Stryder's Favourite Comics - 8/1/2012

Happy August Folks!  I'm having a hard time believing it's already been a whole YEAR of the New 52 from DC Comics but here come the very first issue #12's!  I was going to do a whole arbitrary ranking deal like I did when all these comics hit issue #6, but instead I think I'll do it next month with the special #0 issue event (more on that later) so in the meantime business as usual!  Let's take a look at what I picked up this week...

Before Watchmen: Nite Owl #2 (of 4) - "They run.  I like it when they run.  But not as much as HE does."

This issue, we get to see a lot of Nite Owl and Rorschach...how they work together, what their own personal boundaries are, and what they DON'T agree about.  We learn a little about BOTH of their own "personal issues" so to speak, all in a context of bloody murder, domestic violence and prostitution.  Things which both Nite Owl and Rorschach are all too familiar with, and not just in their roles as masked heroes.
 
The best part of this comic are the flashbacks to childhood we are treated to, both of Dan's childhood and of Rorschach's...it's nice to flesh out their motivations...not that they needed more reasons to be grim in the Watchmen universe, but still...fascinating issue! 

Join me for Action Comics, Detective Comics, Earth 2 and more after the JUMP!

Let's Play Tera Part 1: Puggypants!

So it's high time we here at Fruitless Pursuits thrust ourselves into the video age! Writing is for saps! Now we're all about talking while playing videogames! I recently scored a couple of new MMORPG's and what better way to share them with you than through wondrous moving images and slightly dodgy sound!

First up, Suzanne and I are playing the crazy/sexy fashion conscious Tera. In this very first episode we marvel at the truly outlandish hyper-sexualized character creation before settling on a dapper young character of our own! So sit back and enjoy our very special fantasy...

And if you liked that and want more then please let us know!

Nerd History: Ancient Graffiti

I'm currently in the process of finishing up a lot of things before I have a fairly busy work month, so I'm using this time to push out a few nerdy historical things that I've found, but can't really expand upon too much. One of the finds I have is regarding graffiti from Pompei. If you thought the stuff written on the men's room walls were graphic, well, here's a quick sample of the nicer stuff:

"Apollinaris, the doctor of the emperor Titus, defecated well here"

"Epaphra is not good at ball games."

"To the one defecating here. Beware of the curse. If you look down on this curse, may you have an angry Jupiter for an enemy."

"I confess, we have peed in bed; we have done wrong, innkeeper. If you ask why -- there wasn't a chamber pot."

The best part is when they start going into their various sexual proclivities. Considering the time frame and such, I suppose the more things change, the more they end up staying the same...

The Book Was Better Podcast! Teaser for Episode 24!

The Book Was Better is the podcast where Jessica McLeod and I discuss, debate and usually mock the mostly terrible, hastily-written, cash-in tie-in book of the film! In this week's very brief mini-episode I give you ample full warning of the "magical" book/film that we'll be covering in our full episode next week. 

But where is Jess? Unfortunately she's sick this time so I am doing it solo! It's just you and me, baby! Sexy times! So don't give me any trouble. (Yes... I am looking at you, Twitter!). All will be well next week, but in the meantime, why not download me from the official site, or subscribe to us on iTunes so that we can surprise kick in your ear-holes every single week!

Go Ahead, Make Me Neigh: Clint Eastwood on Mister Ed

Before Clint Eastwood became known as someone you wouldn’t dare screw with, he was susceptible to talking animal hijinx. A decade before he was The Man With No Name, and even longer before he was Dirty Harry, Eastwood’s first credited movie was Francis In The Navy, the last in the “Francis The Talking Mule” series (Eastwood can be seen starting at around 1:45)..

And during Eastwood’s days as a TV star, playing cowboy Rowdy Yates on Rawhide, he was bullied by none other than Mister Ed. I never got into Mister Ed, largely because by the time I started to watch Nick At Nite, they were showing the programs that aired for the first time when Mister Ed was on Nick At Nite. However, seeing one of the biggest badasses of all time on a sitcom, especially with a talking horse, was something I could not pass up.

