My love for the Man of Steel, literally

An intimate story.

Growing up, my childhood was dominated by the man himself, Superman. I idolized him in many ways that friends, family, and even the general public thought were unhealthy for a normal 8 year old. It started at an early age when my dad introduced me to Superman, the 1978 movie staring Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve, and Margot Kidder.

Superman possesses extraordinary powers, traditionally described as "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound". Who didn’t like that?

Although, many of my classmates during this time like Spiderman and Batman, I remained super-loyal to Superman. I had his super-cool “J” hair style, his steel-tin lunch box, and occasionally seen sporting a pair of tighty-whities of the “S” shield logo. And yes, I rock’d them quite well. ;)

I remembered an instance where my lunch box was missing and I had good suspicions on who might have taken it. I I don’t recall his name, but for the sake of this story, we’re going to call him Lex. Lex was a bad kid, a villain if you will. He was never nice to anyone. He didn’t share his toys or his comics. During recess, he would always pick fights- spitting spit wads at kids, pushing them around for their lunch money, and talking fertilizer wherever he went. And he’d always had a thing for me. The reasons were unknown. All I could think of was jealously.

The day my lunch box was stolen was probably one of traumatic days of my youth. It was my birthday and my parents had gotten me my first metal lunch box. I wanted to show and share it on our “Share and Tell” Fridays. Mrs. Wingett, my teacher had every student in her class share stories about their birthdays and what they have gotten. I had many Superman gifts from families and friends; one of things I was able to bring was my metal lunch box. I couldn’t bring the Nintendo or else I would. Later that day, when the final bell rang, everyone had gathered their backpacks and lunch boxes to go home, except me. As soon as I got to the door where all the things were kept, I noticed my lunch box was missing. Who would steal my “Man of Steel” lunch box, I thought??? I asked the teacher and she didn’t know.

While waiting for my parents to pick me up from school, I saw my lunch box from a distance. LEX!!!! I screamed as he ran away. My parents knew how much I loved that lunch box, so they called the school’s principle. And justice was done. Lex apologized and said he had found it after school somewhere. The battle against Lex was won, but the war and fueled ran on.

This post was written by:
stan

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SDCC 2010 Edition- DC Day Finale part 2

In the final DC Nation panel- Event Horizon, story Editor-- Ian Sattler moderated a ton of top writers for the big name books that bring us back to the shops on a weekly basis.  
Here is a quick and dirty rundown:                      Judd Winick-  Red Hood the Lost Days / Justice League Generation Lost
Aaron Lopresti- Justice League Generation Lost / Weird Worlds: Garbage Man
Nick Spencer- Action Comics / T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents
Gail Simone- Secret Six / Birds of Prey
James Robinson- Justice League of America / Justice Society of America

JT Krul- Green Arrow / Teen Titans 
J. Michael Straczynski- Brave and the Bold / Wonder-Woman / Superman

Of the many topics, news and comments from the creators and readers-- I realized a few things like-- how awesome everyone thinks JMS is on the B&B book (I am just hoping that his Wonder Woman and Superman titles follow suit), especially his recent Legion and Batgirl/Zatanna/Wonderwoman arcs.

Yes, the Eisner better come his way next year!!!  Secondly, Nick Spencer will be bringing
Chloe Sullivan of Smallville officially into the pages of the DCU in the second feature portion of Action Comics- Jimmy Olsen.  Man, about time yo!  And the Crime Syndicate (Justice League Earth 2) will be making an appearance in the pages of Justice League!  Such a great concept to be bringing back just a bummer that they couldn't have aligned it better with the animated feature three months ago.

The second panel to fullfill my DC-head ways was the Emerald Empire session piloted by GL Editor- Eddie Berganza with Intergalactic world creators- Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, Tony Bedard and Joe Prado.

What was immediately apparent was
how mellow, calm and just chill these 5 cats played off of eachother despite the otherworldly pressures of carrying the load of show fanaticism over Green Lantern. I admit to be one of the

countless others that has been skeptical on anything that hit the interwebs on the GL flick since the EW reveal of the costume.

