Once Upon a Geek

If you’re like me, you’re getting anxious for the new Indiana Jones movie - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  However, I thought it worth pointing out another cool Indiana Jones item on the horizon.  On June 11th, Dark Horse Comics will be publishing Indiana Jones Adventures Vol. 1.  This is a pocket-sized 80-page comic that is kid-friendly and should be fun for adults and children.  The cost is only $6.95, which is a bargain for an 80-page comic!

Dark Horse describes it as “a story for anyone looking for stunning visuals, thrill-a-minute storytelling, and one unmistakable archaeologist!”  Dark Horse is following the same model they used for their Star Wars Clone Wars Adventure series (based upon the popular cartoon mini-series).  That model being cartoon-style art, digest format publication, and targeting the book for adults and children. 

I realize some of you will automatically dismiss this as “kid’s comics”.  However, I gotta tell you some of the most fun comics being published today are these kid-friendly books.  Many really convey the excitement of comics, capture the colorful dynamic action, and have straight-forward plots without talking down to the reader.  As a comic reader, I find these types of books fun, refreshing, and adventurous.  Just a few examples of great kid-friendly comics on the market today include Power Pack, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, and Franklin Richards.  Just remember how much you loved “Batman: The Animated Series”.  That’s a good example of an action-oriented series targeted at adults and children.

Gotta run.  No time for love, Doctor Jones!

Fanboys the movie looks as if it could be the quintessential geek movie of all time.  Production has been delayed a whole bunch, but the trailer makes it look to be worth the wait. 

It’s got a great bunch of supporting actors, including Kristen Bell, Ray Park, William Shatner, Billy Dee Williams, and Jaime King.

I can’t wait!

If you can’t view this, watch it by clicking here!

Looking for some background noise while I sorted through paperwork Saturday night, I turned on a Sci-Fi channel.  Being Saturday night, they were of course running their monster/creature movie of the week.  This time it was Sabertooth.  A TV movie made back in 2002.  It was pretty predictable for Sci-Fi: wild creature on the loose, young people in an isolated area, a rising body count, and the requisite hot blond. 

The reason I thought this was blog-worthy was just a split second of footage in the beginning.  The very first shot of the movie was an establishing shot of the laboratory where the sabertooth is being held.  The shot of the laboratory was actually stock footage from the old “V” TV series.  It was specifically an exterior shot of the “Science Frontiers” building, even with the sign and logo in the foreground.  “Science Frontiers” in “V” was Nathan Bates company; also the place where Julie Parrish worked.  If I hadn’t been watching the “V” TV series recently, I don’t think I would have noticed.  I checked the web and apparently I’m not the only person to spot this.

I guess I’m just surprised by this.  I suppose the Sabertooth filmmaker needed an exterior shot of the laboratory and using stock footage was the easiest way to do it.  However, seeing something from “V” just took me right out of the story.  After that I just couldn’t completely engross myself in the movie.  Yeah, that’s it.  That MUST be the reason I couldn’t enjoy the film tremendously.  It couldn’t have anything to do with the horrible special effects, weak acting, or threadbare plot.   :)

If you’re anything like me, you’ve made the drive to Orlando numerous times.  And if you’ve ever taken I-75 south from Lake City and then gotten on the Turnpike to Orlando, you know there is really only one thing that makes the drive bearable.  The Ron Jon Surf Shop billboards. 

In fact, you may remember this specific billboard…

I recently discovered a geek connection with this particular billboard.  The model of this billboard also has done some modeling for A COMIC SHOP in Orlando.  She did a series of Supergirl and Batgirl photos.

Not necessarily newsworthy, but I thought it was interesting.  And nice to look at.  

I can’t wait for the new Doctor Who Classic Series wave of action figures! The figures from the current show have been great, but these classic figs really make me feel nostalgic.  They are currently scheduled to be released in August.

Character Options has once again done an outstanding job providing high quality figs that look fantastic.  Even my eight year old step-son thinks the Character Options figures I have are cool and wants to play with them as often as I’ll let him. 

