Another week means another 7 days of seeing really cool shit. Here's the stuff that made me stop scrolling, sit up, and notice. Of course some of this stuff didn't happen this week, either because I forgot to talk about it the week before or because I'm just slow putting my fingers to the pulse.
But anyways - here's the best of the best according to me -
David Mack Batman 50 cover
I think I waxed poetic about why David Mack is my generation's must love artist last week, so I'll save you the fawning and just show you the art. The dude did is doing one of many covers for Batman #50, the issue where Batman is supposed to marry Catwoman and the cover is, as expected, infreakingcredible.
Good grief. I love David Mack. The man's got the most talented hands in comics.
Shazam Reprinting
Honestly, outside of a few tie-ins, miniseries, and a key role on Justice League Unlimited, I don't know very much about Captain Marvel/Shazam save for the fact the character is a legal clusterfuck.
That's why I'm excited that this story, the Monster Society of Evil, one of the first ever serialized comic stories taking place over multiple installments is being reprinted. But when you rerelease a 1940's comic you're getting the good, and the bad.
And let's not mince words; there's a lot of bad. I mean, jfc - right there on the title page you see "Capt. Nazi" and "Nippo".
That's, umm... not great.
The 1940's were not a kind time culturally to minorities, especially African Americans and after Pearl Harbor, especially people of Japanese descent. The comics industry, while a bastion for representation and diversity now, wasn't always... They were dicks.
They were monsters, really. They treated minorities horribly and painted them as stereotypical, craven, and subhuman.
There's a batch of old Warner Brothers cartoons that have been deemed to insensitive to show now. Because they're terribly racist and insensitive, where Bugs Bunny is throwing grenades at Japanese soldiers while shouting racial epithets.
This comic is that equivalent in serial form. It's terrible, but you can't erase your past, all you can do is be better. Read this because it's important to the history of the medium but understand why it's wrong and be better.
https://www.newsarama.com/40421-shazam-the-monster-society-of-evil-deluxe-edition-hc-captain-marvel.html
Gundam Photoshop Portraits
I love this one old Japanese cartoon called Mobile Suit Gundam - I hold it just below Star Wars and just above Mass Effect as far as science fiction stories are concerned. Because, there isn't a lot you can't love when it's a war between earth and outer space with giant robots and psychics on the battlefield. It came out at a time when anime poster art didn't really perspective but that's what makes it - to me - goddamn incredible. The wonky proportions of all the creative collateral, the muted colors, the crazy-ass story - all of it makes Gundam such a hugely fun fandom to either dip your toe into or just do a full on swan dive into.
Since debuting in 1979, the series just keeps on rolling with new installments, spin-off series, manga, model kits, and OVA's coming out with regularity, making me a pretty happy camper, especially since a new publishing and distribution deal a few years ago with Nozomi Entertainment makes the DVD's easier to get than ever here in the west. Again, I'm happy...
... But not as happy as I have been on Pinterest lately. I normally trail Gundam on the service because there's sweet custom model kits that give me ideas for how I want to customize my own models and some of that sweet-ass original art I was talking about earlier. But someone, bless them - someone on Pinterest has been superimposing the heads of certain robots from the series over what I think are authentic Victorian/Edwardian portraits of people of prominence and the result is fun.
It's also stupid. But it's fun. And that's okay. Because not everything has to be Kierkegaard.
Skryim Remastered Edition
Skyrim has been released on so many platforms it kind of became a joke. Instead of any information on the game's eventual sequel, The Elder Scrolls Vi, we just kept getting Skyrim again and again on new platforms, which is find because that game rules, but it's still not a new game.
Kyrie Irving on Bill Simmons Podcast
I'm a big Boston sports fan, so last year's NFL season was a heartbreaker, this year's NBA season was a miracle, and the Yankees are leading the AL East, so they can go fuck themselves. Bill Simmons is one of my all-time favorite writers and is constantly teaching me stuff I don't know about sports, so having Kyrie on was a really, really fun episode.
Dude is smart, humble, articulate, and passionate... He didn't sound like the kind of guy who actually believes the world is flat.
I know Simmons is a homer. But he owns it. And shit, you're a homer too. That's cool. I'm sorry your fanbase doesn't have someone like Bill Simmons at the top of it because trust me when I say it's really, really fun. Unless you're a Boston fan too, in which case - go Sox, and Brady will never die.
Bullmoose Music / Fantastic Four Xbox Game
I love San Francisco but there's no place I can take a bus to that sells old video games, which is kind of horseshit for a city full of rich nerds, but I digress. As soon as I found out I couldn't buy old GameCube games here I looked online to one of my favorite stores of all time, Bullmoose. Bullmoose is a local chain of used/new dvd's, books, cd/s records, games, comics, and pretty much anything else you can possibly imagine wanting for your personal library. And what did I want from my library?
I wanted a bunch of superhero games I either couldn't afford as a kid for the GameCube/Xbox/PS2 generation or lost after lending to a friend. I very happily added Spider-man (2002), Spider-man 2, Ultimate Spider-man, Hulk, Superman: Man of Steel, Superman, Shadow of Apokolips, Catwoman, Aquaman, Constantine, Teen Titans, and surprise, surprise - The Fantastic Four.
I played a little bit of all the games and y'know, they're not the best, but one game I ripped into and really enjoyed my time with was the Fantastic Four movie tie in game. Developed by 7 Studios (as far as I can tell, that's the actual name; it wasn't developed by seven different studios) and published by Activision, Fantastic Four came out in the heyday of licensed property tie-in games using the movies as the story and the likenesses of the characters therein. And the Fantastic Four game.. I've literally never heard anyone every talk about it. I couldn't even find the game on Metacrtic. IGN gave it a 6.5 review and that feels about right.
