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Month: April 2010

Free Comic Book Day tomorrow…

(originally posted on Projo Art’s Blog and x-posted/updated w/ links)
May 1 is National Free Comic Book Day.
That means you can get a free comic book at a participating comic book store during regular business hours.
Choices include: Toy Story and Shrek, Iron Man and Superman, and one about Lady Gaga.
Local participating stores are:
Rah-Coco‘s, 152 West Park St., Providence, RI
The Time Capsule: 537 Pontiac Ave., Cranston, RI and 1732 Fall River Ave., Seekonk, MA.
For more, visit freecomicbookday.com.

Draft Zero War: Update…

So with the water gone from the basement and things back to normal time to look at Draft Zero and see what’s savable.
A brief history of Draft Zero for those just joining us. The story takes place in a universe I’ve been toying with for a while and during NaNoWrimo 2009 I think I settled on a good mix of action, adventure, science fiction and young adult themes.
The word counter has been added to the sidebar and will be updated weekly.
The word count so far.

Doctor Who: Time of the Angels Review…

Let’s see.
Weeping Angels: Check.
Dark Catacombs: Check.
River Song: Check.
Written by Steven Moffat: Check.
Two Parter: Check.
Completely washes away last weeks Dalek Episode: Oh hell yes check.
A sequel of sorts to Season 3’s glorious Doctor-lite episode (not to be confused with the hideous Season 2 Doctor-lite episode entitled Love and Monsters) entitled Blink written by now head writer Stephen Moffat. Blink introduced us to the Weeping Angels. Stone statues that move only when you’re not looking and deposit you somewhere in time. With no voice to speak of and no way to stop them except tricking them to look at each other the Weeping Angels became the new Borg.
Now, mix all that in with River Song, another  one of Moffat’s creations introduced in the lovely Season 4 Two Parter: Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead. Originally created as a plot device to make the Doctor trust her, the idea of the Doctor getting married opened up an entirely new set of doors and probably several fanboys word processors. Those doors now include lovely banter about how the Doctor has been flying the Tardis with the breaks on. Sure, it sounds bad when you say, but Alex Kingston says it you will believe it.
More than a few people have commented on the fact the budget appears to have gotten smaller for this season and with last week’s seemingly cost cutting Dalek episode, the locations this week thankfully did not include a rock quarry. Instead you get dark catacooms, yes catacooms, they’re worse that catacombs supposedly when you fill them up with faceless statues, Church Marines with Sacred Names like Bob and the Angels get a voice. One could call this new ability a complete rip off from the last two parter Moffat did but instead the ability endows the Angels with more creepiness. Personally, I prefer an enemy that can speak.
Amy getting in trouble this week is nowhere near as bad as say Martha getting kidnapped in Gridlock. Instead, Amy is on the receiving end more than once of what can happen when things go really bad for companions. I’m not talking Adric bad, just nice to see the writer is willing to hurt the heroes.
The few downsides to this episode really is the fact it’s a two parter and the Marines personalities aren’t anywhere close to the science team found in Library/Forest of the Dead. I prefer smart, sassy canon fodder to two dimension cannon fodder any day.
Overall, great episode cannot wait until next week!

A review of Kick Ass…

The only downside to trying to enjoy Kick Ass is Jason Pearson’s comic book entitled Body Bags treaded across the slightly similar type of bloodfilled mayhem themes fourteen years ago.
Having said that along with not catching most of Marvel’s run of Kick Ass and only having read the script a few months back I have to say: If this possible franchise is handled right by Lionsgate they could have this generation’s Spider-Man on their hands.
Published by Marvel Comics, written by Mark Millar and drawn by John Romitta Jr, Kick Ass tells the tale of a teenager who tries to become a superhero without getting bitten by a radioactive spider, ingesting Gamma Rays, Cosmic Rays, no infected blood from his on the run cousin, no secret government program, nothing passed on from his mutant parents, no Wizard Shazam choosing him , I could go on but you get the point.
The is the second comic book of Mark Millar that’s been made into a movie. The first being Wanted which shed all of it’s superhero/assassin trappings for just straight up assassins and while there were interesting moments, overall the movie couldn’t stand on it’s two feet because it didn’t take itself seriously. No amount of Jolie naked, tattoo, backside could save it.
Being adapted from a comic book is five words that make even the hard core geek shudder in agony. Kick Ass may stray from it’s original source material (and depending on which side of the love/hate scale you fall on for Mark Millar’s writing, some may say straying was for the best), this was actually a great rated R vigilante movie. Daredevil should have been this bloody and foul but alas, no. Superhero and Vigilante get thrown together so much one could mistake Batman for a super-hero. Sure, both types save people, but Superhero lofts the characters up to the “they can do no wrong” pedestal where Superman and Spider-Man reside. Kick Ass and his fellow superheroes are nowhere near those iconic heroes.
Instead, the movie boils down the plot to the simplest of details: Get clothes that could pass as superhero outfit. Find bad guy. Get ass kicked by bad guys, run over by a car and hospitalized. Get back in the saddle. Kick bad guy ass. Try and get the girl. Get beat up by thugs. Almost get your secret identity broadcast across the entire Internet. Kick more bad guy ass. Bandage wounds and live to fight another day. It may be  steeped in the established culture of comic books but it doesn’t treat those non-readers as morons. Hopefully, it will spawn a sequel. With so much being hedged on Box Office Gross these days, the fact How to train your dragon coming in second for the weekend should come as no surprise since it is school vacation week after all.
In closing, it’s worth going to see just to see the butterfly knife wielding, potty mouth spewing, thirteen year old girl killing drug dealers to the Dickie’s cover of “Banana Splits (Tra La La Song)”.