I stumbled upon this cool new toy line which met it’s Kickstarter goal recently and these action figures look pretty awesome! These monsters are based on urban legends such as The Mothman, The Jersey Devil & Chupacabra.
Each set includes a monster, victim, diorama base and eyewitness account. It’s a pretty neat idea and the they could really go crazy with all of the other creatures out there obviously Bigfoot, Nessie, Montauk Monster, the Wendigo ect ect.
The possibilities are endless! Anyway these cool toys called The Legendary Monsters are available from Nevermore Toys. It looked like they had a Slender Man toy in production as well, but right now that seems like it could be a little to controversial.
Either way check out the Kickstarter page, it has a ton of cool info on it!
It seems that Mark Ruffalo has revealed that a new stand alone Hulk movie may in fact be coming sooner than we’ve all expected. It’s been a fact that Marvel hasn’t been confident that The Hulk has what it takes to be a smash hit on the same levels as Iron Man, Cap or Thor. They’ve already given the green guy two attempts and they’ve left viewers underwhelmed at the results. Personally I can’t say I’m a fan of the first one and the second one was passable, but as the full on Hulk fanatic that I am it didn’t quench my gamma thirst. His third appearance in The Avengers was by far the best, Ruffalo did an excellent job as Banner and finally Hulk looked real enough for me to not talk a bunch of shit here about him.
So what the hell is the problem here? It seems to me The Incredible Hulk should be an easy sell! I’ve been reading the hulk comic books since I was a little kid and it doesn’t seem like rocket science is involved to craft an awesome Hulk storyline! Seriously folks the Hulk and his stories should be simple and fun. There’s really no need to over think things. Perhaps that’s what the problem has been on each outing thus far? I think a great Hulk film should be jam packed with action, some cool villains and a somewhat simplistic plot. There should be equal Banner time/ Hulk time, you can’t really have too much of either or you’ll bore people with too much mindless action or too much screen time for the actor portraying Banner who thinks he deserves more face time.
Another thing that they should stop is trying to string the old 70’s series into the plot. That worked well back in the day because it was an ongoing television series and having Banner on the run was always quite intriguing. Plus Bill Bixby was a pitch perfect Banner and they need to stop trying to recreate his magic. Now if they were going to continue on with the rumored Guillermo Del Toro Hulk tv series that may be a different story altogether. However in a stand alone movie lets bring on a solid adventure for the green guy that’s fresh and not trying to rehash his Ferrigno days.
Another problem I believe with the movies, and I know many will disagree, is that it’s a hard thing for a live action movie to be driven by an entirely computer generated character who merely roars and grunts. Lou Ferrigno’s Hulk worked so well because he was REALLY there on screen acting and interacting with other people in all of his green paint and glory. He was real and you could feel real emotion there. So today trying to get the same results is very difficult with a CG lead character. Even in the Iron Man movies, much of the actual imagery of Iron Man was fully CG, however we always got those close ups of Tony Stark’s face in the armor, reminding us that yes, Iron Man is a real person. No matter how much you love modern CG it’s still poses problems for generating real characters with real emotion.
One solution to some of the Hulk’s big screen problems could be solved with giving the Hulk more intelligence, like he has often times in the comic books. Rather than just having him growl and roar, let Banner gain some control and let The Hulk speak. He can still in the heat of battle lose his cool and go into full on “Hulk Smash” angry toddler tantrum mode. But once a fully raging computer generated Hulk who can’t speak dominates the majority of screen time things the viewer is bound to disconnect a bit . So hopefully the next Hulk will have more going on in the noggin.
Finally pick some good supporting characters from the Hulk’s rich comic history. Let’s see Doc Samson with his green locks, let’s explore She-Hulk and add some Rick Jones into the mix! Most important let’s get some good villains into the mix. The Leader would be amazing and he’d also be a big enough baddie to cross over into an Avengers movie. Or how about The Absorbing Man, The Wrecking Crew, The Gremlin, The U-Foes or better yet Modok!? I’ve been itchin’ to see a big screen Modok for years and this would be the perfect platform to do so! I’m thinking the “Ms. Modok” storyline from the 80’s Incredible Hulk #286-290 would be terrifying on the big screen!
