You got Questions?

I got answers. A few weeks ago I added a formspring box along the side panel for any questions you might have that you don't feel like posting as a comment (or emailing me directly). I finally remembered my password, and found a few questions waiting for me. Here are my answers:

Anonymous asks:
This Blog is Pretty good. Is there anything else you've written recently?

Let me tell you, compliments like that just make me feel all gushy inside. Thanks Anon, I'm really glad that you enjoy my ramblings However as it is, this is the only place you'll get them.

I do somewhat keep tumblr blog with a buddy of mine (itsatrap), but I've been overly lazy with 'trapping' new content. I should really get better at that.

Also, I wrote a couple of articles for the awesome guys over at Comic Impact, but a combination of work, holidays, and personal stuff (I moved) made it kind of fall by the wayside. I did write some fun stuff though, including a full on history lesson on industry game changers and a recap on who Rikki Barnes is. Even without my writings it's a great site and you should totally check it out. Sheldon, Simon, Dana, and (I assume, because I've never really interacted with him) Rob are great people with a fantastic comic resource page.

And hey, I'm always open to writing anywhere else if anyone's looking...

Nameless asks:
How's it been going for a year now? How come you don't actively try to get more followers? Have you made any money? How?

That's a really good question that I don't really have a good answer for. Honestly I just use this blog as an outlet for my comic passion and haven't really considered how I can make money off it.

It's weird, because I totally could, and ought to, I just never think it's an option. Part of me would feel like a sellout putting up Amazon links, but maybe I ought to just because. I dunno, it's something to consider that I really haven't thought of yet.

As for seeking followers, honestly it comes down to my modesty. I always feel weird pimping out the things that I do to other people, like I'm trying to force my products upon them, so instead I rely on other people to do the pimping for me. In life outside the internet it's the same way, where I won't tell people my accomplishments and have people around me who will tout this or that. It takes the pressure off, and then I don't feel so bad talking about it or myself because someone else is asking about it.

Maybe that's what I'll change going into year two, more amazon links and more shameless promotion. Whadda think?

My buddy over at Rated Awesome to Awful asks:
How's it going with the wirting and directing? Anything new coming up? How would The Cove like to help RATA Weekly make his Awesome commercials/webspots/youtube sensations?

Okay, for the uninitiated I'm a filmmaker. When I'm not trudging through reality TV shows, I'm part of a up-and-coming collective named Cove Entertainment. Together we focus on making fun internet shorts, our most notable ones being Living With Galactus and it's sequel.

In addition to this, I directed an award-winning festival short Background(ed) a few years back and am currently working with the team from that on a feature.

Anyway...

Right now, the writing is going WAY better than the directing. I'm working on a graphic novel (It's a western with super-science), I just finished a horror feature (Two horror geeks find themselves the stars of their own horror flick), and am just about to start writing another feature (the content to be determined, my partner and I are working on it). On the directing front, I have a really awesome horror comedy script lined up, but I'm waiting for one more revision before we really start on it.

As for new stuff, I know the guys have been hard at work pumping out new material lately, or at least shooting a lot of stuff. From what I understand, they've shot three or four shorts and are in the process of putting them together. Speaking of, I still have some really old footage that needs some love so it can be released....

As for helping out RATA, how about you shoot me an email about what you're looking for and I'll run it past the guys. We'll see if we can't figure something out.

The Lonley Lady asks:
What are the attractive qualities you look for in a woman?

After years of rejection, miscues, and otherwise not getting any, I came up with a list of requirements I look for in a woman:

1- She has to have a cute face. The way I figure it, when I'm talking to a girl for th emost part I'm gonna be looking at her face, so it better be worth looking at. I need captivating, emotional eyes; a clear-ish complexion; and a nose that fits on the face (not too big, and definitely not too small). Don't get me wrong, I love me some big boobs and/or a nice booty, but that shit doesn't last. A cute face will.

2- She has to be nice to Strangers. The easiest way to tell if someone is a good person is by how they treat people they don't know, be it waiters, ushers, or just people on the street. If I catch a girl I'm into being overly rude to someone who doesn't deserve it, it's a huge red flag.

