This week it was announced that a movie based on the comic book series Fables will happen. Being a fan of the series, I’m pretty excited. With an upcoming videogame in development by Telltale games, there’s a good chance that Fables can create a following beyond comic readers before the movie releases and therefore finding an audience. Fables has definitely made a splash in the comic book world by winning 14 Eisner Awards, so by all means, it’s getting some very well deserved attention. However, despite my excitement, I can see some issues that a movie may present.
The Pros/Cons of Fables: The Movie
Denver Comic-Con Day 3: William Shatner’s Comic-Connnn Panel, Creating DCC Traditions, and Some Assorted Convention Musings.
There’s a saying that goes “All good things must come to an end” and Denver Comic-Con is no exception. Today marks the third and final day of Denver Comic-Con. This morning we decided to wear our Dharma Initiative jumpsuits and therefore creating a personal Denver Comic-Con tradition as we did the same thing last year. We arrived to another big line, but due to the snaking line, it didn’t seem like we were so far back being an hour ½ early. Due to yesterday’s line stretching pretty far with our early arrival for Takei wristbands, we decided to arrive early anyway regardless of if we’d luck out on getting a wristband to see William Shatner’s panel or not.
The line seemed more fun today with less bitching about the wait and more fun costumes and photo taking. We stood next to a family of hobbits with cardboard ears and then saw a Gandalf arrive. I know a wizard is never late, but he really was late with not being near us yesterday when we were decked out in Hobbit outfits. Also in the line, we saw some teenagers dressed as Dean Winchester and Castiel from Supernatural, a King Arthur from Monty Python and The Holy Grail, New Avengers Loki, and an adult Jayne from Firefly posing in a picture of a kid as Jayne too. I also nearly got in a embarrassing situation while doing a “I don’t get it rant” about “Bronies” (aka guys that freaking *LOVE* My Little Pony), which has gained some attention in the last year, but little did I know that a few feet behind me was “Mega-Bronie Prime” who was decked out in lots of My Little Pony stuff. Oops! When the line began to shift inside, we were lucky again and were able to score a wristband to see William Shatner’s panel later in the day.
Denver Comic-Con Day 2: “Ohh Myy! It’s George Takei! Talking Daleks with Doctor Who, and Whhil Whheaton”
Another day of Denver Comic-Con has come and passed as Day 2 of the 3 day event comes to a close. Today, there were many more cosplayers due to the costume shindig at the end of the day. My wife and I came dressed as filthy Hobbitsis and got a fair number of photos taken. This year a goofy wig (a Jackie Moon from Semi-Pro wig re-purposed as Hobbit hair) and Hobbit feet slippers were much easier to manage than my blue Nightcrawler makeup from last year (Immensely popular, but the itchiness and constant re-applying was enough to not want to reprise it this year). Hilariously enough, everyone knew to say “Hobbitsis” like Gollum does and I got not one but two compliments on my walking stick. Sidenote: the walking stick was a result of an afternoon of walking along Cherry Creek’s creek-bed and finding “the perfect stick”, so I was pleased to get validation on my stick finding skills.
Denver Comic-Con 2013 in Review Part 1: Chewbacca Speaks, Meeting Artists/Writers and Disco Nightwing!
Today the doors of the Colorado Convention Center opened to the 2nd ever Denver Comic-con. It’s been a year since the masses assembled to share their mutual love for all things pop-culture and a lot has changed in a year. Last year, Friday was arguably the most dead day of the Con (maybe with the exception of Sunday morning) but this year it seemed that the Con grew..fast! The line wrapped around the entire convention center as opposed to just outside the registration tables as was the case last year. If the 2 hour wait to get in wasn’t enough of a “Head’s Up!” of the con’s growth, you’ll definitely notice a difference once you go inside. I’ve never been to an event that uses the entire convention center, even the Great American Beer Festival (aka Beer heaven) only uses half the exhibit hall, but now the floor is MASSIVE! In addition to the massive exhibit hall, the panels have graduated to using a ball room for main event panels, a much appreciated change for those of us who missed out on the Costume shindig when the room filled up too fast last year. Needless to say, Denver Comic-con hit a pretty big growth spurt this year!
Early Review: The Venture Brothers Season 5 Premiere “What Color Is Your Cleansuit?”
