When life gives you lemons....

I know I said in the last post that I'd be back for more, but as life often does, things got hectic. I do fully intend to get back on here as much as possible, please don't lose faith in me, I'm still here...I will return.....

Still Here!

Been having a busy past week and a half so far, I'm hitting the comic shop today and picking up my pull list from the past month, so I'm sure I'll have plenty to write/complain about in the very near future!

Just finished Phantasy Star 1, and my only question is...who the hell translated this, and were they fired immediately after launch?

My relationship with Stanley Kubrick

I'll kick this off by saying this, Stanley Kubrick is a talented director with the wonderful ability to impart his style into everything he does. He is not, nor has ever been one of the forgettable cookie-cutter directors, nor has he ever been over-stylized. Much like the sound of your favorite band, his films have always had that great quality, when you watch them, you know who directed them.

Now that you know, I admire and respect Mr.Kubrick, I have a confession to make:

I have seen almost every movie Stanley Kubrick has made. Now, with the exception of Dr.Strangelove (my favorite), and the two I haven't seen, each and every one, even Full Metal Jacket, yes, EVEN A Clockwork Orange, has put me to sleep.

This is not to say I haven't seen the movies in full, I'd simply go back to the last point that I remember and watch from there, and usually in 2 or 3 sittings I'll get the whole movie. I love most all of them. I can't honestly tell you what it is. They don't bore me, they're just, to my mental faculties, cinematic lullabies.

I go through bouts of insomnia here and there, this blog was started through one of them, but once I give up on actually trying to sleep, if I put on 2001, I know I'll be asleep within an hour.

So, that's it really, just a bit of odd about me, for you. If by some random chance/occurrence Mr. Kubrick stumbles upon my humble blog, I'll end the post with this:

My apologies Sir, but thank you anyway.

Re-visiting ID4

I'll make this one short and sweet.

I just re watched Independence Day after a long while. Come to think of it, just being a sci-fi nut, I very well may have bought the DVD just because it was on sale and I decided that I needed it in my collection w/o ever having re watched it. I'm glad I did. Letting the initial burn given me after it's premier heal and scar over has left me the ability to better appreciate this type of film.

Let's put aside the fact that it's practically a scene for scene rip off of War of the Worlds. (best example of this, the martians were defeated by earth's bacteria, the aliens here were given a "virus"). Let's put aside all the bad over-acting, bland stereotypical characters, and script full of easily forgettable cliche'd one-liners (okay, granted, I can never forget "I know you ain't shootin' that green sh*t at me!"). What then are we left with?

Kick back, and just let yourself enjoy it for what it is....."Oooooh....shiiiiny".

p.s.

A fun drinking game for those of you "of ager's", made more fun by the "point it out", arguments that will ensue, every time you hear a one-liner, drink. You'll be drunk halfway through the film.

And for you Battlestar Galactica fans, keep an eye out for Mary McDonnell aka "President Laura Roslin" in a bit part as, get this, the First Lady!

Comics: The Walking Dead

Today, if you haven't already guessed, I'll be talking about one of the best comics on the walls for the past few years, The Walking Dead.

Published by Image Comics, and created by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore, the men behind Battle Pope! Kirkman has also written for Invincible (co-creator of), Marvel Zombies (after walking dead), Captain America, Jubilee (hey everybody makes mistakes), Fantastic Four, ect...point being, the guy's a good writer, and a big Marvel fan which is a bonus in my book. I believe he even named his son, no kidding, Peter Parker Kirkman.

Now, there's been tons of zombie comics out there, Marvel Zombies, Night of the Living Dead, Ash Vs., ect ect ect, the list can and does go on. However, of all of them, none...NONE...have been written half as well as this one. Proof of this being to date it is the best selling black & white comic, not to mention all the critical acclaim.

The basic story is this: Officer Rick Grimes suffers a vicious injury right at the start of his career with the local Sheriff's Dept. thus putting him in a coma. When he wakes up, the world is a much different one than he knew, as he flees the desolate hospital and makes his way home, encountering some "undesirables" on the way, he slowly comes to realize, it's true, the dead have risen.

He does his best to make his way to the city, in hopes of finding his wife and son, which, he soon does, along with a "rag-tag" band of survivors. Accepting, of course, that under such duress, there could be nothing other than "rag-tag" folks.

Well, this is where the "fun" starts.

