Saturday, March 24, 2012

Sigh.... Okay, Let's Talk About The Lizard!

I'm struggling to get excited about Marc Webb's upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man. Of course I'll go and see it, and it looks pretty cool, but try as I might I just can't get jazzed about sitting through the Spider-Man origin again. Webb no doubt anticipated this, so he has done what anyone would do to get his potential audience excited. He added a giant lizard.

In fact I'm pretty sure that the official title has now been revealed as The Amazing Spider-Man: In Which Spider-Man Pisses Off a Lizard. And believe me, as a life-long Australian I know that lizards are the absolute last thing you want to piss off. Can you imagine being a teenager dealing with the pressures of high school, girls and radioactive spiders and THEN accidentally pissing off a lizard on top of that? I wouldn't give Peter Parker's problems to a monkey on a rock.

If you haven't seen what he looks like yet, Coming Soon have shown a new piece of promo art clearly showing Rhys Ifans' pissed off lizard...

"Hsssss... You pissed me off, Spider-Dickbag!"
 What do you think of this design? I think it needs a pair of comic book style purple pants to mask his disturbing lack of lizard genitalia. Former Spider-Man Tobey Maguire had this to say.

Lizactly!

Awesome Hunger Games Inspired T-Shirt Celebrates Killing Kids!

The universe's Hunger Games fever is at an all time high! I can't even get hungry right now without making a game out of it! I can't see a small child without throwing a knife! Be sure to read Jacinta's insightful review of the film here, and if you want to wear your fandom on your chest then why not check out this new T-shirt from Bluebutter pop parody tees?

Our new pal Steve from Bluebutter was kind enough to share this amazing Mockingjay pin logo made up of Hunger Games certified children killing weapons! Do you recognise some of these munchkin-murderers from the book?


And this is what you'll look like wearing it, complete with severed head...


Be sure to check out some of the other pop culture inspired designs offered at the site. I think that this is a pretty amazing T-shirt. It would be a shame if someone threw a javelin through it.

Review: The Hunger Games


Unless you live under a rock and/or consume no form of media, you're probably fairly up to speed with The Hunger Games (and if not, we've got a guide for you right here). As an avid fan of the books I'd been counting down the days til it was time to see the big screen adaption. Good? Bad? Read on to find out.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Book of Cain - nerds unite


I found something wondrous in our local EB games, nestled amongst the Diablo 3 preorders, and made such a noise over it that Luke bought it for my birthday.
Images and awesomeness after the break!

Dr. Teeth And The Electric Mayhem On Jimmy Kimmel LIve

Oh what I would pay to see the Electric Mayhem in concert..



The Hunger Games Game!

Taylor let us know back when the trailer for The Hunger Games came out that he only heard of the movie/book after seeing the board game. I'm glad to present the new commercial for the board game!

Let's Set Things Straight About Those Alien Ninja Turtles.

So apparently fabled ass and explosions director Michael Bay casually mentioned that the new live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie that his company Platinum Dunes is producing will give the turtles an alien origin. And the Internet collectively shit its pants. Grown men, who haven't even thought about Ninja Turtles for over 20 years started gnashing their teeth with unmatched fury. This is the world we live in now.

Look, I'm not going to apologise for Michael Bay - in fact I'm pretty sure he owes me an apology or three - but aren't all these sudden, instant Ninja Turtle fans forgetting a little something? The turtles of the original comic books were (indirectly) created by an alien race, and they also spent a few of their first ten issues in the far reaches of space.

This is the cover of the first Ninja Turtle comic I ever bought (back in 1989 I believe). It's Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #7 and it features them fighting aliens on the cover. And no, that is NOT Krang! Sigh.


Join me after the jump and we'll sort this shit out...

COSMOPOLIS

David Cronenberg looks like he is back to his crazy scifi worlds with "Cosmpolis". Click on the NSFW naked Robert Pattinson trailer below



"Eric Packer risks his entire fortune to bet against the yen on a tumultuous day, a move that puts him in an assassin's crosshairs as he moves from place to place in a limo in a study of capitalism that takes place in a slightly futuristic metropolis" 

 The films adapted from the book by Don Delillo

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Heinz Ketchup Autobot

Welp! I feel like I have seen the funniest thing on the internet today


Those spinning arms are the best!

