Oh snap, its ComiCon time. That wonderful, exciting, occasionally confusing, time of year where nerdlings gather from far and near! Yes, I know that in the States ComiCon has already been, but here in Canada it starts this weekend. Not sure how it works in San Diego, but here in Toronto it’s a festival of awesomeness as Comics, Science Fiction, Horror, Anime, and Gaming establish a weekend truce and come together as “FanExpo”…but call it ComiCon. Yeah, so we’re heading there this weekend—Saturday morning in fact, right after I print and maybe pick up the first ‘zine 2008 issues (a campus publication). Should be fun, we’ll take lot of pictures so everyone can see what it’s all about. I’m not going to lie; I’ve experienced some serious extremes there in the past. I’ve been completely overjoyed to see the Red vs. Blue guys there and I’ve also been scared shitless seeing an R2D2 unit rolling around (how the fuck?) as well as some decked out anime otaku—complete with bunny ears and sexual ambiguity. Regardless, we’ll keep you posted.

The comic: it will return on Tuesday, as promised, and it will look a lot better. I’ve been going over all the old comics and wow, they were pretty damn crude. Crude like cave paintings. Well I think that the 40-issue mark is a good place to refresh the art, to bitch slap my artistic skills into focus, so to speak. On that note, I drew the next couple of issues in a different style from each other, but will stick with the latter. You’ll see what I mean in the coming weeks.

In other, unrelated news, I’ve been watching the series Mad Men and it is definitely an interesting find. I love how not only is it set in the late 1960s, but how it shatters white-picket fence, warm apple pie Americana preconceptions of that “innocent” era perpetuated by the media (then and now) and how it actively pits the advertising guys against counter culture hippies. Similar to Studio 60’s social and political commentary, Mad Med’s clashing ideologies certainly makes for some very compelling dialogue. Anyways, I could write stacks of essays on the interesting interplay between the two, or on the complex gender representations, or on the show’s commentary on current social and political circumstances, but I won’t because it’s easier if you just watch the show.

–Adam

OK I realize I do nerdy stuff EVERY weekend, but this kinda takes a different cake, metaphor….I don’t what I’m saying.

Let me explain a little bit first.  I recently finished a project with UWO’s USC –it’s top secret so shhhh– and ended up with this big pane of glass.  Just keep this is mind.  Now I have recently purchased a bunch of anime figures and need a place to display them, along with, well Superman and EVA Unit 02.

Oddly one problem, what to do with a random piece of glass and where to put my figures led to this:

You may notice the IRWIN wood clamps, also awesome for glass.  Will paint soon.

I put up four of them with ceiling hooks, an S hook and some patience.  The clamps work great due to there drilled out hole at the end of the cross bar, and the rubber pads avoid a possible shower of glass. 

Dangerous?  Mayber, but it is tempered and with 4 supports each holding 40 lbs, I think I’ll be OK.

Putting together more figures this week when I make time, so updates to come!  SO br00ders, roasters, grinders… ?  –we have to pick a name for you those of you reading this, seriously– Let me know what you think of my floating glass display shelf thing.

Andrew

So, we three went out, bought SCIV and gave it a run through last night.

First off, it plays like any soul calibur game - that is to say, in a gawddamn awesome fashion. I enjoyed it a lot, but it grew a little old pretty soon. We tried most of the start characters, fought each other, shit-talked, etc. Fun, but no different from previous versions. After an hour or two adam/andrew bored of it and went to surf teh innartets. It was then that I stumbled upon the true potential of this game: the character creator. Naturally, I made Captain Marvel. He looked effing badass.

A^2 immediately saw the potential for their super alter egos and created the boy in blue and the dark knight…and they, too, looked freaking great. We then proceeded to stay up several more hours creating the rest of the JLA. The Kingdom Come version of the Green Lantern and our rendition of Martian Manhunter were effing uncanny (pictures to come, I don’t have em). The best part? We weren’t the only ones. The Hulk vs. Harley Quinn? Street Fighter IN Soul Calibur? Pardon me while I change my pants:

We weren’t as crazy as this guy with the charming voice, but I’m pretty sure our version of superman/batman and the rest trump his. I especially like his Robin and his Thor.