Lego Lord of the Rings Exclusive Bonus Figure!

Good news for those planning to pick up Lego Lord of the Rings this October. An exclusive Elrond the brooding Hugo Weaving elf will now be made available as a bonus! I'm assuming that this will be a pre-order incentive much like the exclusive Lex Luthor for Lego Batman 2. No word yet on which stores will be offering him, but my bet is on EB Games here in Australia. If you know, let me know!

In the meantime, check him out...

Oh! He's an angry elf!

Kickstart the Week: Fallen City of Karez

This week we're featuring a fantasy euro board game that needs your help. It's just above the 25% mark, and needs to raise about $15,000 in a week. Stranger things have happened on Kickstarter, but time is very tight on this one... so read quickly!

Fallen City of Karez is a cooperative fantasy board game for 2-5 players with aspects of worker placement games and hints of traditional role playing games. Designed by Elad Goldstein and coming from Golden Egg Games, the game has a great art style and combines a few different types of gameplay together for a unique experience. It looks like the perfect game for my gaming group, who are fans of the Castle Ravenloft series as well as light Euro games.

In Fallen City of Karez, each player will take the role of a lord of one of the guilds who seek to tighten their grasp on the rising city. The players will strive to maintain a balance between keeping the city safe for its citizens by sending exploration parties to defeat any threats, and at the same time attracting to the emerging city new adventurers wishing to fill their pockets with fortunes and their names with glory.

The game combines mechanics and theme together in a few very interesting ways, especially the win condition (players must create a city before the 8th turn ends). The center of the main board is a village filled with townspeople and heroes. As the threat level of monsters goes up, more heroes are required and less townspeople will remain. Players must keep the threat level down to thrive and eventually have enough townspeople for the village to become a town, and afterwards for the town to become a city.

Fallen City of Karez on Kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/451575426/fallen-city-of-karez

Click through the jump for a Dice Tower preview video and more of the final art images.

Review: Major Eazy Heart of Iron! Bad-Arse British Battle!

You’re probably not alone if you’ve never heard of seventies British comics' icon Major Eazy. I certainly hadn’t, but the more I read the more I was intrigued. He’s unshaven, unruly, unorthodox, and is more laconic than Garfield. Refusing to run, and only walking when he absolutely has to, Eazy is chauffeured around in his battle-ready Bentley, taking perfect pop shots at World War II’s Nazi villains with his omnipresent sniper rifle. In between bouts of hard boiled battlefield action he sleeps. In fact he spends half of his first adventure asleep. What’s not to like?

But don’t confuse this with laziness or a lack of enthusiasm. Eazy is really just conserving his energy for when it counts. He has a Batman-esque ability to calmly deduct the solution to a problem while everyone else is freaking out, waving their terrified arms in the air. And when it is time for action he dispenses his own brand of “justice” both brutally and indiscriminately. No bad deed goes unpunished. Major Eazy kicks all kind of arse.

Our friends at Titan Books have had the foresight to finally collect Eazy’s Italian campaign, originally published in the seventies, into one large hardcover volume, Major Eazy: Heart of Iron, written by Alan Hebden and with stunning art from Carlos Ezquerra. So for the first time in a long time we get to share in his many over-the-top adventures. I’ve got a copy and now I want to share it with you!

To find out what I thought... join me after the jump!

Nerdcraft - Etsy Mass Effect roundup

Welcome back to the Etsy roundup! I've missed you. Let's hug.

Surprising no one, today's roundup is all about Mass Effect, that epic sprawling space opera that made me totally creep onto various male aliens. Ah, Bioware, you bring out the best in me. 

Click on the images for links to the listing, and join me after the jump!

Review: Boba Fett Blox!

Some of my favourite items in my Star Wars collection are the oddities - the twisted, bizarre, bootleg, or super-deformed versions of our favourite characters from a galaxy far away. And why not shake it up a little bit? Visual artists frequently create their own stylised interpretations of  Luke, Han, Chewie and the gang, so why not carry that aesthetic across to toys? We've already had decades of screen accurate characters, so I welcome any product that tries something different.