Doctor Who News: New Companion Announced!


Heads up whoers (wow that looks dirty), there's going to be a bit of a changing of the guard later this year in  the new season. Well, it's more of a changing of the guards friends more than anything. It was announced today that Amy and Rory Pond (as played by Karen Gillian and  Arthur Darvill) will be leaving the show in the fifth episode of season 7 in a heartfelt memorable way, with a new companion arriving just before Christmas in episode 6 , played by Jenna-Louise Coleman   

Nothing is really known about the character shell be playing but from the twitters this 25 year old was giving Matt smith a run for his money, forcing him to keep up with her. I'm not very familiar with Jenna, but if you're a fan of British drama shows with teenage lesbians or saw captain America, then she may seem familiar to you. Personally I will be sad to see the ponds exit the show as I have grown to really enjoy them as companions, especially Rory and know nothing at present about Jenna so that'll always leave you apprehensive about newcomers. But if anything is true about doctor who it's all in the writing. Smith can execute what's given to him brilliantly and can make it his own, but look at what happened with past companion Martha jones (played by Freema Agyeman). Great character butchered because of shitty writing. For the most part Moffat and teams writing had been solid and have done a fantastic job of casting to date. So...time will tell.  

Celebrity Apprentice Recaps: Episode Five. Aubrey O'Day is an Irredeemable Monster.

After last’s week shockingly unjust ousting of both Adam Carolla and the affable Andretti, I approached this week’s episode through an angry red mist. How can the show justify forty minute boardroom sessions when the outcome seems completely predetermined by producers, and all logical rebuttals are obstinately ignored? A once powerful Trump seems so detached and distracted from the proceedings at this point that they may as well replace him with a bulldog licking its nuts at the head of the table.

Post firing, Carolla shared some interesting insights on his March 13th episode of The Adam Carolla Show. Give it a listen because he describes how the show’s editing distorted the real reception of his task, and how he was led majorly astray by an unseen producer. If you’ve come this far, then it’s fascinating stuff.

Our preview for tonight’s episode seemed to promise former Hulk Ferrigno bumbling through the project management of the next task and I’m shallow enough to say that it’s enough to get me to watch. However, reality TV is a sly fox, and the person that you think is the obvious choice to be fired seldom goes.

Did they get it right this time? Join me after the jump to find out...

Tumblr Rulz: Pixel Art by Sixteen Bits

I found Sixteen Bits while gathering art for my previous article The Art of Wrestling. And what find it was. 

Sixteen Bits has been creating pixel art of.. well, basically every character ever created. His style reminds me of the face-forward background characters (NPC's) in an old school RPG. Somehow he was able to capture each characters unique facial expressions using just a few varying pixels.

Watchmen

Party Down

Doctor Who - The Eleven Doctors
Click through the jump for many more. There are characters from Beetlejuice, Pulp Fiction, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Tim Burton / Joel Schumaker Batman villains, Star Wars, a ton of wrestlers from the early 1980's, and my favorite... 108 Lost characters (which I couldn't remember more than half of, so I guess it's time to start from the beginning again.)

Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome

Oh the good times are here...


Are you ready for this?

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

What's Out? 21st of March 2012


Comics and sundries! Which ones come out today?

The Blocking Dead


OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.....

The Season Finale this past Sunday, and my issues with it and the pacing of Season 2 overall not withstanding, I gotta admit I still really like the show The Walking Dead on AMC. The mid-season finale was WAY more gut-wrenching though. And still resonates as the best episode they have ever done.


I'm surprised I have not turned it into a weekly article here. Well, not that surprised.

How do you do a weekly article on a show that lasts for 13 weeks and takes a break in between? I guess I could always write about stuff related to the show. The comic book, the over-priced McFarlane action figures that I want and am not getting, or THESE babies...


Yup. In case you hadn't heard...

Stryder's Favourite Comics - 3/14/2012

Happy Spring Everybody!  Spring has sprung and my mind turns immediately to...reading comics?!  This probably explains why I don't have children...Regardless, here are the LAST comics of Winter, coincidentally released last week on PI day...starting off with surprise success Suicide Squad!


