T.U.R.T.L.E. Power

Let me start with a caveat... I'm a bit lightheaded, sick, not-quite-there right now. So if this starts to not make any sense feel free to change the channel.

There has been much internet-ing going on about The Bay regarding our good friends, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The Bay; michael bay...

 ...er wait, maybe this is micahel bay?

Among the outrage I've heard the question pop up a few times about why exactly is it so bad that he is (or was) going to make them from outer space.

Laird weighed in on this recently and his answers are probably more valid than my own, him being the co-creator and all, but I have a few fan things to say about it.

First of all, the Turtles, to me, have a brotherhood that is strengthened by, or perhaps built upon them being the only ones of their kind. Sure there are other mutants, but not exactly like them. You give them a home world and you make them a race, then they become a few of many. Even if you rip off Supe's backstory of their planet being destroyed, there is still a big difference to being the last of a line and the only ones ever. They don't struggle with the fact that they were an accident. They don't have the weight of being the only ones that have been or ever will be.

Then there's the nostalgia. We grew up with the Turtles. They were our friends. Do we really need to keep changing back-story, and rebooting, when we already know and love the origin. Now that we know them can't we just go on more adventures? With each new adventure we will learn more about the Turtles, the more we bond with them. The world expands. Our friendships develop. Everytime you retell it differently we have to reset our emotions, start back at callus zero, we have to reevaluate our family. It also feels like you might be saying what we loved so much was wrong.

And Paramount wants to change the title too. To Ninja Turtles. Hey, we may call it Ninja Turtles, but we don't want it to be called that. That is our pet name for it, because we are so familiar with it. We earned the right to refer to them as Ninja Turtles, or Turtles. We also don't want you to rename The Empire Strikes back simply Empire in case you were wondering.

The punch of the title Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is something that drew us in to begin with. It was so odd, so awesome, we knew all of the ingredients (the teen, the mutant, the ninjitsu, the reptile), but we had never seen them together..  it just (as Laird said) works. Alter it now and it feels false. A comic called TMNT  raises all sorts of questions and images and thoughts. It built a curiosity. And when we read and saw and understood, with that curiosity satisfied, we liked it all the more. The full TMNT title is iconic, silly, epic. Not that you were dumb enough to call it this, but TANT feels manufactured and, well to be honest, is one letter away from taint.

Let me ask you something, Hollywood Big Wigs. Let me speak your speak. You are making it for the fans right? That is why Hollywood makes remakes and reboots and sequels because it already has a fan base, it already has tickets sold purely on what it is. But hey, you screw with what it is and you screw with that fan base, you have less tickets pre-sold, less people in the theatres or lined up at the redbox. You screw with what it is and you make us, the ones who were going to see it based on what it is, not want to see it. You should be happy we are angry. It means we were going to see it in the first place. There is an outrage because we WANT to give you what you want ($). We just want you to give us what we want.

In closing, maybe instead of this long ridiculous rant I should have just said this:

As Yogi Berra might have said, It is wrong to change Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles because it is wrong.

PS  You should totally play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness.

Quit Hoggin' all the Covers

One thing that sticks in my mind from childhood are the comics. And their covers are branded into my memory. Some of these I had, some of them I didn't. Some were issues I saw in stores. A lot were from my brother's collection that I wasn't aloud to touch. He had boxes of them (still does), all bagged and boarded, and the smell of the plastic bags and paper pages still hang heavy on my senses just like the Turkey did long after the Bumpus Hounds dragged it away.  

Todd McFarlane

Ron Frenz & Klaus Janson

Todd McFarlane

Spider-Man covers. Whether they are Amazing or not stuck so well in my brain. In fact I have written a short story about them.

Brian Bolland

Killing Joke. SMILE

Arthur "Art" Adams

Tod McFarlane & Bob Wiacek

One of the greatest covers of all time. So awesome.

Howard Chaykin

Cool cover for Indy although this isn't the one that really sticks in my mind. The one that I can't find an image of was of Indy getting attacked by skeletons rising from the dead. I specifically remember being really disappointed in the comic because the only skeletons inside rose on the very last page.

George Perez

The Gauntlet.

Jhonen Vasquez

We found a Johnny the Homicidal Maniac comic. Just lying on a ledge somewhere in the Valley. It introduced us into this world. The art was so good. The comedy so biting. I felt like I shouldn't be reading it.

Brian Bolland

OK, not a cover. Just the Killing Joke art was very remember-ie.

Lynn Varley

Lone Wolf and Cub. Creepy. And so mind sticking.

Dale Keown?

When Image started there were quite a lot of covers that spoke to me. They were everywhere.

Mike Zeck & John Beatty

Kevin Eastman

Oh the many covers of TMNT... The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were a huge part of my life. The comics, movies, tv-shows, action figures, role playing games, all of it. I would love to see a TMNT movie the calls back to the comics.

I don't know who did the bag art

Dan Jurgens & Brett Breeding

Superman's "death". I remember the day well. Check out this "somewhat-mostly-accurate educational parody" of the Death of Superman. Its pretty awesome.

Todd McFarlane

Spawn. I remember staying with my brother at his apartment when this came out. I had a Wizard that I would copy pictures out of. McFarlane really ignited my love of drawing. 

