Arte Y Pico Award

The fantastic Becca selected my blog for an Arte Y Pico Award! I am greatly honored. Thank you Becca.


Here are the Rules:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award through creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.



2. Each award should have the name of the author with a link to their blog.



3. Award winners have to post the award with the name and link to the blog of the person who gave them the award (done at the end of Paragraph 1).



4. Please include a link to the “Arte Y Pico” blog so that everyone will know where the award came from.



5. Show these rules.



Here are the 5 Blogs I selected:

Matt at Paleo-Future has a great blog about the Future that never was. Every generation has had practical and totally bizarre ideas about what sort of culture or inventions there might be in "the future" and this blog makes sure they still have a home. All our forgotten tomorrows are logged whether they’re from the 1880s or the 1980s.

Arkonbey has been creating and posting self-made comics on-line at Obscurum. His Obscure Tales series is just what a jaded, cynical comic fan like me needs right now. What’s additionally cool is his discussion about the process he uses to create his pages, Fun and informative.

Dr. Zaius has, in my mind, has the best designed and the best content in the whole bloggershpere. His greatness is only matched by his intellectual capacity. Go to Zaius Nation and you’ll see what I mean.

Comics Fairplay was one of the first comic blogs I latched on to. Heidi Meely’s (and James too sometimes) frank but respectful discussion about a medium I love keeps bringing me back. I’m not even reading the same titles as her, but her blog just has that certain something. It’s like a four-color pub discussion over a brew. Plus, I appreciate the simplicity of the layout. Comics Fairplay makes comics almost seem like a real legitimate topic to chat about. Imagine that! I’m not a closet comics fan anymore thanks to Heidi.

How could I pick just one blog by Rob!? Well, the rules are the rules, so take a gander at All in Black and White for 75 cents. Never has a better comic series been written on the topic of comic book magazines. There was an age undreamt of where Horror and Adventure had a home. Where fantastic art, relayed the visions of amazing writers in a larger, adult format. Recapture those lost journeys or discover them anew with this amazing blog. (Hell just check out all his fun sites you’ll be glad you did).


-Swinebread

Busy Busy, Busy, but here’s a few tidbits.

The Watchmen Trailer…


Wow, I’m not impressed at all. I was really looking forward to this film. Now? Not so much. The CG looks cheesy, the music sucked and I F***ing hate the slow mo. Watchmen is already a 12 issue graphic novel, so screen time shouldn’t be wasted on visual masturbation, my suppressed fears about the director of 300 just might be confirmed here. I really appreciated what Zack Snyder was saying about the comic and the project but I’m dubious now. Watchmen is a deeply psychological work full of rich subtext and just slo-moing scenes directly from the comic is not the way to go.

Here’s What Alan Moore recently had to say about Snyder:

When asked by Entertainment Weekly if he was curious about Snyder's version of his story, he replied: "I would rather not know."

Moore, who previously disowned the Warner Bros adaptation of his comic V For Vendetta, voiced his disapproval of Snyder due to his involvement with 300.

"He's the person who made 300. I've not seen any recent comic book films, but I didn't particularly like the book 300," Moore said.

"I had a lot of problems with it, and everything I heard or saw about the film tended to increase [those problems] rather than reduce them: [that] it was racist, it was homophobic, and above all it was sublimely stupid."

Furthermore, the comic scribe insisted that he hadn't been in contact with studio Warner Bros regarding the Watchmen adaptation: "No, they've all been told not to. They get the message... I don't want anyone who works for DC comic books to contact me ever again, or I'll change my number."

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I’ve been absorbing I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets, which collects all the Golden Age comic stories by Fletcher Hanks. It’s one of the weirdest things I’ve ever read. At first these stories almost seem like a joke or a 60’s, underground comic parody, but these bizarros were actually published. The art style is akin to a crossing of Robert Crumb and Basil Wolverton but with less talent than either. The narrative of these odd gems is hard to describe other than to say that the heroes tend to abnormally torture the villains by the end after some ridiculously grand scheme. This collection is the naked lunch of comics.


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Overdroid is in town and we met for a quick get-together yesterday. He brought along a copy of the Arkham Horror board game, which I’ve been itching to play. Well, it was a hell of fun time. We were quickly overwhelmed by the machinations of Nyarlathotep. OD was killed when the crawling chaos manifested after only a few turns of play and I didn’t last much longer in a head to head fight with Nyarly. In fact, OD told me that it was the shortest games he’s ever played, which ended up being OK because we didn’t have a lot of time anyway. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had losing, but then this is a horror game after all.

Overdroid also had a copy of Basic Roleplaying. I was a surprised how huge it was. Due to our short schedule, I didn’t really have time to look through it. Maybe Diamond Distributing will see fit to send me the copy of Basic Roleplaying that I ordered.

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I came across a great list of literary takes on superheroes via NPR’s website here. Check it out.

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Arkonbey made a joke about me cutting down on comics now that Swinebread Jr. is on the way, but I do need to cut down. I’ve been surprised how many comics, especially trades, I order and then wonder what the hell was I thinking when I signed up for this. The only kink in the plan is that a significant amount of items that I have ordered, many months ago, have not shown up and now, with budgets tightening, I might be in a rough spot. Oh well, I’ll figure it out…

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Speaking of Swinebread Jr, now he really could come at any time... I can' t wait to be a Dad, but I guess I will have to wait for a little longer.


-Swinebread

So You wanna’ Be On a Superhero Team… Fill This Out

When was the last time you enjoyed filling out an application? For me that would be never, but after checking out Arkonbey’s Fairness Battalion form the laughs just kept coming. All kinds of superhero tropes are explored until you reach that third page where you’ll be treated to an inspired list powers and weaknesses. How did He know about my Pie weakness?

Read it. Print it. Fill it out.

You’ll be glad you did.

-Swinebread

Arkonbey and 24 hour comics

It was 24-hour comic day last Saturday. I wasn’t participating so I didn’t mention it but Arkonbey has a great post about his attempt at a 24 page comic in 24 hours over at obscurum. What’s even better is that a local weekly in his hometown sent a reporter over to do a video blog about the event. Pretty cool, check it out:


-Swinebread