Sunday, July 27, 2008

Battle for the Cowl

Teaser image shown at Comic-Con

Friday, July 25, 2008

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.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

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.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

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!

Saturday, July 12, 2008

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?

Thursday, July 10, 2008

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...

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

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.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

The Heroes Journey

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


Thursday, July 3, 2008

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

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!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

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.