I’m also open to some classic Hulk stories, “Planet Hulk/World War Hulk” has been talked about quite a bit but might require too much set up, “Dogs of War” from 2001 would be a good one, but a good classic storyline could be from The Incredible Hulk mid 1980’s where Banner seemingly controls the Hulk. He even dresses like him for the first time (which was pretty funny) but later loses control and is cast off to a different dimension by Doctor Strange, these issues served as the actual inspiration for the Planet Hulk story many years later.
So my final thoughts are, though it might be difficult to pull of a simple, awesome Hulk adventure on the big screen I’m more than excited for them to give it another go. I felt Ruffalo did such a great job in the Avengers that I think the next Hulk movie is bound to be a hit. People clearly want it and if they don’t over think it, it’ll be the Hulk flick we’ve always dreamed of..
What a perfect day to share this rad music video by The Menzingers for their song “I Don’t Wanna Be An Asshole Anymore” ! This is a pretty great song and the video is probably one of my faves of all time! Totally brilliant and hilarious concept for a music video by Portland Oregon’s own Whitey Mcconaughy! This seriously puts Jason in a new light and if you’re a Friday the 13th fan you gotta check this shit out!!
Yesterday was Wednesday and as usual I bought a few new funny books! Here’s what I though of ’em!
Manifest Destiny #7, Image/Skybound What else can I say here about this comic book? It’s could be my fave title at the moment-the first story arc was a great and it’s now in trade paperback form so I suggest checking it out ASAP! This title gives me similar feelings of when I first got hooked on The Walking Dead! Issue #7 continues the adventures of Lewis & Clark as they continue up river on boat with cast of crew members who’re truly creepy in their own right. We’ve got Lewis trying to keep his monstrous discoveries a secret and a new female crew member who’s discovered his private journal entries. It doesn’t take long though for things to get crazy again as their boat become stuck on on something strange which signifies that these guys are in for more monster mayhem in the woods! The book is fresh as hell and the artwork is awesome-this books popularity is rising quickly and the first six issues are going for a pretty penny already on Ebay-now’s the time to jump on board as you can read seven straight issues without having to wait months between!
Abe Sapien #13, Dark Horse Abe Sapien’s ongoing solo series has been pretty interesting so far. It’s always bizarre and keeps getting darker in tone with every issue. Abe’s recently went through some transformations recently becoming more monster in appearance than man. This issue encourages new readers to jump on board as a good starting point. We see Abe still traveling across an apocalyptic wasteland with an odd woman whom he found chained up inside a weirdly ravaged house. They run into some strangers who’s son has half transformed into frog man monster, seeking the powers of a healer who supposedly lives close by. Abe’s still trying to prove to himself and world that he himself is in no way connected to the most recent events of monster outbreaks that have occurred in major cities. This series continues to intrigue me as does almost everything in the Hellboy universe. I’m still trying to catch up on all the thick rich back stories that all seem to connect in some way. This issue also features some pretty spectacular artwork and an additional Abe Sapien back up story-so you most definitely get your money’s worth! Anyone looking for a good creepy comic book with heavy Lovecraft influence should check this title out!
