So I figure I would have to do some explainin' sooner or later to the three of you out there who actually listened to the podcast portion of the Bispectacult.

The Bispectacult are dead.

Dafna lives somewhere deep in the mean streets of LA, she got a real job with real goals and aspirations. She works for Entertainment Online and writes some real good stuff for them, you should really check it out.

As for Ivan, well we don't really know what happened to Ivan. Moved up north and I havn't seen or heard for him for a few years. Some say he's returned to nature or some of that crystal loving nonsense. Was always a little too quiet for my liking anyway.

My shortlived replacement, Dave Exiter... let's just say I made sure it was very short lived.

I'm the only one left. Good old Kid Chris. I'm mostly unemployed, and am a college graduate who posseses no desire to go back to school or find a real job. So that makes it very easy to have a blog.

Anyway, the real point im getting at is that me and Dafna have been talking a lot lately and we want to bring back the Bispectacult podcast. She's looking in some strange thing called Skype, and Im looking into getting a computer that I could actually hope to edit a podcast on. So if all things go well, maybe in a less than a few weeks time we'll have a new podcast to post. I wouldn't hold my breath, but then I'm not the optimistic kind.

A few folks asked me why our 1st episode was listed as Episode 2- Electric Boogaloo, well a year before that show was recorded Dafna and I appeared on a UCLA radio show and debated the finer points of Marvel and DC comics. In addition to out normal rage fueled nerd rants, there was musical interludes, two very high college radio station DJ's, a guest appearance by my good friend and future Boom! Studios Editor Ian Brill, and of course, sexual tension (between me and Ian). Still hope to somehow find a recording of that show to one day bring to you guys, but until then, and until me and Dafna devise a plan on how to rise the Bispectacult from the dead, it remains dead. So your stuck with just me.

From Satuday Morning Breakfast Cereal.

...from Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin.



In case you forgot what that's from:



Yeah, I forgot too.

Apparently Star Trek fans, you are not alone.

Walk into any online forum nowadays and all you see are people who think it's a travesty that their beloved franchises are not being made into exact representations of the source material.

Dragon Ball:

Yes, this is a FANFIC. A poorly written fanfic.

1) The High School plot is COMPLETELY pointless. It's Americanizing a story that DOES NOT NEED TO BE AMERICANIZED. If they insist on school it should be Goku being home schooled by Grandpa Gohan. What would be so bad about that?
2) Goku bullied at High School? Everybody loves Goku (except the villains). The only bullying Goku should ever experience is from Pilaf, Tao, the Red Ribbon Army, King Piccolo, Raditz, Nappa, the Ginyu Force, Frieza, the Androids, Cell, The majins, and sometimes Vegeta. Carey Fuller should not even be in this film.
3) Chi Chi as the it girl? WTF!? Make her that half naked Chinese maiden that we all know and love.
4) The unfaithful look of the characters. Bulma needs full blue hair (believe me, it doesn't look over the top if done right), Master Mutaito needs to be old Asian and with a mustache, Master Roshi needs to be bald with a long beard and mustache with sunglasses, King Piccolo needs to be in a purple gi lime green and with antennas, Goku needs to be wearing his signature blue and orange gi (not casual clothing). Honestly, I've seen better looking cosplayers than the characters in this 100 million dollar budget film!
5) The unfaithful character personalities. Goku should not have to say "I'm not ready for this" unless he's up against Perfect Cell. Bulma needs to be that spunky teenager girl not a Lunch clone, Master Roshi needs to be perverted (This should be Dragon Ball, not some stupid American family film), Mai needs to be clumsy.
6) Where the hell are Piano, Tambourine, Cymbal, Drum? Why are they generic Fullum Assassins.
7) Why isn't the story more faithful?
8) Missing characters. Where the hell is Kami, the Ox King, Pilaf, Oolong (they could have included him but not as a talking animal), and the others?
9) The casting choices are awful for some characters. I really think they could have made better casts for some characters. There are a lot of people who fit the role of Goku better than Justin Chatwin. Why didn't they stick with Chow's choice of Zhang Yuqi for Chi Chi? She fits Chi Chi a lot better than Jamie Chung... Some casting choices are amazing though, like James Marsters as King Piccolo, Randall Kim as Grandpa Gohan, and Chris Sabbat as Shenron

I wont be going to watch this piece of trash movie to the cinema at all. In fact, I think I'll be doing some Signs in the next animecon in Mexico to let the people know about the crimes that are happening here.

Twilight:

I have lost all hope at this point. The commercials are over-acted and over-dramatic, the writing is all wrong, and the casting director should be shot. I am almost certain that I am not going to enjoy this movie at all and I don't like that feeling. Does anyone else feel the same way?

it ruins the fact that everyone can imagine the characters. and besides, there is absolutly no one can be any of the characters exactly.

