Coolest Comics Page This Week

Johnny Monster by Williamson, Grande and Hunter from Image Comics.

300th Post!!! Diving Tigers

Yeh I should have picked something really memorable or meaningful for my 300th post but I have always just written and added to my blog by what I found cool online at any given point and time. Kinda my philosophy of life also - I try to learn about everything of interest that crosses my path. So for number 300 I present these diving tigers because I love tigers. They are just big kitties who actually like the water. And a fact for all you students out there - no two tigers have the same markings. Their fur design is as distinctive as finger prints. Who wouldn't want to swim with one or have one for a pet? Well I would have to remove those pork chops from my jumper first (don't ask). Much thanks to anyone who has read or commented on this blog. Your interest is appreciated and I have been enriched and inspired by checking out your work also.

Inspirational Poster Cool

Toy and Action Figure Museum

If I am ever in Paul's Valley Oklahoma I have to check out the Toy and Action Figure Museum. And who can argue that every town needs one of these? Hell my own basement could qualify according to anyone that has been in the Cave of Cool. I am inspired to finally take out the digital camera and take some pics of my own collection to showcase on this blog - something I should have done a long time ago. Seeing vastly superior collections (in terms of size not of quality) I have been intimidated but I should celebrate my own collection (while setting up a disc for insurance purposes). I have alot of what I love. I think it would be awesome to have the cash to set up a small museum like this just to be able to devote full time to the hunt for action figures. Not to brag but my knowledge of action figures and comic books is encyclopedic. I often go looking for older figures at garage sales but the pickings are slim here in Canada just due to the small volume of figures sold here as compared to the United States. Twice a year they have antique and toy fairs in a neighbouring town and I usually find some great loose pieces there.

http://www.actionfiguremuseum.com/main_page.htm

Wonder Woman Animated

I usually spend my Friday nights going out to diner but tonight I had no one to hang out with (now lets all cry tears for me) so I had to look for something else to do. I had already downloaded the new animated Wonder Woman movie and what a treat it was. Fantastic visuals and steeped deeply in the mythology that makes WW awesome. Where Marvel excels at the live action superhero genre, DC has set the bar high for the animated stories such as Batman - Gotham Knights and The New Frontier. More violent than I anticipated it gives us a characterization of Diana of the Amazons that makes her unique amoung heroes. She is first and foremost an Amazon and rightfully distrustful of 'man's' world. Her enemies are formidable. Her relationship with Steve Trevor is real and he is actually able to crack her veneer of female superiority to remind us all that the best women are the ones who not only challenge us but who let us be men in the first place. I love the way Steve is constantly forced by the lasso of truth to reveal that he is a male pig. One of the coolest moments occur when the Amazons show up in our world to lay the smack down on Ares and his forces; revealing themselves and their island to the world. I squeeled a second time when Steve uses the invisible plane to stop a nuclear weapon from destroying Themiscara. At the end we are reminded that while the Amazons are warriors they are also women - hot, hot women. Instead of talking down to girls I believe it actually lifts them up and gives them a hero they can aspire to be like. And that last scene is awesome. I am ready for a sequel already.

Arcade Treasures

I lived in a time when we went to the arcade to play video games because the arcade at the University of Alberta stayed open all night and it was an awesome way to unwind after a night in the library and after sharing a doobie with my roomate Adam. They had all the best Sega games that had great hydraulics that gave you the feeling that you were actually driving the vehicles. You felt every bumb and corner. When you got hit by a missle or crashed the whole machine would shake violently. Outrun was my favorite and they had two side by side so we could both race each other while competing against the machine. The controls were very responsive and you could reach speeds in excess of 200 km/h. I would get into a 'zone' and could race around the various courses for hours. Today I saw that they are selling tiny replicas of those games for the shelf and it reminded me of those good times. I promised myself that if I ever got an actual full sized arcade game it would be an Evil Knievel pinball machine or the Outrun game. That arcade also had a bowling alley, and the best cheeseburgers this side of a curling club.

