Watchmen the Graphic Novel

For those who have not noticed by now I am a comic book fan. I may not bore you with pictures of my not so grand anymore comic collection(one of the saddest things of my youth was that we moved so much that I always had to leave something behind, many times my comics were among them) or start posts talking about which character is so awesome and why this character is so lame(though there may have and may be in the future posts on lame villains, every hero has them). But I do like a good story and I am one of those types who if the movie peaks my interest I will go search out more on the characters to see what I missed out on, I have done that with Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Jason Bourne and now with Watchmen.

Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons is kind of interesting in one sense because the tone of the movie even with the updates in constumes, some of the rhetoric and the locales came threw as this sort of cynical world where heroes had enjoyed a good run and then tapered off into the distance. Things weren't all bright and cheery as they were in other comics they were sort of sad and disinterested, similar to our world but without some of the joy we take for granted. I wondered when I watched the movie in as much detail as the director and screen adapters had included what did they cut out. I mean I caught some nuances that normally would be left out just to slip in an extra special effect or else add more weight to the directors vision(*cough* Harry potter 4, 5, & 6 *cough*) and while I had watched the "extras" and heard all of the commentary about what they wanted to keep in and how they were trying to stay true to the comic, not to be rote but "I'd heard it all before". Usually that's what a director and crew say just so you rush to the theater and spend your hard earned money while they have treated your childhood memories as so many fire hydrants pestered during Fido's afternoon walk.

Sequels vs Remakes/Reboots: Spider-man Pt. 3

Live Action


For any comic book fan live action has always been either feast or famine. Of all the characters who have gotten a Live Action version the most popular seems to be Superman, the Man of Steel has had 8 live action incarnations. From Movies to Broadway Plays and TV shows, Superman is to date the most successful Comic Book Character to be translated into Live action. Now to be fair I am not just talking about money made off of said property I also mean the dutiful translation of the character and his villains, If I was just talking about money Superman would still be up there but especially including recent box office success the list would probably be:Batman, Spider-man, Iron Man, Superman and The Incredible Hulk(mainly because of his long running TV series and made for TV movies). The problem with most live action attempts is that the medium of Comic book and cartoon allows you to create a world where physics don't matter, you can create whatever look you want and since it isn't "real" you tend to get a break on the look of things. With live action if it doesn't look right people will be disappointed.

The 1970's

Peter Parker got a live action TV show in 1978 called the Amazing Spider-man starring Nicholas Hammond

Okay, as a 4 year old at the time this show came out I would like to say as BAD as it looks now hey everybody looked like that back then. Those extra shiny costumes, the cheesy special effects, the bad wire work there was no cgi back then it was all rotoscoping, stop motion camera work, and picture flipping. As a little kid just happy to see Spider-man on my TV screen I ignored the fact that the webbing came out as a Nylon string or else a premade net, I also ignored that I guess Mr. Hammond had never done any rock climbing because it always looking like he had just bent over and dog walked up the sides of buildings. Nick Hammond had the look of peter parker though, yeah yeah those weird eye screens were always kind of silly but I guess back then it was the only way they were able to let him see. It ran for about 2 years and while today's standards relegate it to the campy-ness of the original Batman live action TV show or maybe a step below the Incredible Hulk TV show for believability. The Transformation from Bill Bixby to Lou Ferrigno worked because of the difference in stature of the two men even if since then live action hulks tend to be CGI and stay away from purple pants hood.

Sequels vs Remakes/Reboots: Spider-man Pt. 2

The Cartoons

You don't hang around for 40 plus years, sell tons of merch, become a favorite of people around the world and don't sooner or later get placed onto the small screen. Spider-mans quirky mannerism, flippant conversations and determination has made him a beloved cartoon character for generations. For most my age the iconic images of Spider-man come to us from the 1960's cartoon Spider-man named after the comic book. The colors were a little washed out but the action was evenly paced and the stories were ripped right from the comics.

