New Iron Man Movie Picture

Thompson On Hollywood: Dark Knight's Nolan and DC Comics Pics

This little tidbit was buried in an otherwise interesting blog post about the Dark Knight movie. I don't think it should come as a huge surprise to anyone. I still haven't seen Superman Returns (and I'm not really sure if I am going to) and a lot of what I heard from people who did see it was underwhelming.

Personally, I think that he should have stayed with the X-Men franchise. It would have spared us that god-awful X3 crap.

Speaking of DC Comics pics, it is highly unlikely that Bryan Singer will return to shoot the next Superman movie. (The director is finishing up Tom Cruise's Nazi film Valkyrie, and prepping The Mayor of Castro Street). The next Superman we will see on the big screen will not be Brandon Routh, but a younger Superman among a cast of youthful superheroes in The Justice League. That movie will likely not be shot, however, until after the WGA strike is resolved. Warners is so happy with Dark Knight that their fondest hope is that Nolan will return to do another Batman.

Erick Wujcik Tribute Site

I wanted to pass along word of this as soon as I read the email that I received. He is a great designer, and from what I have heard, an equally great person.

This website is dedicated to Erick Wujcik, game designer, writer, artist, originator of ideas, thinker and kind soul. Friend to countless people and an inspiration to thousands upon thousands more.

He is one of my dearest friends, so it is with a heavy heart that I report Erick Wujcik, age 56, is dying of cancer.

Until a few weeks ago, Erick was healthy and doing fine. He was enjoying his work at Totally Games, a videogame company, when he thought he had come down with the flu. When he couldn’t shake it, he went to the doctors. The prognosis was unexpected, to say the least. Pancreatic cancer that had spread to his liver. There was no advance warning. It was a shock. Erick presses forward with the willful exuberance he has exhibited all his life.

We thought about letting people know after Christmas, but Erick’s time is, all too quickly, running out.

We thought it would be wonderful to give the millions of people who have loved the man and enjoyed his games, the opportunity to express their appreciation for him and his work. I have no doubt your comments and remembrances will put a smile on Erick’s face and help his spirit soar.

While this is sad news that weighs heavily on our hearts, we’d like this website, and the comments posted on it, to be a celebration of Erick’s wonderful life.

Just as you did when Palladium announced its Crisis of Treachery, let Erick know how much you have enjoyed his games and ideas. How Ninja Turtles (or Amber or whatever) turned you on to gaming or opened up your mind to new possibilities, and similar commentaries, thoughts and regards. I know your kind words and warm remembrances will put a smile on his face and warm his soul.

We’ve chosen to go with a blog style. Post as often as you’d like. Share your recollections about encounters with Erick, the first time you heard him speak or met him at a convention, what he and his work have meant to you, funny convention stories, and whatever else feels right.

Quick Notice and Holiday Wishes

Dorkland will be shutting down for the holidays in a couple of days. Thursday I will be heading off to visit the family and in an uncharacteristically non-geeky manner I won't be taking my computer with me.

So, there might be the occasional post whenever I hope online but nothing too dramatic.

I hope that everyone has a great time with their respective holidays. :)

Smallville's Chloe Sullivan to Join Comic Cast

I liked the character of Chloe in Smallville, well at least while I was still interested in watching the show. Is this a good idea? Who knows. At least it isn't being done as a retcon, with Clark suddenly having a long-lost friend from Smallville showing up and having to be explained.

Of course I haven't regularly followed a Superman title in a number of years (I think my picking up the current LoSH story in Action has to be the first time in at least five years).

Longtime Smallville viewers get a treat on March 12th. That’s when Superman #674 hits the streets, and Chloe Sullivan hits Metropolis. For years, the intrepid young reporter has been a favorite of viewers, and though hints had been dropped about her arrival in the DCU, she never materialized. Now, she’s finally joining up with the Man of Steel’s supporting cast in the comics. From the outset, Superman Editor Matt Idelson points the finger at series writer Kurt Busiek for bringing Chloe on board – 'This was all Kurt’s idea, and it’s something we’d first talked about a couple of years ago.'