Dickhead Octopus At It Again

I don't know why we keep octopii in captivity because they are nothing but troublemakers. This one that they are calling 'FLO' just decided to be a pain in the ass and flood the area around its tank. They should give it eight mops to clean up after itself.


"It's not surprising that with eight arms and inquisitive nature, the two-spotted octopus is pretty handy around its tank at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. Still, those reporting for work Thursday at the popular beachfront attraction were caught by surprise when they were greeted by water lapping around the kelp forest display, the shark and ray tank and the rocky reef exhibit. Octopus tinkers in its tankThe guest of honor in the aquarium's Kids' Corner octopus tank had swum to the top of the enclosure and disassembled the recycling system's valve, flooding the place with some 200 gallons of seawater. "It had grabbed the tube that pulls out the water and caused it to spray outside the tank," said aquarium education specialist Nick Fash. Judging by the size of the flood, Fash estimated that the water flowed for about 10 hours before the first staff member, Aaron Kind, showed up for work. Kind issued an all-hands-on-deck call to summon co-workers to the pier with mops, water vacuums and fans. Even though the aquarium is built over the beach, it has no floor drain. The tiny octopus, which is about the size of a human forearm when its appendages are extended, floated lazily in the water that remained in its tank."

My Fake Album - Volume Two

Got lucky again. Think I am done pushing it.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Batman

Erin Esurance Star Trek

Two of my favorite geek images come together. Erin from Esurance and Star Trek. The company has a promotion attatched to the upcoming film which looks to be terrific. Now where is my Erin action figure. Again I ask. It is WRONG to love an annimated figure?

Stingray -The Cool One

Speaking of the Stingray here are some images of him including this awesome Bowden statue of him bursting out of the water. He has one of the best, visually striking costumes out there. Its all about being simple people. I was always amazed that he never got his shot at his own comic since there are very few water based characters and the story ideas would be endless. And I am pretty tired of Namor the Sub Mariner's bad attitude about everything. I would tell him to go soak his head but he wouldn't get the joke.

The Coolest Marvel Custom Figure EVER!

I don't want to say EVER like they declared at Comic Book Junction but this Arnim Zola figure is pretty damn sweet especially with the working face plate that is a monitor made from a Dora the Explorer digital photo viewer — that changes the expression on Zola’a face every 9 seconds! They have made most every figure so far (except my favorite sea flyer - the Stingray) so Zola should appear any time now.

New Clone Wars Trilogy

As much as I hated the Clone Wars movie I have been just loving the tv program. It seems that 20 minutes is the exact amount of time to keep me interested and excited about the show. And lately they have been putting out awesome episodes. This trailer for the next three parter looks like a continuation of that quality. Please George Lucas, don't get involoved in ANY of the story telling and leave it to the people who seem to be getting it right. And please dont' tell us that you had anything to do with the tv show. It doesn't have your foul stench on it so you are not fooling anyone. And doesn't the animated Mace Windu look as bad ass as he wants to be?

Green Lantern in 2009/2010

According to many site the Green Lantern movie is to be released on December 17, 2010 - of course before I get all giggly and excited lets remember that anything can happen between now and then and it will take just ONE bad comic book movie to kill every other one in the pipeline. I just hope that they pick some unknowns for the main characters like Hal Jordan although I will agree that Robert Downy Jr as Tony Stark was truly inspired casting. A famous person seems to work best for the villian but for the life of me I can't think of anyone who would be a good Sinestro.



"Also with Green Lantern comes the release of a new animated feature on July 28th. Acclaimed actor Christopher Meloni (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) fills the lead voice of Hal Jordan aka Green Lantern. Meloni is joined by fellow Emmy Award nominee Victor Garber (Milk, Titanic) as the villainous Sinestro, Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) as the voice of Boodikka, and Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs) as Kilowog. Produced by animation legend Bruce Timm, Green Lantern: First Flight is helmed by heralded director Lauren Montgomery (Wonder Woman, Superman Doomsday) and scripted by four-time Emmy Award-winning writer Alan Burnett (The Batman). Green Lantern: First Flight finds Hal Jordan recruited to join the Green Lantern Corps and placed under the supervision of respected senior Lantern Sinestro. The earthling soon discovers his mentor is actually the central figure in a secret conspiracy that threatens the philosophies, traditions and hierarchy of the entire Green Lantern Corps. Hal must quickly hone his newfound powers and combat the treasonous Lanterns within the ranks to maintain order in the universe."

