Wall o’ Spidey

Just thought I share with you all a buncha mini Spidey figurines that I have on sitting on the shelf above my desk.

Pretty nifty, eh?

♪ It’s a Barbie world, ♫ and I’m a Barbie girl! ♪

No, I haven’t gone a little bit winkie (or at the very least, no more winkie than normal), but the wife and I made an unexpected stop at McDonald’s last night for a quick dinner as we ran from one meeting to another. Well, imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered Barbie & Hot Wheel toys there.

Now I know that you are all expecting me to go for the testosterone-toting, macho-guy nifty-cool, Hot Wheel toy, but no, I really wanted to grab up a Barbie. Hey, I can see that look you are giving me (it is the same one I got from my wife), but no, like I said, I haven’t gone ‘round the twist, (and no I didn’t score it for my 15-year old daughter — who gave up on Barbies several years ago), I did in fact get it for me.

One of the reasons I did is that, well, first of all, cars never did much for me (a buddy of mine calls ‘em “shorts” because they make getting from one place to another, shorter). Second as a collector of these little items, I firmly believe that the Barbies are way more collectible. (Plus I just like to play with dolls.) Third, a few years back I penned a story for a Barbie magazine about the little gals, and well, I’ve been thinking about doing a follow up. Fourth, I was actually quoted in a Wall Street Journal article about the increase of girl toys as giveaways at fast food franchises.


Anyways, There are Hot Wheels & Barbies at Micky D’s right now, so if you care, you should hustle over there and get your fill.

If only this were true...

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As if...

Free Comic Book Day is Saturday

Just in case you folk think that I forgot about Free Comic Book Day (which happens this Saturday), no, I didn’t. (I just got a little bit distracted by the pretty, shiny Iron Man 2 stuff @ Burger King).



Personally, I’m going to be at Bronx Heroes Con at Hostos College in The Bronx:



So if you are anywhere near there, swing on by and check us out. I’ll be manning the Atlas Unleashed table. I’ll be there with our imperious leader Mark Mazz and a number of other AU creators. Plus we might have some surprise info and cool collectibles for you. Mark & I will also be hosting a panel where we will be chatting with the legendary Irwin Hasen (creator of Dondi & Wildcat), so it is going to be a show to see.

Iron Man Meets the King (Week 2)

Yesterday (Wednesday) I hustled over to my local Burger King to pick up the new Iron Man 2 toys (because that’s when they arrive), and while I was there I saw something wicked-cool. The new POP display in the store is a cardboard “standee” of Iron Man that is “crashing” through the ceiling of the store with a Dr. Pepper in his hand. Well, even cooler than the Standee itself, is the fact that the manager is going to give it to me after the end of the promotion. (Now I just have to make sure that I buy all of my IM toys from her, so she knows that I’m a regular.)

Anyways, here’s the toys for this week:




This pair of boy/girl toys are a War Machine figure and an Iron Man erasable message board. Last week's toys looked like this. Neat, eh?

Kick-Ass rocks (the film, not the comic)

Yeah, I went to see the film, Kick-Ass and yes, it was a rocking good time. Everything all of the film’s various trailers promised it would be. Still, I have some issues with it (as a comic, not as a film).

To me, the comic was not only specifically designed as a storyboard for the film, but targeted to appeal to our most salacious and prurient interests. I really didn’t so much like Kick-Ass as a comic because it seemed to me that the comic held in contempt many of the core tenets that I love about comics.

Please don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t the violence in the book that set me off (hey, I like a bit of the ultra-violence as much as the next under-athletic geek boy who was terrorized by muscled-bound, no-neck jocks while in high school, but it was all the “gimmies” that the book asked while trying to position itself as an “ordinary” universe.

No, I think that Hit Girl’s high-end ninja-level skill-set was a bit much, as was her complete detachment from the consequence of her actions. personally, this (comics) is my house, and it really seemed to me that way to many liberties were taken with the storytelling and with what the writer felt he could “get away with” in order to tell the story he wanted us to believe that he could tell.

Still, that shouldn’t dissuade you from going to see the film. It really does hit on all cylinders and should prove to be the hit that Millar and JRJR hoped it would be; and for that I’m very happy for them

♪ Iron Man ♫ Iron Man ♪ does whatever an Iron can...♫

“...Irons shirts, any size, Presses pants, and your ties...”