Walking Dead #128, Image Ok, first let me clarify that I’m really not a huge fan of this book anymore, it used to be my favorite title. I wasn’t a fan of “All Out War” and this continues the story a couple years after those events. The whole gang has been hanging out with Rick in their picture perfect community but of course we still have the annoying Negan involved as he’s being held captive trying to make friends with Carl secretly. We have a new group of people who enter the community and of course no one truly trusts each other. Carl wants to move out of Rick’s place. It’s really more of the same shit we have been reading for the past couple years or so. Man, this book needs a serious kick in the ass. But it just keeps going and it really doesn’t cover too much new ground. There’s not a lot of adventure to be had in The Walking Dead anymore, they kinda just like staying in the same place, no matter what and pretending that they’re rebuilding the world single handedly. However they still have zero clue what is going on in the rest of the world, nor does anyone seem to care. They have no idea what caused the outbreak, and they don’t seem to care. They really haven’t traveled all that far, they just blindly accept that the whole world is fucked and continue with their repetitive daily operation. Maybe Rick just wants be the leader of the world? Maybe he fears finding others and losing his say in how everything always goes down? I think a lot about how this title could be a top notch adventure still and all the different scenarios they could face, yet it just keeps doing more of the same old shit. I’m really at this point keeping up with the story because I’ve made it this far. I really do miss the old days of this book when the group was on the move and constantly entering into the unknown…..
I was just turned on to this neat event called The Great Horror Campout-it’s an interactive live event that you can be a part of! It’s a choose you own adventure evening and for one night you basically live a horror movie story! That is if you’re not too scared! Here’s what it is in their own words:
“The Great Horror Campout is a 12-hour, overnight, interactive Horror camping adventure. Campers can choose their level of engagement by their choice of activities and tent zone. It can be an extreme horror adventure or a more mild horror adventure. It’s completely up to the camper.Regardless of how high the camper chooses to turn up the volume on their experience, all content is strictly for entertainment purposes and at no time will campers ever be in real danger.The Great Horror Campout at it’s core is just FUN! Great Horror Campout is frightening and may include total darkness, water spray and splash, uneven surfaces, steps up and down, strobe lighting, latex, narrow tunnels, crouch spaces which require you to bend down while walking, sudden loud noises, live scareactors, fog and scent effects which are all intended to startle and frighten you.”
It’s brought to you by the team that produce the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride and from what I have read is supposed to have some pretty awesome make up and creature effects. The Great Horror Campout is coming on tour this summer from Texas to Northern California, Seattle to Portland and more cities. Yikes! That means that it’s coming to my city! For a mere $223 bucks you can have the shit scared out of you! Check out the official website at http://www.greathorrorcampout.com
Here we are with some quick comic book reviews from my haul at the shop this week! If I had a million bucks I’d be reading or testing so many more, but these books add up quickly at 4 bones each! So let’s get started here!
1. Big Trouble in Little China #1, Boom! Studios I’ve been looking forward to this one for quite a while as we have John Carpenter & Eric “The Goon” Powell writing it together. This one starts off literally right where the movie ends which is a cool thing for die hard fans! Though I enjoyed the issue it’s tone felt a little off from the movie and maybe a little too cartoony for it’s own good. It felt like it was a full on comedy, which isn’t bad but it left me craving a little more adventure and perhaps slightly slower pace to bring us directly back into this sequel. I kinda imagined I was reading the lost story board for the never made second film. The dialogue was pretty fun, I will say I could totally picture Kurt Russell’s voice the entire time I was reading. I’m not a huge fan of the artwork for this issue, it’s not to say Brian Churilla isn’t a great artist, but one thing I enjoyed about the movie so much was the awesome set pieces and most of the time in this issue the backgrounds are simply blank solid colors, which for me feels a bit lazy for something we have waited this long for. This issue is getting a lot of buzz, as I do recommend it I’m not sure yet if this one will keep me on board for the entire ride. I’ll be back for issue #2 though…
Lobster Johnson “Get The Lobster” #4, Dark Horse What can I really say about Lobster Johnson? If you love movies like Indiana Jones and noir type adventure stories you’ll greatly enjoy this storyline! Issue number 4 is jam packed with more weird ass characters & awesome art by Tonci Zonjic. It even has a cool ass battle that pits the Lobster against a metal armed man & giant Gorilla (who also sports mechanical arms) in a miniature model city. This goes down more like a brawl from a Godzilla movie! Anyway John Arcudi and Mike Mignola keep the bizarre story tightly intact furthering my desire to see Guillermo Del Toro tackle a big screen adaptation of this always excellent title. If you’re not familiar with Lobster Johnson you’re missing out big time!
