Still Getting Better!

By Christian Nicholson

The other day we had some roof work done.  You could say that either they took down a really old satellite TV antenna, or we had our own death beam array installed on the roof.  I'm not saying which it is, but if Godzilla-esque monsters walk out of the Pacific towards West Portal, we will be ready.

The Creep Spreads

By Christian Nicholson

I promised our employees we wouldn't Zerg our customer service, but no one said anything about Zerging the store layout.  We make signigicant improvements to the store on a daily basis.

We've unleashed the Kraken, err, Cashwrap.

The First Iteration

By Christian Nicholson

We will go through several iterations before we settle into our long term set up.  This table is actually a desk, and the desk actually should be in the office.  Its not about our egos.  Its about the store.

I want my desk back.

Sure We're Open, But How Did We Get There?

By Christian Nicholson

I think that you aren't really a comic book store until you have 1. comic books shelves, and 2. comics on your shelves.  This pic shows exact moment we became a comic book store.

Plastic, Skully, And The Worthy

By Christian Nicholson


"I have your red Swingline stapler."  Skully likes to play around, but the rest of us are working dilligently on making this comic book store happen.

More In Progress Pics

By Christian Nicholson

A whole comic book store is being built by gnomes in far flung lands and will be shipped shortly. Meanwhile, chew on some more Work in Progress Pics.

Before And After Pics

by Christian Nicholson


As you may have heard, we've started building out our new store at 320 West Portal Avenue.  We'll keep you apprised as we go with fascinating photos and witty remarks.

The location we picked didn't need a lot of work.  But it did need some fresh paint, in a color which suits our business.

The todays pics are basically from the front of the store looking towards the back.

Before:

Last Airbender: Legend Of Korra Trailer!

If you haven't seen Avatar the Last Airbender, the TV series yet, you ought to.  It ranks as some of the best long form storytelling out there.  It's clever, smart and has heart.  I'm really looking forward to the sequel.

New Amazing Spider-Man Trailer!

Looks pretty amazing.

Little Thor

You must watch.

New High Res Pics of GL

By Christian Nicholson

Apparently, Warner has seen fit to release high res pics of Ryan Reynolds as the Green Lantern.  They seem to be going all out with the marketing machine.  While I'm fairly certain 'm going to a theater to see it within weeks of it opening, I might just sneak into a screening.  I'm not sure I want to encourage them.  Is it just me or does anyone else see a recolored Slim Goodbody?

Green Lantern Footage From Wondercon

By Corey Shroeder

Now THIS looks like a damn Green Lantern movie. It's CG-heavy, but any movie with a massive cast of aliens is going to be these days. We get a lot less "snarky, Tony Stark-lite" from Hal, we see Oa a lot more, we even get to see a scuffle and what APPEARS to be...Parallax? Uh oh. Parallax in the comics was one of the greatest, mightiest threats the Green Lanterns ever faced, it's not the kind of thing that should be playing second fiddle to a telekinetic super villain. It should be the sole focus of the movie. And that last trailer didn't just go away, unless they did some VERY serious editing and reshooting, so I'm having trouble reconciling what I've already seen with what I'm now seeing. Either the Earth stuff is going to be a VERY small portion of the movie, or we are heading into an extremely schizophrenic superhero film.

Captain America Trailer

Looks Amazing.

Dragon Age 2 Game Review

By Corey Schroeder

Depending on how quickly the fervor dies down, Dragon Age II may go down in history as one of the most polarizing videogames ever released. It's been the victim of trolling, it's had devs outed for making overly positive reviews, it's inspired pages upon pages of forum posts, which got so bad that on Bioware's own site, they opened a whole new forum locked for everyone, except people who have registered their copy of the game. All for a game that, at the end of the day, is competent, fun, exciting, and flawed. It's really not worth all the hubbub.

Animated Short, The Pro

For grown folks only.  Don't click the link if you aren't grown.  No seriously.  Aw dammit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNRDGjjQwwE

Winter Is Coming

Don't ask when he'll be done because if you do George RR Martin will kill a Stark.

The following video's awesomeness competes with its strangeness.  Awsome wins by a nose.

Wonder Woman Pic

Obviously.