OK, OK, enough silliness, I know that you’ve all been waiting for your first look at the Burger King Iron Man toys, and here is what I have. As stated, there are eight toys, there is also a jumbo-size Iron Man cup (featuring both Iron Man and War Machine).

The really interesting thing about this set is that four of the Iron Man Toys are targeted for girls and four are targeted for boys. Yep, you read that right, there are four girl toys that are not just some other random girl-centric girl item that is distributed alongside the Iron man toys (as McDonald’s does with Barbies and Hot Wheels), but actual Iron Man toys that are aimed at girls.


Seriously, how cool as that?





Here is the Iron Man cup:


Here is the Iron Man bag for the Kid Meal:


So far these look pretty cool, as soon as I find more, I’ll post ‘em!

Tony Stark buys Burger King!

OK, OK, he really didn’t (but wouldn't it be wicked-cool if he did?), but we just wanted to announce that Iron Man 2 toys have finally (finally) arrived at Burger King, and as soon as we get our morning work done, we’re going to run out and grab up as many toys as we can find.

Whoo-Haa!



There are eight toys, so this could take a while!

Welcome Aboard, Fandango

OK, well, here's an interesting development. I was recently contacted by Fandango and invited to join their network of sponsored sites. Yep, that's right, you can now purchase advance tickets to Iron Man 2!, or well, just about any movie that’s playing in your area.




Fandango gift cards:




and you can do it here on my site.

Now how cool is that?

Best Avenger’s line-up EVER!

I happen to love the beginning of the New Avengers epic (yeah, it has totally held up since then, but that opening arc — wow, was that the coolest or what? — really had me going. Plus, of course they finally made Spidey an Avenger for real (none of this part-time, back-up or “Legion of substitute Avenger” nonsense.

If you missed that first issue, grab it up for a buck in the MGC issue, now on sale for just a buck!



Seriously.

Archie Comics will make you gay...

OK, no they really won’t, but I just learned that Archie will debut its first “openly gay” character in September.

Riverdale High School, the stomping ground of comic book legend Archie Andrews, will open its doors to its first openly gay student.

Kevin Keller will be the new student to join Archie, Jughead, Veronica, Betty and Reggie, Archie Comics publications announced Thursday.

"The introduction of Kevin is just about keeping the world of Archie Comics current and inclusive. Archie's hometown of Riverdale has always been a safe world for everyone. It just makes sense to have an openly gay character in Archie comic books," said Jon Goldwater, Archie Comics co-CEO.

I guess the whole world really has changed, eh?

Talk about “Losers”

So I saw The Losers the other night, and I want to say a couple of things right up front. First, I don't think that I’ve ever read the vertigo comic (there a regular DC Comic entitled The Losers several years ago that followed a bunch of WW II soldiers that I do recall reading, but this is not them — too bad, I think that would made for a better movie). Second, I really wanted to like this film (and on some quilt pleasure level, I kind of do), but honestly, it really is a bad movie, and I’m really sorry about that. Third, the good news is that it is bright, shiny, and lots of stuff blows up rather spectacularly (and there is a really pretty girl mixed in with the lead roles), so perhaps it’s targeted audience will simply not notice that it is badly written with incredibly stilted (need I say, “comicbook” dialogue).

Yeah, sorry folks, this one really does blow chunks. There is nothing new on the screen, everyone is a two-dimensional character with no depth, no soul, and no real reason to care, other than to see the next big explosion. It is sort of a throwback to the over-the-top ‘80s action films of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis, only not nearly as entertaining, or, well, nuanced. In fact, it is the epitome of the old Hollywood joke of someone watching an Oscar-worthy film and saying ±I can do that” then churning out the worst grade "Z" version of it, and not understanding the difference.

No, folks, I've never read the Vertigo/DC comic, but I can only hope that it it is written way better than this. The story is about a group of Special Forces soldiers who for no apparent reason, are betrayed by some über-slick Spook operative who seems intent on manufacturing a terrorist attack on U.S. soil (killing thousands), just so he can remake foreign policy so that it once again “makes sense” (Imagine, if you will that elements of U.S. intelligence precipitated 9/11 to rally American patriotism so that they can engage in a pair of wars to “Put the U.S. back on track.” In the hands of a Ken Follett or John le Carré this would make a compelling novel, but here it is just another badly-written comicbook movie.

