Twitter Updates for 2011-04-25
- @SizzlerKistler You have minions? No, you're OUR minion. YOU get lackeys and toadies. #
The Mix : What are people talking about today?
Review: The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Vol. 1 & 2
I wish I could put my finger on exactly why Marvel’s animated efforts leave me cold. Time and again the vocal casting, character design or animation displays cheap production values and they are far from entertaining. The latest such offering is [[[The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes]]], which has been airing on Disney XD and is now available in two DVDs released this week by parent company Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.
The cartoons are based more on the feature film reality than the comic book source material the films were based on, but there’s enough material borrowed from the comics it feels like a mixed bag. We start with a cocky Tony Stark who chases Hydra for stealing Stark Industries technology, which was actually taken from S.H.I.E.L.D. Meantime, it’s a world of countless super-villains, captured somehow and locked away in one of four unique facilities – the Vault, the Cube, the Big House, and the Raft.
But it’s a world without the Avengers. Iron Man is the only established hero, while the Hulk is on the run, and Ant-Man and the Wasp focus entirely on scientific research, preferring to keep Nick Fury at arm’s length. Then there’s Thor, who loves Earth but doesn’t seem overly engaged with its super-villains. Meanwhile, in Africa, T’Challa has just assumed the Black Panther mantle and wants revenge against, Klaw, who was instrumental in his father’s death.
Beyond the Hydra conspiracy, Bruce Banner worries that General Thunderbolt Ross and maybe S.H.I.E.L.D. want to build their own army of Hulks. Then there’s Kang the Conqueror who blames Captain America for somehow destroying his timeline and wants to alter a sequence of events.
That’s about par for comic book storytelling but everything feels incredibly disjointed. Maybe that has something to do with its origins, with the show actually conceived as a 20-part microseries of animated tales that debuted online then became edited into 22-minute episodes for cable. Mimicking the 2012 feature film, now in production, the team is composed of Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Ant-Man and Wasp with tons of other heroes working solo or for S.H.I.E.L.D. including Black Widow and Hawkeye (also because of the film series). (more…)
EASTER WISHES OF PULPY GOODNESS TO YOU AND YOURS!
ALL PULP would like to wish each and every reader the best possible Pulpy Easter ever. Regardless of your beliefs about this holiday, please enjoy it to its fullest with your family and friends with best wishes from ALL PULP….and remember….
The Easter Bunny…is watching…..
A Special Easter Batman Story – The Dark Peep Rises
We got tired of Superman getting all the Christian metaphors, so we’re showing you a secular Easter story… the origin of Batman, re-enacted with marshmallow Peeps.
We could call it “You’re the Easter Batman, Brucie Wayne!”
The only thing missing is a Bob Kane signature, and don’t think Kane wouldn’t have tried to get it on there.
Hat tip: Geek Tyrant.
Twitter Updates for 2011-04-24
- WHEN TITANS MARRY! Congratulations to @ValerieDOrazio and @DavidGallaher! @Comixace has the sweetest pic: http://plixi.com/p/95234880 #
If you’re waiting for “Doctor Who”, we have Comic Relief
For those of you chomping at the bit for the premiere of the new season of [[[Doctor Who]]] on BBC America in just a few hours, here’s a little preview you may not have seen. This is from this year’s Red Nose Day, which is a fundraiser for England’s Comic Relief. These bits were broadcast on a telethon over there back in March, and as you might expect star Matt Smith as the Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy, and Arthur Darvill as Rory.
I’ve taken these and shown them with movie preview panels at Lunacon and I-CON this year, and have raised about $300 in contributions from the audience. So if you’re going to watch, you should donate as well.
And now, for your dining and dancing pleasure…
‘Thor’ post-credits leaked, with MAJOR spoiler action– watch it if you dare!
If you can’t wait two weeks for Thor, starring Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman, we have a surprise for you. This is the post credit sequence at the end of the movie– the quality isn’t great and we’re looking for a better one, but you can figure out a whole lot.
Seriously, we aren’t kidding: if you don’t want to see what happens in this sequence, don’t view it, as it gives clues that lead us up to Marvel’s upcoming films Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers.
You’ve been warned.
[viddler id=a379c3a7&w=545&h=349]
Thanks to the guys at The Flickcast.
Weekend Window Closing Wrap Up: April 22, 2010
Closing windows on my computer so you can open them on yours:
- Heavenly Heroines and their Facebook page. My favorite bit on their page:Â the birthday listed is August 25, 1959, and they went to Midvale High School.
