Thundercats movie

I've never been a big fan of the Thundercats but this is pretty cool. Starring Comic Stop friend, Gigi Edgley to boot!!

No New Comics for Christmas...

The sudden dropping of snow early this morning has had the unwanted, if not entirely unexpected, effect of delaying our new comics shipment today.

According to our UPS tracking numbers, the majority of our boxes are stuck on the Eastside. A few boxes made it through, but are actually still in transit to the Everett UPS Hub, where we pick up the boxes.

This means that all three shops are going to be without new comics today. However, all three stores will be open for the afternoon. Although I am personally snowed in, George should be opening the Lynnwood store, while Chris and Michael are opening the Everett and Redmond stores.

New Comics should be available on Friday, December 26th. However, thanks to the massive backlog at UPS, there is a chance we may not see them until next week.

Until then, be safe out there and have a good Christmas!

-Brian

Store Signing w/ Mike Oeming!

UPDATE: The store signing with Mike Oeming has been postponed until after the holidays. A new date will be announced at a later time.

The Comic Stop is excited to have comic book artist extraordinaire Mike Avon Oeming (Powers, Bulletproof Monk, Hammer of The Gods, etc) for a store signing on Saturday, December 13th. The signing will take place from 2pm to 5pm at the Lynnwood location.

Mike Oeming is promoting the release of his new Top Cow one-shot called Darkness Lodbrok's Hand and Trade Paperback collection of his creator-owned epic Mice Templar.

Mike Oeming is best known for his artwork on Powers with co-creator Brian Michael Bendis, but he is also an accomplished writer whose work includes Omega Flight, Stormbreaker: The Sage of Beta Ray Bill, Ares, Thor: Blood Oath, and many more.

Turkish Mayor Suing Batman Director

In a totally "You've GOT to be kidding me" kind of moment, a mayor in the town of Batman, Turkey is suing director Christopher Nolan for using the name of his town without permission.

They claim to have evidence that proves the town's origin predates the fictional character's origin and therefore they are entitled to royalties for using the name.
Mayor Huseyin Kalkan says, "There is only one Batman in the world. The American producers used the name of our city without informing us."

Oh really? So for over 65 years NOBODY in Turkey has complained about infringement of their town's name until now.
And they want to sue Christopher Nolan and not DC Comics?

I guess if you want to get some publicity, this is as good a way as any.

"Impaler" creator signing at The Comic Stop

      
The Comic Stop - Redmond is proud to announce our first ever store signing!

William Harms, the creator and writer of Top Cow's book Impaler, will be signing at The Comic Stop - Redmond next Saturday, November 15th from 12 noon to 3pm. We will have plenty of copies of the just released Impaler trade paperback as well as some SDCC Impaler Preview books that William will be happy to sign for you. But that isn't all! No sir. To help make the day even more fun, we will be giving away gift bags full of cool swag to the first 50 people who come by. 

What's that? You want more? Ok then!

With every purchase you make on Saturday, we will give you a raffle ticket and at the end of the day we will be giving away all sorts of stuff. WoW Loot Cards, original artwork, signed comics and more!

And to top it all off, we will be doing a special "soda tasting" of some of the cool soda's that only The Comic Stop in Redmond carries. Jolt Cola, Brain Wash, Pop Goes The Bubble, Lolli's Cherry Pop, Cheerwine and Ed & Pete's Lemonade will all be available to sample.

       

   

So make it a point to drop by The Comic Stop in Redmond this coming Saturday. It should be a lot of fun. See you then.

Comic Release Party

Firstly, I want to say that I am a loyal Comic Stop customer.

I would in no way encourage you to "jump ship" to another store.

However, I wanted to let you know about a little happening that I'm sort of involved in.

On November 23rd at the Comics Dungeon in Seattle, Keith Curtis will be releasing volumes 1 & 2 of his self-published comic, "Crater on the Moon".

"Why should I care?", I hear you asking.

Well, it just so happens that yours truly is one of the characters in his book.

I play XT Space Marine, Mike Valera.

Here are a couple of my scenes from issue #7:

I'll be there to help Keith with the celebration, along with some of the other Space Marines from the story.

For more information, please hop over to my blog and check it out.

Please come out and help support a local publisher and watch me make a fool of myself in front of strangers (like usual).

I hope to see some of you there.