Sorry, kids, the trailer gave me high hopes, but the film simply didn’t deliver. Jason Patric’s depiction of Max (the bad Spook, who precipitates all the evil in the film) smirks and mugs his way through this film as if her were in MacGruber (the up-coming MacGyver-spoof), while the rest of the cast are clearly in a different, more serious film (Commando, Predator). Needless to say, this gives the film a very uneven feel. As an aside, one of the previews shown with this film was for The A-Team, a big-screen treatment of the ‘80s action show. and even that trailer looks like a hollow mockery of this film, so you know that one is going to stiff.

Marvel just announced that — after its big-budget Avengers films (Thor, Captain America, The Avengers — all due through 2012) it will pull back and issue a number of films with second and third-tier characters that will be made with far more modest budgets ($20-$40 million) that will allow them to roll out several at a time, be a bit edgier in their feel and approach, and make the studio less vulnerable to the possibility of a colossal flop (think Superman Returns). I can’t help but to think that DC should have taken that route with this film.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

OK, OK, I know that’s a Ghostbusters’clairon call, but, well, I just had to us it when associated with this pic.



Oh, and just so you know that we truly admire the female form, divine, we want to further explore the concept of, well, “feminizing” superheroes, we thought we'd point you to a site that re-imagined a few male heroes as, OK, hot smoking babes, and keeping with the “Iron Man 2” theme we seem to have going these past couple of weeks, We’ll lead with them.





So, if you thought that was fun, then you'll be sure to enjoy this.

Tme to go viral

OK, this is wicked-cool, I know that I told you already about my on-line comic, Girl Skout Warz, but now I’ve just cut a deal to have it appear on a new web-comic site (InkBot) that will post both of the existing pages (which currently now reside on GWP’s new website) and will continue to post the remaining three (all inked by the incomparable Rusty Haller), and then InkBot will move forward with all new material (just as soon as I write it).

Sweet, eh?

Iron Man v. Hugh Grant

I just saw this, and well, found it so entertaining that I simply had to re-post it here.



Sweet, eh?

I eat Iron Man

OK, so here is another way-cool Iron Man 2 product from 7-eleven that I very nearly missed, as I didn't see it in my many recent trips to these locations, but I found online.



Now I guess I’m going to have to go back and see if I can find myself an IM2 cookie.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, if you go to 7-eleven and buy Slurpee stuff (during the whole IM2/7-11 promotion), you get a code on your Slurpee cup that you can enter in over at Slurpee.com to win cool stuff.

Hot Girl & Totally Hot Girl

A couple of years ago, I met a pair of very cute young ladies at a comicbook show, and spent an inordinate amount of time (individually) chatting them up. Sometime during the course of the con I hit on the idea of developing a superheroine strip on these two (very lovely) ladies. That story evolved into Hot Girl & Totally Hot Girl I penned an eight-page strip that sat around until I discovered a very talented artist named Roy Cutting, whose work I loved, and I conned him into illustrating the strip.

Roy got a promo page, and a couple of pages of art, before his life threw him a wicked curve ball and he dropped off the face of the Earth. A true professional, he kept in touch with me, and apologized for inadvertently sandbagging me and tried to beg off the project. I wouldn’t let him do it, and told him that I was willing to wait for him to find level ground. Especially as both gals totally approved the art, and Belkis (Hot Girl) approved the story.

Well, Roy finally does have his feet under him again, and is drawing the story. Below are several pages that he’s already produced:









Is this stuff wicked-cool or what?

I can tell you, but then I'll have to kill you

I came across this cartoon today, and thought I'd share it with you



I wish I could tell you were I picked it up, but it was while surfing around earlier this evening, and I just don't know.

Tracy Morgan hasn't seen Spider-Man

He claims that Toby Maguire owes him $75.00.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Tracy Morgan
www.thedailyshow.com
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I say we get Toby to give his money back, eh?

A little bit of Spidey

So I'm in Virginia, visiting friends and family and, we were wandering down a street and found this cute little second-hand shop that had stuff piled on a table out front. While pawing through the toys on the table, I found this little Lego-like Spidey, and, well, had to have it.


