Movies

An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Review: Frank Miller’s Sin City (Movie)

Sin-sational!?!In a word....hardly. In two words, not really; but in any case it's a movie that should be seen. In fact you can use just about any cliché in the book to describe Frank Miller's Sin City and be dead-on. It's a jaw-dropping, eye-popping, action-packed, must-see crime drama that's very well-acted. It's also a campy, over-dramatized, mechanically flawed film that tries to be too true to its roots. It's one big contradiction, and so is this spoiler-free review.Sin City is not a traditional movie adaptation of Frank Miller's Sin City Graphic Novels, it's a direct translation from the page to…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Interview: Fialkov on Elk’s Run

It's a sad fact in the comics industry today that succesfully launching a brand new title is a Herculean feat for the Big Two, requiring a massive marketing and promotion campaign with no guarantees of success. For independent publishers, it's a near impossible task. Even sadder is the fact that the lower half of the Diamond Top 100 - wholly dominated by mainstream super-heroes, historied licenses and/or A-list creators - typically bottoms out around 25,000 copies, making "successful" a somewhat relative term. So what to do when a really good comic book comes along, one not in the front of…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Dan’s Top 3 Comic Book-Themed Video Games

[Three ground rules. 1) All games considered must have its origins rooted in a published comic book, ie: Marvel, DC, Image, etc. Power Puff Girls and the Simpsons do not qualify since they were "born" on screen. 2) WOW factor must be taken into consideration when ranking the games. WOW factor is defined by how the game was recieved by comic fans/gamers when it came out. This is very important because it opens up the field to any console/arcade game, any year. ie: I would argue that of the two Spider-Man games based on the movies, Spider-Man 1 would rank…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

PSA: Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

[Support a worthy cause this holiday season. Plus, do it by Christmas Eve and get your $25 donation matched!] The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund was officially incorporated as a non-profit charitable organization in January of 1990 from the money left over from donations raised to defend Friendly Frank's arrest for selling "obscene comics" in Lansing, IL in 1986. Since then, the CBLDF has helped over a dozen comic book retailers and professionals fend off the censors, some successfully, some not. The CBLDF exists to fight censorship and defend the first amendment rights of comic book professionals throughout the United…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Comment: Comic Book Superheros Unmasked (2003)

Comic Book Superheros Unmasked (CBSU) is a History Channel documentary that has aired numerous times over the last few months. Released in 2003, the film was directed by Steve Kroopnick and he takes us on a tour of the comic book industry from its Depression Era-beginnings through its modern-day multi-million dollar enterprises. Our guides are some of the industries greatest legends, and current innovators, names like Stan Lee, Frank Miller, Joe Quesada, Neil Gaiman, and Will Eisner. I've seen CBSU three times, and I'd watch it a fourth time if it were playing right now. What struck me the most…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Paul Berman rips apart The Motorcycle Diaries, the cult of Che and so-called "American intellectuals" in a blistering article on Slate. The Cult of Che Don't applaud The Motorcycle Diaries. By Paul Berman The cult of Ernesto Che Guevara is an episode in the moral callousness of our time. Che was a totalitarian. He achieved nothing but disaster. Many of the early leaders of the Cuban Revolution favored a democratic or democratic-socialist direction for the new Cuba. But Che was a mainstay of the hardline pro-Soviet faction, and his faction won... I wonder if people who stand up to cheer…

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An arm with a tattoo: "I was made for the library, not the classroom."

Comic Book Wednesday is like an oasis in the middle of the drudgery that is Monday-Friday. Picked up more than I expected to this week, including bags, and am nearly halfway to another Midtown Comics rebate! As it is, I need to pick up another longbox as the collection is nearing 1,000 comics. Damn Omar for rekindling this particular fire! Between what I spend on comics and D&D, it's a good thing I don't smoke anymore. Recent additions to my ever-evolving pull list include Ezra, Powers, Secret Skull, Ex Machina and Sleeper - the latter two with new issues out…

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