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Nerd Lunch Episode 134: Batman 75 Retrospective

Posted in Batman, comic books, movies, podcast, pop culture, TV shows with tags Batman, comic books, movies, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcasts, pop culture, TV shows on June 4, 2014 by Paxton

For episode 134 of Nerd Lunch we invite not one, but TWO guests to join us. Our good friend Jay from The Sexy Armpit and Michael May from Michael May’s Adventureblog join us for a very special topic: Batman. This year is Batman’s 75th anniversary and we are here to look at Batman across all media much like we did with Superman last summer for episode 90.

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We talk about our first encounters with Batman, some of our first merchandise and then we delve into the comics followed by lots of movie talk. It’s an info packed episode that ran so long I had to cancel Nerd-to-Dos. But it’s a fun episode with lots of awesome information and a spiffy new Batman-y podcast intro that I think you’ll like.

Download this episode from iTunes, Stitcher or listen to it on Feedburner.

Or listen to it online right here.

Year End Book Report: The Best Books I Read in 2013

Posted in Batman, books, comic books, movies, pop culture with tags Book Report, books, gunfighters, reviews, Star Wars, westerns, Year End Books on January 10, 2014 by Paxton

How did this happen!? It’s that time of year again where I pick my favorite books of the year? Is 2013 over already? WTF?! Time is just flying by. My son is 3, my daughter is 1 and I’m writing the fifth in my series of year end book reports. THAT. IS. COCONUTS.

Anyway, if you’ve read this article in the past you know I keep my book log online. Here’s the link to my Book Log on Google Spreadsheet. There are tabs for every year since 2007. Take a look on the 2013 tab and you can see that I read 58 books/comics/graphic novels this year. That’s way low compared to 2012 in which I read 80 books/comics/graphic novels. However, having two kids will do that to you. Those totals include not only books I read for the first time but anything I re-read for the second (or more) time. For the list below, though, I’ll only take into account books I read for the first time in 2013.

And I actually have FOUR books on this list that were released in 2013. That may be a personal record.

Below you will find, first, my list of favorite books and following that my list of favorite comic books/graphic novels. Enjoy.

Books

Impulse (Jumper Book 3) – Steven Gould – I talked about this series on the Nerd Lunch podcast last year and I sort of reviewed the first two books on the blog back in 2009. I enjoyed the movie for what it was but it led me to the books which were published first. And the books are excellent. There are three of them; the original Jumper from 1992, the 2004 sequel, Reflex, and then this third book which was released early 2013. All three books are excellent, but you’ll need to read the first two before reading this book. There’s a lot of continuity that flows throughout the books. Oh, and if you hated the movie, don’t worry, other than sharing a few of the same characters, the stories are completely different between the two. Just a warning, though, there is another “Jumper” book by Steven Gould called Jumper: Griffin’s Story. That book is not really a part of this series, it’s a part of the movie series. Confusing? Yes, but that’s the way it is. Read my blog review above for a little bit more explanation. All that aside, this is a fun read that I thoroughly enjoyed. And hopefully we don’t have to wait 10 years for another Jumper book.

The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastards Book 1) (2006) – Scott Lynch – I forget how I first stumbled across this book, I think it was while I was searching the store on my Nook. I was intrigued by the title and the premise. It’s somewhat like an Ocean’s 11 con man/heist story but set in a fantasy world. Hard to explain, but the book is extremely well written, has a great world built up within and interesting, smart and dangerous characters. Gun to my head, I would probably put this as my favorite book of the year. Just really fun and well written. I recently bought the sequel, Red Seas Under Red Skies, with holiday money and I’m eyeballing the third book, The Republic of Thieves, which came out in Oct 2013. Lynch also plans a series of novellas based within this world. If you like smartly written, character based fantasy with a nice helping of action, this book is for you.

Star Wars: Scoundrels (2013) – Timothy Zahn – Timothy Zahn is one of the best Star Wars EU writers. He wrote the Zahn Trilogy as well as the awesome books Star Wars: Allegiance and Star Wars: Outbound Flight (which made my favorites list in 2010). This is a Han Solo adventure that also happens to include Chewie, of course, and Lando. And it’s great. I honestly hope that when Disney makes the Han Solo stand alone movie, they use this as the blueprint. It takes place right after the first Death Star is blown up in the original Star Wars: A New Hope. Han gathers a team of expert con men and thieves in order to steal a priceless piece of art from a Black Sun boss. Han hopes the proceeds from the job will free him of his debt to Jabba. Lots of well written, fun dialogue and heist action. There’s also a short story prequel to this book called Star Wars: Winner Lose All that focuses on what Lando is doing right before the actual book. It, too, is a lot of fun.

Star Wars: Kenobi (2013) – John Jackson-Miller – Oh wow, two Star Wars books get to make my list this year. Yay! This book was very highly anticipated by myself. I’ve said for years that a movie or book based on Obi-Wan’s “Tatooine Years” would be amazing. When Disney was throwing out the stand alone movie ideas I said Ewan McGregor as Kenobi should get one. And this book should be the basis. It takes place just after Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Obi-Wan has dropped off Luke to the Lars Homestead and he’s setting up base in the Judland Wastes and starts getting acquainted with the denizens of a small moisture farming town who are being attacked by Tusken Raiders. Great book. Check it out.

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Spending my kid’s college tuition on Hake’s Auction #209

Posted in Batman, comic books, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, Superman, TV shows with tags Batman, comic books, LEB, movies, pop culture, Star Trek, Star Wars, Superman, Wizard of Oz on July 12, 2013 by Paxton

This week’s assignment for The League is to browse Hake’s Auction #209 and find all the cool stuff we’d buy if we were rolling in dough like P-Diddy. So I spent my fair share of time at work this week perusing the enormous auction catalog and came up with some stuff that I would like to buy. Assuming, of course, that money is no object.