But you know what? It's a surprisingly fun distraction. It's a four player brawler that bobs and weaves through the narrative of the movie while padding it out with more stuff that would've been cool (Mole Man? Yes, please). It more or less uses the same gameplay mechanics of Activision's then contemporaneous series X-Men Legends, but with a different score-based level structure, compared to Legends's more open ended structure.
It's a weird change of pace from the generally well-regarded X-Men Legends game series, but it's still fun, if a little janky and less polished than those other games, but again - fun. Like, impressively fun. Like it's the most fun I've had since Far Cry 5, fun.
Thanks, Bullmoose <3
100 Greatest Moments in Gaming - IGN
The only thing people like more than video games is comparing them in lists. IGN is the biggest video game website in the world and they have a stable of talented-as-shit writers who can wax poetic on games, and I eat that shit up because I'm a pop culture fiend. Every year they update their list of the 100 best games of all time and this isn't that list, which is awesome.
This list is the 100 greatest moments in gaming. It's leaving the vault in Fallout 3 and seeing the wasteland that Washing DC became. It's seeing the lighthouse in Bioshock Infinite. It's Pac-Man meeting Ms. Pac-man, it's getting to the roof of Peach's Castle in Super Mario 64 and seeing Yoshi.
I love the scale of this article. It's this huge, expansive piece of writing that focuses on the smallest, most intimately measurable experiences that left an impact on you. Forget the ranking, just remember how much fun these games are and what these moments meant to you when came across them.
Seriously, forget the ranking. If you're one of those assholes who has to shout at the writers "BUT PULLING THE MASTER SWORD ISN'T AS IMPORTANT AS..." then you're not passionate - you're just an asshole.
Allred's Dick Tracy
Truth be told, Dick Tracy was never really my thing. I'm a huge comic fan and 80's movie fan yeah, but besides a small appreciation of the film, the character never really did that much for me. You know what does do a lot for me though? Mike Allred. The dude is untouchable, without peer, a goddamn genius. His pop art aesthetic makes every pencil line the dude puts on paper timeless. This could've come out 40 years from now this could come out in another 40. The dude's style simultaneously pays respect to what came before from the Kirby/Ditko/Kane era and updates it with small tweaks, bucking the trend du jour that applies to most hot artists rocking the stands today. The dude kicks ass. Getting him on Silver Surfer throughout the Marvel Now! era was a gift and getting him now for such a stylistic noir story is beyond awesome. Especially from IDW, which is a newer-ish publisher that shows such respect for licensed comics. Their Simon Furman Transformers stuff in the mid 2000's was fucking incredible and one of the best books on the stands of the era, and their TMNT stuff today is bliss in color.
Lifetime Original Game Show - SNL
Bill Hader is realistically one of the funniest people on the planet and with his show Barry, the dude is an inspiration for me as an aspiring creative writer. I like to have old SNL sketches on while I write because even the bad seasons are still incredible bodies of work (you don't like it, you should try writing comedy sketches week in and week out that are simultaneously culturally relevant but evergreen on top of entertaining and do a good job of balancing the cast's strengths with the weaknesses of the host that's changing every week. Go ahead. I'll wait).
Anywho, this one just popped into my random rotation again and years removed, Anna Faris and Bill Hader still make me laugh my ass off. Vanessa Bayer and Kristen Wiig anchoring this sketch with the two smaller roles means this sketch has almost no weak links, and Hader's heel turn halfway through the sketch still makes me cough and lose my train of thought.
MTG Core Set 2019 Reprints
I haven't talked about it a lot, but I'm a huge Magic the Gathering fan. I'm terrible at it, which is probably why I don't discuss it that much. I'll keep this one brief because I've seen the Venn-Diagram of people who visit my site and nowhere in the circle is people who play Friday Night Magic.
Anyways. There's a whole bunch of different formats that use the same cards. Basically you can use cards going back a year for one format, cards going all the way back to about 2010 for another format, all cards for another, etc.
One of the most competitive formats is one called Modern, going back to about 2010 or so, when they last updated the card frame, so everything looks the same from a layout perspective. Because over the past 8 years or so the game has only gotten more popular, supply hasn't increased while demand has skyrocketed, leaving a lot of critical cards for certain strategies to raise in price exponentially on the secondary market.
Not only is the Core Set returning, a set traditionally filled with reprints which in itself is a big deal, but the cards are being revealed now, and two of the cards being reprinted cost over $50 each - which is ridiculous when you consider that a play-set is four copies, which is ludicrously expensive and clearly a deterrent from people joining the game.
Kudos, Wizards of the Coast. Thank you for finally reprinting Crucible of Worlds so I can get it for my Meren of Clan Nel Toth Commander Deck.
Welcome to Marwen
Zemeckis made one of my all-time favorite movies, so I always take notice when that dude has a new project in the pipeline. Welcome to Marwen is based on an apparently true story of an assault victim who uses art to aid in his recovery.
It's Steve Carrell, Janelle Monáe, and Leslie Mann in what looks like a tender story about someone trying to move on from PTSD blended in with a mixed media (have you noticed a theme yet?) with an action figure based war subplot? I don't know anything else about this story besides what I've gotten from the trailer.
I don't want to know anything else about this story besides what I've gotten from the trailer.
I just want to see this movie already.