3- She has to be Smart. Do you know how annoying it is to not have a compelling conversation with someone? Or have your jokes constantly fly over their heads? Or to have to explain the basics of everyday life? I'm sure you all do, so I'm sure you understand where I'm going with all this.

4- She has to 'get' my geekiness. This is the deal breaker. I don't mind if the girl I'm with is into comics the way I am, but I want her to understand that I love it and not try to change it. The worst thing in the world is to be embarrassed by, or otherwise shamed by what you love. I want a girl who accepts me and my geekiness as one.

And there you have it, my list for the perfect woman. Everything else (hair color, height, nationality, glasses/no glasses, etc) is all gravy. Although western shirts and polka dots are a HUGE plus.

Alright, first round of formspring down. Keep'em coming, and I'll keep answering em.

Crash'd!

You know what's fun? Turning on your Macbook to discover it can't find its boot disk.

So yeah, my machine crashed and I've spent way too many hours wrestling with it to get my data off it while trying to reinstall the OS. And its not going well. The good news I got all the really important stuff of, the bad is that the damn thing freezes up while trying to read the recovery cd. Sigh.

Anyway, I wanted to let y'all know I might not be posting a lot in the coming days as I get this all figured out. But Matt, you say, how are you posting this? The wonders of modern technology, ie my phones keyboard, and let me tell you, as convient as this is, I don't think I could go off on a hundred word diatribe on Nomad even if I wanted to, I think my thumbs would revolt.

Wish me luck and I'll see you on the other side.

UPDATE: So, as it turns out my computer is now a paperweight: The hard drive is dead. Alls not (totally) lost though, as I'll start the wheels turning on a way to fix it all tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll be stealing time on the GirlFriend's laptop when I get a chance to keep the posts a-rollin'. It can only go up from here, right?

Right?

The Best Comic Ever!

Some comic fans discover their favorite comic at an early age. Most times it's that one issue that really hooked them and molded their views on how a comic should be. (I'm looking at you, Chris Sims)

But then there's the rest of us who don't really have that experience. I know I started reading because the cool kid was and I wanted to be like him. Thousands of books later, I find myself reading because of a love for the medium and discovering the corners of continuity that never get much light. It was here that I found my new favorite book:


Hercules Prince of Power #4

The last issue in the Hercules miniseries by Bob Layton (which, incidentally, has a sequel coming out in a couple of months) includes all of my favorite things: Crazy action, drinking, and Galactus. Suddenly my life is complete.

As the story begins, Herc is being celebrated as the hero he is by the inhabitants of Ciegrim-7 (Ha, get it?), the beer planet



The celebration commences with everyone getting wasted, it's like Herc died and went to God Heaven. But of course, when things are going really awesomely, there's always a buzzkill. Enter Nova (Frankie Ray, not Richard Rider):



Herc's response is pretty much what you'd expect from anyone in his position: GTFO!



And wouldn't you know it, but a huge fight breaks out. Herc is no slouch when someone comes between him and his libations, so he goes all out, throwing everything he can at the interloper. But then, the unspeakable happens:



NOT THE BEER!



NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

*Ahem.

Sorry, I got a little worked up there.

From the burning rubble, Frankie emerges unscathed and quite possibly drunk as she realizes who she's fighting... and gets hot.



Good thing for her the only thing Herc likes more than drinking is whoring.

While they're off 'talking', Galactus is getting pissed. For centuries he's had a free lunch waiting for him at the edge of this galaxy, but now thanks the the machinations of Hercules (probably form the proceeding three issues) it's not there anymore.

Tired, hungry, and impatient, Galactus decides he's going to eat Ciegrim-7 whether Frankie comes back to tell him it's a good planet or not.

Herc, finished with his 'chat' with Frankie, knows that this aggression cannot stand and takes the fight straight to the man in the funny purple hat.



It doesn't go well for Herc. He's smacked down and tossed aside, left to reconsider his tactics while Galactus gets his grub on.

Then Herc asks Galactus the question that I've always wanted to ask:



And they proceed to get drunk together.



