Kickstarter

The Kickstarter pitch has been submitted. Hopefully they'll deem my project worthy and I'll be able to key all of you in very soon. I'm very passionate about this project and I believe I'll do everything I can, max out whatever credit cards I have to, to make it happen with or without the Kickstarter funding, but the Kickstarter funding will definitely make things a lot easier. So for all of you true believers out there, cross your fingers and toes (or your tentacles if you have 'em) that they deem my project worthy of a shot.

More to come. Keep believing!

Wrestling? REALLY?

I've probably mentioned before that I grew up loving professional wrestling. This is similar to the way that I grew up playing D & D, which is to say, I did it well into my twenties. While a Southern male watching wrestling his whole life isn't all that shocking, it has always seemed to act as a sort of humorous black mark against me as regards my more scholarly friends. I suppose a casual observance of such over the top and, at times puerile, entertainment would be deemed socially acceptable in an "ironic hipster" sort of way, but casual was never how I observed pro wrestling.

Over the years I've justified it as a combination of nostalgia (for the American wrestling of my youth) and admiration for the more skilled performers most often seen wrestling in Japan, Mexican and smaller scale promotions in the United States. But a few years back a wrestler named Chris Benoit (at the time my second favorite wrestler ever) did a terribly tragic thing to his family and to himself and I checked out. I wasn't paying a lot of attention to wrestling at the time honestly, but the Benoit tragedy put me out of it completely. Until recently.

You can blame Chris Haley, illustrator for the fantastic webcomic Let's Be Friends Again, for igniting my interest in wrestling once again. Always something I did with friends, having someone who actually watches wrestling currently with whom to discuss it has helped ease me back in. It also helps that current storylines are pretty decent and that for the first time in years, the WWE seems to be highlighting some very talented young wrestlers. I won't bore you with details, I just needed to illustrate that I've sort of rekindled my interest again.

If you read this blog then you know the other thing I grew up loving was comic books. I've thought for a while that I'd love to combine comics and wrestling. I mean come on, the two seem like a match made in heaven, right? Same black and white ideas of good and evil, same affinity for anti-heroes, same exaggerated physiques; comics and wrestling share more than a few similarities. Over the years there have been some combinations of the two to limited success and there are definitely a few guys keeping the torch of wrestling comics alive in the webcomic realm, but there really hasn't been an ongoing comic book about wrestling that I can recall.

I think about this a lot and I think I'd love to do one myself. There could be the over-the-top sci-fi/horror, let's wrestle a bunch of monsters and keep the world safe from danger angle, much like all those old Santo movies so popular with the cult film crowd. At the other end of the spectrum is something like The Wrestler, a deep and at times dark exploration of the seedy underbelly that truly defines professional wrestling for most observers. Well, both those things have been done. So what do I do? Any suggestions? Give it up?

But it keeps gnawing at me.

Nerd-O-Vision

So this weekend is Baltimore Comic-Con, but you wouldn't really know it to look around various comics news sites. Outside of a brief mention of the Harvey Awards at Bleeding Cool, I can't find anything about the convention at any of the big three press outlets (CBR, Bleeding Cool, Newsarama). Maybe I've just lost my ability to properly navigate comics sites?

Moving on, let me show you some seriously badass stuff I found around the web yesterday.

This, for instance, is amazing. -- via io9 AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!

Genevieve Farley-Tremblay is making pin-up magic happen over at her art blog. Her artwork is inventive and playful, celebrating more realistic female proportions while still being firmly tongue in cheesecake. -- via Comics Alliance GENEVIEVE FARLEY-TREMBLAY

In a display of half-hearted civil disobedience, this out of shape Ben Reilly bedevils the streets of Poland with silly string skullduggery. -- via Topless Robot SPIDER-DOUCHE

This report shows that the British used hookers to distribute a bio-weapon among colonial troops in 1776. Interesting stuff for you history nerds. -- via io9 DOXIES & SMALLPOX

The latest from Disney and John Lasseter looks like it's going to blow some minds. -- via io9 WRECK-IT RALPH

Finally, we'll end it with Stan "The Man" Lee (who sometimes masquerades as a cackling, insane Nationals fan) throwing out the first pitch in a game between the Phillies and the Nationals. -- via Bleeding Cool EXCELSIOR!

Nerd-O-Vision

Baltimore Comic-Con kicks off this weekend and I'm supposed to be there. Unfortunately, due to my lack of sufficient funding for this trip, I'm in my old room at my parents telling what few of you true believers aren't glued to CBR right now all the other places you should be looking cool nerd happenings.