Dark Knight Trailer

Snow

And The Snow Starts..., originally uploaded by Cleveland Desolation.

Well, it looks like we might be getting plenty of snow out of this.

Dark Knight Poster

Machine Girl Trailer

NSFW

Hell Comes to Fangoria

Hell came to FANGORIA last Wednesday when a massive fire that swept through a warehouse in Oregon, IL destroyed our supply of back issues used to fulfill mail and on-line orders. Also consumed by the flames were copies of STARLOG, STAR TREK and our dozens of past movie tie-in magazines. As a result, we are unfortunately no longer able to process back-issue orders for any of our past titles—so collectors, hold onto the ones you’ve got!

The NeoPulp Manifesto

I found this through a link at Warren Ellis' new web community, and thought that it might be of potential interest to readers (I'm looking at you Jonny...yeah, right through the internet):

NeoPulp is not a new style of writing. It is a fusion of several well-tenured styles of writing.

NeoPulp draws liberally from the fantastic stories of this and previous centuries, a melange of mythology and popular culture (take a bit of Godzilla, a bit of Paradise Lost, some giant robots, the sexual tension of a romance novel and the Bhagavad-Gita and mix them all together), and adds to this a “literary” understanding of characters’ motivations and emotional needs.

NeoPulp embraces the clichés of pulp writing: the naïve superscience of B-movies, the nefarious underworld criminal mastermind, the lone sheriff against a town of outlaws, the young woman torn between love for a mysterious stranger and respect for her fiancée, and the mad god bent on destruction, and examines them closely in an attempt to find - or try - something novel: a subversion, an inversion, a juxtaposition, a statement about the human condition.

NeoPulp is born of a love and admiration for the flawed nature of pulp culture; it is not an exercise in poking fun at the plot and character shortcomings that are endemic to pulp. Such things are obvious and have been done to death. Rather, NeoPulp attempts to create a real and sympathetic portrait of these bizarre and self-contradictory characters and situations.

NeoPulp fuses the legacy of romantic, realist, post-modern and modernist writing with popular culture entities such as B-movies, comics, television, pop music and airport novels.

NeoPulp places realistically-defined characters into fantastic situations. It avoids the two-dimensional characterisation of pulp fiction while embracing every aspect of its subject material.

I think there's some merit to what he's saying, and some application to his thoughts but I do think that he's taking things a little bit too seriously in the way that post-modernists/pop culturalists tend to do. I think that a big part of what makes "Pulp" pulp is its inability to take things at a surface value, to not accept the seriousness of a situation. Perhaps a fusion of these ideas with Borges ideas on fantasy (if you haven't read his Book of Fantasy I just don't know you).

I guess, at the root, I worry about the whimsy being drained out of things; that sense of wonder that makes pulp what it is. But still, there are some good ideas that can be extracted and put to use.

Gregorian - Heroes

Just wait, it's worth it.

No! by Thomas Hood

No sun--no moon!
No morn--no noon!
No dawn--no dusk--no proper time of day--
No sky--no earthly view--
No distance looking blue--
No road--no street--no 't'other side this way'--
No end to any Row--
No indications where the Crescents go--
No top to any steeple--
No recognitions of familiar people--
No courtesies for showing 'em--
No knowing 'em!
No traveling at all--no locomotion--
No inkling of the way--no notion--
'No go' by land or ocean--
No mail--no post--
No news from any foreign coast--
No Park, no Ring, no afternoon gentility--
No company--no nobility--
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member--
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds--
November!

Here He Comes

Ultimates 3 #1

Well, this will be short, sweet and to the point.

Color me extremely disappointed in this book. For all the flaws that Ultimates 1 and 2 had (and most of those being issues of scheduling), they had an energy and an excitement to them that drew the readers in. Well, they drew me in at least.