Here are the classic figs for wave one…

Each figure pack comes with a different collectable part of the giant K-1 robot from the fourth Doctor’s first story in 1974. When all eight packs are collected, the giant robot will be complete.  How cool is that?!?!

They are already starting to plan wave two. Possible figures for wave two include: 7th Doctor Sylvester McCoy, 8th Doctor, Ice Warrior, Morbius Monster, Mummy with Jar, Tenth Planet Cyberman, Voc Robot, and an extra figure to assemble (like the Giant Robot).

I can’t wait until August!  Yay!

Just a heads-up… I appeared in a couple recent episodes of The Unique Geek podcast with the rest of the usual gang.

• The Unique Geek Issue #66 - In this episode we discuss lessons that comics have taught us.
• The Unique Geek Issue #67 - In this episode we discuss life lessons we have learned from geek culture (not just comics).

Be sure to check out these podcasts and the rest of The Unique Geek podcasts.

I hate to simply repeat what every other self-proclaimed geek has been saying, but here goes… the Iron Man movie was freakin’ awesome!  I think it might just be the best comic book movie I’ve ever seen.  I love me some Superman II, X-Men II, Spider-Man I & II, and Batman Begins, but this movie was just was great.  The casting was spot-on (loved Downey Jr, Paltrow, and Bridges), the special effects were awesome, the script was energetic and funny, and the fight scenes were very actiony yet you could follow them.

They also did a great job capturing the essence of the character.  I’m not sure if it was Marvel’s influence or Jon Favreau’s, but they did a really nice job of summing up Tony Stark and Iron Man.  My personal guess is that this was successful because it was a Marvel film (rather than some corporation studio).  I think a corporate studio would have just utilized random character concepts they thought the general public would respond to well.  Whereas Marvel/Favreau really understands what has made the character work for the past forty years. 

This movie was INCREDIBLE… no wait…. it was FANTASTIC… no, that’s not it… it was AMAZING… nope, but getting closer… it was UNCANNY… no… how about SPECTACULAR…. almost… it was most definitely WEB OF… okay, one last try… this movie was INVINCIBLE!  Yeah, that’s the ticket.

I can’t wait for the sequel and related movies in 2010 and 2011! 

Another oldie, but still awesome!!!

This was originally created by Geek-Week.net, but now thankfully belongs in all of our hearts!

There is a comic coming out this Wednesday that I’m really looking forward to - it’s called “The War that Time Forgot” #1.  It’s a twelve part mini-series written by Bruce Jones, with art by Al Barrionuevo and Jimmy Palmiotti.  Also, there are going to be some kick-butt covers by folks like Neal Adams, Brian Bolland, Mark Schultz and more.

The reason I think this comic will be so cool is all the characters involved.  It’s like a celebration for old school comic fans (from the 50’s & 60’s), or Who’s Who junkies (from the 80’s) like myself and SGhoul.  This series features many of DC’s non-superhero top characters/settings from the silver age such as Tomahawk (hero of the American Revolutionary War), Firehair (hero of the old west), the Enemy Ace (a World War I German flying Ace), the Viking Prince (historic Viking hero), and Dinosaur Island (a mysterious island inhabited by dinosaurs where many WWII battles were fought). The story takes all these great historic heroes and throws them together on Dinosaur Island for a cool looking adventure.  Sounds awesome!

One way of looking at the fantastic “DC New Frontier” series is to think, “This is what a major company-wide crossover would have looked like if they’d done them back in the silver age”.  If you follow that logic, then “The War that Time Forgot” would be the same type of major company-wide crossover, but featuring the non-superhero historic-characters of the silver age.

If you have any love for crazy dinosaur versus World War II military action, then I highly recommend the book Showcase Presents “The War that Time Forgot”.  It’s got over 500 pages of dinosaurs battling tanks, airplanes, submarines, soldiers, etc.  It reprints stories from “Star Spangled War Stories” from 1960-1966.  I’ve been reading it and having a blast!  I love me some nutso dinosaur war comics!

