Star Wars chalk mural, Walking Dead, Calvin and Hobbes

Just some cool things I thought I would link to for you all to see.

Chalk mural artist, former co-worker of mine, and all around cool guy Eric Maruscak did another great piece for the Star Wars Celebration. Check out a time lapse video right here:

and go to his website for more cool stuff.

The trailer for The Walking Dead TV show coming to AMC was officially released, and it looks awesome. If you like zombies, this show is gonna be sweet. The comic is great, and this adaptation looks to be quite faithful to the source material. CHECK IT!

Also saw this sweet comic by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo which is Lex Luthor and the Joker done in the style of a Sunday Calvin & Hobbes strip. So cool!

Doesn't it make you miss Bill Watterson's masterpiece?

Sad but True: Scott Pilgrim a Bob-omb

This article about Scott Pilgrim vs. The World as 'box office bob-omb' should be labeled sad but true. I truly loved this movie, I thought it was fantastically original and creative. But ultimately it seems to have failed to find an audience.

I went to see it on the Saturday night the weekend it opened, and even though I live in tragically un-hip Casper, Wyoming, there were only seven other people in the theater with me. I was shocked. After seeing the movie and reading about its poor opening weekend, I became dismayed.

I was able to convince a co-worker to go see it the following weekend, and he loved it as well. I was shocked again when another co-worker (who usually is pretty savvy on cool movies) expressed no interest in seeing it. These are guys that make appointments to see good cinema, and it was registering zero on their radar. The term 'word-of-mouth' doesn't go far enough, this is more of a case of 'evangelism'. Mere recommendations are falling short, no less than total conversion of the uninitiated is required.

The article from cinemablend.com linked to above explains in detail how Scott Pilgrim's audience is hard to pin down. It's true, I can't fathom my parents liking this movie. I am most likely right in the wheelhouse of the intended demographic (late twenty early thirty-somethings that like music and classic videogames) and maybe that is skewing my view of it.

Ultimately, I think if given the chance, this movie will appeal to a wider range of audience than it has so far in the theater. Look for this to be a big time seller when it hits DVD and Blu-ray.

Could Scott Pilgrim be this generation's Rocky Horror Picture Show? This is Spinal Tap? Shawshank Redemption?

Marvel's Chaos War event sure to get a rise out of you

The promos I'm seeing for Marvel's upcoming Chaos War have perked up my little ears and are making me take notice. The talent and the titles that are coming forth for this event are really exciting. Of course, Hulk, Thor, and others will be tied into this event, but its the resurrected characters that are making me sit up.

Ares is coming back in a one shot. Hercules will make a return. The Dead Avengers looks cool, especially with what looks like the original Vision, Swordsman, and Captain Marvel. And, the coup de grace in my opinion, flippin' ALPHA FLIGHT! Woot!

Is this a cheap knock-off of DC's Blackest Night event? I guess time will tell, but Blackest Night didn't have Vision and Alpha Flight.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a great movie

I saw Scott Pilgrim vs. The World last night, and I have to say it is one of the most original and entertaining movies I've seen in a long time. Coming into the movie I had only read the first volume of the comic (a problem I 'll soon rectify for sure) and I felt it adapted the comic to film better than any movie save perhaps Sin City.

I couldn't help but be reminded of Sin City while watching Scott Pilgrim, even though they are, thematically at least, completely different movies. Having only read Vol. 1 of Scott Pilgrim and The Hard Goodbye from Sin City, my references may be limited, but I think enough that I can make this comparison.

If you remember back to Sin City, the graphic novel(s) of hard boiled crime-noir, the movie took that premise and ran with it, Robert Rodriguez fully embraced the genre of both noir and comic adaptation, fusing the two into a visually stunning piece that felt like a living breathing comic book by Frank Miller. Groundbreaking at the time and copied to varying degrees of success (300, Watchmen). Scott Pilgrim has a similar formula, a graphic novel of comedy/romance and video game tropes, the movie also fully embraces the source material and fuses them into what a romantic comedy video game might be, brought to life on screen deftly and with a total comprehension by Edgar Wright.

Neither movie pulls back for a second to either pander to a common denominator, or explain ham-fistedly why you are seeing these things in a type of hyper-realism. They both know exactly what they are and what they hope to accomplish, and they both expect the viewer to keep up.

This was the one criticism I had of Inception, my other favorite movie of the year and also an excellent film, was that it seemed to not trust the audience enough to keep up, and thus endless explanations of where the characters were and what was happening throughout kept me somewhat disengaged from the movie at times. Sin City and Scott Pilgrim put you into their unique worlds and keep you there as a citizen under their own rules of reality.

One beef I have after seeing Scott Pilgrim that actually has nothing to do with the movie itself, was Brandon Routh appeared in the movie for a total of about ten minutes and engages in more action than in the entirety of Superman Returns, and shame on you Brian Singer for wasting that opportunity.

Avengers teaser trailer

Not terribly exciting, as we all know how to spell "Avengers" but here it is anyway.

http://io9.com/5604936/comic-cons-avengers-teaser-trailer-assembles

Hulk-mania! Jeff Parker is cool and so is Hulkington Post

Just some updates I wanted to share:

Cool new site for fans of the Hulk, The Hulkington Post. You should check them out, if only because they have a cool name. You can (and should) also follow them on Twitter @HulkingtonPost. It looks like they are just getting started, so help 'em out!

In other Hulk news, Jeff Parker will be taking over writing duties on Hulk with number 25. Perhaps you recall (probably not) my infuriation at the direction the title took, dragging on and on with the Red Hulk crap. I dropped the title around #8 or so in disgust. Well, Parker, the writer of some great and current ongoing series at Marvel, announced on his blog that the first 75 people who emailed him promising to try Hulk #25 he would send a signed comic. He wanted a chance to convince people to read Hulk again and what can I say, I like free stuff. I especially like Parker's work on Thunderbolts and Atlas. I received a signed copy of World War Hulks: Classified #1 and true to my word, I ordered up a copy of Hulk #25.

The word must have gotten out that Loeb's run on Hulk and the whole Red Hulk thing were not that popular. Parker has one issue to convince me, and if anyone can do it, it's him.