DC Universe 0

ok, I haven't walked into a comic book store since at least early 2007, most likely earlier than that.
but I had to have DC Universe 0 in my hot little hands today. way to go, DC marketing machine. the bad news is that you only earned fifty of my pennies.

this book, written by Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns, had no substance. I realize that its very existence is a product of DC wanting me to buy the stuff it teases, but....
it teases some big stuff. the narrator's voice, when you finally figure out who it is (yeah, it took me until the last page, when it was hammer-hitting obvious) is pretty cool, I guess. more Legion exposure, and more villain stuff, and more
but I wanted big ideas and big payoffs - apparently I have to wait until Final Crisis.

the comic shop by my college is horrible. i walked in to three customers and two employees - one employee was early twenties, goatee-thing and glasses, talking about this one time when he went to this one thing and didn't sleep for forty-two hours.
there was a middle-aged customer in line ahead of me, he looked like a tall version of Mark Waid. man, is that a nerdy way to describe a fella. he spent $59 on about fifteen comics, and wasn't in the club. the counter-jockey asked him if he was in the club and explained the club to the customer. counter-jockey also said how excited he gets when customers pay with cash on Wednesday, how much he was loving the new *blah-something-blah* book, and how he would now put the customers order into a "convenient bagging device"
stupidly - and this is really, really stupid - i asked what week Final Crisis was coming out, and then when Trinity was due. counter-jockey and loud-goatee-guy didn't know either date, but started to explain to me the cycle of Iron Man hype and how that will die down to Final Crisis hype, and every comic website would be discussing it.
he started talking about how he trusts Kurt Busiek more than Paul Dini, and how Trinity should be better, both in concept and execution. i was walking out the door at this point, but they kept talking - mostly this made me remember why i don't go into comic shops anymore. and then it made me want to throw a fiery bomb into the back for a diversion and then run out so i wouldn't have to stand there any longer.

Cool! Free Comics

I'm really going to feel stupid if everyone else knew about this...

Does everyone know about Wowio? It's a website that has free comics (and books and such) that you can download and read! How &#*!ing cool is that? Anyhoo, here's the link:

http://www.wowio.com/

Nothing by the major publishers, but some good indie reads. Check it out!

Awesome Atari 2600 Games

The greatest thing you'll see today, maybe all week:
http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2008/04/21/fun-from-yesterday/

Pulp Legacy Message Board

You know there's a Pulp Legacy Message Board?
http://forums.delphiforums.com/PulpLegacy
Apparently I'm the only person who goes there since the last person we know -- Clay -- went there in November, and the most recent active PL member to go there was Arnett, in August. If we're not using that forum, especially since we're using this blog now, why doesn't someone just delete it?

We're All Gonna Die

Well, okay, just me then:
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/big-california-quake-likely-to-hit-by/20080415091509990001

Billboard with Spirit

This billboard is across the street from where I work, in Venice Beach. (These pictures taken just a few days ago.) Isn't that movie supposed to come out in January?

You Can't Dispute Wisdom

Much Like Travis, It Just Doesn't End

http://www.feanor.net/z0r/shock/superZOOM.swf

Short Chicks Rule. Also, Tall Chicks

http://www.cockeyed.com/photos/bodies/heightweight.shtml

Our Blog Should Be More Like This One

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

Too Fast To Be Zen

http://www.flong.com/storage/experience/yellowtail/

Man Trapped In Elevator for 41 Hours

http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/2008/04/21/080421_elevators

Doesn't pee as much in there as I thought he would.

Subprime Meltdown As Told By Stick Figures

http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?docid=ddp4zq7n_0cdjsr4fn&skipauth=true&pli=1

Comic book movie opinions

Sorry, but that KU picture was getting irksome and I needed something to bump it down the list (all you KU fans have had your fun, time to move on). Continuing with the movie inspiration from Jason, what does everything think about this summer's crop of comic book movies? Specifically, which ones (if any) will be "Oh my God!" over the top and which ones (if any) will deserve shame and damnation from the masses?