This first issue was disjointed, jarring and poorly explained and executed. The story begins in media res which can be hackneyed in the wrong hands, and in this case Jeph Loeb's hands are the wrong ones. Most of the characters are cyphers, with seemingly little progression from the two previous series.

There just isn't a lot there to sell the book past this first issue. The only real comparison that I can make is to the Heroes Reborn run on Avengers (which Loeb was involved with as well). The comparision, however, doesn't help Ultimates 3.

Unless this book picks up, and quickly, I don't see my following it.

First look: 'Speed Racer' wheels into live action

Woot!

When it hit the airwaves in the late 1960s, Speed Racer was pretty innovative television — for a cartoon.

Four decades later, the story of a family that works out its issues on a racetrack seems a little hokey.

So how do you please a YouTube generation that likes its humor ironic and its special effects cutting-edge while pleasing baby boom moviegoers who still remember Trixie's haircut and Chim Chim's jumpsuit?

40 Worse Pieces of Liefeld Art

Like there can only be forty...

A fun Liefeld drinking game: take a shot for every pouch he draws on a character. Oh great, now you have alcohol poisoning.

Mafia's 'Ten Commandments' found

An interesting set of commandments, and this should be of interest to anyone who enjoys crime fiction (either in gaming or literature).

Mafia's 'Ten Commandments' found Salvatore Lo Piccolo at Palermo's central police station, 5 Nov 2007 The commandments were found during the arrest of Mr Lo Piccolo Italian police have found what they say is a 'Ten Commandments'-style code of behaviour for Mafia members, at the hideout of a captured Mafia boss.

Watchman Movie Releases

After a couple months of shooting at various locations and on stages, last week we finally made the transition to our New York City backlot. Since the New York City that is rendered in the graphic novel is so particular, it was very important to me that our backlot speak the same language, the vernacular of WATCHMEN. In addition, the backlot needs to function as many different parts of the city, countless store fronts, street corners, alleys, etc. So, with that in mind, we set out to build own own custom backlot here in Vancouver, BC. In my opinion, the results speak for themselves.

Some pictures:

(Gunga Diner)


(Is that Rorschach?)

Datamancer's Steampunk Victorian Laptop

Too cool.

This may look like a Victorian music box, but inside this intricately hand-crafted wooden case lives a Hewlett-Packard ZT1000 laptop that runs both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux. It features an elaborate display of clockworks under glass, engraved brass accents, claw feet, an antiqued copper keyboard and mouse, leather wrist pads, and customized wireless network card. The machine turns on with an antique clock-winding key by way of a custom-built ratcheting switch made from old clock parts.

Siousxie - Into a Swan

I feel like I'm in high school again. :)

Mayor Resigns, Claims Abduction By Satan Worshippers

Once again real life creates something that we can't top. :)

The mayor of an Arkansas town resigned on Wednesday, claiming he was abducted and brainwashed by Satan worshippers nearly three decades ago.

Centerton Mayor Ken Williams said he has been living under an assumed name for nearly 30 years. He had been mayor since 2001.

Williams told authorities he was born Don LaRose and that in the mid-1970s, he was a preacher in Indiana. He said he was abducted and brainwashed into forgetting all about his life as Don LaRose.

The stunning temples secretly carved out below ground by 'paranormal' eccentric

And once again truth proves to be stranger than fiction.

Nestling in the foothills of the Alps in northern Italy, 30 miles from the ancient city of Turin, lies the valley of Valchiusella. Peppered with medieval villages, the hillside scenery is certainly picturesque.

But it is deep underground, buried into the ancient rock, that the region's greatest wonders are concealed.

The Easter Bunny Hates You

Game Geeks #35 Delta Green: Eyes Only by Pagan Publishing

The third Delta Green book, coming soon. I am so glad that I pre-ordered mine when I still had money.

Can't wait for it to hit the mail.