This has got to be the first thing I tell you about. This has become a fairly high-profile-low-profile project, but I'd say there are still some of you out there that aren't familiar with it. DC Fifty-TOO is a collective of artists creating cover images for their own DC relaunch, a group of books they'd like to see get a new and fresh direction. Some of the best rising talent in comics is assembled on this thing so it bears closer scrutiny. DC FIFTY-TOO

io9 yesterday posted this extensive look at the evolution of pulp magazine cover art. It's a fascinating look back into the art of printing in America with some very cool images to tie it all together. io9 PULP

These terribly dull set photos, which I discovered over at Bleeding Cool, seem to settle the debate about Henry Cavill's costume in the upcoming Zak Snyder Superman film. Yes, is his cape does drag the ground like Batman's (little surprised at this as he doesn't need to use it to conceal himself) and no, it would seem he does NOT have red trunks. I don't really see the costume as being all that terrible, other than my questions about the cape, and Cavill does at least fill it out well. Bleeding Cool SUPER SET PHOTOS

It looks like the latest Marvel vs. Capcom will be bringing everyone's favorite psychadelic hero, Dr. Strange, to the video game world. This quick write up over at Gamma Squad has a cool video of some Sorcerer Supreme gameplay after the jump. gammasquad SORCERER SUPREME

This story was reported earlier this week, but I grabbed this info from Robot 6 this morning. It seems Chicago, soon to be my new home, is getting a small press, indie comic convention similar to A.P.E. and mocca. This is very good news indeed. robot 6 C.A.K.E

That will do it for this morning. Enjoy!

Nerd-O-Vision

I've been crashing at my folks' place before moving to Chicago and that means unfettered access to the internet for free. For the most part I've used this power to watch television shows for free and get lost in massive Wiki-pitfalls, but I've made the occasional detour into actual news (okay, actual Geek News). This new found well of information got me thinking that I should do a wrap-up/commentary on various things happening in the Geek-o-sphere that intrigued or entertained me. Here goes.

Let's start with the fact that I just found an uninterrupted airing of Ghostbusters in HD on this wonderful television and, as per usual, I've noticed something new. My latest observation about the movie, you ask? Well, Nixon is widely considered to be a draconic madman who ran amok with the American government (right? I mean, that sums it up? Very scholarly observation of history), a conservative juggernaut with little regard for the will or the rights of the American people. Few people remember that he started some very liberal social programs, including the Environmental Protection Agency. It occurs to me that the agent from the EPA in Ghostbusters is the only Nixonian style portrayal of the EPA you're likely to find. I mean, he's one step away from be-eagled epithets and jackboots.

Moving on to the state purpose of this posting, I bring you this to whet your appetite. The guys at Let's Be Friends Again have begun hosting a forum on their website. At some point since it's inception, a discussion about comics erupted. Just one thing: these comics aren't real. Via Comics Alliance -- http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/08/19/comic-book-forum-argument/

My buddy Tribe One, a nerdcore rapper who often performs with fellow bud Adam Warrock, released his newest single in conjunction with Adam's newest donation drive. Go check out the track and donate some money to the cause of awesome. Via adamwarrock.com -- http://www.adamwarrock.com/2011/08/17/new-single-tribe-one-different-donation-drive-month/

The Ghost Rider 2 trailer dropped today. With increasingly-hilarious-despite-himself-Nic Cage and the guys behind the magnificent Crank series at the heart of this, I can't see how it could possibly fail. Check out the fiery trailer here. Via Comics Alliance --

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/08/19/ghost-rider-spirit-of-vengeance-trailer-video/

It's a few days old now, but blogger Emma Carmichael went undercover at the Gathering of the Juggalos and gave us a fan's eye view of the largest threat this country faces--drug fueled manchildren with a taste for misogyny and cheap beverages. Via the Gawker Network --

http://deadspin.com/5831225/dropping-in-on-the-demented-utopia-of-the-gathering-of-the-juggalos

There's apparently a conference on the plausibility of building a space elevator every year. They recently wrapped up and io9 had this recap of the event. Via the Gawker Network --

http://io9.com/5832012/this-massive-engineering-project-may-be-our-best-chance-at-colonizing-space

Some footage of Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth doing battle with aliens or soldiers or alien soldiers leaked off the set of The Avengers. It looks a hell of a lot cooler than those leaked Dark Knight set photos. Via YouTube --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOOFJBHcm3k&feature=player_embedded

I'll leave you with this absolutely ridiculous and seemingly arbitrary ranking of the 100 Most Important Sci-Fi/Fantasy books NPR released this week. Via tor.com --

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/08/npr-reveals-best-sff-book-winners

That's it for today. I'll be back tomorrow with another tour of the nerd world.

E-Books; So Maybe They Aren't the Devil

I'm at my parents house.

Full disclosure, I'm staying at my parents house. Why? Well, because I recently quit my day job and decided to pursue writing full time (and no doubt bar backing part time). My folks are good enough to helps subsidize my madness for a brief period while I put together a Kickstarter campaign and sell my car. Anybody need a really reliable Accord? What does this have to do with E-Books? More than you'd think.

To comfortably crash with my folks, I had to basically store everything I own. Now I'm a minimalist, so I don't own much at all, but one thing that I do obsessively cling to is my books. Don't get me wrong, I'm quite fond of taking a book off my shelf that I love and gifting it to a friend who has never read it. But I will most likely always replace that book. I'm a writer and I traffic in words, so by that rationale you can imagine that I read a lot. Therefore, when moving, the possession that dominates the majority of my space is certainly my books. This move was no different. The problem? There aren't room for all my books at my parents house. Okay, so we've got them tucked safely away in a storage shed. Problem number two? I won't be settling down somewhere again for a while. What's that mean? No access to my books!