Johns assured the crowd that the costume is meant to be seen in motion and through action which made a lot of sense and for some reason, I never thought that his hand would have such influence over the film (Johns is a Co-Producer!).

Further, after seeing the Abin Sur corpse design, I can see why the black lines through the costume may be used to bring some CGI magic to it.  The whole panel emphasized how all true GL readers will be excited about what we will see as more production is completed on the film.  It was damn cool to hear from Berganza that in the crazy, packed, had to stay in line since 4am to get in that I missed-- GL film panel-- Geoff Johns was like the go to panelist through most questions.  As it should be I say!

Reis was as cool a guy as I expected while he shared funny and candid behind the scenes stories on his experience working on everything GL, from Sinesto Corps War to Blackest Night where he said the GJ scripts he needed to work off of went from 17 to 23 pages to a grueling 25-29 pages a month!  This gave me an even greater appreciation of his beautifully, detailed work that as Johns reiterated, is always on time! 

Prado, who I didn't realize was the primary conceptual designer of the over 150 Black Lanterns-- helped his fellow Brazilian- Reis, through some of the panel and really brought some comedy into the session-- ranting about how there was over 17 versions of Martian Manhunter in his Brightest Day revival and how that translated into over 150 emails. Breganza and Johns jumped in seriously adding, it was all about the boots.  Just outright comedy.

Bedard, who I enjoy from Sirens of Gotham, R.E.B.E.L.S. and now GL Corps brought even more of the laugh-tracks to the crowd.

He talked on how his goal is to remain faithful to the GLC world that has been shaped so incredibly by Tomasi, Gibbons and Gleason.  The most memorable moment of the panel was how Bedard set himself up with a bit of pause and told the crowd it is his goal to get John Stewart laid.  Johns immediately said something like- whoa I didn't expect you to say that!

4 hours later of doing my DC panel thang we all chanted the Green Lantern oath, I cruised down to the DC booth and got to meet Prado, Reis and Adam Hughes...then came across a booth where Cliff Chiang-- cover artist extraordinaire was doing commissions and I had to pick up this genius remix on Purple Rain.

SDCC 2010 delivered on all the excitement and anticipation that I could have hoped for and I am seriously, already pumped on what 2011 will be like.  For more of our experiences through pics-- check em here.


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big O

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SDCC 2010 Edition- DC Day Finale part 1

From learning anything on missing panels or sitting my ass way in the back the first 3 days, I got super early for the final DC Nation: Event Horizon and Green Lantern: Emerald Empire. 

On making way to Ballroom 6A and posting there hard for the next 4 hours, I got to take in some of the best cosplay of the week.  Like how about an age-appropriate Teen Titans!

The kids were super friendly, costume quality was on point and they all totally stayed in character.  From L to R- a seductive Raven, an emo Aqualad, Robin in a heroic stance, a playful Gar and shy but gorgeous Starfire.

After catchin' the incredibly detailed and uber cool Abin Sur -- directly from the set of next Summer's GL flick -- I bumped into a fierce Thanagorian- Hawkgirl at the WB booth.
 
From head-to-toe she looked like she just flew out of an Ed Benes drawn Justice League book.  Especially loved her headpiece, gauntlets and mighty spear.


Cos I just couldn't get enough of getting my game on at the DCU Online booth, swooped by for one more run thru the Batcave and got to meet up with Selina Kyle--the mutha-effin' Catwoman!!!



For me she was easily the most impressive cosplay(er) of SDCC, don't you agree??!!  Hells yeah!

It must have been my luck but from all the panel-line-madness, I got to walk right into 6A (sure it was an hour prior to the DC Nation) which I had no, zero, ziltch idea about what it was--the name of the panel was The Event.

The house was packed, pitch black (from watching the pilot) and I told one of the ushers that my GF was up in the front (no she wasn't but need angles to get what you want at SDCC), thinking that was the best way for me to get a good seat for the next 2 sessions-- and ah yeah-- there was one seat open in the second row from the panelist area!!  Score!