In the end, they share a few laughs and Galactus decides that getting wasted is just as good as eating, opting to leave the famed beer planet alone. So while Galactus flies off looking for something else to snack on, Herc heads back to the planet looking for something else...



I dare you to find a better comic than this.

The Coming Shadow(land)

This week's batch of Marvel internet teasers are for the impending Daredevil crossover, Shadowland. From the best reports it'll deal with the street heroes of New York learning to deal with DD's new status quo as the head of the Hand. Something like that.

So here was the teaser that was released yesterday:



Here's my question: What's the Punisher doing on this cover? I mean, yes, I understand that he's one of those quintessential Marvel street heroes and, yes, I can see that he's shooting Spider-Man in the crotch with an M16, but doesn't he look a bit different these days? I dunno, something like this:



Are we going to be in for some weird contiuity manuevering? Will Frankencastle be swept under the rug canonically? Or worse, will Frankencastle cease to be?

It's a question I'm not sure I want answered. All I know is that I don't want my FrankenCastle to go away yet.

Also: Read FrankenCastle!

In case you weren't aware...

Over at Thenerdybird.com there was a contest to win a four day pass to the Geek Mecca that is The San Diego Comic Con. Many entered this random drawing, and only one emerged the winner.

That winner was me.

Crazy, right? I can't tell you how excited I am. I've had a huge smile on my face all weekend and I don't suspect it'll go away until the end of July. It's going to be a blast and I can't wait to go. I'll bring my laptop so I can keep y'all posted on the happenings and experiences inherent in the world's biggest comic convention.

And hey, if anyone wants to meet up let me know, I'm planning to take in the entire convention the right way, with loads of comics by day and gallons of drinks by night. I'm game for whatever, who's with me?

Super Gigantic Hyper thanks to Jill at theNerdybird for making it all possible!

Weekend Matinee: DEAD HEAT

Do you like buddy cop movies?

Do you like Zombie movies?

You do? Then brother, I have the peanut butter for your chocolate, Dead Heat. This forgotten classic teamed Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo as the original odd couple, where one was playing by his own rules, while the other was DEAD!

It's full of all the crazy pseudo science and outrageous action you would expect from an 80s movie and adds... well not much really, that's pretty much all it has going for it. Just check out this clip:



This week's moral is to never go to a butcher shop when a zombie apocalypse is afoot, the results can be most fowl. HA!

And yeah, I know that would be better with a beef joke. Whatever.

Also, if you're ever in need of putting down a psychotic side of beef, just remember to pump a full round into it's chest cavity, apparently that's the best option.

Celebrity Fan Letters

No no, not for this site. Oh heavens no. I don't think any celebrities read this site... or do they? Whatever, onwards.

One of my favorite things to do when I read older comics is to read the letters page. It's here that you see fandom hasn't changed at all from the 1960s. People complaining about DD's costume change (that's to the red, not to the armor), complaints about changing it to Invisible Woman (in the eighties no less! I was baffled), people complaining about all kinds of things that we, as a collective reader, don't see as big deals anymore. And sometimes these letters are written by people who went on to actually write the comics.

While I was reading X-Force #1 for my very first post, I came across a curious letter.

"It's amazing that a book about charaters whose philosophy I object to so
strongly could interest me so much!"

He goes on to muse about the secrets of Stryfe:

"As for Stryfe... I don't see how he could actually be Cable... Maybe Stryfe
is Cable's son"

Interesting theory. He goes on to talk about the upcoming cast and how he was surprised that Cannonball and Boom-Boom opted to stay:

"I was especially surprised that he [Cannonball] and Boom-Boom did nothing
when Cable cold-bloodedly killed Brute"

So who was this wordsmith, published by Marvel before he even dreamed of having a contract there? Read the letter for yourself:



It was Christos Gage, current writer on Avengers Initiative (soon to be Avengers Academy), the House of M spinoffs, among others. Pretty cool, right?

I thought so, but I always find it fascinating to get a glimpse of these full on stars, especially comic stars, before they made it.

I'll keep my eyes open for more! Let me know if you find them first!