- The Comics Journal No. 56, June 1980 was the first issue of the magazine I ever read, featuring an interview with Michael Fleisher; reviews of Batman, Tomb of Dracula, and Legion of Super-Heroes; and an illustration of Princess Python by Dennis Fujitake that caught my father’s attention because it was topless.
- The Electronic Publishing Bingo Card by John Scalzi. Yes, I heard these claims being made well over a decade ago– and a lot of them still require the effort to make them work. Related: Are eBooks the new Content Farms?, The Kindle Swindle, Jane Friedman’ Enigma Variations, and The Dark Side of Kindle Publishing
- 5 Amazing Things Invented by Donald Duck (Seriously) | Cracked.com
- Japan Disaster Will Have Greater Financial Impact on Disney Than ‘Mars Needs Moms’ (Analyst) – The Hollywood Reporter: it’s insane that the impact of what could be the world’s greatest natural disaster might only have three or four times the impact of that movie on Disney’s bottom line. I’m not sure which number is out of scale more.
- Science fiction movie produced in 48 hours
- Missed this at the time in March: Chris Burnham Accepts Exclusive with DC Comics. Congrats, fella– we’d like to say “we knew him when”.
James Bond 23 and James Bond 24 Will Be Distributed by Sony and MGM – MovieWeb.com - George R.R. Martin: Game of Thrones Writer’s Top 10 Fantasy Films and Game of Thrones for Newbies: We Put a Complicated Show in Familiar Terms. Start watching now, the show has already been picked up for a second season after only one episode.
- MinimumComics: 102 – Conventions
- How To Steal Like An Artist (And 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me) – Austin Kleon
Ugh– and I still have dozens of tabs open. But this should do for a start.
Gerard Jones On Comics Life & Death
With half a dozen comic book based films set to open in weeks and sales inside the comic shops at an all time low, where is it all heading? We talked to Comic Historian and Author GERARD JONES on his perspective, plus trouble with the HAPPY DAYS Crew and a DOCTOR WHO History Crash Course.
Do you think comics are dying? Drop us a comment below!
HANCOCK TIPS HIS HAT TO FERGUSON’S DILLON!
TIPPIN’ HANCOCK’S HAT-Reviews of All Things Pulp by Tommy Hancock
‘Dillon and The Judas Chalice’
by Derrick Ferguson
Exclusive Author Released Short Story
In the New Pulp genre, there are a handful of characters that already have some name recognition, a following of fans eager for the next drop of pulpy goodness from this harbinger of action and adventure. One such character is Dillon, the all around jack of all trades hero type from the wonderful mind and world of Derrick Ferguson. Every time Ferguson speaks of Dillon on the Book Cave or his blog or wherever, murmurs begin about new Dillon, the next Dillon, untold tales of Dillon, etc. and so forth. This story is just such an event, one that was written by Ferguson as a birthday gift to all his friends and fans.
And what a gift it is!
This story opens with Dillon on a high speed chase, both chasing something and being chased by probably every law enforcement agency in the world. After this chase ends and Dillon saves the day in his own balls to the wall fashion, he is whisked away by a notorious millionaire who tells him of a wonderful artifact-the Judas Chalice, a cup made from the silver Judas Iscariot took for betraying Jesus Christ. This item allegedly will give its bearer whatever it wants as long as the bearer betrays those around them, the millionaire once its bearer, but now a victim of its power. Dillon, more out of an instant affection for the vile traitorous soul he’d just met than anything else, undertakes the mission to retrieve the Chalice, stolen by the millionaire’s former right hand man and his own traitorous wife.
What ensues at this point is one of the best all around rollicking roller coasters I’ve read in the short story form in a while. Dillon and his cohorts, including the millionaire’s own daughter, are complete and fully realized, full of facets and levels that are often hard to capture in just a few pages. The bad guys have all they need to have as well, being driven by their own desires, but even in the end, being basically people overwhelmed by their own urges. Explosions, gunfights, treachery, destruction, close calls, near misses, it’s all here! And that even includes hints and rumors about a mysterious group who hold a whole lot of power and sway!
The only drawback I found to this tale was the opening. It sets a tone for who Dillon is and what a day in his life would be like, but it was also distracting from what the story became. It set a stage, but it didn’t connect really well to what came later and showed Dillon’s skills, but somehow was more of a ‘oh, well, ok, he can drive fast’ than something that added weight to the blockbuster that followed. Even with that, though, this story is CANNOT MISS because the last 2/3 or so blow most full length novels out of the water.
FOUR OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT-The beginning might be a little clunky, but overall the story is a fist in your face and an uppercut to your gut! Awesome stuff!