Watchmen:

LOL They keep building hype for this money grab. I'd rather go out and buy another Watchmen graphic novel, just to give more money to Alan Moore, than give a dime to Zack Snyder. Racist piece of garbage

Wolverine Origins:

Actually, couldn't find anyone saying anything bad about this movie. Only how excited they were to see Gambit. Which inevitably reminded me of Dave's Long Box post a few years back.

I rather enjoyed the the new trailer for Star Trek, so sue me 'Trekkers'.

After reading De's latest post over at the RCR, I feel a little ashamed to call myself a Trek fan.

As someone who has watched and enjoyed most incarnations of the previous Trek, I really don't see this new film as an insult to myself, or as one person put it "my childhood being raped". I see it as what it is, an attempt to give a dying franchise some new legs. Now I know that there are those who will argue that it's a quick refurbish in an attempt to make a buck, but come on, did the loyal Star Trek fans really think they were gonna give them another chance?

After Enterprise it was obvious that the loyal Trek fanbase wasn't enough to keep interest in the show afloat, and that it had become unprofitable in many regards. And this is what Star Trek is, a business. Their job is to market their product and make it appeal to the most amount of people it can, while still trying to maintain some semblance of what made it good in the first place.

I'm sorry nerds, but the honest truth of the matter is that to the norms, Star Trek has a negative connotation to it. It's not like Star Wars, or even (ug) Harry Potter where the concept can appeal to a the greater audience... I think over the years Trekkers, Trekkies and whatever they want to call themselves have in fact alienated others from gaining a larger following in the series due largely to their behavior. Trekkies are seen as social pariahs, and while the comic convention crowd (due largely to the success of Sand Diego Con) has seen an unprecedented shift to mainstream, Trekkies have yet to make that leap.

So no, the movie is not being made for the die hard fans. Yes, it is an attempt to reach a larger audience by forgoing canon, adding Star Wars like action, and otherwise neglecting aspects that many loyal trek fans would prefer be included or vice versa.

Anyway, watch this. You've probably definitely seen it before. William Shatner's Get a Life.

According to sources, the Star Trek trailer is attached to this weekend's sure-to-be-blockbuster-(in my pants)hit Quantum of Solace. Unfortunately Kid Chris' theater didn't get a copy (those bastards), so hopefully this crappy cell phone camera partial recording will do. If he doesn't want to sit through the entire, somewhat leaden, heavy on the origin story stylings, I've screencapped the the most important bit above.

Yes. I have my priorities. I suspect that's why Kid Chris and I get along so well. That and the extreme distance of lack of actual human interaction. That helps too.

Firstly, buy a PC. Secondly, there appears to be a problem with the Bispectacult homepage that only Mac users can see right now. Apparently (I can't see it because I don't have a Mac) there are innapropriate links scattered throughout my webpage, mostly on this morning's post, that can only be viewed with a Mac.

Though I can neither confirm nor deny that these links are there, I take it on good faith from my friends that they're not running some sort of elaborate hoax on me.

If anyone not on a Mac can see these links, or vice versa, please email me at KidChrisSuperstar@gmail.com.

Thanks

Lighting your American Spirit brand cigarettes with an official Flaming Carrot Comics Zippo brand lighter.



Be the coolest kid in town when envious chums ask, "hey wasn't that character a member of the blockbuster film and superhero group of the same name, Mystery Men?" And you can smugly reply yes*.

Now, the only thing cooler I can think of would be a John Byrne's Next Men shot glass.



*character does not actually appear in film.

Here's the noteworthy stuff of the books I picked up this week:

Detective 850- The conclusion of the Heart of Hush storyline that's a prequel to all the R.I.P stuff happening in Morrison's Batman. I'm sorry, but Hush is just not a villain I can get excited about... even when he was introduced nothing interested me about Batman fighting a wannabe Unknown Soldier. Now if Batman had been fighting the real Unknown Soldier then we'd have something. I think the way DC handled the return of Jason Todd, after giving us the red herring of Hush has always left the character with a bad taste in my mouth. That is not to say I didn't enjoy Loeb's Batman: Hush, I just always thought the reveal of Dr. Elliot, a character introduced within the arc, as Hush was a bit anti-climactic, and then to be followed by the hasty return of Jason Todd as the Red Hood just seemed a bit cluttered. Anyway Hush removes Catwoman's heart to make Batman sad, then he get's beaten up, then everything returns to status quo.

