Comedy Of Errors – You May Ask Yourself: Where Is That GD Podcast?

Of all the weeks to be running into issues every time Rob and I want to sit down and try to bang out the damn podcast.

So, you may have noticed for the last couple nights we’ve thrown up a quick site business to explain the delay of our typical Sunday night podcast, which tens of you have come to know and rely on. If it wasn’t full on internet drought in the wilds of northern New England (and, frankly, how dare the White Mountains have no fucking Wi-Fi, amiright?), it was traffic and travel related. Tonight? Skynet. No, but seriously, Rob has run into an issue at his job he needs to stay ridiculously late for. I’d do the podcast myself, but I think we all know that while I’m good at saying really awful things at inopportune times, the show really needs Rob’s dick jokes to bring the whole thing into full focus. They say write about what you know and I am, well, dickless. It’s true. I checked.

It’s absolutely the worst time to find life hamstringing us like this; there are a lot of really interesting stories that have come out of New York Comic Con. For example, the attendance numbers at NYCC reportedly exceeded those of the San Diego Comic-Con. This year, 151,000 separate attendees all washed up on the doorstep of the Javitz Center. That is 21,000 more than San Diego. Given the crush of humanity that is the SDCC experience, I can only imagine what it must have been like to try to move around in that. It’s a mixed blessing. As more and more folks come out to see what all the geek fuss is about, the harder it is to actually get around to see all the panels, pros, vendors, and general weirdness that we’re all coming out to celebrate. NYCC has already set a date next year for October 8-11, 2015. The good news for folks who are specifically out to celebrate comics culture though is that there will be a special comics oriented edition in June on the 13th and 14th. This is actually a trend I’d like to see continue for some of the bigger cons. I hope it is a sign of more mindfully planned, better targeted convention experiences for fans going forward.

And then there is some of the news coming out of comics entertainment press in the past couple days.

What You Want…Might Be At The Bar – AKA Broadcast Day

Hi folks,

So, funny story, we went to our local comic book store, as we do every Wednesday. The extremely helpful staff, who know us by name and ask us not to frighten the “norms” that have popped in with increased regularity since Winter Soldier became more than a euphemism for a frigid play date, gave us our books and sent us on our merry way. We stopped into the bar…and that’s where I consumed a bottle of something red and, upon emerging into Twilight (the transitive daylight state, not the shitty movie), forgot half our take on a hanger under said bar. My take involved something involving Batgirl 30 and Superman/Wonder Woman…some number. They both have the cool retro covers that DC wants to make a thing for publicity. I also got the new issue of Deadpool, which involves the “Original Sin” storyline and has Dazzler on the cover. I have no idea what its about but, 8 out of 10 – cover has Dazzler, will reach for again Marvel.

Rob has been dispatched to the bar to rectify my inebriated wrongs.

However, Rob, being more accustomed to remembering what to keep track of in the bar – seriously, I usually just look out for me and roofies – brought his stash safely home. So, even if he is not successful on my behalf, that means that we have things to read this week. Behold:

Like tears…in…rain…

Campers, you know this means the end of of our broadcast day.

And, what made it home? Kieron Gillen’s Uber #14. The Amazing Spider-Man “Learning To Crawl” #1.2 by Dan Slott. Dead Letters by Christopher Sebela. Are you reading Dead Letters? You should totally be reading Dead Letters. Anyway, those books and more as you can see from my blurry cell phone photo, which totally had nothing to do with my hands shaking or anything.

You all know the drill: before we can talk about them, we have to read them. Which means that this is the end of our broadcast day.

Tune in later this week for our thoughts.

They may even be coherent.

Because Nothing Screams Comic Book Nerd Like Linkin Park – MTV Announces New Fan Awards Show At SDCC

So, MTV has decided that it needs to up its presence at Comic-Con. This year it will hold something called the mtvU Fandom Awards and a MTV Fan Fest. Here, let them tell you about it:

Grammy-winning rock band Linkin Park will headline the first ever mtvU Fandom Awards and MTV Fan Fest, both of which will be held on Thursday, July 24, at Petco Park during San Diego’s Comic-Con. Then on Sunday, July 27, at 8 p.m., on the final day of Comic-Con, MTV and mtvU will air the 60-minute mtvU Fandom Awards special, showcasing the musical performances from the Linkin Park-headlined show, and honoring all of the fans whose passion have swept across the globe, stemming out of Comic-COn.

“The mtvU Fandom Awards will reinvent the traditional award show format,” says executive producer Ryan Kroft. “In addition to handing out trophies, we will recognize the achievements of fans and their favorite obsessions with special surprises and experiences. It’s the perfect event to reward the fans at Comic-Con, the epicenter of all fandoms.”

Yes, because when I think of nerd fandoms, so often my mind immediately turns to MTV…and Linkin Park. Not.

It seems between this and Zachary Levi’s Nerd HQ, which we talked about here, Petco’s going to be hopping for the duration of the convention.