Pic lifted from DC's blog

By Christian Nicholson

While on the one hand, the latex harkens back to Wonder Woman's BDSM roots (seriously), on the other hand, it seems a little obvious and uninspired.  I'm a little more than a little concerned about this series.

Last Airbender: Legend Of Korra Pic!

By Christian Nicholson

Nickelodian has released a new photo to promote the upcoming animated TV series Last Airbender: Legend of Korra.  I, for one, am excited.

Dragon Age 2 Demo Review

By Corey Shroeder

I just played the DA2 demo again and I have so much to say, so I figured I'd organize it into a somewhat organized list:

 First and foremost: The new darkspawn look is awesome. We learn in the last game that darkspawn are created by corrupting humans, elves, dwarves and Qu'nari into hideous monsters. But the darkspawn in DA:O look almost exactly like orks from any other fantasy series, specifically the Lord of the Rings movies. They're vaguely reptilian-humanoid monsters who tend to hunch over and use scavenged, corroded equipment. In this, they appear to be twisted, corrupt, insane versions of the creatures that they were originally created from, and I think that takes great steps to differentiate this from other fantasy games/books/movies.

Tron Uprising

By Christian Nicholson

I'll have you know, I really liked Tr2n.  I loved almost everything about it.  I don't know how much of the spirit of the movies will be in the animated series goes, but it looks promising.

Elder Scrolls: Skyrim In Game Trailer

by Christian Nicholson

Its strange to look at a trailer and know exatly how you are going to spend over 100 hours of your life.

Under the Red Hood…is a Movie Better Than Its Origin

By Corey Schroeder

“Under the Red Hood” was originally a storyline from DC Comics involving the return of Batman’s long-dead sidekick, and second Robin, Jason Todd. Todd was beaten to death by The Joker and then blown up in a warehouse. This was one of the few deaths in comic books that actually stuck as DC even had a call-in number that fans could call to vote either yea or nay as to Todd’s death, but editorial finally decided to bring him back JUST as Marvel was exploring their Winter Soldier storyline in which they brought back Captain America’s old World War II  sidekick Bucky. Unfortunately for them, Winter Soldier was everything a retcon should be: a storyline that changed history while still respecting it. Jason Todd’s resurrection was a cheap cash-in to a bigger storyline that was quickly glossed over. The movie adaptation, however, was free from editorial constraint and told the story of Jason Todd’s return how it should have been told from the first place: driven by character rather than a plot that was taking place in an entirely different book.

More Felicia Day

Felicia Day will star in another web series, but this one will be based upon the game Dragon Age.  It looks like its going to be a bit Xenaesque, but I don't think thats a bad thing.

Isn't She Wonderful?

By Christian Nicholson

DC's blog reports they've cast Adrianne Paliki as Wonder Woman for their upcoming TV pilot.  If you don't know who she is, you probably haven't seen Friday Night Lights or Supernatural.  Apparently she was also Kara on Smallville for a hot second, and has some appreciation for superheroes.  I think she'll make an excellent Wonder Woman, but will the production give us something worth watching?

Jim Lee Is A Scary Rock Star!

Maybe only his talent is scary in the awesome sense.

Amazing!!!

pic by Peter Tangen lifted from the interwebs.

By Christian Nicholson

Sony has decided to have far more guts this time around with the title of their latest Spidey flick.  The Amazing Spider-Man is scheduled for a July 3rd 2012 release date.  I'm looking forward to it.

X-Men First Class Trailer

By Christian Nicholson

It might be a surprise to some that I don't love the X-Men movies, thus far.  My criticisms of these could-have-beens are deep and wide.  Starting the trailer with images of these films left me underwhelmed.  However, there is a lot to appreciate once we get into the thing.  See for yourself.

My only concern is that it will fall into the Wolverine Origins country of showing every great moment of the movie in the trailer.  I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Captain America Trailer Unveiled

By Corey Schroeder

The Superbowl may have gotten a slight bump in the ratings from the large number of geeks and nerds tuning in to catch the first glimpse of Captain America in motion and they were not disappointed. The spot was only thirty seconds, but I don’t think anyone should be too shocked that Marvel didn’t want to pay six million dollars for a minute long spot. Thirty seconds was also plenty of time to get a good idea about the tone and content of the movie.