I want to start by saying that when it comes to adult audience cartoons or any show that I watch, that The Venture Brothers rides very high at the top. I consider it one of the most funny and clever cartoons out there. I could easily chalk it up to the humor, or the massive pop culture references, but either way, this show has been a constant joy over the years. The show is something of a “what if?’ story focusing on if a very failed middle-aged former Johnny Qwest-like character becomes the single uncaring parent of The Hardy Boys. Of course, instead of the wholesome goodness of the Hardy Boys or Johnny Qwest, we get sex jokes, gratuitous violence, and a nerd-catering influx of pop culture jokes. It does demand something of a patient audience as the animation process sometimes delays the show more than a year or so between seasons. But after a 3 year wait, Team Venture has returned!
Marvel’s Phase 3: My Take on the Rumored Future of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe.
This week, Marvel Studios gave Entertainment Weekly a few hints of what to expect during their “Phase 3” slate of movies. To get you up to speed: “Phase One” started with Iron Man then continued on with The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Captain America, Thor and concluded with The Avengers. We are now entering “Phase 2” which will include Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy and then like before, will end with the follow-up to The Avengers. After Avengers 2, Marvel studios will launch “Phase 3”. Some titles have already been announced, others are merely rumored. Having read the article, here’s my take on what I think of the announcements:
Weekend Movie Review: The Evil Dead (2013)
When it comes to cult movies, Evil Dead is as big as they come. From its shoe string budget and the filming process of making the movie (more entertaining than the movie itself), to its fantastic sequels Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn and the always incredible Army of Darkness it’s a very beloved movie. So naturally when the remake was announced, I was quick to write it off. I’m a firm believer in the “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” rule and even though an Evil Dead remake with a decent budget made sense, I still wasn’t sold as I’ve had remakes that made sense let me down before (Clash of the Titans). Above all, I was ready to light some torches if they even dared to have the character of Ash recast (Bruce Campbell is the ONLY person that should ever play Ash if you ever ask me). I even felt conflicted not wanting to see it when it was revealed that both Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell were producers. However, the real push for me to want to see it was when early screenings revealed that there would be no Ash in the movie and that the film follows a different set of characters to that wonderfully spooky cabin in the woods. Plus it was getting great reviews coming out of SXSW. (READ MORE)
Great Disappointments in Pop Culture History: The Use of Deadpool in Wolverine Origins
Hello, welcome to a brand new recurring series for PopCultureAsylum.com. I like many of you reading this, occasionally come across some buzz for an upcoming movie, CD, TV show, videogame or book that leaves you super excited. Usually the excitement sets the bar high and in most cases; the payoff is great…other times not so much! In this column, we’ll take a look at those other unfortunate occasions. This first entry is about 4 years old and still leaves a bad taste in many fan’s mouth: The use, or should I say “Misuse” of Deadpool in the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie. Enjoy!
2012: The Year In Dinosaur News
In about a month, President Obama will give a State of the Union Address. I don’t pay too much attention to politics really and it’s my least favorite thing talk about, but I do like to talk about dinosaurs! So since I tend to do this once a month I decided it’s time to do a State of Dinosaurs address! It’s a bit overdue considering my last similar post was last September (which was the most viral article in this site’s history…no love for my Highlander dissertation?), it’s time to take a look at the state of dinosaurs (in 2012)….plus I promised I’ll do this as penance for doing an all comic-book nerdy article last update!
To recap last year; 2011 left us with some disappointments such as what T-Rex probably really looked like, but also left us with some optimism such as the theory that chickens can be regressed back to a dinosaur-like species! Also, Jurassic Park 4 was announced too! Now that a year has passed, we still saw a healthy share of fun dinosaur news come to us via online. Here’s some that you may have missed! To assure you all that I’m not making all this crap up, I’ve hyper-linked some key phrases linking you skeptical readers to my sources! I’m a good geek that did his homework. Now onto the dinosaurs! (sorry for the intentionally geeky photo of me with my Dinosaur friends, but I think it captures my optimism for 2012′s dinosaur news):
2012: The Best & Worst of Comics (and A Rant on Spider-Man 700)
While making my end-of-year list for 2012 a few weeks ago, I had a comics section in the best/worst list, but ended up cutting it since that post was already dragging pretty long and I had just as much to say about comics as I did TV shows/movies. In 2012, I really began to get back into reading and collecting comics due to my close proximity to the Mile High Comics mega-store warehouse. So 2012, I spent a bit of time in Ye Olde Comic Book shops physically and online (with apps like Comixology). Here’s my look at the year in comics. (could be seen as the 2nd half of my summer comic progress report).