We've already taken a look at Funko's Pop Vinyl bobblehead figures but they also have released a range of larger, wafer-thin, stylised vinyl figures called Blox. Thanks to our very own Jacinta, I now own Boba Fett. Check him out...

This may almost be a case of what-you-see-is-what-you-get but join me after the jump and we'll break him out and show a few more images...

Happy Birthday! Fruitless Pursuits Turns One Today!

Just a quick post to recognise that Fruitless Pursuits celebrates its first birthday today!

One year ago a group of us on a creative forum decided to combine our powers and launch a site together where we were able to talk about all the nerdy stuff we were into it, and also share our own projects. Since then we've had a lot of contributor changes and focus changes, our share of quiet times and busy times, but we've endured longer than I think any of us probably thought we would, and I think we're starting to find our voice. In fact it's hard to believe it's only been a year!

A big thanks to all our contributors, past, present and future, to the wonderful people who sponsor us, and an especially big thanks to you for reading and supporting us! Happy birthday.

El Professore Movie: Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation

Not Quite Hollywood

2008
Director: Mark Hartley
* * * *

Ozploitation; a term I was regretfully unfamiliar with just a few years ago. Then this amazing, confounding, eye opening documentary was unleashed upon unsuspecting cinephiles and now despite still not having seen the majority of the films listed, it is a term that I spout as if I had heard it all my life.

Click through the jump for the full review.

Pre-Order Hot Toys 1/4 Scale Dark Knight! Arkham City Catwoman! And 3A Halo!

Ruthlessly determined to bankrupt us, our pals at Sideshow have updated with a handful of extremely appealing pre-orders to tempt your whimpering credit card out of hiding. How can I not share these with you!

Each time the genius artisans at Hot Toys release a figure I'm inclined to insist that it's the definitive version of that character. I certainly felt that way after seeing their recent Dark Knight Rises 1/6th scale Batman, but no - they prove me wrong by now offering up this 1/4 scale version! What does that mean? That this guy is even bigger, now standing about 18 inches high! Check this out...

I have so many more images, and all the pre-order info of this bounty... after the jump!

Delayed Forbidden Era Contest Winner!

My apologies for the delay, but we have a winner for our Forbidden Era book contest.

Our winner is CBarton!

CBarton, email me at your earliest convenience (jeff.raymond@gmail.com) and I'll get you hooked in. Thanks again for Amanda Mondoux for the contest!

Review: Dark Knight Rises "Gotham City Battle" Action Figure Five-Pack!

Now here’s a toy oddity I found hard to resist! Mattel has released this very reasonably priced five-pack of 3 3/4 action figures based on Sir Christopher Nolan’s bombastic, clunky, terrifyingly bleak, almost-Batmanless epic The Dark Knight Rises...

And, furthermore, this set is clearly aimed at children. “Hi, my son is turning five on Saturday and I’m looking for a small action figure of a fetish mask wearing, neck-breaking terrorist but I don’t want to spend a lot of money. Can you help me? Oh, and if you can throw in a crazy, crippled rasping billionaire and a double-crossing thief in a sexy bondage outfit then that would be good too.” Sir.. have we ever got you covered...

This unlikely set fascinates me because the quality wildly ranges from dollar store bootleg to a couple of surprisingly decent figures (at least sculpt-wise). I’m kind of amused that it exists at all.

I’ll show you a whole lot more... after the jump!

Book Review: The Shadow of the Wind

Last month, a much awaited book came out in the United States, The Prisoner of Heaven. In anticipation, I read the first book as part of the series, The Shadow of the Wind. It's sometimes difficult to find a truly unique book when you read 200+ books a year and feel as if you've seen it all. The Shadow of the Wind is not only a super-unique book, but it's a book that does a lot of things at the same time, and all of them extremely well.