So watch for “The War that Time Forgot” #1 on sale on Wednesday.  I think it has the potential to be fantastic!

So I was in Orlando on Saturday.  I was bummed that I would miss Free Comic Book Day in Tallahassee (specifically at the Cosmic Cat), so I decided to visit a couple stores in Orlando. 

The first comic store I visited is called A Comic Shop.  This is truly a cool shop.  It was rated the #1 comic shop in Orlando in 2007 by one of the local TV affiliates.  If you want to see more about that shop, you really need to visit their MySpace Page.  They’ve got some really great “Secret Invasion” videos and pictures they’ve created (including a pro-human, anti-alien protest).  Funny stuff.  Its worth stopping by their MySpace page just so you can see the photos of “The Girls of A Comic Shop” (the Girls website isn’t complete yet, so to see more pics you gotta visit their MySpace page).

I enjoyed the atmosphere and chatted at great length with the staff about the brilliance of Grant Morrison’s run on Animal Man.  Then I got my Free Comic Book Day edition of Project Superpowers signed by the artist who was actually there on-site, Andy Smith.  I didn’t realize several companies were producing original comics for Free Comic Book Day (rather than simply reprints of previously published items).  Mr. Smith was very nice and we talked briefly about various comics.

Before I left I bought a few other items, such as Captain Marvel #5 and the latter half of the recent Action Comics story featuring the Legion of Superheroes.

After that, I went to another comic book shop called Sci-Fi City.  I was fully expecting to be let down after such a great experience at A Comic Shop.  Wow was I wrong.  In addition to the ginormous store, there was a definite buzz in the air.  In one area of the store they had tons of miniatures gaming going on (with some really neat elaborate battlefields).  Then on the comic side, there were of course the free comics, but also several creators.  I was stunned when I walked in and read the sign stating that Chuck Dixon was there.  THE CHUCK DIXON - one of my comic writing heroes!  How cool is that!  This is the guy I had just mentioned in my blog the day before.  And the blog I wrote on Thursday about 1997 was inspired after reading one of the comics he wrote (Batman/Wildcat).  Some of the books Chuck Dixon has worked on include: Birds of Prey, Robin, Nightwing, Airboy, Batman, Punisher, Batman & the Outsiders, and the list goes on and on. 

I spent a little while talking to him, mostly being a total fanboy and not stringing together very coherent sentences.  You’d think I’d be fine given the number of creators I’ve met over the years, but for some reason Chuck Dixon just wows me.  His simultaneous runs on Robin, Nightwing, and Birds of Prey was a fantastic example of writing stand-alone comics, yet finding a way to have a level of interconnectedness that doesn’t put the reader off.  I mentioned that I’d recently re-read his great Batman/Wildcat mini-series from 1997 and he then indicated the artist of that book, Sergio Cariello, was sitting just a few seats down.  Very cool!  I tried to find copies of Batman/Wildcat to have them both sign, but the store didn’t have any.  I mentioned this, and then Mr. Dixon was kind enough to instead give me a signed comic from his own personal stash.  It was a trade paperback of his recent Connor Hawke mini-series.  That was so nice of him!  I asked if there was any charge and he said no, but a donation to the “Books for Soldiers” program is always appreciated.  He explained how the program sends books (including comics) to soldiers abroad.  I saw a few singles and fives in the donation cup, looked at the cost of the trade paperback he gave me, and then donated $20 to the program.  It really is a neat program.  I thanked Mr. Dixon, told him how highly I thought of his writing, and moved on.  Running into Chuck Dixon was truly a case of serendipity.

Before I left I bought a few other items, such as the first half of the recent Action Comics story featuring the Legion of Superheroes (now I have all six parts and can read the whole story) and an Aquaman “First Appearance” action figure (the Sword & Sorcery Aquaman).

So to sum up, while I didn’t get to visit the comic shops in my own hometown on Free Comic Book Day, I did have some fantastic experiences that I won’t soon forget.