Despite not being a major TV guy- I watched only a few episodes of Lost or 24 and never got hooked, the pilot for The Event was riveting, interesting and edited in a way that was very character-driven.

The Event will be aired in the famed Monday at 9pm slot next Fall and is hoping to find a place for the millions of Lost/24 viewers that are looking for a new addiction.

Alright, so I got my seats and am ready for some cereal DC-head coverage.


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big O

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SDCC 2010 Edition- Let's Get It Started!

So we are mere hours away from Preview Night and things are all but quiet on the interwebs and around the Gaslamp.

The raging-geeky madness that will consume our next 96 hours--clicky for full schedule--will be epic and this is what we think will serve the most cans of SDCC whoop-ass.  Wanna hear it, here it goes: Our TOP 3 things to do at SDCC!!

3  Get Exclusive-Wasted  Like many others we are straight packed like bento on things to do and peeps to see, hour by hour.  So tonight, I will be running from Kotobukiya, to Hasbro, to Mattel and to all the other toy pirates to grab those rare, pieces of articulated art for the shelf and of course to share with some of you that were not able to roll through to the big show.  Keep a look out here for the auctions we will be posting on only the most hyped draws this year like -

PRO-TIP:  Go to Sails Pavilion booth#9 to get a Hasbro retail ticket prior to going to queue up and with Mattel ask for a timed ticket (usually next day) to avoid wasting time in lines leaving empty-handed

             

 
2  Gaslamp Afterparty Debauchery  Yeah, how do you unwind after the 10-12 hours of cosplay watchin, panel hoppin and convention-overload??  Easy brah.  Walk across the street to cruise SDCC's equivalent to Mardigras.  If you don't quite know what to do or were not able to get on those guest lists we got you covered.

THURSDAY July 22nd from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m  --  Come join iFanboy, Diggnation and The Totally Rad Show for its annual meet/drinkup during Comic-Con at the House of Blues.





FRIDAY  July 23rd from 8:00 to 11:00pm -- Join the biggest GeekGirl Tweet-Up event of all time on Friday, July 23rd from 8pm-11pm at Jolt ‘N Joes (Gaslamp location) in San Diego.  Hosted by @geekgirls, @thenerdybird, and @geekgirldiva, this Tweet-Up is sure to be even bigger and better than NYC!


SATURDAY  July 24th from 7:00 to 10:00pm -- Take a break from the SDCC soirees and karaoke with your friends, locals while enjoying live music at the newest additions to the Gaslamp-- Analog Bar!

If you know anything about geek-culture...get there EARLY.  Think about that friend of yours that asked you to join them to watch Inception last week and they were sitting down in-line by themselves two hours beforehand?  Yeah, thats how we roll.  So come early or find yourself sitting outside queued up watching us have fun.

1  Panels, Panels and Panels  This is where we get the sneak peek, insider-look into our favorite comicbooks, movies, small-screen, toys and other artforms.  Whether it is picking the brains of dope creators like Bryan O'Malley, Geoff Johns, Joss Whedon and more.  These are a few of the panels that is making us drool all over ourselves--   
Thursday, July 22nd 6:00-7:00 Universal: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World— Genre-bending filmmaker Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz), graphic novel author Bryan Lee O'Malley, and the cast of Universal Pictures' Scott Pilgrim vs. the World provide a sneak peek of summer 2010's epic of epic epicness. The whole dayum cast will be all up in mug-- ahhh....Anna Kendrick. Q&A to follow.  Hall H  

Friday, July 23rd  4:15-5:15 DC Nation Special Edition — It's the DC Nation State of the Union address as DC co-publishers Dan Didio & Jim Lee join forces to give fans all the info they can handle! With those two leading the Nation, expect the unexpected...The Nation welcomes all!  Room 6DE

Like last year we will be live-tweeting like a mofo so stalk us while it's still the cool thing to do!
 
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big O

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if you don't know, now you know- Brightest Day Figs!

Not like we don't have enough shelf space for the rest of the Blackest Night toys still making way through this Fall, DC Direct will be giving the same sick-articulated treatment to characters from Brightest Day!