Where’s Captain America?! Right F’ing Here!

By Corey Schroeder

Captain America’s movie poster has been released and MAN, I do like what I’m seeing. First of all: Chris Evans looks AMAZING in the uniform. Not just in terms of how much he bulked up, but how much gravitas he’s bringing just to that single still image.

Hugh Jackman Interview @ LA Times!

Check out the Hugh Jackman interview here: http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/02/01/hugh-jackman-to-wolverine-fans-the-planets-are-finally-aligned-to-make-a-great-movie/

Could they finally be doing an X-Man movie the right way?

Identity Crisis Review

By Corey Schroeder

 “Identity Crisis,” written by Brad Meltzer and illustrated by Rags Morales, tells the shocking tale of a murder within the superhero community of the DC Universe. The book opens with Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man, out on patrol with a relative neophyte and talking about how much he loves his wife. So of course, he gets word that something terrible and horrible and unexpected has happened: his wife has been murdered and so far there are seemingly no leads and, despite all the security around her, not even a suspect. The method is clear though: Sue Dibny is found with burns across 90% of her body. Grisly stuff, especially for a superhero book. What unfolds is a mystery who’s solution won’t shake the superhero community half as much the revelations uncovered on the road to the culprit will.

We Are Not Venom, Flash Thompson Is!

By Corey Schroeder

Marvel Studios has spoken, the next person to wear the black symbiote suit will be longtime Spider-Man fan, but erstwhile Peter Parker victimizer-to-friend, Flash Thompson! For those unfamiliar: Thompson began as a bully who used to terrorize Peter Parker, but ironically was one of the first people to majorly support Spider-Man, in spite of his public perception as a menace. After character development became chic, it was revealed that Flash came from a broken, alcoholic household and he used his bullying as a way to express his inner-turmoil. He then joined the army and straightened out his life, reconciling with Parker and becoming friends with him. On his second tour of duty, he was wounded while saving an officer and lost both his legs, though regained the ability to walk through prosthetics.

Eric Powell Has A Few Important Things To Say

A few scant words by Christian Nicholson

Eric Powell has produced a video well worth watching.  Comics have a problem, and he's here to tell you what it is.

Eric Powell happens to be one of the very few creators' work Dark Horse is publishing nowadays.  For new creator owned work you have to go to Image comics.  Also, major book publishers are getting into the game with lit-comics, but we still have a ways to go before we  really see the potential of comic books realized.

There is a Superman and he is British

Photo of Henry Cavill lifted off of the internet somewhere willy nilly.

By Christian Nicholson

I really like Henry Cavill.  I think his character in The Tudors was interesting and nuanced.  Charles Brandon was a character who was at first lustful, irresponsible, and dashing, but over time grew into a King's man.  He later became haunted by what he'd done.  Cavill managed to play the character true, despite many changes, and managed to convey a man much older and (hopefully) more remorseful than himself.  For Superman, however, his capability might be wasted.

Bad Buzz On the Green Lantern?

By Christian Nicholson

The buzz is that the Green Lantern movie is pretty bad.  Rumors abound that the production was troubled, blah blah blah, tepid reaction from the the fans as regards the trailer, and so on.  I'd really rather not judge a whole movie based upon the trailer, or upon rumors of how the production went, or even on the movie studio and its history, but in this case all of those things really do concern me.

Johnny Storm Dead!

Art by Michael Turner, totally used without permission.

By Christian Nicholson

I'll say straight away that I haven't read the comic, and I don't really plan to.  I've never really been a big fan of the Fantastic Four.  There are a few really good stories out there, and with Jonathan Hickman at the helm doing the writing duties, its likely this is one of them.  I'll probably wait for the trade.

JoCo At the Great American Music Hall

http://www.jonathancoulton.com/

By Christian Nicholson
live pic by Elizabeth Faris

It seemed to me, Thursday  (1-20-2011) at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, Jonathan Colton took a few tunes to warm into his set.  Or maybe it took me a few tunes to get over his song "I Hate California."  Once we got past the hurdle, it was a fantastic show.

