Lucky 13 week two! Two horror blogs unite to talk about the best of each of 13 Horror sub-genres. This week: Creature Features!
Here's a link to Brutal As Hell, where you'll find contributions from myself and buddy Ben Busey. Hop on over to The Vault for part 2.5!
http://www.brutalashell.com/2010/05/the-lucky-13-week-two-creature-featuresmonster-movies/
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
External Linkage
The Lucky 13 Begins! Brutal As Hell has teamed up with The Vault of Horror to take over the blogosphere for the next couple months.
They're creating a web-ring of authors, compiling lists of the greatest horror films of 13 distinct genres, each one set to shock a different part of your brain.
This first entry is exploitation films. You can find tidbits from myself, and from good friend Ben Bussey. This first entry is one I've reviewed a couple times before, so no shocker there... but we've got some good and obscure stuff, ready for you to track down, coming this month and next.
Go, enjoy, be horrified.
http://www.brutalashell.com/2010/05/the-lucky-13-week-one-exploitation-and-grindhouse/
They're creating a web-ring of authors, compiling lists of the greatest horror films of 13 distinct genres, each one set to shock a different part of your brain.
This first entry is exploitation films. You can find tidbits from myself, and from good friend Ben Bussey. This first entry is one I've reviewed a couple times before, so no shocker there... but we've got some good and obscure stuff, ready for you to track down, coming this month and next.
Go, enjoy, be horrified.
http://www.brutalashell.com/2010/05/the-lucky-13-week-one-exploitation-and-grindhouse/
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Mighty Marvel Digital Comics: Issue #1
Tonight, with $50 burning a hole in my pocket, I decided to start a subscription to Marvel's Digital Comics services. The subscription sounds nice. Its $10/month, or $60/year to read Marvel's catalog of amazing comic books as they add them to the server. There are thousands of comics to browse and flip through, ranging from the original Stan Lee issues to modern day.
Now, I don't expect the library to be complete, they add about 25-50 books per week, which is plenty to read. There will be gaps, I'm not going to complain about that (though I might do some toe-tapping on a number of them). I'm sure there will be some complaints, however. I'm going to commit them here, as a kind of ongoing Beta-test/review. Now, you guys can see how it works for yourself to a degree, via the free samples available at the link above, but the full subscription service works a little differently, and I'm sure there are people who are curious about whether or not its worth the investment. Find your answers here.
Why do I use my time on this? Because I want this to be the best service offered to any comics fan.
I'll admit it, I spent some time pirating Marvel Comics. I love 'em. Love to read 'em. Gobble them up incessantly. And at $3-4 per issue, they just became too expensive. Especially to a fast reader like myself who can go through a comic in 15 minutes. $4 for 15 minutes of reading? x12 books a month (assuming an ongoing cross-over too). Yeah, not in the budget. Also, I was out of storage space. Before I sold my collection, I had 13 longboxes of comics, each with over 500 issues, eating up a ton of space in my apartment. So, the answer was piracy.
Over time, though, piracy has gotten harder, riskier (virus, ID theft, other BS), and frankly I want to keep my favorite comic artists paid; the best middle ground is Marvel's online service that keeps me stocked with cheap reads, and keeps Marvel paid to produce quality books.
Clean art, digital zooming, and no 'shit going out of print' problems like I just went through with Essential Tomb of Dracula #1.
As the 'net evolves and print continues to slowly die, this service needs to be popular and efficient in order to keep people interested, and Marvel Comics in print. So, here I am, as a service to Joey Q, giving pointers.
With no further ado: MARVEL DIGITAL COMICS ERROR #1
While the option to search through the thousands of books and isolate those that feature my favorite characters is great, even necessary in theory, its only worthwhile if the function is complete. If the search only partially works, I'm going to assume more books are missing than actually are, and miss out on some great issues.