One of the most memorable things from this show was the theme song, every spider-man theme song since then as well as the in show music always tries to match the resonance of it. For the most part spider-man didn't really change in look for the better part of 30 years. Even in the 1980's Spider-man and his Amazing friends Peter Parker looked the same, the funny part about the show is that Iceman was and X-man and while for the show Fire Star was also an X-man in the comics she was a Hellion, a ward of the Hell Fire Club and one the X-men's biggest rival. It was also an interesting mix because Spider-man and Ice man are both seen as "class clowns" so the two were always playing off each other. There was also a running joke because Ice man and Fire Star can pretty much to quick changes anywhere where as spidey has to find a place to strip.

Sequels vs Remakes/Reboots: Spider-man Pt. 1

As I am sure many have heard by now next year a new Spiderman movie will be released that is going to restart the entire Spidey Universe for Sony. The movie is titled "The Amazing Spiderman" after the long running comic of the same name. Now while there has been some complaining about the new movie I want to look back at how we got to this point, because especially for us Marvel Fans spidey was a culmination of years of wants, dreams and disappointments.

The Comics


Through the years if you were a spidey fan you have probably heard of the following titles: the Amazing Spider-man, the Spectacular Spider-man, Web of Spider-man, Ultimate Spider-man Peter Parker has been swinging through the streets of New York in his red and blue PJ's for the better part of 50 years. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko brought us these wonderful tales of the Queens New Yorker with the extreme case of the guilties starting in 1963. Peter Parker is a straight "A" student, slight in build, high in intelligence, awkward, and seemingly out of place. Peter stays with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May Parker, because something happened to his parents when he was a young child. One fateful night  Peter takes a trip to Empire University to see a demonstration of nuclear energy.

And the winner of the awesomest older brother of the year

Once upon a time in the city of Memphis

 They may have been 2 days late, it may not be all of them, but my baby brother got the ALMOST complete set of Scott Pilgrim books, Ironically enough Scott Pilgrim vs. the world(the book for which the movie was made) ISsssssssssss......... out of print *face palm*, yes we would have been pressing the awesome button full speed ahead except book 2 is no longer being printed, which means I'm going to have to E-bay it probably to get him the complete set. As with many other comic/anime/graphic novel to movie transitions while we had heard of scott pilgrim vs. we hadn't really read them because well basically I'm a marvel whore and unless it was a passing "oooh I gots ta have it" fancy my money went to marvel comics. And for those who don't know my most recent marvel "obsession"(is obsession even a strong enough word) is the ultimate series TPB or trade paperbacks. I'm old, I'm cranky and I want the whole storyline in one book, thus I go back and by the trades volume by volume and let my eyes feast.  Now by ultimate I don't just mean THE Ultimates, I mean ultimate X-men, Ultimate spidey, Ultimate FF, and the ultimates.

 Scott Pilgrim though was printed by Oni Press created by  Bryan lee O'Malley from Toronto. On my various movie sites that I like to frequent(and I have mentioned them plenty of times before and will mention them in the labels) Scott Pilgrim was getting a lot of buzz, so me and baby bro(he doesn't frequent said sites but he did like Lead actor Micheal Cera because of "Superbad") went to check it out in the movies. Just prior to the movies release PSN(playstation network) put out an 8 bit inspired game about Mr. Pilgrim and it was a blast so okay we are gonna go check out this goofy movie that we didn't know much about.

And we LOVED IT, the whole movie:the gay room mate, the 7 evil EX's, the fact that Michael Cera was perfect for the part because he makes a great goofy loser, which made him perfect for Scott's goofy every day demeanor and the SHOCK of him kicking MAJOR LEAGUE BOOTAY so much more fun. July and her auto censor, the way music played an integral part and wasn't just like a thrown in for extra teen ANGSTINESS(eh don't start my blog another word I made up DO NOT CARE). So yeah for a character we knew pretty much nothing about except for a trailer here and there and an 8 bit game our socks were knocked off, to say Scotty P was a wise investment is an understatement. So after waiting for it to come out on DVD we do(okay blu  ray, I like to keep my movies especially the new good ones where I can find them 1 blu ray player in the house NO WHERE ELSE TO WATCH THEM) and while some folks don't like the fact that I watch the extras from time to time, Ero Kitsune(yeah yeah I have an american nom de plume him japanese, I swear not my fault he chose it on his own) will watch them with me. Can I tell you the extras just made this movie funnier, I didn't even get to the "auditions yet, or half the behind the scenes stuff" oh no the blooper reel and the deleted scenes are just classic. I want to say this, whoever directed scott pilgrim the movie is EVIL, just see how many takes the "delivery" scene took.