Wonder Woman Pilot Greenlit!

http://www.deadline.com/2011/01/nbc-picks-up-david-e-kelleys-wonder-woman-michael-patrick-kings-drama/

by Christian Nicholson

According to Deadline Hollywood, NBC is picking up the David E Kelley pilot.  If you aren't familiar with his work, take a peek at his IMDB.  He's known for writing on LA Law and creating Doogie Howser MD, Ally Mc Beal, Boston Public, The Practice, and Boston Legal.  I think he may be able to do this thing right.  But like all things geeky, right is relative.

Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy in Batman Rises!

By Corey Schroeder

Several news sources are reporting that not only will Anne Hathaway (you might remember her from “The Princess Diaries,” “Brokeback Mountain,” or her magnificent bosoms from “Havoc”) play Selina Kyle, or Catwoman for the uninitiated, in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises,” but Tom Hardy (“Bronson” and recently of “Inception”) will play the brainy brawler Bane.

Bane, some of you will sadly remember, was a near-mute, grunting bruiser from the atrocious “Batman & Robin.” As far as the rest of the movie, this was actually a fairly minor thing to get wrong, but if you’re familiar with the character, the thing that makes him such an effective villain is that he’s a brilliant tactician as well as fairly intelligent in his own right.

Watch Out For the Watchmen

By Corey Schroeder

Watchmen is a book you’ve probably heard of if you’ve asked the average comic book reader about their top five books. It was one of the first books to truly define a “graphic novel,” (a book, either stand-alone or collecting a series of single issues, that tells a single, bookended story) but more than that, it was one of the first graphic novels to tell an adult, psychologically realistic story that somehow also involved grown men dressing in strange costumes to fight crime. It still holds up today as one of the best ever written.

Spidey Musical

http://spidermanonbroadway.marvel.com/

by Christian Nicholson

So yeah, I saw it.  Or at least the preview version of it.  Its kind of poor form to review a Broadway show before it gets out of previews, so I won't do that.  I will say that you shouldn't believe a word of the negative publicity.

DC To Stop With The Comics Code Authority

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2011/01/20/from-the-co-publishers/

by Christian Nicholson

DC says it will discontinue use of the comics code stamp and will employ a rating system similar to their other media.

I'm not sure what to say about this other than "Hurrah!" and "What took you so damn long?"  I think the comics code was pretty much the most damaging thing done to the sequential art medium, and it was put into place in the freakishly socially conservative 50's (yes that means its about 55 years old).  Publishers got together to censor themselves and basically put super selling EC out of business.

Spidey Suit Revealed

CDN

So, yeah.  I like it.  The still very much reminds me of Ultimate Spidey as far as the characterization is concerned.  I can see this Pete coming home after a hard night of fighting bad guys.  This is a high school kid with issues.  He perhaps has just realized that even though being Spider-Man is awesome, and many steps up from being Puny Parker things still aren't going to necessarily go well for him.

New Game Of Thrones Teaser

CDN

I love everything about this upcoming HBO series.

Except for HBO's wildly outdated content delivery model.

Captain America Suited Up

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/01/13/captain-america-first-look-exclusive/

So... it seems a lot of folks are going to be surprised about Winghead's new look.  Those of us who have been reading the UItimates books (http://www.twocatscomicbookstore.com/shop/Graphic-Novels/1582-ultimates-ultimate-collection-trade-paperback.html) have been pretty much expecting this all along.

Original Flavor Star Wars Review

By Christian Nicholson

Once upon a time there was a movie called Star Wars, and everyone loved it.  Maybe, not everyone, that’s a bit of a hyperbolic statement.  A lot of people loved it and it made a lot of money.  It changed a lot about how the movie industry views science fiction movies, much the same way that Avatar changed the way the industry looks at 3d movies.  John Dykstra’s visual effects were stunning and with the direction of a young up and comer named George Lucas added a surprising realism to a science fantasy fairy tale.  At the time, Lucas wasn’t hailed as a creative genius. 
 

X-Men First Class Pic

So, if you scour the interwebs, you can pretty much see who's who in the cast.  It looks to me like the story is going to be the story before the story.