This error took me about five minutes to find. Tonight, I started the sub, and immediately searched for issues with Darkhawk. Only 4? Wait, he was in Nova not 5 months ago. You know, Nova, one of the most critically acclaimed and consistently selling books in the stable. Lets look up books with Nova in them... Wow, looks like they only have Nova's 4 and 7-11 on file. Dang. Guess I won't try to read that whole series.
But wait, shits and grins lets go up to 'Titles' and click Nova. What comes up but Nova #'s 1-25.
So... is Nova just not in the other 20 issues?... of his own series? Since he's on the cover to Nova #1, I'm going to bet that he's there. And this means that Marvel's tagging system isn't up to snuff, which means that their search engine isn't actually pulling results for me, which means that in order to read more Nova books, I have to know which issues he appears in already.
... Lord help me when I go looking for Black Bolt. He's only in other people's comics. What issue of Thor was that Inhumans back-up strip in again?
So, there's gripe #1. Marvel, please go in and tag all of the books appropriately for the characters that appear in them. Obviously if Nova isn't even tagged in a book with him name on the cover, something is amiss...
That's it for now, by some stuff.
Now, I don't expect the library to be complete, they add about 25-50 books per week, which is plenty to read. There will be gaps, I'm not going to complain about that (though I might do some toe-tapping on a number of them). I'm sure there will be some complaints, however. I'm going to commit them here, as a kind of ongoing Beta-test/review. Now, you guys can see how it works for yourself to a degree, via the free samples available at the link above, but the full subscription service works a little differently, and I'm sure there are people who are curious about whether or not its worth the investment. Find your answers here.
Why do I use my time on this? Because I want this to be the best service offered to any comics fan.
I'll admit it, I spent some time pirating Marvel Comics. I love 'em. Love to read 'em. Gobble them up incessantly. And at $3-4 per issue, they just became too expensive. Especially to a fast reader like myself who can go through a comic in 15 minutes. $4 for 15 minutes of reading? x12 books a month (assuming an ongoing cross-over too). Yeah, not in the budget. Also, I was out of storage space. Before I sold my collection, I had 13 longboxes of comics, each with over 500 issues, eating up a ton of space in my apartment. So, the answer was piracy.
Over time, though, piracy has gotten harder, riskier (virus, ID theft, other BS), and frankly I want to keep my favorite comic artists paid; the best middle ground is Marvel's online service that keeps me stocked with cheap reads, and keeps Marvel paid to produce quality books.
Clean art, digital zooming, and no 'shit going out of print' problems like I just went through with Essential Tomb of Dracula #1.
As the 'net evolves and print continues to slowly die, this service needs to be popular and efficient in order to keep people interested, and Marvel Comics in print. So, here I am, as a service to Joey Q, giving pointers.
With no further ado: MARVEL DIGITAL COMICS ERROR #1
While the option to search through the thousands of books and isolate those that feature my favorite characters is great, even necessary in theory, its only worthwhile if the function is complete. If the search only partially works, I'm going to assume more books are missing than actually are, and miss out on some great issues.
This error took me about five minutes to find. Tonight, I started the sub, and immediately searched for issues with Darkhawk. Only 4? Wait, he was in Nova not 5 months ago. You know, Nova, one of the most critically acclaimed and consistently selling books in the stable. Lets look up books with Nova in them... Wow, looks like they only have Nova's 4 and 7-11 on file. Dang. Guess I won't try to read that whole series.
But wait, shits and grins lets go up to 'Titles' and click Nova. What comes up but Nova #'s 1-25.
So... is Nova just not in the other 20 issues?... of his own series? Since he's on the cover to Nova #1, I'm going to bet that he's there. And this means that Marvel's tagging system isn't up to snuff, which means that their search engine isn't actually pulling results for me, which means that in order to read more Nova books, I have to know which issues he appears in already.
... Lord help me when I go looking for Black Bolt. He's only in other people's comics. What issue of Thor was that Inhumans back-up strip in again?