Top 5 Best Comic Shops in Western Washington, and we're one of them!!!

We made the Top 5! Thank you to all who voted and a special thanks to the mystery person who nominated us in the first place! If you want to see the Top 5 comic shops in western Washington, click on this link.

Eureka Comic from Boom! Studios

Just a little shout out to one of my favorite smaller comic publishers Boom! Studios and the TV show Eureka. Comic comes out in December.

Bat Bro

From CollegeHumor

New Watchmen Trailer

For those of you that did not watch Spike TV's Scream awards show, here is the new Watchmen trailer that was shown. It's pretty much the same as the old one with new scenes of awesomeness thrown in. If you don't want to watch the actors gushing about how great geeks are, skip to 1:20.

The last few days to vote for us

If you haven't already done so, please take a few moments to vote for us in Evening Magazine's Best of Western Washington poll. Voting will be stopped after this weekend. Here is the link. Please remember that just leaving a review does not count towards a vote. You have to click on the "Vote" button as well. Thanks.

Coming Soon To IMAX (I wish!)

A classic made even better! Check it out.

Vote For Us!

See that link over there for Evening Magazine's The Best of Western Washington? Yeah, that's it. Right under The Comic Stop logo and our bio. ----->

You need to click on it and vote for The Comic Stop as being the best comic shop in Washington! Or click on this link: THE COMIC STOP - BEST COMIC SHOP IN THE UNIVERSE!

We are currently in 5th place but I know the Comic Stop faithful will vote us into the #1 spot!And after you're done doing that, stop by and remember to pick up The Adventures of Doctor Zombie #1! It's awesome!!

Doctor Zombie debuts!

The Adventures of Doctor Zombie #1 is finally back from the printers!

As some of you may already know (but let's recap for those that don't), this new book was written my daughter Mackenzie. After expressing interest in writing her own story, I encouraged her to put one together using one of her favorite characters, Doctor Zombie. Well, the story was a fun little romp filled with action, romance, and what I like to call "3rd grade Science".

I took her story and scripted it, handed it off to my artist Erik Thompson, and several months later, we have an all-ages comic about a dead scientist and his loyal assistant fighting demons and poor dating choices!

The Adventures of Doctor Zombie #1 will officially debut this weekend at Bell-Con, Bellingham's newest comic convention, but we will have copies at the Lynnwood Comic Stop this Wednesday for anyone that wants one. Anyone that wants to reserve a copy (many of you already have, thanks!) just needs to let me know, via email to the shop, a call, or even a comment.

The Adventures of Doctor Zombie #1 costs only a measly $2.50 and there are two covers to choose from (Good Guy Cover and Bad Guy Cover). Oh, and if anyone would like to have their copy signed by Mackenzie, let me know. She has been practicing her signature for the last couple of days just for this.

Holy Forest Fires, Batman!

Happy 80th to Adam West!

All By Myself...

Riddle Me This, Bird Brain...

There have been rumors of this, but a recent interview with Michael Caine lends some credibility.





It would seem the next Batman movie will have Johnny Depp stepping in as The Riddler, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin.

I think, like Heath Ledger, these are brilliant choices. These are two of the best method actors in the business, and should continue the great tradition in casting that the first two movies started. Except for Joey Potter (ick). I think Nolan had a crush.

What do you think?

The New A-Team

Oh, what some people come up with when they have too much time on their hands....

No Heroics

This looks like it could be great!
WARNING!
Strong language so view around children with caution.

V For Vodka! Classic!

If At First You Don't Succeed...

...Fly, Fly Again?


Bryan Singer, Brandon Routh, and Co. are all out of a job. Warner Bros. is going to scrap the franchise and re-boot from scratch. I'm assuming this will mean that the continuity set forth by the Christopher Reeve films, and followed in Superman Returns will be left alone.

Thoughts? Reactions? I know that DC and WB are wanting to really compete with Marvel in the multiplex, and only the Batman films have been able to do that. With Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and various other DC/Vertigo properties in the works, is this a step in the right direction, or is this box office kryptonite?

KIRBY KRACKLE!

Hey Comic Stop family! Comic Stop co-owner Jim Demonakos and I are unveiling our new "geek rock" project KIRBY KRACLE this week with a new myspace page up HERE, and a performance at the Comic Stop BBQ/Game night this Saturday night. If you're someone who reads this blog regularly, then you'll dig the songs...Spread the word!

