GRIFT

Yeah, at the risk of beating this horse to death, any vehicle for Woody Harelson to return to the silver screen gets a thumbs up from me. Killing zombies on a quest for Twinkies is just the icing on the cake.

Micheal Jackson died today, cause of death was heart failure... Apparently his heart simply "stopped after getting enough."

So last night I took my Dad to a Blue Oyster Cult concert for his birtday/Father's day. I've always been kind of aware of their work but man did they rock live. Both guitarist were amazing (epic guitar solo's galore!), they had an amazing bassist touring with them (who did a cool medley of all the other bands he'd toured with prior [Quietriot/Whitesnake/Ozzy] during the breakdown of Godzilla), and the drummer wasn't bad either. They even played off the More Cowbell joke abit during their intro.

All and all, the concert completely exceeded my expectations. So EWB, when has this happened to you? When has a band's awesomeness totally taken you by surprise?

Alright, so I've just jumped into Peter David's 2005 run with Dennis Calero on X-Factor and WOW am I loving it.

The art is graceful and complementary to the noir feel of David's writing and I really can't understate how much I've enjoyed his storytelling. You can really tell that he has written these characters before. This is a comic I probably never would have checked out if not for Marvel's Online library but boy am I glad I did. I haven't been so pleasantly surprised with a book since I checked out The Irredeemable Ant-man.

Can anyone recommend anything else by David? I am not overly familiar with his work but there are only 34 issues from this run online and I'd love to either check out more of his work-- preferably from the last 9 years. I am not a huge X-Factor buff either. Is it worth checking out their earlier titles? Also, more Madrox = Greatness.

Ugh, I hate Humberto Ramos' artwork. He is an instant interest killer in any comic for me. Anyone have that effect for you guys? I seriously cannot read something if he has done the art.

"AND YOU CAN'T PISS ON HOSPITALITY. I WON'T ALLOW IT."

Oh, man the line that shall live in infamy. The best part of that movie is that there is a whole counter culture that widely celebrates it as the best worst film ever made. In fact, there is recent documentary about it. Here is the equally funny trailer for that.

Not to mention his childhood friend Ian McKaye... was in like half the bands in DC.

It is the same album minus the bonus track. I think the performances are the same, but I am not sure about the mastering. The difference mostly falls, I believe, in the fact that the first release was only on cassette and when they finally got around to releasing it on LP and later CD formats we came up with the latter.

But it has been ages since my days of Bad Brains fanaticism. So take all that with a grain of salt.

Ah, yes. I just read The End not that long ago and I will say that I loved Gambit's story. Hell, I kind of hope

I think that my main problem with most of Claremont's recent work is that his writing style is so anachronistic . He is simply using the same storytelling techniques he used in the 70's and while I respect his original tenure with the X-Men, he has been more miss than hit since he gave up the reigns in '91.

I just finished his recent run on Uncanny and that is pretty much exactly how I feel about Claremont.

Ok, so The Black Fox playing Wii in the The Irredeemable Ant Man is pretty much the best thing I've seen happen in comics for ages.

Found this over at ComicVine:

I'm not sure how much of a role Odin will have in the Thor movie, but he's a character that needs to be cast properly. Rich Johnston posted at Bleeding Cool that Brian Blessed has been cast. Who is Brian Blessed? You might know him as Boss Nass in "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace," Prince Vultan (of the Hawk Men) in the 1980 "Flash Gordon" movie and Caesar Augustus in "I Claudius." Blessed has also worked with Director Kenneth Branagh several times.

While there are a few valid points, I thought the entire thing was overly nit-picky.

Ok, so like I said I've been playing a lot of catch up lately and I've moved on to Planet Hulk. Now, I haven't read much Hulk outside of the really early stuff (my ol' man had pretty much every Hulk comic until the 80's) and I have a question: When did Savage Hulk start putting together full sentences? Did it just start happening or was it explained? Is he growing up? I miss the broken English!

Also, I read Hulk: Gray recently and I have to say it was one of my favorite limited series ever. The art was amazing, the psychological portrait of Banner was brilliant, and execution of the storytelling was flawless. I can't stress how much I loved it. Hell, one of the cover's is my wallpaper now. The art was such a neat and understated, beautiful throw back.

GROUP A:

The Crow

Sin City

Spider Man

Hancock American Splendor

Aeon Flux

GROUP B:

League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Judge Dredd

Elektra

Tank Girl

Catwoman

GROUP C:

Men In Black

Hulk (Norton)

Superman Returns

Iron Man

300

GROUP D:

Flash Gordon

Hulk (Bana)

Transformers

Spawn

V For Vendetta

GROUP E:

Fantastic Four

Akira

Watchmen

Constantine

Alien vs Predator

GROUP F:

Superman (original)

Nick Fury (Hasslehoff)

Punisher

Terminator The Rocketeer

Blade

GROUP G:

Daredevil

Road To Perdition

X-Men

The Phantom

Batman: Dark Knight

GROUP H:

Ghost Rider

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Hellboy

Robocop

Dick Tracy

I know it will never happen, but I just had a horrible image of Steve Rogers in the Bucky costume.

Tom Waits:

1. Mule Variations

2. Blood Money

3. Heart attack and Vine

4. Rain Dogs

5. Bone Machine

6.Brawlers

7. Bawlers

8. Nighthawks at the Diner

9. Heart of a Saturday Night

10. VH1 Storytellers - I tried to avoid compilations, but the novelty of his lying through each story on this one is undeniable.

Has anyone here read the limited series Books of Doom? I stumbled across it earlier today and it has been an enjoyable exploration of Victor Von Doom and his genesis. It isn't a re-imagining so much as it's an examination of Doom's rise and corruption that fills in a lot of blanks in his origin. I am surprised that it slipped under my radar for so long.

Yeah, after enjoying Cap and Daredevil, when I found out there was a Brubaker Doom mini I needed to have it. It didn't disappoint, it's definitely Doom done right, which isn't something that always happens these days.

I think that is what is so great about Brubaker-- he is such a good throw back writer. He really captures the original voice of a character without making them seem antiquated. If you drop a Kirby creation in his hands it usually works out for the best.

I haven't read any of his Daredevil stuff, when was his run with that?

I know I am coming to the party a little late on this, but I REALLY like Brubaker's run on Captain America. I missed out on comics for the last 4 years or so, but I've just recently grabbed Marvel's online digital library (surprisingly deep by the way-- pretty much covers from first prints all the way up to the Initiative) and I've been able to go through the whole Winter Soldier saga today. I have to say it has been one of my favorite Cap storylines.

Has anyone here read the limited series Books of Doom? I stumbled across it earlier today and it has been an enjoyable exploration of Victor Von Doom and his genesis. It isn't a re-imagining so much as it's an examination of Doom's rise and corruption that fills in a lot of blanks in his origin. I am surprised that it slipped under my radar for so long.

What excites me the most about Reynolds is that beyond being great for the role, he is a real fan of the character. Here is another interview where he echoes the sentiments about staying faithful to the comics that he shares in the MTV interview.

One Hit Wonders! Two from my favorite sub-genre of 90's music: Soundtrack Rock!

BLUES:

JAZZ: CHET BAKER aka THE PRICE OF COOL.

FUNK: BOOTSY COLLINS