Blog Archives
Star Wars customs
These are perhaps two of the greatest Star Wars custom action figures I’ve ever seen! This guy, JackofTradze, does amazing work!
Check out the rest of his work!Hey kids…Podcasts!
Here are five of my favorites:
How Did This Get Made?: This is a brand new podcast, just two episodes old, but absolutely terrific. The League’s Paul Scheer and Jason Mantzoukas, Diane Raphael (Flight of the Conchords) and a weekly guest break down exactly what’s terrible about the terrible movies we love to hate. So far they’ve skewered Burlesque and Nicolas Cage’s Season of the Witch. They’ve talked of expanding the show to include DVDs and television shows, sparking my secret hope that they’ll take on The Cape.
The Bugle: Featuring the Daily Show’s criminally underused John Oliver and his long time comedy partner Andy Zaltzman, this is a satirical commentary on the news of the day. If you like the Daily Show or Colbert Report, The Bugle is square in your wheelhouse. Even if you don’t; if you enjoy British humor, give this a spin. And it’s worth it to dive into the back episodes, their string of podcasts covering the 2008 elections in particular were hilarious.
WTF: The great thing about this podcast is that the host, Marc Maron, is just as interesting as the people he interviews. Maron and his guests get into the highs and lows of being a comedian and the business of stand-up over the last two decades in a way that is incredibly frank and always gratifying.
The Nerdist Podcast: This is the second podcast I really got in to. Chris Hardwick has thoroughly entertaining conversations about comedy and showbiz, but with a nerdy slant, with everyone from his fellow comedians to MMA fighter Mayhem Miller to Ozzy Osbourne to the Muppets. The variety of guests and Hardwick’s palpable enthusiasm for comedy is what makes the show so enjoyable.
The Pod F. Tompkast: Hosted by Paul F. Tompkins, this is a variety show of a podcast, featuring ‘The Undiscovered Project,’ an ongoing series documenting the making of a movie shrouded in secrecy and ultimately hidden away by the very geniuses that brought it to life; clips from Tompkins’s various live comedy shows, the occasional phone conversation with comedian friend Jen Kirkman and assorted other shenaniganery. Sadly, it’s a monthly podcast, but it never fails to amuse. Cakeboss!
Chew on this!
I have a hard time remembering from one month to the next what’s happening in a comic book series. Much to the dismay of my “dealer” Brian at Detroit Comics, I’ve been switching all of my reading over from single issues to collections. It’s easier for me to follow an entire story arc in one sitting than straining my brain to remember what happened a month ago (or longer in the case of most comics).
I’ve never been a huge fan of superheroes unless there was some sort of different take on them like in Astro City, Watchmen, The Boys or Top Ten. More so than not being appealing to me story-wise, I don’t have a lot of interest in a never ending tale that goes on and on and on. When I was growing up, my mom watched Days of Our Lives. The story lines that I’d watch throughout the 80s with Patch, Calliope, Roman, Marlena and all the others are just a footnote in the overall DooL universe. I like my stories to have a beginning, middle and an end. Most, if not all, of the comics I’ll write about on this site are either ones that had a run of about 60 to 70 issues or are currently running, but the creator has announced a definitive end.
Chew is currently running, but creators John Layman and Rob Guillory have announced that they’re only planning on a 60 issue run. Image is publishing the book and is doing a great job so far of putting out collections about as quickly as the monthly series itself. Issue 15 came out last month along with the third collection that contains that issue.
Comedian and friend Jackie Kashian recommended Chew to me. She steered me right earlier with Ex Machina, which I’m sure I’ll praise soon enough on here. Her batting record stands strong with another great pick.
Chew is the story of FDA investigator Tony Chu. Tony is a cibopath, meaning he can tell the history of anything he eats…except beets. The story is set in an alternate universe where because of the Avian Flu, chicken is outlawed and traded illegally more so than drugs. It’s a face paced story, with great jokes which while clever are funny first. Guillory’s art is whimsical and stylized in a way that fits the tone of the book perfectly.
What made Preacher my favorite comic book series of all time was the great cast of characters and how they related. Chew is setting up to be just about as strong. Chu’s love interest is food critic Amelia Mintz who is able to write about food with so much description that it can make the reader taste the food, which Tony digs since he’s on a diet of beets and “evidence”. There’s a huge cast of well drawn and written supporting characters from Mason Savoy, Tony’s first partner in the FDA; to the half cybernetic faced John Colby, Tony’s current partner; and even Poyo, the prized cock fighter.
Jackie and I aren’t alone in digging Chew. In its first year, it’s already won the Eisner Award for best new series along with two Harvey Awards. There’s also talk about it being developed into a television series. I’m on the fence about that one. I’m sort of let down by Walking Dead so far, but more on that in a later post. If adapted for television, I think Chew could work as an animated series.
Anyway, if you’re looking to jump back into comics, or you’re just looking for something other than capes, I highly recommend Chew.
Phoo Action!
I was semi-aimlessly searching the web last week and wondered what Spaced co-creator and star Jessica Hynes had done recently. Lo and behold, I found that she was one of the writers on a Jamie Hewlett (Tank Girl, Gorillaz) created television show called Phoo Action.
I’ve been a fan of Tank Girl since the comics and I’m probably one of three people alive who really liked the movie. I like to imagine that the other two people who liked the movie were the stars Lori Petty and Ice T. Phoo Action looked intriguing so I went about researching.
I’m a huge fan of British television. The aforementioned Spaced is one of my favorites and if you’re a fan of Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, you owe it to yourself to see where the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost/Edgar Wright relationship began. I think the original Office is far superior to the American one. The Mighty Boosh is bizarrely wonderful. I have no doubt that the upcoming American version of Being Human won’t be able to hold a candle to the original.
I get flack for my television tastes where they’re mistaken for snooty. That’s not the case at all. I like my television like I like my comic books and video games…I like for them to have a beginning, middle and an end. When I find out that a comic is planned to have 60 issues or so, that’s perfect. If someone complains that a video game had a good story, but was only 8 hours long, I’m sold. British shows seem to have a story to tell and they only do enough episodes to tell that story. They don’t care about hitting 100 episodes to get that syndication money. The television show that Christine and I wrote (Deadpan) is planned for three seasons, about six episodes each season. We have the entire story mapped out already.
One of the things I discovered during my Phoo Action research is that the BBC seems to let the audience vote on which shows get launched once pilots are made. In the US, networks order about 20 pilots each season, with only about 6 of those making it to the air. Sometimes if you’re lucky you can find an unaired pilot on the internet, like the one for the infamous Ben Stiller created Heat Vision and Jack starring Jack Black and Owen Wilson.
Unfortunately, even though the pilot for Phoo Action aired and won a handful of awards, enough people didn’t watch to merit giving the show a full season. Coincidentally, that year Being Human was picked up instead.
Here’s the trailer for Phoo Action.
If you look, you can find the entire pilot episode online. I even managed to see it on my iPod. It’s a lot of fun. It’s one part Tank Girl, one part Green Hornet, a dash of the Aquabats, and a pinch of the Gorillaz all mixed up with some Carl Weathers on top! I really enjoyed it, but like I said, I have a predilection for these kinds of things!
Homeless Man with a Golden Voice
Honestly. Two years sober. He’s done his time. Hope someone hires him!
Off the Mike 