Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

5 word challenge: A new beginning

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:March 22, 2007
Post category:Personal
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The need to express oneself in such a public manner is a peculiar trait, indeed. With comics taking up much of my blogging energy the past couple of years -- not to mention my free writing time, generally speaking -- my personal blog faded into the background, to the point where any new passion or outrage was promptly filtered through the context of comics, and if there was no connection, there was no post. I'd heard of Vox somewhere in my online travels recently, and then my friend Dan signed up, and after poking around a bit, it rekindled my desire to…

CBC On the Move

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:March 8, 2007
Post category:Pop Culture
Post comments:2 Comments

Over the past couple of weeks, I've gotten a clearer vision of what I want to do with this site and where it fits in the bigger picture of my own writing, and now that I can see it, I'm ready to move towards it. Quickly! First things first, the "Comic Book Commentary" blog will be moving over to PopCultureShock, effective immediately. Here, to be exact: http://cbc.popcultureshock.com NOTE: The new direct RSS feed can be found here: http://popcultureshock.com/pcs/blogs/cbc/feed/ ...or you can sign up for the entire PCS feed here: http://www.popcultureshock.com/feed/ LiveJournalers can "friend" this one: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/popcshock/ I'll be posting my…

The Death of Captain America

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:March 7, 2007
Post category:Media Pop Culture
Post comments:3 Comments

No spoiler warning necessary at this point when it's now the featured story on Yahoo's main page!It was "spoiled" for me on the way to work today thanks to a page 3 article in the Daily News, "Captain America killed!". Even Marvel has now revealed it on their web site, after teasing it with a Daily Bugle: A Hero has been Shot story earlier today that didn't identify the victim. Cute.Of course, despite most not having read the story in question yet, the blogiverse is already cynically chiming in with variations on "So what?" and "Quesada sucks!" in response to…

On the Shelves: 3/7/07

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:March 6, 2007
Post category:Media Personal Pop Culture Reviews
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Reading is fundamental. Read what you like; don't waste your time reading bad comics out of habit! My weekly look at select comic books being released Wednesday, 3/7/07. The full shipping list, as always, is available at ComicList. [NOTE: Not all of these titles will actually arrive in all stores. If your LCBS offers a pre-ordering service, be sure to take advantage of it. If not, find another one; or try Khepri.com or MidtownComics.com] PICK OF THE WEEK The Living and the DeadDARK HORSE COMICS Star Wars Legacy #9, $2.99 Legacy has replaced Conan, which I still enjoy, as my…

Hater Blog: Levitz or Quesada?

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:March 5, 2007
Post category:Personal Pop Culture
Post comments:1 Comment

Dick Hyacinth of the entertaining guilty pleasure and recent addition to the Blogs of Note, Dick Hates Your Blog, has been running a series of "Hate Polls", pitting the likes of Mark Millar, Geoff Johns, Brad Meltzer and Joe Quesada against each other for the title of Most Hated in Comics. Last week, after Quesada soundly thumped previous reigning champ, Millar, he asked who else might be a worthy challenger to the formidable DaQ and my comment was one of my favorite ever, as succinct a description of the "Big Two" as I could imagine:Yes, Levitz is whom I'd put…

Marketing Monday: No-Brainer Marketing Efforts, Pt. II

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:March 5, 2007
Post category:Media Pop Culture Reviews
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Wrapping up the subject of Marketing No-Brainers from two weeks ago, the final no-brainer is the PowerPoint presentation -- a portable, printable document offering an overview of all relevant information on the publisher and/or product based on the intended audience. This presentation should bring together all of the other elements of the no-brainer puzzle into one informative, visually stimulating picture, and has a number of uses. 1) It should be flexible enough to double as the basis for an actual in-person presentation as well as an informational leave-behind or promotional mailing piece. 2) It should include your "elevator pitch", a…

Ghost Rider’s Qualified Success and What it Means for DC

Post author:Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
Post published:March 4, 2007
Post category:Media Pop Culture Reviews
Post comments:7 Comments

With the estimates for its third weekend in ($11.5m towards $94m to-date, domestic) it’s safe to consider Ghost Rider a qualified success as it’s quite likely that it will surpass director Mark Steven Johnson’s previous effort, Daredevil — which topped out at $102m after 22 weeks in release — by the end of next weekend, despite receiving even worse reviews; and its final domestic take should, at least, cover its pricey $120m production budget. In doing so, it will also likely match, or beat, the combined box office of Daredevil and its ill-conceived spinoff, Elektra, which bombed two years ago with a mere $24m domestic take.

Did anyone other than Avi Arad, Johnson and Nicolas Cage (for whom Ghost Rider represents his widest initial release and best opening weekend box office ever) really see this coming? Suddenly, the decision to postpone its release from August 2006 and invest in some top-notch special effects seems to have paid off immensely as it’s hard to believe it would have found this level of success in last summer’s crowded schedule, lost in the shadow of the likes of Pirates of the Carribean, X-Men: The Last Stand and Superman Returns.

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