What follows for the next, to date, 61 issues, is some of the most brutal, honest, sad, despicable, pitiful, ect. storytelling that you've ever read. Nobody is safe, this isn't a "comic" this is the "real" world. I'm not lying when I tell you that one of my friends told me that he stopped reading the comic because it was upsetting him and he couldn't take feeling that depressed after every few issues. If that isn't a train wreck of a selling point I don't know what is. I myself have closed the cover after reading and needed to distract myself with anything to get my mind off of it.

I don't want to get too much into it, saving you of any decent spoilers. Issues up to 56 are now available collected in Trade Paperbacks, I believe the next one, bringing you up to issue 60 is due out in August. There's also the paperback compendium edition collecting up to issue 48. Oh...and how could I forget to mention....pardon me being still relatively new at this "reporting" style of blogging, the art!!

The art, up to issue 6 was done by Tony Moore, fantastic and visceral, he has since stayed on doing covers, giving the series some of the best in current comic-dom. The first issues of the TP can be put together to form a panorama of the dead, all Moore's art. From issue 7 on the art was taken over by Charlie Adlard. To be honest, I didn't see too much of a difference, save Adlard's art being a bit more gritty, more horrific, better suited, incidentally to this title, a welcome addition over all.

Well, here's to hoping that's enough to make you want to run out to your favorite comic shop and pick them all up. If you're in Jersey (North) I recommend Paradox Comics in North Arlington, NJ. Not only are they a great shop run by good people, but if they don't have it, they have no problem's getting it for you!

Good luck, and watch your back.....

Sorry, been busy saving Algol!

Before we get into this, tell me the "Genesis Does" voice-over guy doesn't sound kind of like Wesley Willis (RIP)?!

I've recently picked up Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the XBox360. It is full of wonder and joy and a vast amount of nostalgia. One of the first things I made sure to do was unlock Phantasy Star 1, which is, as you should know, a Sega Master System title. However, I believe Sega has taken pity on us early Phantasy Star fans and wanted to give us a place to play the entire series out in one disc.

Now I know, a lot of you are thinking, "Oh c'mon dude, you could've just downloaded the emulators and saved $30". This is true, I could have, but there's just something about the feeling you get playing these games on your TV, sitting in the living room, that just makes it feel better. If you can't understand that, then I feel sad for you.

My only real complaint is that they didn't include multiplayer via XBLive, but, aside from that, this is a GREAT collection of some of the best games ever made, for those of you who didn't have the opportunity to have a Sega Genesis when you were younger, or who's parents figured that Nintendo was better and got you an SNES instead, now's your chance to play a bunch of the best games ever made from the 16bit console era and let's be honest, beyond. Not to mention the fact that you can have a buddy over to play the two player games right along with you, just like the old days.

Now enough waxing on how good the game is, I think you've got that by now, let's get into some of the games that are actually ON this thing:

• Altered Beast: Now this is a great one, and they have not only the Genesis version, but the original arcade game as well! "Wize fwom yoah Gwave!!!"
  
• Alien Storm: Here's a really fun one that I'd honestly completely forgotten about. My buddy's and I killed hours playing this great Final Fight-esque brawler co-op. You can choose 3 different characters (I always chose the robot) and go fight the alien beasties which were, in typical early nineties style, funny, imaginative, and gross.

Not the best scene from the game, granted, but look at the freaky slug-things!

• Comix Zone: Not the best game in the world, a rather typical brawler actually. What set this game apart and made it interesting was the way each board played out like you were actually in a comic book, well, after all, the game's premis was this: "Tron" replacing computers with comics. Easy enough right? Just don't laugh at the main character's hairstyle.....I had that....
  
• The entire PHANTASY STAR rpg collection: discussed above...
• SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: All of them....nuff said.
• Golden Axe: 1, 2 and 3!! AND the arcade version!! w00t!
• Gain Ground: Now HERE is an undersung classic. Seriously, I truly LOVE this game and if you come hang out, you can near guarantee you'll be playing this with me. It's kind of a puzzle game/top-down shooter hybrid. You have a vast array of different character types (admittedly, some of them can even be seen as a bit racially stereotyped, I mean, c'mon guys, a black guy throwing spears....really? You went there huh?), each character has his/her own specialty shot type, high ground, low ground, seeking, spiral, spread, grenade, ect ect ect. And you go through each level trying to use the best character to complete it. Each level can be completed in two ways, either get all your mans through to the exit, or destroy each enemy on the screen. You also have your requisite boss fights, which to be honest, seem to be easier than the levels themselves. I could write a whole post on this game alone, but I'll move on for now...
• Space Harrier: You need to play Space Harrier....just look:

Dude? Is that a freakin' Space Wooly Mammoth Cyclops amidst the asteroids on blue plaid planet? Yes? Okay, thanks....I thought I was having a flashback....

