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Bad Ass Book Report: The Best Books I Read in 2011

Posted in books, comic books with tags Book Report, books, comic, DC Comics, Marvel Comics on February 7, 2012 by Paxton

Here we are, I finally begin my year end round up articles. In February. Sorry about that. I wanted to do it earlier but I wanted to give myself a little bit more time to finish off some movies and books that are eligible for this list. But, apologies aside, my lists are here.

As you know, back in 2009 I started keeping a book log with everything I read. It makes looking at this list easier. I keep it in a Google Spreadsheet so I can access it from any computer.

Here it is.

You can click the image to view it or just click here. So I perused this list and made my selections. Below are the best books I read last year (not including re-reads).

Unlike last year, I’ve split this list into books and comics/trade paperbacks. I read enough of both of them to create their own lists and it was hard to weed out stuff just because it was a comic in order to make room for a book. So, last year I only read three books that were actually released during the 2011 calendar year. Did they make the list? Read on to find out.

So without further ado, here are my favorite books I read in 2011.

Heroes of Olympus series – Rick Riordan – This is the sequel series to Riordan’s Percy Jackson series which made my inaugural best of list in 2009. It is currently up to book 2. Son of Neptune is one of the three books that was released in 2011 that I read. I loved the first book in this series, The Lost Hero and Son of Neptune is almost as good. Riordan has created a fascinating world and I long to return to it when book 3 comes out. And despite what Riodan had said earlier, Percy Jackson is all over this series. Especially Son of Neptune.

The Magicians – Lev Grossman – Wow, this book is really good. It’s billed as sort of a Harry Potter in high school, and I see the parallels, but this story is tonally a 180 from Harry Potter. From the friendships to even how magic is actually executed, it’s just completely different. And great. This book is great. I look forward to checking out the sequel, The Magician King. I’ll probably check out a few of Grossman’s other books, too.

Star Wars: Darth Bane trilogy – Drew Karpyshyn – This series was recommended to me years ago by my friend Dr Mike, but I was reluctant to read it because it was about a bunch of Star Wars characters I didn’t know in a time period I knew nothing about. Boy was I wrong. It’s amazing. This series needs to be the template for all the Star Wars books that want to focus on a specific character. Interesting origins, cool bits of Sith history. It’s just great. If you read Star Wars (or science fiction) at all, read this series.

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Nerd Lunch Episode 21: Comic Book Scenarios

Posted in comic books, podcast with tags comic books, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcast, podcasts on January 25, 2012 by Paxton

Episode 21 has gone LIVE, my friends. This week we are down a man as Jeeg has flown off to Europe to find himself. In the meantime, we invited Vanessa and Erika from Girls Gone Geek to join us for a lively discussion about comic books.

Specifically we are talking about comic book scenarios. What sidekick would we like to have? What would we do if we ever got super powers? What character would we kill and make sure stays dead? These are the nerdy questions we ask ourselves and sometimes answer with very little geeky rambling. Well, some rambling.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner. And yes, we are still on the Zune Marketplace.

7 Got Milk? ads featuring movie versions of comic book super heroes

Posted in advertising, Batman, comic books, movies, pop culture, Superman, Superman Returns with tags advertising, Batman, comic books, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, pop culture, Superman, Superman Returns on August 25, 2011 by Paxton

I love the various advertising campaigns for milk. From as far back as the 80s, they’ve had some of the more consistently entertaining commercial and print ads ever. There’s just something about them I enjoy.

Everyone remembers Michael Bay’s “Aaron Burr”. Or the fun “Milk it Does a Body Good” commercials. Or the ubiquitous “Got Milk?” print ads. Classic advertising. I especially like the ones I’m going to show you today. They are all print ads for the “Got Milk?” or “Body by Milk” campaigns and they all feature movie versions of comic book super heroes. I love explosions of pop geeky culture like this. I found many of these while thumbing through old magazines I had in my garage.

Please to enjoy.

Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008) – Two of the greatest Batman movies we probably will ever see. The Dark Knight is great, however, for re-watchability, I pick Batman Begins every time. I love the sequel, I really do, but when I want to watch a Batman movie I put on Batman Begins.

Superman Returns (2006) - I love Brandon Routh. However, this movie sucked. One giant missed opportunity. The lead was great and the effects were awesome. But everything else was wrong.