Hero Machine

From UGO comes this great superhero creation application. I used it often when I taught school and the kids needed to create characters to accompany their creative writing assignments. Its amazing how many times they had to write about superheroes. Go figure. I would show a great creation of my own but I forget how to do that GRRRR. If anyone figures out how to do this please let me know but in the meantime have fun with the hero machine.

http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heromachine2/heroMachine2.asp

Fake Rock Album

Got this from my bud Darius of Adventures in Nerdliness where you follow the below instructions to create your own fake rock album using random quotes and pictures. I think I got lucky with both my quote and picture though the name they choose for me is a type of mollusk. And you know I am ALL about the mollusk.

1. Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random” or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2. Go to "Random quotations" or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3. Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

Replica Batmobile

From one of my favorite Bat-related sites - Batblog - comes word of this site that creates replicas of the 1960s Batmobile (Fiberglass Freaks). I wet my diaper just looking at this. That is one beautiful automobile and is made from a modified 1955 Lincoln Futura. No word on the price but I am already starting my penny jar.

"Here is your chance to own a gorgeous and authentic replica of the most famous car in the world. Our replicas have the great features that you remember–the double bubble windshields, the loooong fins, a working flame thrower out the rocket exhaust tube, the flashing red beacon light, and the highly-polished aluminum roll-top dashboard."





http://www.buybatparts.com/
http://tomztoyz.blogspot.com/

Survivor Cool

Everybody in the world should get this mailed to them while we reserve a special room in hell for Bush and all his cohorts. Cheney already has his summer home there.

Cool Caturday Picture

Burning Safari

This classic short cartoon illustrates exactly the way I think any encounter man (or monkey) would have with visiting alien species. See how a little cultural misuderstanding can end up bad for everyone. Lets just agree that the univerese in a big place and we all have our little peice of it so we can just leave each other alone.

Bear Bag

I would love to take this camping only to see the expression on my tentmate's faces when they wake up and see the snoring bear next to them. Of course then I risk someone doing something foolishly heroic like trying to kill the bear that ate their tasty buddy Kal.

Godzilla Etiquette

See, he isn't the rampaging crazy lizard everyone thinks he is. That is all just negative PR from the Japanese Homeowners Association. He is really just a misuderstood gentleman and like Stallone he is much shorter in person than he appears to be in the movies.

Kirk for PM

Much thanks to my blog buddy Patrick H who sent me this article about Shatner's desire to be PM of Canada. Here is my opinion on the subject. Canada has very few celebrities that we actually revere. We tend to give our praise to people who are famous for doing heroic things in our history like Normal Bethune or Banting and Best (who discovered Insulin). Not since the 1970s and the political career of Pierre Trudeau did we have a politician that received the enthusiasm of the voters like a rock star. Love him or hate him he was charismatic. Now I was one who always claimed that Shatner should have died after Star Trek because he would never be as good an actor or a beautiful a man as we was as Captain Kirk. His post Trek career was always ripe for satire (Mackenzie Park anyone)? I even have that record album (????) of Shatner's stage speeches. But it was after he did that famouse SNL skit where he asked a Star Trek conventioneer if he has ever kissed a girl that he kinda redeemed himself in my eyes. He was comfortable enough to mock his own identity. And since all the Priceline ads and the awesome role he played on Boston Legal as Denny Crane I have a totally new respect for him. So why not PM? He is comfortable in front of the camera and would rally other celebs to causes that Canada needs to face and he has a healthy colon from all that All-Bran. His negotiations with Priceline would benefit us all when he uses the power of his office to get us the lowest prices on hotel room and airline flights. Like the French PM he seems to hang out with young hot women and that can only be good for us - sweaters and boots. Despite what he says, he would be a good Governor General too since the position is all shmoozing and he can schmooze with the best of them. We are almost a celeb phobic culture and we need to toot our own horn about our own greatness more than we do. The best part about being a Canadian is that we can enjoy all the best of American while not actually having to be Americans. Now I love my Yankee brothers but at least the most 'hillbilly' we get are my relatives from BC. Still we are jealous of your Barack. Shat is no comparison but lets roll the dice bitches. After all according to that Discovery Channel documentary he DID save the world!