DC Source announced that the first of two waves will be released next Spring (March 2011) with obviously more to follow. Mera, J'onn J'onzz and Deadman(oh yeah with White Ring and all!) are the ones that pop out at me instantly though all the rest of em are fantabulous sculpts. 

Major props to Geoff Johns and the rest of the DC Direct fam for continually dropping these artistic interpretations straight from the stories we love.



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big O

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if you don't know, now you know- Phil "Zen Master" Jackson a Mutant

Phil Jackson of the Los Angeles Lakers has long been speculated on just how one man can be so successful in professional sports-- with now an unrivaled record of 11 NBA championship rings.  Many have thought it was his spiritual connectedness and ability to infuse Zen principles into his players to play at peak levels.


From last nights press conference after the Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics (yayers!), Ron Artest- the resident beserker of the team- gave insights (click to 8:51) on how Coach Jackson speaks to his players telepathically like that of Professor Xavier of the X-Men.

Now we understand how the Hall of Fame Coach can be so laid back during the intensity of heated games. Go Lakers!!!


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big O

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modern hustle aka watch me dj.

This is a show to explore the ways in which we grapple with everyday life. How we fight against the obstacles that disorient us within our personal values and morality, decisiveness against right and wrong, and the ability to pick and choose winning and losing moments. Modern Hustle, baby.

Artists include Megan Bayley, Eddie Colla, Jean Franco, Alejandro Garcia, Michelle Kim, Calder Koji, Joe Murillo, Paolo Salazar, Brian Swimme, David Young V

Featuring work by Ramsess

and music by ME!.

Monday, June 7, 2010 at 7:00pm
@ Amsterdam Cafe
937 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA

This post was written by:
lehong

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RIP Frank Frazetta

My childhood memories are filled with my older brother's (tim-chi) love for Conan and fantastical images of scantily-clad women that introduced me to the female anatomy, well- probably earlier than most kids.  The sole source of this was Frank Frazetta.  Along with Boris Vallejo, Frazetta created a roadmap to illustrating for my brother and millions of other fans for the last 5 decades.  Unbelievable.

For these reasons and more it is so tragic to hear of today's passing of Frank Frazetta, due to a stroke at the age of 82.

Frazetta touched nearly every creative medium in his life with an incomparable, gritty, but seductive style whether it be in comics, film, music and so on.  Without Frazetta, we may have never had the masters in paint illustration (focused on women) that we enjoy today in Adam Hughes, Frank Cho, Yoshitaka Amano and Yusuke Nakano. 

Frank Frazetta, Rest in Peace (1928-2010)



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big O

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The Fork Is Not With You Luke - Star Wars ChopSabers

Is your sashimi or nigiri a bit too raw maybe a bit live for you to consume? Is a fly buzzing around you, irritating you as you try to enjoy your meal? Don't fear my dears, you can slay anything on your plate or that bothersome insect with the use of these lethal utensils - Star Wars Lightsaber Chopsticks.


These chopsticks- made by Kotobukiya, a manufacturer of manga and anime figurines - are 9 inches in length. They come in 2 sets of 2: the first set includes a red Darth Maul and green Luke Skywalker sabers and the second set contains red Darth Maul and purple Mace Windu sabers. You can even connect the Darth Maul chopsticks to form one double-headed Lightsaber stick.


Not sure how effective this would be in picking up your Saba, Hamachi or Uni but if your waiter is giving you some sass and bad service, take a queue from Darth Maul himself.



This post was written by:
chessie

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RIP Dick Giordano

Dick Giordano, one of the premiere giants among comicbook legends passed away this week.  As a kid all I knew about Giordano was his name that graced some of my favorite covers and after digging through the collection I found two of them.

What I have come to learn today is that Giordano is a primary reason for the more mature and graphic feel in comics with his leadership as a VP and Executive Editor at DC-- helping to usher in classics like Alan Moore's Watchmen & Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns.  DC Source put together a great post on how he has impacted some of the creative leadership at DC today.

