Hundreds of Gifts, All Under $10! Gift Ideas from Entertainment Earth

Marvel Fantastic Four Super Hero Squad lot today. Consisting of :

• Human Torch - Johnny Storm
• Thing – Ben Grimm
• Invisible Woman – Sue Storm
• Mr Fantastic – Reed Richards
  
• Galactus
• Namor – The Submariner
• Mole Man
• Dr Doom
• Silver Surfer
• Super Skrull

Silver Surfer Classic by marvelheroes
View other Iron man T-Shirts

Fly high with this Silver Surfer graphic hoodie from Marvel Comics!

Today the BBC News Technology website has an interesting story about a new computer that is designed to encourage older people to get online.

The simplified desktop – called SimplicITy – has just six buttons directing users to basic tasks such as e-mail and chat.

The computer comes pre-loaded with 17 video tutorials from television presenter Valerie Singleton
BBC Tech: New PC to encourage older users

From reading the article this certainly seems a step in the right direction and is addressing a number of barriers.

Andrew Harrop, head of public policy for charity Age Concern and Help the Aged said efforts to get older people online should be “applauded”.

“Pensioners who aren’t online are missing out on hundreds of pounds in potential savings by shopping around and can also often miss out on the best interest rates for savings accounts, not to mention the social benefits of being online,” he said.

It looks like the private sector has stepped up to the challenge.

Tech Note:
The computer is built using Linux operating system, a free operating system that can be customised by users.

From Erik:

Well, I’ve been in the City of Angels less than 24 hours but it’s been a productive day! The morning started with the AFM Finance Conference, which was actually a series of two panel discussions: Current State of the Independent Film Industry and Foreign Investment: A Growing Source of Film Financing.

Current State of the Independent Film Industry

Honestly, this first seminar was a bit of a letdown, though reaffirming. Don’t get me wrong, the information was great, just nothing new. Focusing on the film industry while getting my MBA introduced me to all of the material that was discussed today. I was just hoping to get deeper insight from some of the top minds in independent film finance. However, like I said, it was certainly reaffirming for me to see that my understanding of the industry is accurate rather than purely academic.

Here are some noteworthy points from this panel discussion:

-Digital distribution shouldn’t be seen as a threat to the industry but as an opportunity for expansion. Figure out how to monetize the next generation delivery platform.
-This economic climate is a much needed film industry house cleaning that has “[cleared] out the suckers” (Modi Wiczyk, Co – Chief Executive Officer, Media Rights Capital).
-The traditional studio habit of getting rich at the expense of investors is a tired and dying model. “Construct products at a price that makes sense” (Wiczyk) and focus on returning a profit to investors (duh). Profit margins within the studio system have been shrinking…this trend is reversing.
-Banks still have money to lend to viable projects; there are just fewer banks in the game now.

Foreign Investment: A Growing Source of Film Financing

Honestly, this panel discussion was essentially a repeat of the first discussion with a new panel of experts. The information was equally insightful, but nothing new. They didn’t discuss foreign investing in much depth except to say pretty generally: emerging markets (such as India and China) are bringing new money to the table, when seeking foreign investment money relationships are key, etc.

Admittedly, I did leave the panel discussion about 15 minutes early to make another appointment, so maybe it got more interesting in the last 1/4 hour…?

All-in-all, the Finance Conference was worth the money spent to attend…if only they were giving away money…

And now, for the MAIN event…our first MOVIE STAR!!!

A Meeting with Doug Jones

Hands down, the highlight of my day was getting to meet THE Doug Jones! Don’t get me wrong, it was great getting to meet with Sunny face-to-face for the first time since High School (let’s just say it’s been over a decade for those counting), but come on, it’s DOUG JONES. Doug’s credits include: Pan’s Labyrinth, the Hellboy movies, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Adaptation, Men in Black II…the list goes on and on and on.

Doug read the script and loved it (a HUGE complement!) and, schedule permitting, would LOVE to play the role of JOHN!!! We’re thrilled that he has decided to become a part of this ever-growing project and can’t wait so spend more time with Doug, who is probably the warmest, most cordial person I have ever met!