William Shatner wants to be Prime Minister of Canada.

"The 'Star Trek' actor, who played Captain Kirk in the hit sci-fi TV show, is planning to make a dramatic career change and help lead his native country. The 77-year-old star said: "My intention is to be Prime Minister of Canada, not Governor General, which is mainly a ceremonial position." Shatner revealed his lofty ambition in response to a letter from a fan who urged him to put himself forward for the Governor General of Canada. The Governor General is appointed by the monarch - which in Canada is currently Queen Elizabeth II - to perform the constitutional duties of the sovereign on her behalf. In his letter, Shatner regretfully added: "I must, with my deepest thanks, turn down your honourable intent to advance me as Governor General. Besides which, I don't have time to be Governor General." Despite his busy schedule, the actor is confident he has what it takes to run the country, explaining: "As Prime Minister I can lead Canada into even greater exploits."

Just Funny

Cool Hero Signage

From Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company in New York which is not only a superhero supply store but is also a non-profit charity that teaches creative writing to disadvantaged children in the city. Very cool on both counts.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/brooklyn-superhero-supply-co-brooklyn

More Cool Childhood Toys

Simple...yes but a certified classic that actually takes some skill to master. On long bus or car rides I always had them with me as a kid. It took extra skill to link all the monkies together while driving over bumpy roads or while trying to drink root beer out of the large glass A&W jug. The two aren't related of course but everytime I think of Barrel of Monkeys I thing of jugged root beer from A&W. But it had to come from the drive-in A&Ws where they balanced the trays on your car windows and the girls wore roller skates. I really grew up in a much simpler time. Too late for Playstation or X-box but just right for computers and the internet.

V - Enjoy the Silence

Its really hard to find a good music video mash with a movie that works and carries the mood and energy of the movie they are joing the music too. This is one that works in my opinion. It give my man V an almost mythical bearing. And who can deny that his final ballet of death is not mythical. I love the characters style - he is both terrorist and freedom fighter but first and foremost he is a true artist -albiet an artist of death. But why not aspire to be great in all you do. Not like Bin Laden that one trick pony. Even his Taliban garb is SOOOO eighties. V is timeless

Welcome Brother Barack

Is there anything sharper than the Red Surge of the Mounties. Whenever I see it I get all a tingle. It is such a quintessential Canadian image.

More Iconic Obama

Now I am a huge fan of Brother Barack but just when I think they can't find another way to honor (?) him they come up with this. Now all we need is for his image to be seen in a piece of toast or a tortilla in Mexico. These are becoming a cottage industry. I can't wait for the coffee table book that showcases all of them.

Steampunk Under the Sea

From Dark Roasted Blend comes these awesome images from a time that should have existed but sadly never did. I love the monsterous deep sea diving suits. I would be ready to mess with any shark or octopus that would be trying to mess with me. I don't really like going in the ocean cause sea creatures just don't understand the concept of 'personal space'. 7/10ths of the earth's surface and they gotta brush up against MY leg. That is why I eat seafood with gusto. You don't like it Mr Loster and Mr Tuna...well come on over and do something about it bitches.

When Did Topanga Get So Hot? MEOW

Solar System Tourism

I am a huge fan of futeristic art that show us the world we should be living in. These travel posters are awesomely art deco and totally temp me to buy my ticket and freeze myself so that I can wake up in the future just in time for a vaction.