At the time it seemed the logical thing to do

I went to Trek in the Park for the last performance of season 4. It was a lot of fun watching them perform Journey to Babel. Plus, Garret Wang showed up in the role of an extra.

Fight scene:



CBS video about the production:


-Swinebread

Malibu's Imprint House Ads 1989-'90

Malibu Comics had several imprint lines based on comic companies it had acquired over its existence. The house ads here are from Aircel, Eternity, and Adventure

Malibu was eventually bought by Marvel

-Swimebread

Eclipse Comics House Ads from 1988

Here are four house ads from the defunct Eclipse Comics. In '88 they were #3 in the comic biz...

-Swinebread

I saw John Carter this last weekend... It was a lot of fun. Ignore the critics and Disney's horrible marketing campaign and just enjoy the movie.

Here a fun clip with Woola!



-Swinebread

Captain Power... I remember

-Swinebread

Top Ten TV Cartoons (plus Three Honorable Mentions)

-Swinebread

Great Moments in Comic Book History

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

Random Comic Panel

ah wha...?


-Swinebread

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

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

UPDATE: Randal Graves wins with Al Gorn!


-Swinebread

News I Missed... A Jericho Comic!

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

Wilma, Rogers, and Bears OH MY!

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

Star Trek Crew Review

When Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry introduced the first pilot, "The Cage," to NBC executives in it's said that the network hated much of what they saw. The network made two demands of Roddenberry if they were going to allow the show to move forward. The first was that he "lose the guy with the ears." The second was that he replace the actor playing the second in command of the Enterprise, Majel Barrett, with a man.

This was 1964 and the idea of a woman in a position of leadership, even if it was an imaginary future, was absurd to the old men who ran NBC. Roddenberry was able to keep the character of Spock but had lose Barrett's "Number One." Because Gene Roddenberry married Majel Barrett shortly thereafter she is often said to have joked about Gene's choice "kept the Vulcan and married the woman, 'cause he didn't think Leonard would have it the other way around."



IDW and writer John Byrne in particular been on a roll with their Star Trek comics this past year. Byrne is one of the first Trek comic writers in a long time that actually "gets" the original series. He has an understanding of the universe but, most importantly, an ear for the characters which makes his dialog shine.

When I heard that IDW was going to do a mini series based on the nameless first officer Majel Barrett played in the "The Cage" I was in at the premise. This comic did not disappoint.

The story follows Number One as she joins a small crew of cadets for a shakedown cruise of a new constitution class cruiser.

Of course things quickly go wrong for the these cadets and they find themselves in a life and death struggle. There's a very high body count in this story, with few of the crew making it through.

Number One is an action hero here in the Trekian sense. She works outside of regulations, operating on hunches. She kicks ass in hand to hand combat. She saves the ship and honorably gives the credit to someone else.

There's an excellent little side mystery on earth that involves the bodies of one of the cadets who died in a creative and rather horrible manner. The investigators on earth figure out what's going on about the same time Number One does back on the ship.

The artwork hearkens back to the 70's with a neat retro feel. I love the little details such as the lamp dealies hanging off the helm (see photo below) that the artist includes.

There's very little I didn't like in this comic. There is a bit of the George Lucas shrinkage problem that's been showing up in Trek in that everything has to be tied to the Enterprise in some way. Stories about other ships would be okay once in a while.

But these are minor quibbles in what was really an excellent read. Still not convinced? You can read the first four pages of the comic here.

This is a scotch n'cigar comic.

- Dean Wormer

Battlestar Galactica Finale

Oh I get it. Kera came back from the Ship of Lights, the phantom Baltar and Six were Seraphs, and the Japanese are making Cylons. Domo arigato Captain Apollo! Nice nod to the original show. Too bad the Classic BSG haters will never get it. Heh heh Heh.

Hey maybe Daniel could Count Iblis. heh heh heh


Oh and Overdroid.. you're barely a Cylon at all so suck it!


-Swinebread

Battlestar At The Bagdad

There is no better experience for a fan than sharing something we've enjoyed in a communal setting with people who feel the same way. Last night's viewing of Battlestar Galactica at the Bagdad theater and pub was that sort of experience. The fact that actress Katee Sakhoff was there with us just added to the joy of the whole thing.

I arrived a couple of hours early and the line already for the free screening already stretched around the block at about five hundred people. The theater only holds six hundred. Even with that I got pretty good seats that were close to the stage and had an even greater perk that I'll mention later.

The Bagdad theater has been around Portland since the invention of film. It's an absolutely beautiful old school theater with carved ornate pillars and Egyptian designs throughout it's interior. I have happy memories of seeing the King Kong remake in 1976 at this theater (and even better memories of seeing the original Kong at the Backstage theater directly behind the Bagdad which is sadly now a bar.)

The gorgeous Bagdad theater.

These showings have been hosted by local rock station personalities Cort and Fatboy. I listen to these guys on my commute home from work because, besides being super funny, they're both tremendous geeks who read comics, watch sci-fi, etc. With these guys you'll might hear references to Star Wars, Star Trek, Watchmen and Thundercats all within a five minute span of their show. You can see the appeal for me.

Before Battlestar began they started showing a live feed of the Sci-fi network as they were setting up. Next Generation popped on and the crowd cheered. That was when I felt like I was hanging out with the right people.

Hey, that's not Starbuck!