The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth

Or at least $1MM? Go Team Geek!

"The Dark Fortress"

Ha. Hee. Heh. Hah. Whoo. Her.

Damon's Comic Book of the Week - 8/13/08

Batman #679
Easy pick. This was an amazing issue (the variant cover is absolutely beautiful!), that's all I can say really. The art is top notch and the story is just getting better and better. I'm starting to realize that R.I.P. is going to continue to tease us down to the last issue. There's a lot of fun in this issue, but I don't want to say anything for fear of spoiling it, so go read it and tell me what you think! Zur-en-arrh!

Runner-up: Action Comics #868

He's a Brainiac, Brainiac on the floor...

Action Comics is rocking these days.

Preview for this week's Issue #868 up at Newsarama.

Zombies!!! and Humans!!! invade The Comic Stop

Twilight Creations, the makers of one of my all time favorite games in Zombies!!!, has just release a stand alone game that is compatible with Zombies!!!. Now you don't have to fend off the ravenous hordes of the undead but instead be ONE OF THEM!
Awwww Yeah!!!!!! Send... More... HUMANS!!!

I've had several people in the past few months ask if I was going to be doing any gaming events at the Redmond location. I hadn't really given it much serious thought since just getting the store up and running has taken all my free time. However, I would really like to get a Zombies!!!/Humans!!! game together some time in the near future and was wondering if anyone is interested. Please let me know so I can gauge the interest level and see if this is even worth doing.

For those of you reading and have never played before, if you are interested in playing but fearful that you would be at a disadvantage for having never played the game before, please know that it's really easy to learn and doesn't require a previous knowledge of the game to play against those that have played before. Twilight Creations likes to bill this game as a "beer and pretzels" game. It's very high on the fun factor but not really high on the rules lawyers aspect. I do warn that many of the images on the cards are a bit gruesome so I'm asking that we keep children at home for this one.

I will also be doing demos of both Zombies!!! and Humans!!! at the game night in Lynnwood on the 23rd.

Damon's Comic Book of the Week - 8/6/08

Robin #176
Easily the most exciting comic book I read this week. You get to see a glimpse of Robin growing up and becoming more like his influences. Will he grow up to be more like Batman (you could see some of the attitude in this issue), Nightwing (Robin's look?)... or Red Robin (what the heck!)? I don't think I have been this thrilled with a Robin issue for a long time.

T-shirt request

A request for a lolcatz t-shirt image for Ms. FridayK...

Listen to Kyle Stevens... or the Robots Win!

Robin - Post Dixon

Those of you wondering what Robin is going to look like after Chuck Dixon was canned should check out this article. Even though I will miss Dixon, I'm sure he will be back later and it seems like Fabian is going to fill in his shoes nicely.

Wednesday can never come fast enough....

Battle for the Cowl

Teaser image shown at Comic-Con

Batman R.I.P. Tie-ins (Part 2)

When Detective Comic's version of a Batman R.I.P. Tie-in came out I posted my issues with it. Now that Robin has come out with it's version of a R.I.P. Tie-in, I decided it was only fair to take a look at how it was handled.

Given that Morrison stated that he had no idea what they were doing with the R.I.P. Tie-ins and wasn't involved with them at all, Robin did a surprisingly good job. This is coming from a pretty biased source too, because I was ready to tear this tie-in apart for multiple reasons. The first being that Chuck Dixon wasn't writing it (this still depresses me), the next reason being that the first R.I.P. Tie-in was awful, and given that Chuck Dixon was listed as being the writer for the longest time (and still is), I knew it was going to be rushed.

All that being said, I was wonderfully surprised. It was really good. I like the idea of Robin being more independent and having to think of what he would have to do without Batman, or worse, if he needed to take Batman down. Of course, if you were looking for it to fill in any of the pieces of R.I.P. storyline (which I wasn't), you probably wouldn't be too impressed. It added nothing to the story at all, but at least Batman wasn't in it (Stupid Detective Comics....) and at least it dealt with the R.I.P. storyline. All in all, it was a strong Robin issue and a solid R.I.P. Tie-in. Color me impressed.

Because It Is Still Sold Out In The Future

Sorry, Friday.

Watchmen Trailer

Enjoy!