Amazing X-Men #8 Marvel Wow I decided to add a Marvel comic to my small load this week! I was particularly X-cited to pick this one up and give it a try as it features my favorite Canucks The Alpha Flight! The five issue arc is called “World War Wendigo” and you know I love me some good Wendigo storys. This one is off to a fine start too as Wolverine travels up to Canada to visit his friend Heather Hudson (also known as Vindicator) to help her track down Guardian (her husband) who disappeared after they got into a possibly relationship ending lover’s quarrel. The two of them suit up and go looking for him, but what they find ends up being and extremely dangerous situation for them both, especially Wolverine who no longer has his healing factor. This one looks and reads great so far, and i’m usually not a big Ed Mcguinness fan. The issue actually kind of reads like a horror movie which is perfect for a Wendigo storyline. I’m hoping the next issue features the rest of the Alpha Flight and generates some interest in the team again-they deserve their own monthly series again by a writer who can match the feel of the classic John Byrne run in the 1980’s!
The Woods #2 Boom! Studios Here we are with another from Boom! Studios and it’s a good one. Issue number one was one of my favorite debuts in some time. Issue #2 continues the story of the high school that’s been mysteriously teleported & stranded on what appears to be an alien moon! We get a little more to the story as the teens have decided to take matters into their own hands and while the teachers spend most of their time sitting around a table, frightened discussing what their options are. It sets ups a nice teacher vs. student scenario that will be interesting to see unfold now that the kids feel they don’t need to be listening to the adult anymore now that they’re not on earth! Though this issue is not quite as page turning as the stellar first it’s building the story nicely with even more crisp artwork than the previous. There’s also some nice monster moments that I’m certain will make issue number three one not to miss. This one is becoming a favorite of mine quickly-go check this out!
T’was a good week at the Comic book shop! Let me know if there’s any other titles worthy of the 4 bucks a pop drop!!!
l don’t do a ton of music posts here so when I do you know it’s something special that’s worth checking out! I had to take a minute to mention that a little over a month ago I worked on the latest music video from Bob Mould. I was lucky enough to work on the styling and wardrobe for one of my musical idols, being a fan since his days in Husker Du this obviously meant a great deal to me not to mention this new song “I Don’t Know You Anymore” I consider to be one of the best songs he’s ever written. It calls back to some of his best work from Sugar, his band from the early 90’s.
If you don’t know who Bob is and you love loud punky guitar rock, you may have at least heard him on the last Foo Fighters album where he and Dave Grohl dueted on guitar, vox and songwriting for the albums best track “Dear Rosemary”. Otherwise I highly suggest checking out his his work starting with Husker Du. This latest video was filmed right here in Portland Oregon and directed by Alicia Rose, who we worked with on several other projects together including Corin Tucker’s video for “Neskowin”.
I can tell you the latest Mould video is pretty damn funny too as Bob and his band tries to “get with the times” after releasing a vinyl single for the bands latest track and being schooled by Colin Meloy from The Decemberists. I also got his new album “Beauty and Ruin” which was released on Merge Records yesterday and it’s rock solid with jam packed with amazing guitar driven power pop. This guy just gets better with age- if you have any doubt check out the video already!!!
Toys back in the 1970’s were pretty fantastic, they had a particular look & feel to them that the toys of today just can’t match! I’m sure there are some pretty bad ass toys out these days, but back in the 70’s it was pretty random. A toy was created pretty much for the hell of it often times, as just something cool a kid might dig. Thus bringing us to today’s showcased toy- ‘Gre-Gory the Big Bad Vampire Bat”. He wasn’t part of a popular movie franchise, he wasn’t in a cartoon or a comic book-nope he was just a cool ass vampire bat made for the kids!