Booster Gold 14- A continuation of last month's issue where Starro the Conquerer has lived up to his name, and has indeed conquered earth. Booster is humanity's only hope and with the help of Lady Chronos and very humerous cameo of Mr. Freeze, Booster set's things straight. Booster Gold continues to be one of my favorite DC series being published right now and this issue does not disapoint.

Wolverine 69- The story arc that perked my interest back into the Wolverine series a few months ago is starting to test my patience. I feel like Mark Millar watched the Road Warrior five or six times, got really excited and decided to write Old Man Logan. In all fairness, it's not that bad for a Wolverine story and at least you get to see a pacifistic Wolverine out of his element in a post-apocalyptic world filled with violence.

Walking Dead 54- The series has finally done something that I thought it would never do, introduced a character I actually like and would enjoy seeing live through the Zom-pocalypse.

A few of the other things I picked up:
Fables 78- Good read.
Trinity 24- Meh, s'alright. Liked the GL/Despero story in the back.
Green Arrow & Black Canary- So Connor is now Wolverine?
B.P.R.D The Warning 5- Fun, as always.

Obama Makes First Comic Book Appearance as President Elect.

It linked me right to Newsarama. In hindsight I wonder how much Savage Dragon's endorsement of Barrack Obama swayed the undecided Image comic reader vote. In case you were wondering, yahoo news alerts me whenever there is Savage Dragon news, which is few and far between.

Also, Newsarama you can spell better than that, and that's coming from me.

So anyway, thanks to De and Daf for those kind birthday words yesterday, and everyone else who said it to my face after reading the nonsense I post here. I even got a sweet ass present out of the deal, after pal Josh (the fellow DnD geek from a few days ago) saw it was my birthday, rushed out and got me a copy of the book boy's club.



This book is prety awesome, and I don't say that lightly.

Sure, my breakfast this morning was awesome, my drive to work was kinda awesome, and the walk I took my dog on could be described as awesome. But this book is just that... awesome. While it will only take you 2-3 minutes to complete, mostly based on the speed it takes you to flip pages, you will at least get 7-8 minutes of laughs out of it.

Boy's life is a mini-comic that collects several of Matt Furie's humor strips from 2006, and is published by Teenage Dinosaur. Speaking of Matt Furie, here's an interview with that guy. The humor is abstract, blantant and esoteric, but I guess that's the route to go nowadays cause the kids really don't go for the subtle anymore. Starring four anthropomorphic roomates who all seem to specialize in gross out humor, it reminds me of my college apartment (feel free to ask Daf why she didn't like coming to the Treehaus) and is perhaps the main reason why I am so drawn to this book. All in all, it's worth the five bucks, especially if you get it for free it cause it's your birthday.

My two favorite pages from the book:

» Read More

Today was my birthday.

I am now 23 years old, and seeing that I am about 1/3 the average lifespan of an average Californian male, I guess I have one foot in the grave and two feet on the pavement. My b-day has really made me contemplate one important issue: when am I too old to have the monicker of "Kid" as a prefix to Chris? Going by comic book logic, Kid Flash became the Flash when Barry Allen died during that whole Crisis non-sense, so do I have to wait until the man who named me dies while protecting the universe from an antimatter scourge to finally go by Chris? Mike Sterling gave me the name Kid Chris in responce to my youthful vigor that contrasted with he and Pal Dorian's bleak and dismal outlook on most everything when it came to comics. Overtime, I learned from them both and soon came to loathe the industry as well. It was kind of like an episode of my two dads, except that only one of my dad's was gay.

The earliest use, as far as I can tell, of "Kid Chris" on Progressive Ruin is from July 5, 2004... meaning that I have had the nickname since I was 18, already an adult by the time the nickname was created. And by young employee standards, current employee and coworker Tim is only 16, much younger than I was when I began working at Comic Corner. Bizarre Coincidence: add my current age with employee Tim's age and you get Mike's age.

Oh well, I guess I can hold on to it for a few more years. As for right now, I believe it's time to leave this keyboard wanting and go out for some fun.

So, as you may already know, the Watchmen movie will lack the trademark inter-dimensional squid that really tied the whole book thing together. Who knows what they'll have in it's stead, most likely Dr. Manhatten being a bad guy or something ridiculous like that, i guess we'll just have to wait and see. Anyway, let's watch some Watchmen fan films and see how they think the film should end.

An early scene from the book recreated by what appears to be some out of shape film school kids:



Pure unadalterated nightmare fuel:



Wannabe artsy fartys stuff, also film school kids... but those kind of film school kids, six parts, but you really don't need to watch any of them:

Earlier this week, good pal Sean had suggested that I rent the latest, and according to his tastes, greatest Futurama movie, Bender's Game, which had come out this last Tuesday. Having already watched and enjoyed the first movie, Bender's Big Score, Sean's synopsis of calling it "David X. Coen's love letter to Dungeons and Dragons" only made me want to see it more.



