morose code

Secret Wars Re-Enactment Society.

Steampunk + Transformers = Crazy-Delicious. (Via).

I love Warren Ellis comics. I love zombies. I love Warren Ellis zombie comics?

But what is it about zombies that have recaptured the minds of horror fans the past five years? Ellis had some thoughts on the subject. "Zombies tend to enjoy a resurgence when Western society feels it's up against a faceless, silent threat -- whether it's conservative culture threatened by Communists or radical Islam, or liberal culture terrified by all-enveloping capitalism and the world turning into a mall full of drones.

"But that's not what you want to hear. PEOPLE LIKE IT WHEN ZOMBIES' HEADS EXPLODE."

Waren Ellis is a smart man.

Penny Arcade is coming to a gaming shop near you as the latest collectable card game.

Here's a list of all my comics I own in trade format, just in case you were wondering if I already had a copy of Got No Legs Boy: Kicks And Splosions.

Ram and I headed down to Honest Ed's this afternoon to check out a small comic convention put together by the Beguiling. Glancing over the guest list, I noticed a lot more writers and artists that I wanted to meet than there were was the con earlier this month.

I went down to the Ex this afternoon with Howard and Ram to the Toronto Comicon hosted by Paradise Comics. It wasn't as big as the last con I went to (two years ago, hosted at the Metro Convention Centre) but it was a fun way to kill some time and spend some money on paper and ink.

AskMe on comics with lots of recommendations.

Warren Ellis will be giving a talk next Thursday night at the Beguiling.

I know Ram has sworn a blood oath to go see every comic book movie adaptation that hits the screen, and to a certain extent I understand and agree with him. If we want to see good comic book movies I suppose we need to show the movie industry that such genre films are financially viable... even if that means putting up with a Daredevil or a Judge Dredd so that we can get a Spider-Man or X-Men 2. The Punisher, for example, looked like the kind of movie that I'd end up renting sometime down the line but not actually seeing in the theatre (and it looks like that was a wise decision). I don't think I'll be giving Catwoman even that much benefit of the doubt. See the new trailer and decide for yourselves.

In addition to reviewing great comics and organizing them by identifiable genres like you'd find in any bookstore, periodically Artbomb throws up an original short comic. Previous works range from sentimental ("Biting The Hand That Fed Me") to downright strange ("Superidol"). The latest by Susannah Breslin was written just for Ram.

I don't know why it does but it's seems weird to read that Gabe from Penny Arcade is now an expecting father:

Tycho was actually the first person I told. I dropped the news on him and this is what he says to me, "Big fucking deal, any jackass can do that."

So apparently I'm required to sit around and act interested while he describes the various problems his cat has while shitting in their new robotic litter box. However, when I create a human life I'm supposed to keep it to myself.

On the slim-to-none chance he's reading this, congrats.

I wish I remembered from where I found this site: Stones Throw Records reminds me a lot of Ninja Tune and makes me wish I had a larger disposal income.

Madvillain in particular strikes my fancy. The video for All Caps appeals to the comic book geek hidden inside me:

I showed Wolf and Otis some old tapes of those cartoons and then I called DOOM. He knew exactly what I wanted to do, and was really into it. We agreed to re-invent his character, rather than pirate any already existing characters. We talked about trenchcoats, fedora hats and CIA looking guys. We had a great conversation. Doom is a huge Jack Kirby fan, so I tried my best to reference that era in comics which happens to be my favorite stuff too.

They really nailed the feel of those old Grantray/Lawrence Spider-Man and Hulk cartoons.

Other than Ram (who I know to be a huge FF freak) and myself, I'm not sure how many of you would be interested by this tidbit: Warren Ellis is taking over writing chores of Ultimate Fantastic Four starting with issue 7.

Julie Schwartz died this morning. For those of you who don't recognize the name, here's a good primer. Basically, he used to be Ray Bradbury's first agent, he edited Robert Heinlein, jump started the Silver Age of comics by reintroducing the Flash for DC, and saved Superman and Batman from cancellation. He was 89.

Here's an interesting article about the use of the term "super hero" to sell comic books. Briefs on the Outside is a site that deals with legal issues in the comic book business. There's a lot of interesting cases discussed there.

Speaking of Hellboy, CHUD has an interview with Mike Mignola where he talks a little about the transition from paper to film.

And yes, I am excited about this movie.

I went down to the comic shop to pick up some stuff today. I got the fifth Powers trade and the first Hellboy collection. Powers is about a pair of homicide cops that have to pick up the pieces after fights with tights, with dialogue straight out of a Mamet film. This story was pretty good. Not as good as two of the others (like the previous arc Supergroup, for example), but not the worst of the bunch, either. It was kind of an odd change for the villains not to be costumes themselves. Instead, they're like a bunch of emo kids running around throwing molotov cocktails, quoting high school-level Nietzsche, and blowing up cars.