The cool thing about this bat that made it a must have for all the cool kids was that you could see it’s inner organs through a see through plastic chest piece, but that ain’t all-it had a button you pressed on it’s back that pumped blood through them!
1979-80 was a cool time to be a toy vampire bat-you could use gregory to terrorize your GI Joe’s or attack Ken & barbie on their honeymoon! Gre-Gory is a classic toy monster that should never be forgotten!!
Check out this rad video! Get the scoop on Gre-Gory!
I was beginning to lose hope this year for the summer blockbusters, after two big duds being The Amazing Spider-man 2 & Godzilla I was quite certain things weren’t going to shape up to much of anything memorable for the rest of the season. However, I was proven quite wrong as I’ve come to believe that X-men Days of Future Past is not only the best X-Flick but quite possibly the best superhero movie of all time. Yeah, it was that good! It finally brings things back full circle with the X-men franchise and is a superior sequel to the fine X-men: First Class. It rights many of the wrongs of “The Last Stand” & “X-men Origins: Wolverine” and brings us back to the fresh start that we all wished for. We’ve got an incredible X-movie headed by but not over powered by Wolverine, played excellently once again by Hugh Jackman.
The movie loosely follows the classic 1981 comic book story line of the same name but adds it’s own flare as it keeps up with the continuity of the movie universe that has been set up. What we ultimately get is a incredibly engaging time travel adventure back to the early 1970’s (which alone in itself is a great deal of fun) filled with wonderful set pieces, groovy clothes and ultra impressive cast. It really shows here how important a cast full of great actors, who clearly care about the characters they’re playing can really make a movie. Plus having director Bryan Singer back, despite all of the controversy surrounding him at the moment, turned out to be a great thing. It makes me even more upset though that he flaked on “The Last Stand”, however if this was his way of redeeming himself to all the X-fans then so be it!
Now I feel I have to say something here about one of my favorite moments in the movie that involve….Quicksilver. Yes, I ripped on his movie look and ridiculous clothing here many times. Somehow though, his all too short role in the movie was one of the best sequences I’ve ever seen in a superhero flick! It’s the same feeling I got during the opening Nightcrawler sequence in X2. Yeah, crazy as it is Quicksilver kinda stole the show! Don’t get me wrong, he still desperately needs a full on makeover! He looked incredibly out of place in his lame ass late 1990’s hot topic attire!
Lastly I wanted to state that the movie looked great, the special effects were wonderful. CG was used tastefully here and the outcome made for an incredibly believable adventure visually. It’s final after credits sequence gives us a good glimpse of what’s next to come in Age of Apocalypse which is planned to be set in the 1980’s. I hope the whole crew will somehow be back for it, and Hugh Jackman better be back for at least one more X-men movie! Go check this out if you want to know what a true summer blockbuster should look like!!
Now seems like the perfect time to read this classic story again!
I however still do NOT condone this Carl’s JR Quicksilver bullshit!
Check out this awesome looking trailer for the upcoming Norwegian adventure flick Ragnarok! This one looks like a ton of fun and has that old Amblin style Goonies type adventure thing going on. I wish there were more movies these days that could pull off this style of film. So far this one seems like it hits on all cylinders and has been described as an adventure that “Indiana Jones in his prime could never quite achieve” by Twitch Film.
There’s no release date yet here in the USA but Magnolia pictures recently acquired the right so we shouldn’t have to wait to long. The plot sound like a great time too: ‘When the archaeologist Sigurd can’t settle on the myth about Ragnarok, the end of the world in Northern mythology, he decides to go on an expedition together with two colleges and his two kids. This adventure leads them to Finnmark in the Northern most part of Norway, and into “No mans land” between Russia and Norway, where no one has been in modern times. Old runes gets new meanings, when they unveil the truth. A truth bigger and more spectacular than you would have dreamed.” Be on the lookout for this one!
Universal Dork 