Things, happenings, events, random comic book and movie related rantings and stuff going on in and around the astonishing infinite multiverse earths of geek-in-chief of the Mayfair Theatre, Zomkeys writer, and occasional director and producer of projects for Batturtle Productions
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Sam Raimi broke news at the San Diego Comic Con that he and his brother are working on an Evil Dead teevee series, which I guess would be produced by his long time collaborator Rob Tapert, to star Bruce Campbell. Besides for the words that I just typed, I have no words to express how excited this premise makes me. If this teevee show becomes a reality, I will never ever ask for anything ever again. No need to buy me birthday or Christmas presents for the rest of my life.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Check out the fancy banner that Mirror Comics whipped up to help spread the word of my visit to the Dartmouth Comic Arts Festival on Sunday August 17. Looking forward to what promises to be a fun day of good ole' fashioned comic book con-ing!
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Monday, July 28, 2014
Sunday, July 27, 2014
A respectful note to the people who are making the dark, dreary, boring to kids, DC Comics character movies over at Warner Bros...THIS mega-poster is a nice example of how to get folks excited to see a new movie. Make something that would make kids want to buy an action figure or carry a lunch box with the characters on it. You know how many lil' Man of Steel costumes sold at Halloween? None! I haven't actually researched this, but I am confident in my stance that kids were completely uninterested. On the other hand, Avengers costumes, shoes, backpacks, toys, are everywhere. Have some fun DC! Stop being so sad! 'Cause I love DC Comics, but my heart and anticipation is 100% in the Marvel camp. Look at all those super hero's fighting evil robots!
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Friday, July 25, 2014
My biggest problem with the geek community, is the negativity from a certain breed of geek towards all things geek. The most vocal deterrent towards this sub-genre of entertainment seems to be the people who should love it the most. This is mostly thanks to the internet of course, where the angriest voice of one troll can stomp out the joy of millions. I guarantee you that Trekkies upset with JJ Abrams Star Trek films, or Jedi wannabe's who don't like the Star Wars prequels, are first in line to buy a movie ticket or piece of merchandise for the thing that they spend so much of their free time shooting hate towards.
I've never understood why if you don't like something, why don't you just not watch it, or read it, or listen to it? I'm fairly confident that no one ever held a gun to someone's head to force them to watch the latest episode of Arrow or Supernatural or Simpsons or whatever. We live in an age of near infinite amounts of entertainment available to us at any given time. Gone is the age of a handful of teevee channel options, or video stores being closed, or not having the ability to get a hold of a book any time you want. If you don't like the creative team on Spider-man...don't read Spider-man! You're welcome. Problem solved.
San Diego Comic Con is upon us for another year. The one time comic convention, now venue for unveiling the latest giant movie franchise publicity, will unleash numerous exciting bits of geek news over the next few days. One such newsworthy to comic book aficionado's is a Ben Affleck / Batman poster teaser for the 2016 Superman / Batman movie mash-up. Poor ole'Affleck got a nice wave of internet troll negativity once his casting had been announced. Despite the fact that his performance wouldn't even be seen for years, the decision had been made that he was unworthy.
I didn't like Man of Steel, and was in the great minority of not really caring for the Dark Knight trilogy either. So, the thought of another super hero movie from these filmmakers doesn't really excite me that much. I will refrain from critiquing the movie until I actually...y'know...see it. He looks pretty good in the Bat-mask though.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
I don't listen to much in the way of music nowadays. I don't dislike the art-form, but I just spend all my time that was once spent listening to music instead listening to podcasts and audio-books. I know it sounds offensive to music makers and fans, but I seem to find it a waste of my time listening to music while walking my dog when I could instead be multi-tasking a book into my head.
I get most of my music intake thanks to music themed documentaries that we screen at the Mayfair (that's where I was reminded of bands like The Stone Roses, introduced to LCD Soundsystem, and had my worship of The White Stripes continue, thanks to their respective movies). I also watch a lot of late night talk shows, and specifically David Letterman, who thanks to Paul Shaffer has always been a step above the other shows in terms of music.
Last night the musical guest on The Late Show was Brody Dalle, who's on the road to publicize her first solo album, Diploid Love. I know love is a strong word to put towards a person that one has never met, but I love Brody Dalle. I loved The Distillers, I loved Spinerette, and I love this new song. It might be just an impressive enough burst of rock n roll excellence for me to want to take a break from podcasts and give music another chance.
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Happy birthday Batman! Be sure to join us tonight at the Mayfair for extra special screenings of Batman '66 and Batman '89. Or find Batman related festivities in your town, happening at your favourite comic book store.