Personally, I think "The Dark Knight" will be the biggest movie of the summer, comic book or no. Great revamp of the franchise with the previous movie plus compelling storyline in Heath Ledger's death should make for some huge box office numbers. And from the looks of it, it should be a really good movie too (side poll: Who is the better Batman/Bruce Wayne? Christian Bale or Michael Keaton? My money's on Bale by a landslide)

So, who's got opinions?

Kansas -- CHAMPS!!!

Listen up all you comic book geeks!!! The Kansas Jayhawks are the champs!!! WWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOOWOWOWOWOWWWOOOOO!!!!

2008 Champs, baby!!! OVERTIME THRILLER!!! Keep showing the Memphis band before every commercial, see if we care!! I'm with 40,000 people on Mass Street partying my guys out!!!

YEAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

And Travis, even if Self does leave (which I don't think he will) you can't take away this 2008 championship from me!!! No one can do that!!!

My team finally won the BIG ONE!!!

16 points

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080406/ap_on_en_mo/obit_heston

You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

KU plays on Monday...

...and I called it. I was conservative, but I called it.

As someone said in the UDK's Free for All section: Rock Chalk Mother Fucker.

I am soooooooo happy! Seth?

Iron Man in INCREDIBLE HULK

This may be old news already and it may not even be true but the first time I heard the tiniest mention of it was a few months ago and you know how fanboy rumors can be. This seemed too good to be true, and it's not like the IMDB is an official source of news, but still seeing it in the listing has me kinda excited. (And yes, even though I hated the first HULK movie (and why wouldn't anyone? That was one of the worst movies ever made, second only, perhaps, to ELEKTRA. (And since it was a horrible movie, that must mean that Sweeten loved it)), I'll go see this new one, Iron Man appearance or not.)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800080/

What's your favorite comedy?

So, Jason's movie trivia thing got me thinking about doing something along similar lines here. But then I couldn't come up with anything so I decided to ask everyone what to list their favorite comedy and why. The why is the important part here. You can't just say "Fast Times at Ridgemont High 'cause I like Phoebe Cates' hooters". Okay, well maybe you can say that but I'm looking for a bit more than "hooters".

For me, it's always been Blazing Saddles. I'm a big fan of comedies, as evidenced by my DVD collection which is made of up of mostly comedies. So why Blazing Saddles? Let's make a list:

The dialogue. Hands down, the best dialogue in a comedy, ever. The funny thing about the script is that Richard Pryor had a hand in writing it, but he focused mainly on writing the white actors parts, whereas Mel Brooks wrote most of the black actors parts. And the black actors have the best lines. And the majority of the lines from this movie are still quotable after 25 years.

Comedic setup. I've always hated comedies where the situations are forced (e.g., two people have a conversation about the grim reaper knocking on their door and then the doorbell rings). Everything in this movie flows perfectly, even when it breaks the fourth wall (literally and figuratively) at the end. The timing and delivery of each scene results in maximum humorous payoff.

The actors. With a cast that includes Gene Wilder, Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn and Slim Pickens, how can you go wrong? The actors don't just inhabit their roles, they breathe them; to the extent that you actually believe these people are like this in real life.

The storyline. You couldn't make Blazing Saddles today. In this PC perfect, racially sensitive world we live in, Blazing Saddles would be protested before they shot one frame of film. But 25 years ago, nobody batted an eyelash. And that's sad because this movie actually lands a punch square in the nose on racial stereotypes by poking fun at some of the more outlandish ideas that people have about race. (One of my favorite lines that wouldn't make it today: Bart, the black sheriff, sees a friend of his for the first time since being carted off to jail. The friend says, "They said you was hung!" Bart answers, "And they was right!")

There are others that came in so close it wasn't funny (Clerks, Search for the Holy Grail, The Jerk) but Blazing Saddles takes the cake for me in terms of an all-encompassing comedy. So what is everyone else's favorite comedy?