There were several awesome Star Wars items I found interesting. Firstly, the C3POs cereal lot featuring a full size C3PO standee and three box flats. I have always had a fascination with this particular cereal and the ephemera it created. These are particularly good examples of that. The seven Star Wars Coca-Cola promotional posters are also pretty awesome. Four of them are from Burger Chef/Burger King giveaways in 1977 and feature Del Nichols artwork. Three of them feature Boris Vallejo artwork and were to promote the release of Empire Strikes Back. Finally, I am in wet, sloppy love with the full size Return of the Jedi Burger King glasses Darth Vader standee (1983).

There were lots of comic book and super hero related items that I want. Tops on that list would probably be The Great Comic Book Heroes book from 1965. It’s signed by several comic luminaries like Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Bob Kane, Shelly Moldoff and Will Eisner. Yes, the creators of both Superman AND Batman signed this thing. Plus, I’ve looked at this book before and it’s pretty awesome.

Speaking of Superman and Batman, I found several items featuring those heroes that rock my Casbah. The boxed Mego Superman doll from 1977 is particularly awesome because I’m kind of in love with the packaging art. And the art on the 1954 Superman metal lunchbox is pretty close to melting my eyeballs out of my head and that’s only the picture. And these Mego Comic Action Heroes figures from 1975 (in package!) are also incredible. And speaking of incredible, check out the awesomely weird and bizarre cover to issue #33 of the comic World’s Finest. Why the hell is Superman spinning Batman and Robin in the air WITH HIS FEET?! I love the Golden Age. I also would buy Flash #147 featuring the second appearance of Reverse Flash with a great cover homage to Flash #123. I actually already own Reverse Flash’s first appearance in Flash #139. And what will I put all of these comics in when I own them? That’s right, my very own g***amn comic spinner rack from the late 70s. I’ve wanted one of those retail spinner racks ever since I started collecting comics in the early 80s. Continue reading →

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Nerd Lunch Episode 93: Pop Culture Eraser 2

Posted in Batman, movies, podcast, pop culture, TV shows with tags Batman, Karate Kid, movies, Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcasts, pop culture, TV shows on July 9, 2013 by Paxton

This week JEEG IS BACK and we are joined again by Brian from Cool and Collected. This week we do a topic that I missed the first time out, The Pop Culture Eraser.

We are each allowed to erase 1 person and 1 thing from existence. But we also have to envision how that would affect the pop culture landscape. Jeeg was pretty bold with his choices but some of the things that get erased are the 60s Batman series, Jay Leno and Christopher Nolan. The fun in this discussion is how this would affect pop culture in general after these things have been erased.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.

Or listen to it online right here.

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6 undeveloped movie scripts that were turned into comic books

Posted in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Batman, Bionic Man, comic books, Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th, Jason Vorhees, movies, Six Million Dollar Man, TV shows with tags Batman, Bionic Man, Cavalcade Comics, comic books, Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th, Jason Vorhees, LEB, movies, Nightmare on Elm Street, Six Million Dollar Man on May 2, 2013 by Paxton

This week the topic for The League is “comic books”. Yep, just “comic books”. I recently did an article about comic book covers that homage famous movie posters, so that idea was already burned. Fortunately, my draft articles are deep with ideas so I pulled this one out of the depths and fleshed it out a bit.

I love movies. I love comic books. I love comic book movies. We have tons of movies coming out BASED on comics books. But how about comic books based on movies? There are plenty of those as well. But what about comic books that are based on movies that never were made for whatever reason. Ahhh, that could be interesting.

Today, I’m going to talk about six undeveloped movie scripts that were turned into comic books.

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Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet – These first two entries are probably the most high profile examples of unused movie scripts becoming a comic book. In 2004, Smith wrote a screenplay for a new film version of The Green Hornet. Much like the next script in this list, it was a reboot of the characters and the concept. Smith even announced that he intended to direct the feature as well. The project, however, died after the poor box office of Smith’s Jersey Girl. Dynamite Comics purchased the unused script and had Kevin Smith adapt it into a new Green Hornet comic series.

Kevin Smith’s Bionic Man (2011) – I talked about this series in my Bionic Reviews feature a month or so ago. Kevin Smith wrote a screenplay for a new Bionic Man movie back in the 90s. It was a reboot of the characters and concept of the Six Million Dollar Man TV series. It ultimately went unused. However, after the success of Smith’s Green Hornet title they asked if he had any other unused scripts to adapt. Smith pulled out the Bionic Man script and Dynamite loved the idea. They tapped Phil Hester to adapt the screenplay into a 10 issue story arc to launch a new Bionic Man comic series that is still being published to this day. It has also spawned a Bionic Woman comic series.

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Frank Miller’s Robocop (2003) – During initial production of Robocop 2, there was a first draft script by one of the original Robocop screenwriters, Edward Neumeier. However, due to a writers strike he dropped out. One of the producers contacted Frank Miller to write the script as Miller was still riding the success of his Dark Knight Returns graphic novel. Miller wrote a draft that producers and studio executives labeled “unfilmable” and the studio had the script rewritten into what eventually became Robocop 2, the movie. In the early 2000s Avatar Press acquired the Robocop comic license and the publisher William Christensen, who owned a copy of Miller’s “lost” original screenplay, contacted Miller about adapting it into a comic story. Miller was enthusiastic and worked with Steven Grant to adapt his unused screenplay (which included notes for Robocop 3) into a story. Due to scheduling conflicts, Miller was only able to contribute some of the covers and not actually write or draw the interiors. The nine issue adaptation was published in late 2003.