And as with most movies we like we want to know the back story, thing is I'm a on a Deadpool kick now so meh wasn't really interested in reaching out to a new series, baby bro though really wanted to read all the books. And what do you know his birthday was coming up and HayLeeeeeeew(going for a Mrs. Doubtfire effect work with me here) where have a rather nice Comic Shoppe in the area so I stroll up, ask the friendly proprietor at the Comic Cellar (I want to say I knew NOTHING about the website, this is a first time, but not a last because I do go there for comics all the time, and now I have to go edit the last blog to add the link in there) about the scott pilgrim books, he tells me he can order them(he doesn't keep them in stock) and as he looks it up mentions that he believe one was out of print. I figured it was probably the first one, had been a while and oldest one usually falls off. But no it was the actual book NAMED Scott Pilgrim vs. the world. Oh well he said it would take about a week or two to get them in (which was perfect because his birthday was in a little OVER 2 weeks at the time) dropped a small down payment(I usually like to pay the books off up front so I can just go pick them up, but hey even I hadn't planned previous to the brain blast of buying 5 books) and left the shop, now I told baby bro on the day I reserved them about the missing book. He was like I was "making him mad because now he wanted them" but I know him, the face drop would have been terrible when he noticed the world wasn't in there. So 2 weeks before you get them to get over the disappointment of not having the whole set was a very good idea.

(I may re edit this later and crop out some of the extra gobbledygook from each of the individual pictures) so here we go five books for my baby brother for his 22nd birthday. I rock, I'm awesome, he's been enjoying them ever since. Yes this still leaves my title of "Evil older Brother" intact it just also shows that the "Older Brother" part of my title is just as important to me as the evil. Total bill was about 60 bucks, and it was 60 bucks well spent. Sharing hobbies with a sibling or even having a similar if not the same hobby(I'm a big comics fan, he's a huge manga fan, I watch the sub titled anime's but I haven't really gotten into the reading the books stage of my anime viewership yet.I'm currently on Book 3 picture to the upper right hand side of this paragraph. It covers the whole Scott, Romana and Envy(or probably N.V. her name is actually Natalie V. Adams, I could look to see what the V stood for but it's just the first to letters that matter on this one) saga as well as scotts fight with todd Evil Ex number 3. Yeah yeah the whole He's a vegan and thus Awesome thing is in this book but it's more than just the bass battle, and him tricking him so that he would be De-Veganized.

 I like the extra details and the kind of silly stuff that Mr. O'Malley added to the world of scott pilgrim in the graphic novels. It makes scott even more lovelable, moochish(you can be a moocher but not moochish fine new word, I'm claiming it again) and shows how far Sex bob-omb came as a group. Now a little spoiler the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the world combines all the books into the Second GN's title so each book will be following the escapades to beat each evil Ex until the final Show down with Gideon Graves. Now it's good that they gave us the whole story and so well put together but it's also bad, because that means (for the moment and if they are strictly going by the comics) no sequel and I wouldn't mind seeing scott pilgrim again. the little short scott vs the animation was cool that they showed on CN was fun and a nice piece of backstory. It's most likely from book 4 the whole scott and kim backstory but I wouldn't mind another movie to see what happens to every body.

The fact that (at least up to this point) Roxie Richter wasn't actually in the comics but was created for the game and the movie is awesome. It's another pick on scott moment(hey it works with spidey and look how much dough marvel makes off the Wall crawler, by the way if you don't know how to look up MARVEL COMICS, or who MARVEL COMICS is, nor spiderman you need help, I may link to marvel on a later name drop, just night right now technically this is an Oni Press party so I am trying to give them their well deserved props) . While all in black and white (similar to Sin City) the inking and shading tell the story perfectly without all the extra colors.