Bender's Game is the third in a series of four Futurama movies to have been made specifically for the straight to dvd audience. All I have to say is that it definantly one of those movies that could be considered too geeky for some geeks. The plot largely revolves around Bender becoming deeply immersed in the fantasy realms of Dungeons and Dragons while Fry, Professor Farnsworth, and the rest of the crew take on Mom and her evil plot to control all of the universe's fuel supply with reality-warping dark matter. Not to reveal too much of the story, Bender's fantasies become Planet Express' realities, with hilarious results.

I watched the movie with several friends, all of which huge Futurama fans, most of which comic book readers, and two of which are Dungeon's and Dragons veterans (including myself). The only people who seemed to have truely enjoyed Bender's Game as much as Bender's Big Score and Beast With a Billion Backs was myself and my friend Josh, the other DnD vet. While a plot that centers around a reality-changing, all powerful twelve sided dice may attract the Forgotten Realms crowd, it seemed to disinterest and bore those not to familiar with the mechanics of your standard Dungeons and Dragons session. While the first two movies dealt with a subject matter that was similar to the main themes of the show, the fantasy realm of this film may have been too out of element for audience members who appreciate the show's futuristic out look on everyday life. And yes, I know that there is a Dungeon's and Dragons reference in nearly every episode of the original series, but there's a difference between subtely placing a Rust Monster in a vetrinarian's office and throwing the space ship crew into Ebberon. '

All in all, it did have some good yucks, and offered a great parody of the current (past?) gas crisis... even if the third and fourth act laid on the fantasy world a little thick.

Yesterday's Craigslist post had reminded me of some New Kids on the Block comics I acquired a few months ago. Don't ask why, just accept that I have them in my possesion. The price for 10, as i recall, hovered around $8 dollars... far less than the $50 dollars that particular Bostonian wanted for their collection. I'd like to say they had some ironic-kitsch value that made them worth the money, but really, for the most part, they are unredeemable in every aspect. The books were published by Harvey, under their Rockomics imprint, so there is bound to be a Baby Huey meets the New Kids somewhere... where I can only hope the two meet, initially battle, and then team up to fight a mighty foe.

Inside each book are multiple vignettes which plots centrally hinge around the "Kids" being chased by mobs of fanatic, sex crazed girls a la Beatle's Hard Day's Night, and their clever and often chavenistic ways to- for some reason- avoid these young girls. Also, sometimes aliens, Debbie Gibson, sultans, bigfoots and Richie Rich would show up. There was another consistancy within the books: you were more than likely to see the all the members of the band ride, drive or otherwise operate a vehicle that's typically only meant for one, maybe two, passengers.

Most obvious offender:



There are a few others:

» Read More

So Obama won and, for some reason, i don't feel that great about this whole "election" thing. Probably because my state is filled with a bunch of bigots who think that the Constitution was written with God in mind and not the American people. Oh well, if they want a theocracy let them have it.

Anyway, i was on Digg and i saw this MTV News article about what candidate Super Heroes would vote for.

First of all, they have Spider Jerusalem voting for Obama; now as much as I'd like to believe that Spider and I have the same political leanings, I can't help but feel that Mr. Jerusalem would see anyone other than himself worthy of the oval office. Also, John Constantine would vote for Obama if he was an American citizen... but since Jerusalem and Constantine are the same person according to Planetary, I guess that makes sence. Also looking at the article, it seems no one in the Marvel Universe, Punisher included, would have voted for McCain? For some reason I find that a bit hard to swallow.

Anyway the article has some pretty funny insights into how comic book writers and creaters voted and probably not so much into how their characters would have gone. And also, did I miss a memo that Peter David's Fallen Angel was a popular series? I guess I must have.

I really must say kudos to you Warren Ellis, shoe-horning that Gravel reference in the end there was probably the most ham-fisted way to advertise your book. Congrats.

For those of you that haven't yet voted, I highly suggest that you do so. And I mean now, we're burning sunlight and we'll have a new prez elect in about 12 hours.

Though it is your right as an American citizen to not vote, I believe that this election will make a very large impact on the life of everyone in America for at least the next four years; it is every American's role to take some small part in how their homeland will be run.

Also as a side note, yesterday's post was a small jab at California's Prop 8. So if you live in the land of milk and honey like me and Daf, do the right thing today in that voting booth and don't take away rights from fellow red blooded Americans. Think about it this way, if Cap was still alive today would he appreciate the idea of you voting to eliminate rights?