Since I was too dumb to take a photo of Doug today and I’m not sure which pictures I’m allowed to pull from the web, just click on this link to Doug’s official site and have a look around.

Not that any news could really top this new addition to our team, but we’re going to try before the week is out! We’re planning another meeting to hopefully rope in another star for our lead role. We’ll keep you posted.

Check back tomorrow when I’ll be blogging about the Pitch Me! and Produce and Sell Your Film seminars. Thanks!

(By the way, thanks Ryan Dunlap for helping with the introduction!)

Marvel Super Hero Squad Fantastic Four are on the loose.

• Johnny Storm – The Human Torch
• Ben Grimm – The Thing

and their sometimes villians and sometime allies

• Namor  – The Sub-mariner
• Silver Surfer - Herald of Galactus
• Moleman

This beauty is from the early days of Marvel’s non-team The Defenders #6. Art is from Sal Buscema.

Martin Campbell spoke with Empire Online about the new Green Lantern (Ryan Reynolds) film he is directing. It will be shooting in New Orleans, but it sounds as if fans of the comic can breath easy as it sounds as if there will be plenty of outer space scenes.

“He’s the only superhero to my knowledge who regularly goes to another planet,” said Campbell. “Superman and Batman were essentially locked into a particular city. The Lantern isn’t so Earthbound.”

It also sounds as if he has a good handle on the powers of the Green Lanterns.

“It’s [energized] by a battery on the planet of Oa, which taps into the willpower of everyone in the universe,” said the director. “From that ring you can form constructs. So if you got into a fight, you could form a giant first. Or a fighter plane.”

Mind you this means there will be an awful lot of effects in the film.

“It’s daunting,” Campbell admitted of the film’s epic scale. “Just the process, something like 1,300 visual effects shots, it’s mind-blowing, quite honestly.”

I really hope we get to see loads of the Green Lantern Corp and lots of cool space battles.

What do you think of the news and what other super heroes/bad guys can you think off that spend much of their time in outer space?

Off the top of my head I get the Silver Surfer, Captain Comet, Quasar, Lobo, Rocket Raccoon, Adam Strange and the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy, L.E.G.I.O.N., and a whole heap more. Over to you lot for the rest.

Green Lantern is out in 2011.

This is an homage to @mattknox’s mom’s awesome peanut butter and chocolate cookies.

I’ve been meaning to color some of my pieces for quite some time now and been asking my artist friends to maybe pitch around and color some of my work though pathetic my sketches are. Recently, an online friend helped me out in fulfilling just that. A couple of emails here and there resulted in a informal art collaboration of sorts. We at SDR Comics are happy that she came on board and lend her coloring skills to us  and  she will be coloring over Suede’s art for the upcoming Sugbo Jam Komiks No. 1 to be released hopefully end of the month or early this November and lets just keep  our fingers crossed. Might I say she’s done some cool stuff to the sample art that I sent her. My flat lifeless sketches now have a semblance of completeness to them and for that I am pretty thankful to Melon for her wonderful colors. Here’s some of it. Hope you enjoy.

Here is a quick geo-political lesson, to give you the necessary insight to follow the knowledge I’m about to drop. Try to keep up.

When I was younger, I remember being a lot better at slicing the world up into nice, neat, little stackable black and white cubes. It was a lot easier to make decisions during my pre-pube “social indoctrination” years…I was really sure of myself. I was “dialed in” to the world around me. Of course, in retrospect, it wasn’t that tough to do. Mine was a pretty limited world – a “Negro” grade schooler in the segregated South had a pretty microscopic world, with known, limited, potential for growth in the foreseeable future.

After all, this was Texas during the 60’s. And despite the growing impact the civil rights movement was beginning to have on African American quality of life…well, this was Texas during the 60s.

How can I explain this? I’m proud to be a Texan, but Texas history ain’t all “Walker Texas Ranger.”