Yeah Yeah Yeaaaaah Wow..Spidel-Man!

Goblin Bloggin'/Misunderstood Monsters

Just realized I hadn't looked for new entries in this series lately, and missed a couple. Sorry for the slacking.

The Dark Knight

I just got back from a special screening of "The Dark Knight" at the IMAX. In a word: AWESOME! (And I'm not just saying that to make Girl Friday jealous! )(You so totally should have come with!)

Without going into details or spoilers, this was not only the best superhero movie of the summer (Sorry Iron Man) but it's easily the best movie I've seen all year. Heath Ledger's Joker is SO good! He just exudes creepy! I'm pretty sure Hannibal Lector would have nightmares about this Joker.

The rest of the cast is great too. Both Aaron Eckhart and Gary Oldman do particularly good jobs but I really want to give Christian Bale special mention. His Batman is really spot on. It's easy to forget how difficult it is to play Batman. Don't think so? Ask George Clooney or Val Kilmer, both of whom I think are fine actors but definitely had a bit of trouble getting Batman right. It's easy to want to try and give the character more personality by making Batman say a funny line or two but when that happens, it seems to make the character a bit campy. Mr. Bale anchors the film in a very believable way without falling into the "I'll add a joke here" trap. That isn't to say he doesn't have some humourous moments. He just does it without bringing a lot of attention to it. He does an excellent job in what is, really, a thankless role

In a very small role is the character actor "Tiny" Lister and he is in one of my favorite scenes of the movie. Look for him on the ferry.

I'm hoping to post a more in depth review later today but with the move downstairs at RTC, internet is going to be gone for a week or so and thus I will have to wait till I get home after work to write.

Do yourself a favor and see The Dark Knight as soon as you can.

Redmond Store Falls One Floor, Gets Cavities

Apparently, Girl Friday K took it upon herself to move the Redmond Comic Stop down one floor so she could be closer to the Sweet Factory in the RTC. I know this because I gleaned it from an obtuse twitter I saw on her blog. Using my impressive deduction skills, I also now know that Girl Friday K is the mysterious thief who has been committing Marmot-themed crimes all over the city. Her next target: Bill Gates impressive LolCats collection!

Gotham Cable News

Anyone who is excited for The Dark Knight and hasn't watched any of the episodes of Gotham Cable News should head over to http://www.gothamcablenews.com/. This is an example of some of the amazing marketing that has gone into The Dark Knight and what marketing for a movie of this magnitude can look like in the age of the internet.

It's also worth noting that not only did gothamcablenews.com get 'jokerized', but so did thedarkknight.com. Somebody in marketing is having way too much fun... 6 more days, is anyone else excited?

Batman R.I.P. Tie-ins

I have been a huge fan of the Batman RIP series and cannot wait to see what happens in the remaining issues. So, naturally, I was pretty excited for Detective Comics to come out this week since it was a tie-in to Batman RIP. Unfortunetly, I was terribly disappointed. Not by the issue itself, I am a huge Hush fan, but by the fact that DC claimed that this was a tie-in. Just because you add a couple of lines into the script that pay homage to Batman RIP... that doesn't make it a tie-in and it defiantly doesn't deserve the title at the top of the issue.

Seriously... the Hush storyline is it's own beast, why do they think they have to force it to tie-in with RIP? It took me out of my comic book reading experience and made me roll my eyes. What ever happened to the type of tie-ins that they did during Knightfall? Those are tie-ins... Ones where you actually need to read all of the issues to get the whole story. Nobody needs to read Detective Comics 846 to understand RIP at all. It tells you nothing new.

How frustrating... I guess I have to wait another month for my RIP fix.

Lunchboxes

Another great Hellboy II ad, this time featuring Chuck:



and another one:



I hope all these are collected on the DVD eventually...

Throw me the idol, I'll throw you the whip.

Zero Punctuation's review of "Lego: Indiana Jones"...stick around after for his review of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

The Heroes Journey

I'm not even a big STAR WARS fan, but this is brilliant...

Boo. Ya.

Where The Deep Ones Are

One of my childhood favorites was Where The Wild Things Are. One of my adulthood favorites has been the Cthulhu Mythos. Apparently that was the case for Mr. Hite and Mr. Hopp as well. From the June Previews:


If only we could just get Tim Burton and Henry Selick to get together one more time!