For more comic book fun later in the week, join Mirror Comics and a gang of Ottawa based writers and artists at the Comic Book Shoppe for a special one day mini comic con event on Saturday July 26. It will be just like San Diego, but with 130,000 fewer people in crazy costumes stepping on your toes.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Tomorrow marks the official day celebrating the 75th birthday of Batman, the greatest comic book character of all time. Whether it be in comic books, teevee, movies, video games,or merchandise, no other character comes near to Batman. There have already been a number of special bits of animation and comic books and Bat related events throughout the year, but tomorrow marks the day when you can visit your favourite comic store and get a free Batman comic in honour of the Dark Knight's special day (amongst other fun events).
At the Mayfair Theatre, we're celebrating with a special double-feature screening of Batman 66 and Batman 89. We'll even have a batch of cosplay hosts and some great prizes to give away thanks to our friends at the Comic Book Shoppe.
Batman's 75th counts as an official holiday, so feel free to skip work or school in order to celebrate the world's favourite super hero in all of his glory.
Monday, July 21, 2014
Mike Mignola should draw all the movie posters. Even when they aren't movie posters. Let's just have him draw all the book covers, movie posters, print ad's, comic books, and all the things. The Toy Story-verse has never lead me wrong so far, whether it be feature film, short, or teevee special. More Toy Story is never a bad thing.
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Check it out! My name is up on the guest list roster for the Dartmouth Comic Arts Festival in Nova Scotia on Sunday August 17th, organized by the awesome folks at Strange Adventures. I'll be there along with much more talented folks like Nick Bradshaw, Faith Erin Hicks, Geof Isherwood and a whole bunch more. If you are in the neighbourhood, do drop by and say hi. I've heard nothing but excellent praise about this young convention, looking very forward to being a part of it.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Stan Sakai is one of the most respected comic book creators, and his creation Usagi Yojimbo one of the most beloved characters, in the history of the medium. In his and the characters honour,his long time publisher Dark Horse comics is releasing The Stan Sakai Project: Artists Celebrate Thirty Years of Usagi Yojimbo. The book will feature work from legends the like of Art Adams, Sergio Aragones, Richard Corben, Adam Hughes, Mike Mignola, and dozens more. On top of that, I'm excited that it also features work from guys I know like Nick Bradshaw, Tom Fowler and Dominic Bercier! All proceeds go to Stan and his wife Sharon, who is in need of ongoing medical assistance. The book is well worth picking up to celebrate Stan, and it is always worthwhile to chip in to help a person in need. This beautiful, Samurai Rabbit filled book is released on Wednesday July 23rd. Pick it up.
Friday, July 18, 2014
There's this great lil' community event every summer in Ottawa called the Centretown Movies Outdoor Film Festival that makes even I venture away from the glories of the Mayfair (though I went to the Mayfair earlier in the day to see The Immigrant, and am watching the other stuff we screened tonight later in the week). My girlfriend and our dog had a lovely evening under the stars in a park in central Ottawa and watched The Lego Movie. In a world of kids entertainment the like of Cars 2, Rio 2, Smurfs 2, and others of the like, The Lego Movie smashes all preconceived notions that it would just be a blatant commercial. Instead, thanks to a great creative team behind it, it inexplicably is instead maybe the most important life lesson of a movie that a kid could ever see. It sounds sappy, but the greatest compliment I can throw in The Lego Movie is that the world is a better place for its existence. Plus, it stars one of my most favourite Batman incarnations of all time. When The Lego Movie doesn't win the Best Picture award from the Oscars in 2015, it will be hard proof that awards for movies don't mean anything.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
We are knee deep in the midst of a bunch of new music videos thanks to the release of a new album from the genius that is Weird Al Yankovic. One of the songs off of his album Mandatory Fun is titled Word Crimes, and it is not only super funny, but also high-brow levels of geeky intelligent. And in a round-about way it has brought some good to the world thanks to the sleazy offensiveness that is a Robin Thicke song.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
A fun lil ad for the upcoming Batgirl creative tam take-over that happens in issue #35 that popped up on the (un)officialBatgirl tumbler. I hope the book lives up to the cool art that has popped up and the buzz that it has crated so far. I'm predicting lots of Batgirl cosplay-ing at upcoming con's.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Dear Facebook Trending,
F you, and the rest of the pop-culture and mainstream media, for feeling ok with spoiler-ing plot points and twists and endings right in the headlines of your articles. Case in point, as my eyes drifted over to the 'trending' portion of the Facebook page, the ending to Life with Archie #36 was ruined for me. I try my best to avoid such things, but there it was on my Facebook page. I wasn't even looking at a comic geek website or anything!