Replayability (spelling? Made up word, lemme alone) to the MAX. The game becomes your canvas. At once I felt the urge to play more story mode, to earn more money, to create more characters…it was this primal need. Terrifying. I haven’t felt that since my stint tanking Blackwing Lair. We don’t talk about that dark time.

To me, Soul Calibur is thus: epic and cinematic without rhyme or reason. Paper thin weirdo plot (a man with two sword hands spouting cliches, I don’t really know) housing shit I wish made up an adventure game. The music! The visuals! The characters! It’s enough to set any fantasy geeks blood aflame, each grab sending tingles up my leg.

My only gripe is (and yes, I’m serious) that the boobs on most of the female characters are ripe watermelons…or egg sacs of some alien species that look fit to burst with monstrous, unnatural lifeforms at any moment.

I rest my case.

Hilde, however? Now there’s a woman. I’ll be illustrating what I mean soon enough. Also, I might note that 80% or so of the overall physical change you can make to female characters is…cup size and bouncy-bounce along with it. H8.

Until next time, stay (blood)thirsty, my friends.
Scott

PS: I actually went and bought that Eschalon: Book I game that was linked on PA a couple days ago. Not bad, but it not only looks like a game from the halcyon days of our youth…it’s as hard as one too.

It’s raining, a lot.  You know when it rains and there’s so much water in the streets that people pull over and pray for it to stop because they just want to get home to there humbled monitor setups and watch a Battlestar Gallactica marathon.  You KNOW when there’s so much rain and the pizza delivery man finally has an interesting story of his journey through the swampland of north London; finally something to entertain you with while the shitty chase debit machine loses wireless sync and requires that awkward moment followed by a “Um can you type it again?”

Site redesign is on the way, with those snazzy new wallpapers everyone is talking about, BAM.

Now for something completely different:

THINGS I’VE SPOTTED ON BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

First of all, just started watching this series as Adam beats me over the head with the fact that i’m missing out a science fiction phenomena.  So i’m somewhere halfway through the second season after watching it straight for a couple days.  Obviously he’s right and this series rocks so I thought I would entertain you with some of my personal madness.

When Lucy Lawless showed up she brought with her 2 DVX100’s, slightly modified of course to shoot the ins and outs of the Battlestar.  DVX100’s tend to get around, appearing on Friday Night Lights a while back too, sluts.

Decent ep  called “Final Cut” highly recommend for those DV rebel’s out there.  Turns out Lucy was to have a different role, but thought being a cylon was much cooler, good on ya Lucy

This is the real dvx, sans the mods, still pretty cool if you ask me.

But you can’t edit that footage with out a laptop, which we never get to see.  HOWEVER, we do get to see the awesome indestructible Pelican case that harbors the editing machine, what ever it may be.

The real Pelican’s usually hold my camera equipment, but I guess they have custom editing hardware too.

Well technically we do see the monitor, kinda looks Dell, but I don’t care enough to scan through laptop monitors online all day.

Oh ya, and if you take a closer look at the forklifts they use in the causeway on BSG look an awful lot like the ones I drove at the HD.

Here’s one from Home Depot.  Well technically Raymond builds them, and they are “Reach Trucks,” but honestly, I think the ones at home depot were more beat up.

Also whats with all the cut off corners on everything!

Hexagonal/octagonal discs, papers, print outs, frames, dog tags, chairs, ship designs and frakin’ playing cards; I guess this IS the future, OR is it…Frak, who knows.

And don’t forget the Fräck shaving mirror Adama uses to stay smooth.

And IKEA FTW:

I know I know this was found like years ago, but I do think its cool that Ikea makes space mirrors.  Awesome product placement, awesome… …

Oh ya, one more thing Soul Calibur is gonna own, and EGM rocks for doing a complete Anime issue.  Just my two cents.