Green Lantern (2010) - This movie ended up exactly like Superman Returns. The lead was great and the effects were awesome, but everything else was a fumbled missed opportunity. Kudos for a great looking ad, though.

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Learning BASIC with the Marvel Super Heroes

Posted in 80s, books, comic books, nostalgia, pop culture, reviews with tags books, comic books, computers, Marvel Comics, pop culture, reviews, technology on August 17, 2011 by Paxton

Yesterday I looked at the Star Wars Q&A Book about Computers. It featured a history of the computer (through 1983) and some awesome art by Ken Barr. Today, I’m looking at another awesomely vintage computer book, it’s the Marvel Super Heroes Computer Fun Book Two from 1984.

This book is LOOOOOOOOONG and it features A LOT of programs. I’ll just be looking at some of the more notable programs and artwork. You can check out my Flickr set to see more.

Here’s the cover to the activity book and the intro page telling you what to expect inside.

And here’s the Fantastic Four to tell you how to use this book (in case you weren’t already aware that you used it to, you know, program your computer).

Here’s Capt America reminding you to code your 900 lines. He gives you 9 examples (there’s another page of code I’m not showing you) of 900 lines from different BASIC environments like the Commodore 64, IBM PC and Apple II.

Here’s a program featuring Cap called Menace of the Gray Gargoyle. It’s a “fence busting” program. See the code here. Man, that Gray Gargoyle looks lame.

This program is called Iron Man to the Rescue. It’s a game in which Iron Man has to stop a ship from shooting missiles at a school filled with children. Hope you get them all or the deaths of thousands of small schoolchildren on your head. Is it just me or does that seem like a needlessly violent scenario for a kid’s computing activity book?

There are two other Iron Man programs. The first is called Robot Retriever. It’s awesome because the title page features MODOK and ROM: Spaceknight. The other is Iron Man’s Lock Problem. I like the artwork on the title page. I didn’t realize Iron Man was popular enough in the 1980s to get three programs in this book.

The article continues below the break…

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Awesome comic book movie trailers for X-men, Thor and Capt America

Posted in comic books, movies, Star Wars with tags comic books, Marvel Comics, movie trailers, movies, Star Wars on February 17, 2011 by Paxton

There have been several awesome trailers released recently for Marvel comic book properties. I feel like I would be remiss if I didn’t post them.

Along with some comments, if you please.

X-Men: First Class – I loved the first two X-Men movies by Bryan Singer in 2000 and 2003 (Wow, it took 3 years to get X2? I didn’t remember that). I was underwhelmed by X3. It wasn’t awful, it just wasn’t GREAT, either. And the more I watch X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the less I like it as a whole. So, to be perfectly honest, I was not on board with this movie. This trailer changes that. It looks BAD ASS. I know you can cut a trailer to hide a sh*tty movie (looking at you, Legion), but this looks AWESOME. I’m confused though, I thought I saw Nightcrawler in this trailer and if this movie is following the chronology of the existing movies, we shouldn’t see him until X2. Whatever, I’m officially interested and a bit excited for this movie.

Captain America: The First Avenger – I was all in on this movie when Chris Evans was announced. I even stayed on board when they said it was going to be a period piece during WWII (I don’t traditionally like war movies). And this trailer alleviates all my concerns. It looks fantastic. I can’t wait to see more footage of Hugo Weaving as Red Skull. At the very least, this has to be better than the 1990 Capt America movie with Matt Salinger. Right?

Thor – I felt about this movie the way I felt about X-Men: First Class…underwhelmed. I just didn’t think Thor translated very well to a movie. I thought it may look silly with the costumes and Asgard. I mean, you all did see Thor show up in the Hulk TV movie, right? SILLY. However, based on this trailer, I was wrong. Chris Hemsworth totally looks the part of Thor and I now can’t wait to see this.

I have to admit, I doubted Marvel Studios for a second there. Despite the fact that their track record since Iron Man has been better than average, I was worried they were straying from their formula. I need not have worried.

Okay, this isn’t a Marvel trailer, but someone took the audio from the above X-Men: First Class trailer and cut a spectacular Star Wars saga trailer to go with it. I mean, it’s fantastic. Check it out.