I don't understand the mindset in doing this in articles. Actually, that's not true. I kind of do get it. As guilty as the media is, the publishers shoulder a lot of the guilt too. They give out the press releases with said spoilers in them,in hopes to garner attention to their books and sell some more issues to non-geek normal folks. I think that there's still the mindset that buying a comic book and keeping it in mylar for 20 years will mean that you can sell it and put your future kids through college. This is of course not true. The issues that non-comic reader types thing will be worth a truck-load of monies are ones where someone dies. So, due to this I already know that Archie dies in Life with Archie #36, and now I know how he dies.
It's all very frustrating. Imagine if the trailers for Empire Strikes Back revealed that Darth Vader was Luke's dad. Imagine if articles about Usual Suspects before its release gave away the movies ending. At the original run of Romeo & Juliet did the patrons in attendance all get told that the two lads die in the end? I don't think so.
Pleas stop being jerks about this. I like being surprised.
Monday, July 14, 2014
The latest in a long line of Silver Surfer incarnations / reboots / new takes is up to the third issue, and it is great. It comes from the creative team of writer Dan Slott (who continues to do a fine job on Spidey) and art and colours from the always impressive creative couple Mike and Laura Allred.
Most importantly, Silver Surfer is a self contained series, which I lean towards more and more now-a-days. I hate giant multi-teared story-arc's where you are encouraged to buy dozens of accompanying issues to the main story. And without fail, the whole story arc now-a-days ends up being a cash-grab vs storytelling and most the issues with a cross-over's logo stamped on it don't really need to be read. Marvel is especially guilty of these forms of comic book publishing.
Luckily, at the same time Marvel manage to sneak out a few books like Hawkeye or She-Hulk, or Silver Surfer. Silver Surfer is lots of fun, filled with comic book worthy big-time outer space imagination, and looks very pretty with it's indie cred /mainstream mash-up Allred style. I always thought that Silver Surfer was the perfect weird goofiness / epic adventure that comic book medium excels at (a Silver guy on a surf board flying around outer space!?). So far, this young series is worthy to the classic Stan Lee / Jack Kirby legacy.
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Batgirl is getting a costume change and tone-shift from writers Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher and artist Babs Tarr. I like it! I especially love the artwork of Babs Tarr, and it's meta-neat having an artist named Babs drawing the adventures of Babs / Batgirl. The jumping on point for the new creative team hits with issue #35 in October.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
The good news is that They Came Together is hilariously brilliant. The bad news is that you might never be able to watch a nice harmless lil' New York City romantic comedy ever again. Seeing it is worth the sacrifice though, the trade off of how funny it is is worth the sacrifice.
They Came Together screens a bunch more times between today and Thursday July 17th at the Mayfair Theatre.
Friday, July 11, 2014
DC Comics leaked a batch of variant covers that'll be on their October issues in honour of Halloween. The cover to Batman & Robin # 35 by Chris Burnham is especially intriguing, it shows a mummified Batman & Robin. The wrapped up Robin has a mask the style of and is the size of Bruce Wayne's son Damian, who came to an untimely end over a year ago in the pages of Batman Inc. It might just be an unrelated drawing, not attached to the actual Batman plot within. I have my fingers crossed that this is a hint that Damian's resurrection is imminent.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
On April 3rd of last year, I turned on my computer, and soon after it informed me that Roger Ebert had died. It was a sad day, and hit home even a bit more for myself, as I was only a chapter or so away from finishing his book Life Itself. It has become one of my favourite books, and I have a good feeling that the documentary inspired from it will find equal favour from me. For someone I never met, I think of Roger often, especially when I see a movie that I really hate or really love. My go to thought is to wonder what Roger would've thought of the picture. I get a bit sad and contemplative that I'll never get to know what Roger thought of Under the Skin or The Lego Movie or Bad Words. I will get to see Roger Ebert up on the big screen soon though, as we begin our Ottawa Premiere run of Life Itself starting on Friday July 11 at the Mayfair Theatre. I hope you don't mind seeing a grown man cry, because I predict tears.
Wednesday, July 09, 2014
I once had a lovely cat by the name of Ripley. I love the Alien movie franchise. I love them so much in fact, that I am even a fan of Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. Many sci-fi fans seem to think that it's ok to argue about whether Alien or Aliens is the best film of the series, but no one is allowed to enjoy the latter two of the quadrilogy.