Fun, eh?

Meanwhile, back at 7-eleven!

OK, I went back to 7-eleven and managed to score not only the four Iron Man Slurpee cups, but I also managed to score an IM bottle (like the War Machine bottle I grabbed last week).

When we were there I discovered that the Slurpee cups have Iron Man & War Machine lids that the previous shop didn't seem to have, so I asked, and the very nice woman behind the counter allowed me to grab a set of four to cap off my four IM Slurpee cups.

How cool is that?


So I now seem to have all of the 7-eleven Iron Man stuff, now I just have to wait for Burger King to get their toys in, which I believe will be May 1.

Free Comic Book Day is almost here!

That's right kids! Free Comic Book day is almost upon us!

Do you already have your route to the nearest comic shop mapped out? Do you know what free comic you're planning to read first, and which one you're saving for last? Better get ready, because Free Comic Book Day 10 (FCBD10), is only a month away!

We already know where we are going to be, at the Bronx Heroes Convention, at Hostos College in the Bronx. Yep, it promises to be a happening event. We will be there representing Atlas Unleashed (and rumor has it that we will have new product on us; how cool is that?).

However, if (like me) you can hardly contain yourself, you might want to check out these special PDF previews of the Gold Level comics that are going to be passed out at participating comic shops (and the Bronx Heroes Con), on FCBD 2010!

How cool is that, eh?

Iron Man 2 Slurpee cups!

As I previously mentioned, there are Iron Man 2 cups at 7-eleven, as part of the ramp-up to the film (due out on May 7). I already grabbed up the Big Gulp cups, a War Machine bottle, the the three straws.

Well, just yesterday I snagged the four Slurpee cups as well. Now I just need to get my hands on the Iron Man bottle.


The Iron Man 2 toys at BK won't appear for a couple of weeks still, but I'm looking!

MoCCA Magic

So, Atlas Unleashed spent the weekend at MoCCA Fest 2010 this past weekend, and well, we dd pretty well, Company bossman, Mark Mazz, Badgirl Shawnti Therrien, and yours truly were joined by friends and fans as we celebrated the Sundance Film Festival of the Indie Comic Art world.

We moved some of our product, (I sold a couple of three-packs of Agent Unknown, thanks to a wicked-cool cover art from Springload & Renegade artist Chris Torres, and superior production by Mr. Mazz).

We are now looking forward to our next event witch will be the Bronx Heroes Convention on Free Comic Book Day over at Hostos College in the Bronx. Hope to see you all there!

We'll have all of our backstock, as well as some brand spaknin'-new material that will be unveiled for the very first time.

How cool is that? eh?

Before I was “famous”

As I toil away on the Captain America entries for Volume #2 of The Official Index to the Marvel Universe (or Avengers, Thor & Captain America: Official Index To The Marvel Universe — as Vol 2 is officially called), I suddenly recalled that I had a letter of mine published in Captain America issue # 208.

That issue was cited in an on-line essay (interestingly enough) entitled NOTES ON THE GILL-MAN OF THE UPPER AMAZON,which talks about some lizard creature that apparently wandered through that particular issue of Cap.

The quote from below is from the article cited.

1976- While in a running battle with South American prison warden Hector "the Swine" Santiago, Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, runs afoul of the Gill-Man. The amphibious being eventually slays Santiago and his guards. ("The River of Death!" by Jack Kirby, Captain America #208, April, 1977.) In an attempt to make the Gill-Man look like a "new" monster, Kirby draws him with bulbous eyes and bright red scales. [The Marvel Universe is not the same as the Wold-Newton Universe, so presumably a mainstream Marvel title like Cap should be excluded. However, artist/writer Kirby has known Cap/Rogers since 1941, and in the Newtoniverse Cap sometimes opens his files to comic book legend Kirby. In fact, a letter from Robert Sodaro in this very issue states: "Since Jack started writing for Marvel again, the plotlines of CAPTAIN AMERICA. . . have had little if anything to do with the rest of the Marvel Universe."]

The body of letter itself appears here:


It is really just one of numerous LOCs I got into print during those days, and well, I just thought I’d share.