Suicide Squad #7 - I had to make a special trip to the BIG comic book store to get this issue, which sold out at my local shop in the first hour!  Why?  Just look at the cover!!!  "The Origin of Harley Quinn!"  Not just that, but the first hints of the presence of the Joker since the (now infamous) first issue of Detective Comics

Well you won't learn much about the future of the Joker, but you learn a lot about the pasts of both he and Harley.  Not to mention some crazy action and a VERY definitively dead metahuman.  Maybe more than one!  I won't tell you who, but it is gruesome.  If you can find this book on the shelf, it's worth picking up!  Can't wait for the conclusion next month! 

But that's not ALL...more spectacle after the JUMP!

What You Should Know About The Hunger Games

Taking a break from my normal nerdy history stuff because, well, it's a big week this week: The Hunger Games is coming out. I've been a fan since the first book came out a few years ago, and this is pretty much the film event of the year.

There's a decent chance, however, that you may have missed the book up to this point. Perhaps you heard that it's the "next Twilight" (don't worry, it's not), perhaps you dismissed it because it's essentially a book for teenagers (it is, but if you haven't heard, YA books are "in" right now, and are regularly publishing some of the best genre fiction currently), perhaps you're just being dragged this weekend by your significant other. Regardless, there's no reason why you shouldn't go into the movie with an idea of what's going on, so here's a quick overview so that the odds will ever be in your favor.

Tuesday Bounty! Glorious Bounty Retreats!

It's Tuesday and that can only mean a brand new page of ongoing sci-fi/humour comic series Glorious Bounty, drawn by hirsute dynamo Edward J. Grug III and written and coloured by me!

When we last saw the Bounty crew lizard-buddy Funf got the crap smashed out of him by a giant alien target who was way out of his league. Bruce and Deevis - now in temporary robot bodies - look to be in serious shit. How will they solve this one!?

Click to embiggen or read it on the official site...

And if you're a first timer, it's never to late to start reading Glorious Bounty! What are you afraid of? What's with the attitude, buddy? You can start reading at Chapter One right here! GO! GO! GO!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Trailer: You Sank My Battleshit!

Ok, so I had kind of heard that Hasbro was producing a movie based on their boardgame Battleship, but I was 100% convinced that I had either: a) Dreamt it, or b) Someone was taking the piss. And yet rumours of this Battleship movie continued to persist, and then I hear mere moments ago that the premise of the movie is actually battleships vs. aliens. For realz. I keep pinching myself and screaming, "WAAAAKEEE UPPPP!!! WAKKEEEE UPPP!!!" but no, this trailer is proof. Feast your eyes on modern cinema:


Liam Neeson is in this Battleship movie!? Okay, seriously now everyone, let's make a pact. Liam, if you get offered a Battleship movie again just start a Kickstarter campaign, OK? Say, "Hey everyone, I've been offered X amount of dollars to make a Battleship movie. If you can match it by the end of the month I won't do it." And everyone else promise to have Liam's back. Let's break some Kickstarter records. We're here for you, bro!

Now the good news is that I will probably pay to see this because I just discovered that in a month we're also getting a Battleship tie-in novelisation. So if you're a Book Was Better podcast fan, keep an eye on the ocean. Actual description:
YOU SANK THE WRONG BATTLESHIP During a routine naval drill at Pearl Harbor, American forces detect a ship of unknown origins that's crashed in the Pacific Ocean. Lieutenant Alex Hopper, an officer aboard the USS John Paul Jones, is ordered to investigate the ominous-looking vessel--which turns out to be part of an armada of ships that are stronger and faster than any on Earth. And that's when the Navy's radar goes down. Ambushed by a ravenous enemy they cannot see, a small U.S. fleet makes their last stand on the open ocean, armed with little more than their instincts, to defend their lives--and the world as we know it. 
And to think you idiots were excited about The Avengers! 

Lightsaber fighting tips



Aim to the side. Dodge as precaution 

R2-Deathstar Shirt at TeeFury!

There is something so awesome about this shirt... I just can't look away from it.

The Deathstar is such an iconic Star Wars design, and R2-D2 can be so cute sometimes. I love it when R2 is re-imagined in a different shape (video game consoles, mailboxes, atomic bombs) and the Deathstar gets plenty of creative love too (check out this amazing watermelon Deathstar), but the simple elegance of this inter-franchise mashup really hits the sweet spot for me.

Designed by LocustYears.

This shirt is only $10, and available for just 24 hours at TeeFury.com!