So, there's gripe #1. Marvel, please go in and tag all of the books appropriately for the characters that appear in them. Obviously if Nova isn't even tagged in a book with him name on the cover, something is amiss...
That's it for now, by some stuff.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
IMPERIUS SKETCH!!
A full week early, my new investment has arrived.
I picked up a Wacom Bamboo-Fun digital drawing tablet for my computer. I figure I'll need it to do my own comic book projects in the future. Pop_Aristocrat may be expanding into new artistic ventures soon enough.
Not too shabby. $100 gets you the board, a wireless mouse, pen, and a software disc with a ton of simulated mediums to fool around with. I'll probably have to search from some better computer based, comic related programs. This ain't bad for now. I already think its going to be well worth it, though.
Check out my first doodle. Not too bad for a first timer, eh?
One interesting bit with Namor, as realistic as you can get his body, his head, when drawn classically, is always going to come out horribly cartoony. I think I'll have to start light-boxing Hugo Weaving's head onto him in the future. If he were just a little more built, and ten years younger, I'd say he'd be the man to build a Namor franchise around.
Comics: Not homo-erotic in the slightest.
I picked up a Wacom Bamboo-Fun digital drawing tablet for my computer. I figure I'll need it to do my own comic book projects in the future. Pop_Aristocrat may be expanding into new artistic ventures soon enough.
Not too shabby. $100 gets you the board, a wireless mouse, pen, and a software disc with a ton of simulated mediums to fool around with. I'll probably have to search from some better computer based, comic related programs. This ain't bad for now. I already think its going to be well worth it, though.
Check out my first doodle. Not too bad for a first timer, eh?
One interesting bit with Namor, as realistic as you can get his body, his head, when drawn classically, is always going to come out horribly cartoony. I think I'll have to start light-boxing Hugo Weaving's head onto him in the future. If he were just a little more built, and ten years younger, I'd say he'd be the man to build a Namor franchise around.
Comics: Not homo-erotic in the slightest.
Monday, May 3, 2010
External Linkage
WHOOOO! Its time for some more horror! I know, I know, its been too long. This time of year, they're just too few and far between.
This time up, its the new remake of Nightmare on Elm St., published by the fine folks over at BrutalasHell.com.
Enjoy!
http://www.brutalashell.com/2010/04/review-nightmare-on-elm-street/
This time up, its the new remake of Nightmare on Elm St., published by the fine folks over at BrutalasHell.com.
Enjoy!
http://www.brutalashell.com/2010/04/review-nightmare-on-elm-street/
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Prepare yourself.... FOR THE GREATEST FILMS EVER MADE!!!
Its true. Heaven in five minute intervals. I really can't put it any other way.
Anyway, my buddy Aubry Peters a very talented (see also, eccentric, hedonistic) filmmaker out in Lawrence Kansas finally created a website for the film group, PMP Productions.
Aubry's been there since the start, and I've had the pleasure of collaborating with the group on their last 3 outings. There's a short feature in the works right now that I'm helping edit the script for, and I think it'll be pretty solid, honestly.
Anyway, if you want to see our early works on the road to greatness, they're collected here. The tech is steadily progressing, and now you can actually HEAR the films, and not just see them. :P
PMP Films, watch them, love them, and at the end, say to yourself, " I just Pooped My Pants."
http://www.wix.com/PMPProductions/PMP
Anyway, my buddy Aubry Peters a very talented (see also, eccentric, hedonistic) filmmaker out in Lawrence Kansas finally created a website for the film group, PMP Productions.
Aubry's been there since the start, and I've had the pleasure of collaborating with the group on their last 3 outings. There's a short feature in the works right now that I'm helping edit the script for, and I think it'll be pretty solid, honestly.
Anyway, if you want to see our early works on the road to greatness, they're collected here. The tech is steadily progressing, and now you can actually HEAR the films, and not just see them. :P
PMP Films, watch them, love them, and at the end, say to yourself, " I just Pooped My Pants."
http://www.wix.com/PMPProductions/PMP
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