The project, which I'll reveal to all of you very soon, requires that I move around a lot over the course of the next year. Moving my books out of storage and into a nice, comfortable new home (studio apartment...cardboard box) would be one thing, but carrying fifteen boxes of the road around with you on the road isn't exactly an option. First world problems, right? And if it were just a bunch of books I intend to read for pleasure, maybe I'd give you that argument, but it's more than that. There is loads of research material in those boxes that I now have no access to at all, research material that I could need for other projects throughout the year. I know, I know, it's not the end of the world, but it did get me thinking. If I had an E-Reader with all of this stuff loaded onto it already, this wouldn't be a problem at all.

I love my books. I love the feel of them, the weight of the object in my hand, the smell with which they envelop a room. Getting rid of them in favor of digital copies (like I'm intending to eventually do with my films and my CDs) isn't an option, but having those same books backed up onto an E-Reader that I could then have with me everywhere I go would give me a huge research advantage. Let's all face it, laptops are great and super portable, but they can be heavy, cumbersome and possessed of poor battery life, problems with which the Kindle and Nook aren't terribly troubled. So in the interest of having a vast research library, with some fiction thrown in for fun (and maybe Angry Birds if I jailbroke my Nook), I come down firmly on the side of E-Readers.

It's the future. I figure it's high time I started acting accordingly.

Avengers Assemble?

Unless you're the worst superhero fan in the world (or you're Matt Murdock) you've probably seen the Avengers trailer and subsequent panoramic poster. With Iron Man II considered a box office failure in comparison to its budget, Captain America a seeming success and Thor somewhere in the middle, hedging one's bets about the Avengers movie due out next May seems like the wise move.

Prevailing wisdom seems to lend itself to the idea that, while it seems like a good idea, assembling a large and filthy rich collection of actors into one ensemble film is rarely met with stunning results. While there are notable exceptions (Lord of the Rings, any even numbered Star Trek film), many ensemble films seem to buckle under the weight of their own lofty expectations. If we posit this as truth, or at least more likely than the opposite outcome, then we'd be right to worry that Avengers will suffer the same fate as so many other ensemble films. After all, don't we have a glaring example of how badly this can fail under the banner of Marvel's own studio?

While the majority of Marvel's films have been successes, and indeed have seemed to improve as they go along, there is the undeniable tarnish of a few very poorly received films. Daredevil and Elektra spring to mind, but those aren't really ensemble casts in the since that we're discussing here. No, the example I'm looking at is Fantastic Four. Fantastic Four is a team movie, much like Avengers. It had an ensemble cast of fresh talent (including the man now playing Steve Rogers, Chris Evans), all with a rising star attached firmly to their belts. Despite this fact and despite the conceit that Fantastic Four is still Marvel's flagship book (it's clear that it's Spider-Man these days, beyond that X-Men and even, I'd say, Avengers), it seems like Fantastic Four should have been a no-brainer success. But bad writing, sloppy performances and an unwillingness to seriously promote the film led to a collapse. Even still, Fantastic Four got two films. Call Marvel nothing (in film at least) if not committed.

That brings us to Avengers, a film that on paper seems very similar to the relative failure of Fantastic Four. So why is everyone so excited? What's got everyone believing that this is the geek film to end all geek films? First, it's the sheer scope of it. While DC has hinted at a Justice League movie for years, the reality seems quite distant. And even then, they had talked about casting the JL movie independent of their other film franchises, meaning Christian Bale would not be reprising his role as Batman and Ryan Reynolds would not be tossing around any more constructs as the Green Lantern (not seeing a problem there). Marvel has assembled a host of good actors, writers and directors to craft a large and comprehensive universe in which the Avengers can play. And for the most part, it's worked. Despite the clunky ending of Edward Norton's otherwise good Hulk movie and the relative mailed-in performances of Iron Man II, the Avengers-connected Marvel films have been good, even great (Captain America, Iron Man) at times. The second thing that has people so excited about The Avengers? Joss Whedon.

If you don't know (come on!), Joss Whedon is the architect behind some of the most well-received genre properties of the last fifteen years. The creator of shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly, Whedon is also a huge comics fan and an accomplished writer in the medium itself. Combining that love of comics and his continued success with ensemble casts, Whedon seems the perfect choice to helm The Avengers. And I believe he is. Still, it remains to be seen what Whedon will do with a cast that is largely not of his choosing. While Whedon has always been adept at handling large casts, it's always been casts that he's had a large hand in assembling and he's had years to develop a working relationship with them. This time, he's got to manage a number of actors he had no decision in the casting of at all. How does that affect his ability to direct? We'll know in less than a year.

Despite these issues, I do think Avengers will be a great success. The good will toward the movie among fans I think outweighs even the mass expectations, and thus potential for serious let down, surrounding the movie. I think Whedon is the perfect choice to handle a film like this and, as a fan of the man's work, I think this is the moment most Whedon fans have waited for; the moment Joss truly reveals his talents to the world at large.

I hope I'm right. Marvel can't afford for me to be wrong.