If you are around SF during Wondercon this weekend come to celebrate his works and one of his regular collaborators- Ed Hannigan along with other fans, creators and the Hero Initiative at the Cartoon Museum on Friday.


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big O

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99 problems but a Jedi ain't one

WonderCon 2010 is almost upon us. And if you don't know by now, our inaugural Comics and Dakine Bar Crawl - April 3, 5pm at Jillian's on Mission and 4th Street, San Francisco - celebrating all things geeky and cool in what deems to be an awesome weekend. The theme will be of an Imperialistic motif with Dark Side overtones. Here's a sampling of what is going to go down as presented by the good folks at CollegeHumor.com.

So to all of you who will be in and around the lovely city by the Bay this Saturday, feel free to join and partake in the festivities. Coming dressed in appropriate Imperial or Rebellion attire is highly encouraged. See you there & cheers!!!



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chessie

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Tron Legacy

If Atari, ColecoVision, or Speak & Spell still floats around in your memory bank, your geek-gene is going bananas for the upcoming Walt Disney movie Tron Legacy. 1980 kid geek-a-zoids of course know this to be the sequel to the 1982 science fiction original, Tron.

Tron Legacy, coming to theaters (and in 3D) on December 17, 2010, will feature newly anointed Oscar Award winner, Jeff Bridges, reprising his role of Kevin Flynn. The forthcoming movie is about his son Sam Flynn, played by Garrett Hedlund, who looks into his dad's apparent disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of Light Cycles, Disc Warriors, and Cyber Tanks fighting other program's in a gladiatorial format in the cyber universe. December can't come soon enough dag nab it.

Those of you who have a word bubble above your head thats saying, "What the f*ck is a Tron?", think about the first time you saw The Matrix but in the 80's. The original Tron had a distinct visual style and was one of the first films to feature computer visuals and video games on the silver screen. With how far CGI and computer animation has come in the present, Tron was a ground breaking movie in terms of sensational visual effects and stands the test time.



The proverbial cherry-on-top; electronic music duo, Daft Punk will be composing the film score and make an appearance in Tron Legacy.



Glow-sticks, butterflies, and a unicorn will be included with the purchase of a large bucket of popcorn on opening weekend.

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chessie

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Dime Pieces - Thrice is Nice Edition

Today - make that tonight (and if you really want to get specific, Friday night) - your friendly-neighborhood-Chessie brings you a triple multi-nationalistic edition of eye candy on paper. Let's just say I've got the Olympic vapor's. In no particular order (because all these pieces get the gold in my book) is a delegate from the the 2010 Winter Olympic's host country, Canada's Jeff Lemire:


This beautiful panel shows the dark times ahead for the 9-year old boy with antlers, Gus, which will be shown in Sweet Tooth #7 (also written by Mr. Lemire and published through DC's mature reader arm, Vertigo). This event happens after the first story-arc of the book, "Out of the Woods", where Gus has been imprisoned at a camp called The Preserve, where other human/animal hybrids reside. What was thought to be a safe haven for hybrids like Gus, he was taken there under false pretenses by his would-be-protector, Jepperd. I strongly recommend you pick up this post-apocolyptic tale. Sweet Tooth has been on my pull list since inception.

Next up we have Italian artist, Simone Bianchi:


This is the cover for Cable #25. Gorgeous. Of course, most of you know Mr. Bianchi from cover artwork from Green Lantern, Batman, Detective Comics, and Astonishing X-Men to just to name a few.

At last and most definitely not least, is Korean-American and newly appointed Co-Publisher of DC, the incomparable Jim Lee:

This is a piece from the forthcoming book, Icons:The DC Comics & Wildstorm art of Jim Lee. Yes, I know. Please wipe off the drool from the side of your cheek.

As I mentioned, the Olympics are upon us and almost to a close. I am nowhere near a women's iceskating enthusiast. But after seeing the beauty, power, and grace of Mr. Lee's fellow Korean, Kim Yu-Na, I was completely mesmerized. Check out Kim Yu-Na's Olympic world-record, gold medal performance for yourself. It will make you a fan for sure. A beautiful piece indeed.



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chessie

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