he had been ill for a while but it still comes as a shock. I always considered Dave to be the Jack Kirby of roleplaying (with Gary Gygax as Stan Lee) but fortunately he received his due before he died. Thanks for sharing your wonderful imagination Mr. Arneson. You will be missed.

-Swinebread

I'm Lucy And The One Ring Is The Football.

2009-04-06T19:42:00.000-07:00

So I'm checking out Ain't It Cool News and get all excited over this gaming headline WAR OF THE RINGS IS RELEASED! Massawyrm celebrates! All is right with the world!

Then I start to read the article and quickly realize that bonehead is talking about a cheap Warhammer mass tabletop battles knock-off at not the legendary board game by the now defunct company SPI by the almost same title ("ring" v. "rings.")

THIS is War of the Ring-

This was an incredible board game from the 70s that included thousands of tokens for units and armies. You could play as Saruman, Sauron or the Fellowship. As great as the main game was it had a mini-game that involved the siege of Minis Tirith that I absolutely loved.

I've been searching for this game for years but every used copy on eBay goes for over $100 bucks, an amount I can't justify. So my hopes were briefly up that they finally reprinted the thing, only to be dashed by those AICN jerks yet again.

Curse you AICN, curse you!

Movie Review: The Good, The Bad, The Weird

2009-04-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

For a couple of years now I've been pining to see a South Korean film titled "The Good, The Bad, The Weird" by famous Korean director Ji-woon Kim. After keeping an eye on the local art house theater it became obvious the film was never going to see even a limited release in the states. So I took matters into my own hands and "obtained" a copy of the flick this last weekend.

I'm a big fan of Sergio Leone's western films so the idea of a Korean remake of "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly" was instantly appealing. Leone was strongly influenced by Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, to the extent that Kurosawa actually sued Leone over "A Few Dollars More" because it was so clearly a remake of Kurosawa's samurai film "Yojimbo."

So we have Japanese cinema influencing an Italian director mixing that influence with Hollywood westerns and having that product being remade by a hot Korean director. How could you not want to see that?

Before I go any further- this is a great movie. You know the movie that "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull" tried to be? A rollicking, action flick with kickass scenes that left your mouth gaping open at how cool they were? That's this movie instead.

The bare bones of the original are here. Instead of hidden confederate gold we have an unspecified treasure, the map to which every character in the movie is after. There are also secret personal scores, opposing armies (Japanese vs. Chinese Independence) and the famous three-way showdown at the climax.

There's also a hodgepodge of elements of other spaghetti westerns, martial arts flicks, Mad Max movies, the aforementioned Indiana Jones films and director Kim even riffs off his own films in a couple of scenes.

Woo-sung Jung - The Good

Woo-sung Jung plays the Clint Eastwood "Blondie" roll from the original film. He's a bounty hunter and a total badass with his Winchester repeating rifle.

Byung-hun Lee - The Bad

Byung-hun Lee plays the Lee Van Cleef roll of The Bad. He oozes charismatic evil. There is simply nothing that breathes and moves that he won't kill just for the hell of it.

Kang-ho Song - The Weird

As I understand it Kang-ho Song who plays The Weird in this movie is a comedic actor and it shows. He has several laugh out loud scenes, usually when someone is trying to kill him.

Just a quick note on a couple of incredible action scenes in this movie. The first is the opening train robbery scene. This thing is staged perfectly with the camera literally everywhere. This is the scene you'll hear most people talking about when they discuss this movie.

The scene that had me personally cheering was a chase/ action sequence at the end of the film involving at least two armies, several different groups of bandits and anyone else they they could think to throw into the mix that was as good, if not better, than anything CGI addicted Hollywood has produced in the last twenty years. Most remarkably it was done without the use of computers and through traditional stunt work. I wouldn't doubt for a second if stuntmen and horses were seriously hurt during the filming of this sequence.

I do have a few minor quibbles. There really isn't much story here other than the quest for the map. What story they do have is occasionally convoluted. But in the end the rest of the film is just so darned good it doesn't matter.

I give this film the Wormer seal of approval.

- Dean Wormer

Stumptown Comcis Fest 2009 Is Almost Here

2009-04-03T10:46:00.000-07:00

April 18th and 19th brings the return of Portland's own Stumptown Comics Fest.

Jeff Smith will be there and so will Gail Simone!

-Swinebread

My New Comics

2009-04-03T08:43:00.000-07:00

This week’s best cover is The Freedom Collective #1.

Things are getting desperate at my local comic book store. They gave all their box customers a free copy of Previews in hopes folks would order more.

Good luck with that.

I think folks have finally realized they don’t need a bust of Antman or A-Team action figures.

Comics and collectables are overpriced. Sad but true for our friends in the industry.

The Astounding Wolf-Man #14, Image. I dropped this title but it’s just too good.

The Freedom Collective #1, Rough Cut Comics. The Marvel Age… commie style!

Jonah Hex #42, DC Comics.

Trade Paperbacks:
Chronicles of Conan #17, Dark Horse Comics.

-Swinebread

What the Wife Is Reading

2009-04-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

My wife received a new manga via the mail from one of her close friends back in Japan. I'm not sure of the title as I haven't been able to clearify what Mama Ha Ten Parist (which is on the cover) means. It is by the popular manga artist Akiko Higashimura. From what what I've gatherd from the art, the story is a comedy drama about a mother giving birth and taking care of her baby. It's very sentimental and cute. It's too bad I can't find any info in English about it other than that it was on the short list for the Cartoon Grand Prize 2009.

amazon japan link

-Swinebread

Movie of the Week: Saving Vault 13

2009-04-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

One of the all-time great sci-fi films.

-Swinebread

My New Comics

2009-03-27T09:35:00.000-07:00

This week’s best cover is Showcase Presents Ambush Bug. I love how DC made the big three green for this cover as they weren’t on the original Action Comics 565.

Star Trek The Next Generation: The Last Generation #6, IDW. Meh, It looks like they didn’t know how to end this thing, so they just did.

The War That Time Forgot #11, DC Comics.

Trade Paperbacks:
Showcase Presents Ambush Bug DC Comics. It’s Here! All the Ambush Bug goodness from the1980s and early 1990s stories. BTW, what the hell happened to issue #6 of the Ambush Bug Year None miniseries?

Supermen! The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-1941 Fantagraphics. In your face golden age stories by some of the greats of comic book history but with forgotten characters that weren’t quite so great (although I've got a special place in my heart for Basil Wolverton's Space Hawk). I love this because it’s a time of experimentation. The writers and artists are learning their craft and there aren’t any established rules yet. Sure to please fans of “I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets.” It also has an excellent introduction by Jonathan Lethem. For more see here.

Magazine:
Back Issue #33 TwoMorrows Publishing. The teen heroes issue. I’m not all the excited about this issue but it does have an article on Power Girl. Finally I’ll have some clarity on her mixed up back-story. Oh and Nova is in here too.

Update: Rob! pointed out that he had has a piece published in this issue of Back Issue #33. Its about the Teen Titans Megos. It was the first article I read and I didn't even pay attention to who wrote it! How cool and stupid is that!

-Swinebread