I have said it before and will say it again, a good story will ALWAYS trump the flash most people throw at you. I mean some people get a hold of potentially profitable franchises or good characters and make a heart wrenching mess. I am so glad that Universal didn't and that they introduced me fully into the world of Scott Pilgrim, and I thank Bryan Lee O'Malley for creating such an Awkward and loveable character.

The present has been given(gave it to him monday), he has been reading them almost non stop and for good measure we have both rewatched the DVD a few times, some catchy tunes and great action in this movie. This is hollywood the way I like it, not worried about what you can believe and more worried about making sure they Immerse you in the world THEY are creating. The real world is what you go to the theater to escape, not to figure out "hmmm is it going to be believable" make a good story and nobody is worried about believable they are just worried about wow.

*while the pictures taken in this blog were taken by me the characters, artwork, and copyrights belong to Oni Press, Bryan Lee O'malley, and who ever else collaborated on these wonderful graphic novels. I am in no way trying to claim ownership and if asked I will gladly take the pictures down*

Deadpool Wins! Friendship. 0_o Friendship?!

My local Comic Shoppe

Welp the order I placed monday has arrived. Two copies of the latest deadpool storyline the prelude and the actual first ark. The covers look amazing I may have to sock away 40 bucks and buy two that I'm NOT gonna open. Cause these two beauties(photos to be provided later) are soon to be defiled by these two hands right chere.

After checking my first moblog from e-mail source me likey. I'll still leave them in draft mode while that requires me to come back later and post them to my blog it also allows me to make adjustments, do final spell check and add the photos that I referenced above. So why deadpool? Because the "merc with the mouth" has only been around a good 15-20 years(I'm pissed I used to own the first appearance of Deadpool he had potential but never did I realize he would grow up so grand ; ; oooh how much that first would be worth now and when the movie comes out) {hmm that little aside will have to be shortened} But he is trying to match spidey pun to pun in half the time. And ladies and gentleman Wally Webs(sorry he called spidey that in shattered dimensions and it was epic) has 50 years worth of quippage under his belt and still counting. Deadpool boasts that he is the best there is at everything wolverine does(and truth be told he damn near is, hell has even disembowled the old Canuckle head a time or 20), has two razorsharp katana's, grenades, twin pistols, twin smg's, an M-16 with a laser scope(see itsjustsomerandomguy for any and all deadpool theme songs, hell I may adjust the url later to the song about said M-16).

Now you may be asking me exactly who is involved in these Deadpool corps, why I'm glad you asked that(not that I was actually listening to you but come on how often do I get a chance to use that set up, yeah yeah my blog like everyday SHUT IT) Well you have the original Merc with the mouth Deadpool, then you have Lady Deadpool( Boobs see prelude), Kid Deadpool(Tito), Dogpool(Cujo), and Headpool(Shorty no pockets) so far I have read the prelude and it's awesome.

Quick aside the reason why I love going to your local comic shop versus say wally world or even a big box book store to get your comic books is because in a big box store, the comics are there because they make money, but nobody knows diddly about them, at your local comic, cards and collectibles shop(most shops will call themselves that because you can usually find turn based card games as well as Merch there from various pop sources) usually the proprietor is himself a comic fan one of the more famous ones being some fat dude from New jersey(yeah yeah I've seen my gut actually I think Kev is awesome love most of his work) you can get your comics, some quick convo have them ordered and if you're REALLY NICE you might even score some acid free bags to store your comics in(if not just buy them or buy an extra set of your comic order and ask that they be placed in the bags probably be a buck or two more, but WORTH IT)

So my first official Deadpool comics, they appear awesome if you wonder why I am doing Mortal Kombat references for him look at this awesomeitsjustsomerandomguy video Aaaaaanyway enjoy my fellow true believers let me post this bad boy and get it over with

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