Jul 09 2015

Oh My, It’s Comic Con Time

To borrow the words of the ever-wonderful George Takei: Oh my, it’s comic con time.

George Takei Oh My

What are we talking about? Why, the San Diego Comic-Con of course. It happens every year.

(Here’s a video of George saying “Oh My” in case you need to hear that. There’s never a bad time to hear George.)

Anyway, San Diego Comic-Con has been around for awhile, but in the past decade, it has become big news. Geekery, as we all know, is no longer a hidden pleasure for many. It’s become a billion-dollar business. Amazon recently introduced their Geek Boutique, which about as mainstream as it gets.

One could debate when this all started, the explosion of so-called geek culture into the real world. I’ve been a Geek Gold Card member for my entire life, but suddenly people actually want to know who the hell Ant-Man is. (If you are one of those people, just ask. I’m nice that way. For example, here’s the latest “Ant-Manmovie trailer, complete with a reference to The Avengers.)

The links below give you more information about the big event than I ever could, and not only because I won’t be there. I’ve actually never attended the San Diego Comic-Con, just the New York Comic Con. But there will be lots of announcements about nerdy stuff (or perhaps I should say formerly nerdy — is something still nerdy if it’s immensely popular?) like movies, TV shows, video games, and yes, even comic books.

Here’s how to follow io9’s coverage of Comic Con. (We like io9.) The Mary Sue is also a good source. For example, here’s Betty White as Wolverine.

And then there’s this, via Polygon.com. Watch it at your own risk.

 


Apr 28 2013

Superhero Animation On Demand

As promised, here is a list of Superhero Animation that you can watch on demand. Some notes/comments/caveats:

DaddyTips Featured Video

– Most recent update: April 30, 2013

– All are available via Netflix unless otherwise indicated.

– Titles listed may suddenly become unavailable… or even better, new titles may show up. Such as Batman Beyond and Justice League which are now on Netflix. The greatness of this fact cannot be overstated.

– This page may be updated when new shows are added. I’m also going to make a different page for live action superhero programming. Because I’m cool like that. And I have a Geek Gold Card.

– This may shock some of you, but I have something to say about every single one of these shows. Therefore I will write posts for each entry as time permits. Check back for updates.

Without further ado, here is the list. If you know of anything I missed, leave a comment or contact me directly. This is important stuff, folks. Read more »


Oct 13 2012

Agent Coulson Lives On “S.H.I.E.L.D.” TV Show (NYCC)

Avengers and Clark Gregg fans rejoice — Agent Coulson Lives!

Breaking News From NYCC

This is listed as breaking news from New York Comic Con (aka NYCC 2012) on Comic Book Resources. We’ll give them the credit because (a) it appears to be deserved and (b) we haven’t seen this news anywhere else. So you go, CBR!

Bottom line — S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Coulson, aka “The Son of Coul”, played by actor Clark Gregg, will have a role of some kind on Joss Whedon’s upcoming Marvel-inspired comic book TV show, which we believe is titled “S.H.I.E.L.D.”

What is unclear is how exactly it will be explained that Agent Coulson is still alive. What is clear is that I’m enough of a fanboy about this particular area of Geek Gold Card land that I don’t really care.

For the uninitiated… Well, hell’s bells, there’s no way to explain this bit o’ nerdy news without giving away one of the coolest moments of the Avengers movie. So if you haven’t seen it yet, please do so. We highly recommend the Avengers Blu-Ray Combo Pack which comes with a digital copy, a regular DVD, and lots of nifty geeky extra features. You could buy it from Amazon.com and have it shipped faster than you can say “tesseract”. Well, maybe not quite that fast. But pretty fast. Or watch it on any of the numerous streaming video outlets.

Seriously, if you haven’t seen The Avengers, that’s OK (sort of). But I watched it again recently and it’s a lot of fun.

NYCC: Coulson Lives In Whedon’s “S.H.I.E.L.D.” (Updated with Photos) – Comic Book Resources.


Oct 18 2010

New Incredible Hulk TV show has us asking why

There will be a new Incredible Hulk TV show. The question is, why?

This is live-action, not animated.

I loved the old show when I was a kid. But, as I explained to my son when I showed it to him and he looked at me like I was asking him to ingest a weasel on a bun, this was back when we only had three or four channels. And very few of those channels featured super-heroes on a regular basis.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOXpKUu6pUg]

I watched the pilot of the old Bixby/Ferigno Hulk recently. It was fun, although the series is very much of it’s time, which is the 70’s. BIG pants. BIG hair. And for Ferigno as Hulk, BIG eyebrows.

One observation worth noting is that having a real person playing the Hulk makes it feel more real. Sure, you can do more with CGI. But Ferigno, as silly as he looked in that green body paint, managed to convey the idea that he was an actual living thing struggling to figure out what the hell to do in a world that hates and fears him.

That’s significantly more thought than I ever gave the show when it was actually on the air, however. Mostly I wanted to see something, ANYTHING that had to do with super-heroes.

In retrospect, the old Hulk TV show was only slightly related to the comic book. Yes, he turns into the Hulk. But this Hulk doesn’t talk. There’s no Betty, at least not that I can remember. There’s no Rick Jones. (Although there’s no Rick in either of the two movies. Why TV people not like Rick? Rick Hulk’s friend! Hulk smash people who cut Rick Jones out of Hulk storyline!)

Something else I noticed when I saw the show recently: with limited special effects and no supervillians, they had to rely on, you know, dialogue and stuff. Remember why David Banner (not Bruce, his name in the comics) got hit with too much gamma radiation? Because some technician in the office was tinkering with the equipment, and he didn’t mark the dial correctly. In other words, Banner thought the machine went to 11, but it really went to 11,000. (Puny Banner. Thinks he smart. He not smart. He stupid. Hulk smash puny Banner!)

It should be noted that I will absolutely be watching this new Hulk TV show, should it ever actually see the light of day. Hopefully it will be at least good enough for me to watch with the kids. Even if it’s not, we’ll probably stick it out for a few episodes. Why? Because it’s the Hulk, dammit.

Frankly, it can’t be worse than The Incredible Hulk Returns, which featured Thor and Daredevil.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYZs7jHf97w]

Well, it shouldn’t be worse than that. In theory.

New Incredible Hulk show! Hulk smash original concept! TV be more like 1970s now! That last good decade for idea, apparently! | TV | Newswire | The A.V. Club.