War Machine v. Cable in Three Panels

In War Machine #1, Jim Rhodes shows Cable the armor AND the attitude...





Jeez, get a room guys already!

War Machine #1 from the bombastic minds of Scott Benson and Len Kaminski with the pencils from forgotten star Gabriel Gecko

Kick Ass review

Before I start, let me get something out of the way:

Kick Ass was pretty kick-ass.

There, pun complete. I'm happy, and you don't have to wonder when I'm going to work it into my review. Now lets move on.



I'm not going to lie to you, I really didn't have any high hopes walking into Kick Ass. I tend to be a very reluctant fan of Mark Millar, in that his hucksterism gets to me and turns me off his stuff, but I'll be damned if the majority of his stuff isn't pretty awesome. Kick Ass was exactly that, pretty awesome.

The story goes that one day, perpetual every-teen Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) decides to become the best citizen ever and through on a mask to take on crime head on. Along the way he becomes an internet phenomenon, inspiring others to take up the fight only to raise the ire of the resident drug kingpin. All this is done, of course, with the typical Millar flair for violence and crazy action, which was the real selling point for me.

Turning it up a notch were all the performances. From Johnson's nervously confident Kick-Ass, to Nic Cage's as the Daddy-Dearest-with-a-shotgun superhero Big Daddy, everyone was perfectly cast. My favorite character though, and the one that surely steals the movie, is the spry tough-as-nails 12 year old Hit Girl played by Chloe Moretz. Her scenes are by far the best things in the movie, full of the craziest of crazy action and one of the best lobby scenes since the Matrix. She's probably the main reason I want to see it again, I was so pumped up by all that.



This stuff isn't Shakespeare, but it still never failed to entertain me. I don't know if I was just in the mood for a superhero adventure with a side of crazy violence or what, but it just blew me away with how much fun it all way.

I honestly haven't been blown away by a movie in this way in long time. You know that feeling you get when a movie just grips you and you're taken for a great ride, only to be tossed aside as the movie ends? That ragdoll-whiplash of emotions? That's how I felt after Kick Ass.

With such a fantastic start, I can't wait to see what the rest of the summer brings. Now the bar is set even higher for Iron Man 2.

Fabulous 100th Post!

Woulda look at that, 100 posts on my little blog. Not bad for less than a year. I mean, not all that great either, but still not bad. I feel like I'm going strong and finally finding my voice on this damned thing. Here's to a hundred more!

And, to keep the tradition alive from my fifteth post, here are all the issue 100s I own. Also this will probably be the last time I do this, because A- not many series reach over a hundred; and B- It's kinda silly and I really ought to focus on generating new content. Right? RIGHT!


This book was just floudering at the time, I only bought this because I had the previous 99 issues. Which is saying something, considering that it's X-Force.


Power Man and Iron Fist is the greatest team up ever. I really need to write about them more.


The start of Claremont's second coming and coincidentally when I stopped reading comics. (SPOILERS: I started reading them again!)


Honestly, I bought this one because it was a shiny collectors item. I remember not knowing what was going on, but it was kinda nice to see someone actually die from the Legacy Virus. You know, aside from little girls.


Hyped as being the issue where Wolverine finally got his adamantium back, they sure fooled us by turning him into a noseless pirate for six months. I think they were trying to punish us...


So in this issue, Spidey creates a new suit of armor to get, I dunno, the villain or something. It was totally great, lasers had no affect, bullets were worthless, it was unstoppable! Until someone made it really cold, and the armor shattered. I was very disappointed.


I believe my thoughts on Spider-Girl are pretty clear.


I totally own this book, and totally love it. Iron Man, uh, recaps his origin and faces off against some classic foes. It's great! You should totally go read it and let me know what you think about it.


Daredevil in the mid seventies was weird. He moved to San Francisco, lived in sin with the Black Widow, fought robots from the future, and in this one, fought mind altering hippies. Thank god Frank Miller came around.


Featuring the first appearances by Feral and Shatterstar, this is the book that made me an X-Force devotee.

Shut up, I was 13. Get outta here!