Howard Chaykin & Tom Palmer

These Star Wars comics really bring that loving plastic aroma to my mind.  My brother had them all.

Frank Miller & Joe Rubinstein

Wolverine 1 beckons.

updated - Will add credts... soon.

These are all just kinda off the top of my melon.

Of course there are always the classics like Action Comics #1 and Amazing Fantasy #15, Amazing Spider-Man #1, Detective Comics #27, Silver Surfer #4, Batman #1 and #194, Superman #1, #269 and a whole mess more. But this time I went with these which were a bit more of my generation of comics. And I think that once I start thinking a little bit this blog post may be ever-expanding.

Snikt!

Its Magic Time

GO DODGERS!

here is
more info
on the Magic of baseball

Ad Wizards

On my way back from Wondercon, stopped at Amoeba Records to get some Battlestar and then 7-11 for some refreshments. Across the street from 7-11 I saw this. I think the ad wizards behind the Los Angeles Kings' billboard telling us "Its Brown Time!" may be behind this as well.  

In case you were fuzzy on the pronunciation.

Look about five lines up from the bottom.

Gone Wonderin'

That's what I fastened on the door before heading down to the wondercon 2012, this year in aniheim, in the rain, with a girls volleyball convention (or tournament?) as well as a cheerleader convention (or tournament?) happening simultaneously at the convention center. 

It was interesting. On Friday it was awesome. The floor was easy to walk. I never once ran into anyone or bumped into anyone. Or felt as though I was being swallowed by a crowd. I was complimented on my shirt. The place was a nice low volume of people level. Etc.

On Saturday it was so busy that they had to turn away a Knight of Ni.

(Not really.)

Saturday was the type of day where you see a baby in an R2 unit. 

Paid $1 for a commissioned original of Thor by inking wonder Danny Miki,'s son.

I would definitely pick up a comic done by this kid.

Saw Ralph Bakshi, the Seeker (didn't realize how exited I would be about that) no Kailin though or Zed. Saw Lou Ferigno, not Sir Ridley Scott (DANGIT), no slave leias (that was a bit unsettling... con.. with no... slave leias?), Tom Servo, Crooooooooow (not really Crow), Jhonen Vasquez, The Axe Cop artist (no writer though... prolly had school), didn't see a whole heckofalot of Hunger Games things which was a surprise, found Tale of Sand, which is a lost screenplay of Jim Henson's. He wrote it with Juhl. The girl said it was about a guy who gets tossed into the desert with a map and told not to trust the map. Then he's attacked by something and something else and football players. She said it was crazy surrealism. Sold.

Axe Cop: Written by a 6 year old. Drawn by his 30 year old brother. So good.

I also made sure to boycott all Marvel items, comics, whatever. After what they did to Gary Friedrich (creator of Ghost Rider) I couldn't not. I would not expect a big corporation like them to give anything to the creator, but to steal from the sick and penniless... uuhggh.. disgusting. GRRM says it better here than I could so if you're interested check it out. http://grrm.livejournal.com/268609.html

And I didn't see this before (my sister Jenkins was the photographer at the con), but is that ODAMA with Luck-o-the-Irish Chewbacca???? How could I have missed that? Anyway... I missed all the panels I wanted to see, but it didn't really matter, I just love comic conventions.

Too bad my brother wasn't there.

Lone Wolf and the Wizard of the Comic Book

I used to play Lone Wolf books. Yes I said play. They were a choose-your-own-adventure book... well that's not exactly true..

"Choose Your Own Adventure" books are certain brand of choose-your-own-adventure books (like how scotch tape is really a brand of cellophane tape). And this wasn't part of that series. This was longer and fight-i-er. With swords and magic and a map and meals consisting of large chunks of cheese. This was BETTER than a choose-your-own-adventure. In this book YOU were Lone Wolf - YOU determined your destiny (as it said on the cover). THIS was a Role Playing Adventure!

I found a copy of Lone Wolf: The Dungeons of Torgar A Magnakai Adventure, at the awesome Iliad Bookshop which I have been frequenting since I was around fifteen.

I bought it mainly for the printed out, taped on, inscription on the scroll page.

So let us take a ride around Joe Dever's awesome-promising Book 10 of the Lone Wolf series...

Cover Price $3.50... word

Did you know that there has never been a case in documented history of a human dying from a wolf attack. Meaning: They're our friends.

Maps are so cool. 'Specially liked the ones from the LW books. They were printed on different paper.

Who are you Wizard of the Comic Book? A tiny wizard that lives in a comic book. Or a magician who gets his powers from comics, drains them and gains the powers inside. Maybe a soothsayer robed in comics, his insides and paper skin is made from them, their stories and pages, rainbow colored ink courses through his veins, and manipulator of ideas, thoughts, and dreams. Or did your mom coin the name? Then printed and taped it on to the book before giving it to you, and you didn't want to hurt her feelings. So you left it in there. I don't know, Wes Rhea, maybe you are a girl.

 

 I choose short sword!

And regular sword!

This page always made me leave the room and get a snack.

 

No it didn't hit the zero. It was on the line! REDO!

The story so far...