Just before Battlestar aired Cort and Fatboy took the stage. Of course they look nothing like I imagined from their radio voices. For one thing Fatboy isn't a fat boy. He's a short, skinny very buff guy.

They laid down the ground rules for when Katee arrived- telling us to keep it clean because her parents and boyfriend were going to be there. Then they got the crowd cheering in chants of "so say we all!" and doing the Battlestar clap. While they were talking Katee Sakhoff and her crew snuck in and sat just a couple of rows behind me. The crowd roared in approval when she arrived.

The episode was pretty good but to be honest I got a bigger kick out of watching Katee Sakhoff watch us react to the stuff that was happening. When Baltar would say something weasily and the crowd would laugh she seemed to get a tremendous kick out of that. Screen/ television actors probably don't get to enjoy this sort of direct feedback to their work very often.

After the episode had ended and we'd watched the previews they called Katee to the stage and she took questions from a line of mostly women. Judging by a big part of the questions Katee has a very big lesbian following.

She told some hysterical stories about Edward James Olmos (that model of the sailing ship he smashed up a couple of seasons ago was on loan from a museum and valued at 50k - "anybody else would've been fired") and a sad story about the actor that plays Sam who she's very close to in real life. He was apparently in an accident recently and may not walk again, which is why they had to put him in a tub in these final episodes.

Katee also talked about recently being diagnosed with Thyroid cancer and some of the other challenges she'd faced as an actress. She told about how she decided to get into acting after watching Jaws when she was six years old with her dad. This almost led to divorce among her parents. That story hit a little close to home as I did the same thing with our young daughter and Mrs. Wormer was none too happy.

All in all I found her very engaging and funny. She ended by apologizing that she couldn't be here for the finale next week.

That's Cort and Fatboy next to Katee.

The rest of us were told no photos with Katee but not KUFO employees.

- Dean Wormer

My New Comics... From Last Week

Swinebread Jr's Grandma has been in town, so I've been busy but here is last week's list.



This last week’s best cover is The Age of Sentry #6.


Jonah Hex #41, Marvel Comics. I’m getting a latter-day Conan/Red Sonja vibe going on between Jonah and Tallulah Black. This comic hasn’t let me down yet.

Last Reign #4, Boom Studios. I wonder if they realize that the plot in this issue is stolen right out of TMNT RPG After the Bomb.

Doctor Who Classics Series 2 #4, IDW.

Army of Darkness #37, Dynamite Entertainment.

The Age of Sentry #6, Marvel. The End of another mini-series, and thus my box list gets smaller.

Trade Paperbacks:
Savage Sword of Conan Volume 5 Dark Horse. Yeah Baby!

Books:
With all the money I’ve been saving I went ahead and picked up the paperback of Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman. I can’t wait to dive into this one, but I gotta’ finish the paperback version of The Ten Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How it Changed America first. The Ten Cent Plague is must read for anybody that wants to understand how pop was culture negatively transformed and how the comic book medium’s potential was basically destroyed for the next 40 to 50 years. A chilling and sadly forgotten chapter (outside of comicdom) in US history... until now.


-Swinebread

Tribblemania!

More Star Trek news than you can shake a Klingon disruptor at.

The Star Trek Experience is reopening in Vegas. Yahoo! Now I don't have to make my own Warp Core Breach.

The upcoming Star Trek MMORPG may suck me in but I still think this Klingon "Raptor" class ship looks like crap. I prefer the old school ship look to the blah Next Gen style that's been here since the 80's. And what's with the Klingon's naming a ship? The whole thing is they're too busy kicking ass to bother with naming their ships. That's why they just use classifications like "D-7."

Bryan Fuller of "Pushing Daisies" wants to bring the Trek back to television. I'd forgottent that Fuller has a lot of Trek experience as a writer/ producer on two of the t.v. series. His vision is a retro-Trek utilizing the 60's style. I love this idea which is why it will never see the light of day.

The entire Next Gen cast including Patrick Stewart will be reuniting on an upcoming episode of Family Guy.

I love the original Trek but the idea of the series on Blu Ray makes me ill. The print/ quality of the original stock just isn't that good not to mention the fact it was shot to be displayed on the crappy tvs of the era. Under DVD quality you can see Shatner sweat under Klieg lights and easily discern where Nimoy's rubber ears are glued on.

- Dean

I watched Mad Max 2 this last weekend... I hadn't seen it in awhile and I was reminded of what fantastic movie the Road Warrior is.

I was stuck by two things that seemed odd though. The first was that several scenes are sped up to make the action more exciting but to me, with my 21 century eyes, it just looks silly.

The second is the total lack of people who aren't white. I guess we just had to wait for TIna Turner in Mad Max 3.

Mel is great in this film but I realized why his character Max is such a disturbed loner... it's because the The Apocalypse occurred and Jesus didn't come back....


-Swinebread

Future Hotties

Here's another arbitrary list - The Revised Top 20 Sexy Science Fiction Costumes.

I don't think there's a geek alive that wouldn't agree with picks at #1, #5 and #19, but once again these guys have managed to compile a list with conspicuous absences.

Notably missing-







Okay, that last one may not count technically as a "future" hottie but I really don't care. It's Raquel Welch for God's sakes. She will rule the past, present and future.

UPDATE - I meant to add this one for Swiney.



- Dean