• Congo Bongo: What? You've never played Congo Bongo you say? It's best described as Donkey Kong, but awesome!! And that music, you will never NEVER get that music out of your head...for the rest of your life....
• Kid Chameleon: Kid Chameleon's story was simple, you are the shit when it comes to playing video games, other kids were t3h suxor, Heady Metal (yeah, I'm not kidding) who is the boss of this "Virtual Reality" game is kidnapping all of t3h suk kids who couldn't beat his game. so it's up to you to save them!!! You do this by donning different masks that you find throughout each level which change you into different characters and give you special powers like: Maniaxe! who is supposed to be a Jason Vorhees type of character who throws axes in an arc. Juggernaut (Bitch!!), who turns you into a tank. Iron Knight! who can scale walls and break through some floors.....the list goes on, there's about 8 or 9 different characters including "Kid" himself.
• Shining Force 1 and 2: I will admit to possibly being wrong about this, but I do believe that this was the first turn based tactical rpg released for a console in the states. And it is good, oh boy, believe me, I threw many an evening into these games, my friends must have thought I'd caught mono....
• Shinobi: Don't EVEN tell me you've never played Shinobi...and no, I'm not talking about that crap on PS2 tha just wanted to be Ninja Gaiden really badly, I'm talking old-skool awesome Shinobi.....yeah, the arcade version...it's on here, you have to unlock it.

I'm gonna end it there for now, there's something like 40 games on this disc, all of them awesome!! My only wish is that they procured the licenses for more of the 3rd party games that were on the system some of my favorites being: Herzog Zwei, Chakkan the Forever Man, Storm Lord, Zero Wing (yes, we need all your base), Fatal Rewind (this game damned near gave me a stress-induced heart attack), Earthworm Jim, Todd's Adventure In Slime World (best two player game on the Atari Lynx, next to Xenophobe), Zombies Ate My Neighbors....oh this list could go on and on and on and on and on.....oh boy...

What were some of your favorites?

Help out the little guy!! (by little guy, I mean independent, not short or small of stature)

Go vote for "Steel Rising" in the Small Press Idol contest!!!

My buddy Brad is one of the creators of that comic, and to be honest, it's the best one there, even if I wasn't biased. It's really good, really fun, and an awesome concept that, to be honest, I'd love to read on a regular basis.

If he wins, he and his cohorts score a publishing deal! How awesome is THAT!?!

Well, click here and help him out! DO IT NOW!!!!

Small Press Idol Contest: Round 3!

Text blog test!

Awesome....freakin' AWESOME!!!

I just needed to let you all know something.

There's a new movie being made called King Shot. It's a "spaghetti western". It is going to star Nick Nolte and, get this, Marilyn Manson. Neither of which, mind you, am I a big fan of, I don't dislike them at all, but both are, in their own ways, proverbial train wrecks.

But that's not the interesting part.

This movie is going to be directed by the man behind the camera of two of the greatest midnight/cult films of all time. The movies are called, Santa Sangre, and more importantly, El Topo. The man's name is, Alejandro Jodorowsky.

The producer, I hope I don't have to give history on, save he is stalwart in his integrity, and is one of the most original writers/directors/producers left in Hollywood. Almost every one of his films and/or projects has garnered a respectable cult following. Wanna guess? Here's some hints, Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Eraserhead, need more? Okay fine, it's my hero, David Lynch.

Oh yeah, it's also go Udo Kier and Asia Argento. YEAH THAT'S RIGHT UDO F'N KIER!!!

To say I'm excited may very well be an understatement. 

Welcome!!

The quintessential first entry! I hope whoever you are that has stumbled onto this here blog enjoys reading whatever it is that I manage to post here. I'm going to try to keep it relatively/strictly related to my news/reviews about movies, past and upcoming, music, I listen to a LOT of varied stuff, comics, I loves me some comics, ect ect ect. But as it is a blog, as it is my opinion, you're bound to hear some complaints about things. I may even touch on the occasional political commentary. BUT...my intent, starting off, is to keep this blog light and fun.

So...here's to hoping I stick with it, and here's to hoping some folks will join me for the ride.

Yours truly,

Christopher Lee Mannix