Sandbox For Ant-Man Replacement Directors Gets Smaller

Well, as quickly as rumors that Anchorman‘s Adam McKay was to step in to direct Ant-Man, they have just as quickly been put to sleep. McKay is said to have made the decision alone and claims that it is because he is already committed to other projects.

Certainly, not because it has the stench of death upon it. Nope.

Meanwhile, this leaves Ruben Fleischer and Rawson Marshall Thurber in the running for the position. Fleischer is known for Zombieland…but, also, Gangster Squad. Thurber is known for Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story…but, also, We’re The Millers.

The New Guardians Of The Galaxy Trailer Because, What The Hell? You Haven’t Got That Long A Life Span Anyway

As we mentioned the other day when the teasers rained down upon us from Marvel Marketing, today is the day that a brand new full length Guardians Of The Galaxy trailer would drop. And they are true to their word.

However, as cool as the new trailer is, I can’t help but wonder how much more impact it would have had if the teasers hadn’t been released. Although, they did keep some choice bits for the trailer proper, that screen shot to the left up there being one of them. Bradley Cooper’s animated raccoon is going to fight Chris Pratt for every laugh in this movie. I say, bring it on.

Teaser, Trailer, Promo, Hype – Marvel Releases Teasers To Promote GOTG Trailer

On Monday, Marvel Studios will release a new trailer for The Guardians Of The Galaxy. In order to get you excited about that, they have released not on but two (!) teasers to get you ready for it.

So, are you ready for it?

Here’s one:

And we have the other, after the jump.

X-Men: Days Of Future Past – The Final Promo Push

Hi, all. The Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office took itself out to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2 last night. We will discuss it on an upcoming podcast soon but, the quick review? Pretty good…if you ignore a whole bunch of stuff.

Meantime, the next Marvel character based movie to hit the big screen, X-Men: Days Of Future Hype Past, has dropped three character-centric promos in advance of its debut in theaters on May 23. We’ll put the first one up front and center because it features Peter “The Dink” Dinklage, continuing to find himself in a situation where he needs the protection of a sell sword. Hopefully, Sentinels will have to do.

Check out the other two, and a bonus credit footage clip from last night’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, after the jump.

You Will Believe A Man Can Crawl – Spider-Man Fan Parkour Video

How does Spider-Man get around when he runs out of his precious bodily web fluid? Why, parkour of course!

In this video, Ronnie Shalvis, who you may remember from the Assassin’s Creed themed parkour training videos, suits up in an actual, official, Sony Studios Spidey costume and demonstrates for the world what might have happened if Peter Parker got his nose out of his books, blew off the Oscorp field trip, and went outside and got some fresh air…but was still obsessed with dressing up in red and blue jammies.

Check out the “Making Of” video, after the jump.

J.H. Williams III’s Art Gets Animated In New Blondie Video

Need a quick fix of J.H. Williams III’s art before the next installment of Sandman: Overture hits the shelves, which, frankly could be weeks or months. Great! Then check out his work in the most unlikely of places – a Blondie video.

Actually, his style does seem to work nicely with Debbie Harry’s vocals. As, someone who grew up listening to Blondie, I’m not sure I’m down on giving her work the Autotune treatment, but this is probably why I’m not pop music’s demographic anymore.

Check out the album art after the jump.

All Hail The Great Marketing Machine – Review Of Ultimate FF #1

I’m going to come clean with you nice people.

I keep going to our local comic books store every week, you know, the one where they know us by name and ask Rob to stop telling the other customers that he’s got an “ultimate ff and it ain’t a comic book, baby! Amiright?! Please talk to me. I’m so lonely.” I go. I get my stack of pulls and pick up whatever other books look interesting that week. Then I go home, fall asleep on the couch watching Arrow, and get up the next morning to go about the rest of my week. It’s a week that often finds me with fewer and fewer opportunities to really sit down and read through the books I’ve picked up that Wednesday. I’ve got stacks of pulls from previous weeks that may have already found themselves cataloged into a long box and brought over to the off site storage that Rob has finally broke down and gotten rented. I feel badly about this, not the rented storage, but that I never got a chance to read the books. I hope to at some point, but the Home Office was beginning to look like it belonged to a couple level 5 hoarders, so the books, read or not, needed to go.

As a consequence, there have been far fewer reviews on the site lately. So, today I made point of sitting down to read a brand new series, Ultimate FF #1, written by Joshua Hale Fialkov with art from Mario Guevara and Tom Grummett. The book takes place in Marvel Universe #1610. Therefore, if you’re like me and have a passing familiarity with Marvel characters from Fantastic Four in the 616, but haven’t had a chance to keep up with anything particularly current in Marvel since Marvel Now! kicked off, in theory, this should be just the book for me, right?

Will I find something that will reignite my interest in publications from the House Of Ideas in Ultimate FF #1? Maybe, but, be prepared for me to spoil the hell out of it, after the jump.