News broke that members of the original Alien film, Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright and Ian Holm, will reunite for the video game Alien: Isolation. I used to play video games a lot, now-a-days I play video games very little, but news like this none-the-less quite exciting. Even with the hindering of not quite perfect, kinda creepy, just about perfect looking human animation, I still find pop culture geek news like this very cool. Not quite as good as Sigourney Weaver returning for another movie, but hearing her recite some new Ripley dialog is still more proof that nothing is impossible in this geek ruling of the entertainment world that we all live in.
Tuesday, July 08, 2014
On a day off in-between a marathon through the trenches of a music festival gig, I had my first day off in an age yesterday. So, of course,I spent that day off first catching up on some Mayfair Theatre related work. Then, I went to see a movie at the Mayfair.
Tracks is an inspiring human spirit drama based on the true story of a young women and her adventure trek through the wilds of Australia with only her dog and camels in tow. Like all brave adventures, it was a dangerous and rather insane undertaking that very likely could have killed her. The movie is a fascinating look at what on can accomplish, and it you don't get choked up at least a half dozen times, you are very likely dead inside.
Tracks screens at the Mayfair tonight (Tuesday July 8) at 6:30pm, then the next two days (Wednesday July 9 and Thursday July 10) at 4:30pm.
Monday, July 07, 2014
Any friend of Kermit the Frog is a friend of mine. Last night I got to point lights towards Lady Gaga during her immensely entertaining live show. Which I think puts me two degrees of separation away from my Muppet frog hero according to Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon rules. If you don't like Lady Gaga's music, that is your own opinion and that is fine. If you think that she is untalented, you are greatly mistaken. I think once all is said and done, her career is going to stand shoulder to shoulder with David Bowie and Elton John and other pop icons who came before her. And, as previously stated...she's friends with Kermit.
Sunday, July 06, 2014
Abe Sapien is character that I have been a fan of for over two decades now. Geek times certainly does fly by. In my never ending quest to catch up on comic book reading, I read the most recent issue of his solo series last night. The Hellboy-verse finds itself in an apocalyptic state filled with giant monsters and various states of evidence that the end is nigh.
Although set within a deep continuity of X-Files like fantastical horror, these comics are pretty easy to jump into without confusion. This issue is in fact what Dark Horse Comics is branding as a 'Starting Point For New Readers'. So, worry not if this being the 13th issue makes you think that you'll be 12 chapters behind the story. Fairly simply...Abe is a former human, current gill-man (kinda like the Creature from the Black Lagoon), the world is in turmoil, and Abe is wandering around doing good. The series is written by Hellboy-verse creator Mike Mignola and editor Scott Allie, and features beautiful art from Sebastian Fiumara, and colour from Dave Stewart. You can currently pick up a paper copy from the brick and mortar shops, or had over to Dark Horse Digital to download a futuristic virtual digital edition of the issue.
Saturday, July 05, 2014
I work on the lighting crew for Blues Fest every summer in Ottawa. Not to be confused with an actual Blues Fest, but in reality a giant,near two week long music festival featuring all manner of music. Last night I pointed a follow-spot light towards 1980's icons Journey. Their only music that I recognized were the songs that were in classic 1980's movies such as Caddyshack, Heavy Metal, Tron, and Risky Business. Not the worst legacy for a band to have.
Friday, July 04, 2014
Happy 4th of July you patriotic flag waving folks to the South. You're the bestest crazy basement neighbours a country could ask for. Even though your country doesn't actually have a name, and a large percentage of your residents think that we all live in igloos and ride polar bears to work, we're glad to be pals. Any country that invented Hostess Fruit Pies and Slurpee's, had citizens the like of Jack Kirby, Jim Henson and Joey Ramone, and includes cities like New York and Boston, deserves to be celebrated despite its flaws. Hope y'all enjoy the fireworks and bbq!
Thursday, July 03, 2014
I am terribly behind on my comic book reading responsibilities, I'm trying to catch up and at least read an issue before bed every night. Finally pulled Saga #19 from the pile. I feel as if I'm being repetitive for sure, but if you aren't reading Saga you are missing out. If you can for some read on only read one comic book a month, this is the one that you should be focusing your eyes towards. I'm fairly confident that in a world filled with a whole bunch of great comics being published, Saga is the best of the bunch. You can pick up Saga #19 right now from your favourite comic store, or download a digital copy from the Image Comics website.
Wednesday, July 02, 2014
Amongst other Canada Day festivities, we dropped by the Nature Museum to look at some dinosaurs. I never get tired of looking at dinosaurs. If I had three magic genie wishes, without question, one wish would be spent time travelling back to checkout some dinosaurs. And on top of that I'd probably wish for dinosaurs to be back on present day earth as well. I have clearly learned absolutely nothing from the warnings of Jurassic Park.
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