New Dark Knight Poster

One of the coolest ones yet:

Sheldon

Those of you at the last ECCC know that we had a ton of cool guests attend the show. My wife and I were lucky enough to get to know Dave Kellett, who writes and draws the comic Sheldon. We were his ride from the airport to the show, and during the drive into Seattle had a chance to chat with him. Little did we know just how popular he was as by noon on Sunday he has sold through all of his books.

We are now both hardcore fans of his work. And I wanted to take a moment to share not only his comic strip, but his same thoughts as mine on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.



And Mr. Lucas? I want my $9.50 back.

Atari Label Maker and Poker Party Review

Juan found this link to the Atari Label maker like, forever ago. I made one as an example of the kind of fun you can have with it. :)

The comic stop poker party/bbq was a lot of fun this Saturday. It was cool to meet so many of the other comic stop patrons/fellow comic geeks. Elwood, maybe you'd like to do a toy story about the events of the evening? Kyle, bring your guitar and we can all have a sing along (I mean come on, everyone knows the theme song to Firefly right?!) *grins* Oh and btw, watch out for George. He's a poker playing badass!! ;)~

Michael Turner dies at age 37

From Aspen Comics' Vince Hernandez

Hello all,

Unfortunately it's with great sadness that I must inform everyone that Michael Turner tragically passed away last night, June 27th at approximately 10:42 pm in Santa Monica, Ca. Turner had been dealing with recent health complications arisen in the past few weeks. More details concerning Turner's passing, and services, will be given shortly.

Anyone wishing to send their condolences to Michael Turner's family is encouraged to send to:

Aspen MLT, Inc.
C/O Michael Turner
5855 Green Valley Circle, Suite 111
Culver City, CA, 90230

Aspen also encourages anyone wishing to make a charitable donation to please send to Michael Turner's requested charities:

The American Cancer Society

Or

The Make-A-Wish Foundation

Batman: Gotham Knight

Five whole minutes of Batman: Gotham Knight which is out on July 8th. Suuuuper awesome!

Catching Up with Old (Super) Friends

TV Squad presents: Where Are They Now?

Super Friends and The Legion of Doom.

For Example:

Robin: After leaving the Super Friends, The Boy Wonder published his tell-all book Holy S@#t, Batman, I'm Gay!, which chronicled his days inside the Hall of Justice. It also delved into many of the intimate details about the Super Friends, including a torrid affair between Black Vulcan and Apache Chief.

Solomon Grundy -- Grundy briefly made guest appearances as various monsters on Scooby Doo. He now owns three Casual Male big & tall clothing stores in Chicago. Apache Chief is secretly one of his best customers.

Why is Apache Chief getting picked on? He'll go all Inyuk-Chuk on your ass.

Drunk Dialing = OUT. Drunk Lightsaber Duels = IN.

Maybe it's not DIRECTLY comicbook related, but I know everyone here probably has a soft spot for THE STAR WARS and THE WII.

Click HERE to read about the recently confirmed "LIGHTSABER DUELS" game on deck for the Wii.

Shooting to the top with a bullet on my list of "stuff I hope I don't die before"...

Cooking with D&D 4e

In honour of the release of the 4th edition D&D rules from Wizards of the Coast I give you this very funny article from Wired:

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/alttext/2008/06/alttext_0618/

I can't wait to roll up my new Pastry Chef class!

What game system should you own?

Those who know me know I love flow charts. What IT person doesn't? Well, I found a very helpful one if you're trying to decide what gaming system you should purchase.

For the record, I play games on my PC and the Wii.

SFX Wizard, Stan Winston Dead At 62

Stan Winston, who worked on a lot of the films us fanboys (and girls) really love, died on Sunday after a battle with multiple myeloma.

Some of the many films he worked on were:

Terminator 2

A.I.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Iron Man

Charlotte's Web

Big Fish

Constantine

Predator

Jurassic Park

Galaxy Quest

Batman Returns

Aliens

Edward Scissorhands

.... just to name a few.

Not to mention all the other projects he worked on in TV, commercials, and music videos.

When I was younger and wanted to do movie make-up and special effects as a career (which obviously got derailed along the way), I would read about how he did his effects and watch programs that spolighted him and fellow SFX creator, Rick Baker.

Stan, you will be missed.