Texas often marches to the beat of a different drummer. A good example of this would be Black Texans’ celebration of “Juneteenth.” You see, Texas was last to free its slaves on June 19, 1865. This was about 2 1/2 years after the January 1, 1863 proclamation began the immediate process of freeing some 4 million slaves across the nine of the ten states named in the Emancipation Proclamation – the exception, of course being good ole’ Texas.

During the 50s and 60s, Civil Rights Movement spawned integration was opening up whole new worlds of possibilities for African Americans in places like Georgia and Mississippi, two states most people thought of as the poster children for the deepest of the “deep south,” back then. Georgia and Mississippi, bastions of racial hatred and disregard for the rights of non-whites? Pah! Next to Texas, they are pikers. Sure Martin Luther King and his “Freedom Fighters” generated a lot of headlines fighting for equality in the “deep south,” but Texas didn’t seem to be phased by the “Freedom Fighters.”

All accept for my Mom, that is…my, to this day, faceless father was purportedly an itinerant civil rights worker. Well, all I can say to that is “thank God for civil rights and for my High School Mom’s decision to keep the baby!”

It’s OK that she ran off to join the Army after having me. My Granny and her current husband Albert gave me a name. And, my Granny gave me my first life lessons. [Note: See "My Granny Packed a Pistol"]

All in all things worked out  pretty well, I guess. It’s really all relative.

[NEXT --> Theory, Pt. 2: "My Granny Packed a Pistol"]

Welcome to part 2 of Scaretober, MUAHAHAHAHAHA! This week the boys trade opinions over Marvel Zombies, as in the entire concept (including the Army of Darkness Spin-off), can you survive? There will be blood, and heads will roll, and <insert cliche’ horror tagline> as they also discuss the Horror Genre in books and film, as well as the rise of the Zombie genre. Plus,  Alex hints at a possible European invasion, Sam and Mike discuss their favorite manga (a potential episode?????), and all your usual rants, jokes, and culturally incorrect jabberings! It’s everything you enjoy about the Mild Mannered podcast, plus ZOMBIES! Listen Now!

BUT WAIT! Don’t miss the special MONSTERPIECE Comic Book Theatre straight from Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. II, WARNING: NOT FOR THE FEINT OF HEART!!!

Siapa tidak kenal dengan, superman, batman, robin, Spiderman, Hulk dll. Semuanya adalah superhero-superhero yang memiliki kekuatan super. Tetapi pernahkah anda membayangkan bagaimana jika spiderman menjadi manula ? ini jawabannya :

Spiderman

SupermanWonderwoman

Super Girl

WolverineBatman & Robin

Hulk

DareDevil

Captain America

Iron Man

Electra

Silver Surfer

Cat Woman

Back in the day I used to really dig Ron Lim, but he’s dropped off my radar in recent years. This Mantis pin-up is from Silver Surfer Annual #1.

by Jonathan Hickman (writer), Dale Eaglesham (art), Paul Mounts (colors), and Clayton Cowles (letters)

The Story: Reed must see both the good and the band, before making the decision of whether or not to join the High Council.

What’s Good: As one of the many Reeds says in one of the strongest conversations of the book, “pretend there is no horizon.”

I think that that line really sums up why this is such an excellent comic book.  It’s insane, it’s ridiculous, and it’s thoroughly impossible, and in so being, it ends up being just what a comic should be.  As I saw dozens of Reeds wandering about, reshaping the universe on a massive scale, battling multiple Silver Surfers, and terraforming planets, I was struck with the enormity and grandiosity of it all.  This book manages to ignore realistic boundaries in ways only a superhero comic can, and it makes the impossible possible in a manner that is pure fun.  Is it taut, intelligent, political intrigue?  No.  But this is the sort of comic that makes you feel like a kid again.

It’s also clear that Hickman has a very solid grip on the characters.  Reed’s internal strife is well depicted and his conversation with Sue is tender; one understands her argument, but Reed is so lovable that it’s impossible for the reader not to forgive him just as Sue does.  Meanwhile, a breakfast conversation between Franklin and Johnny is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face as only the FF can.

I also enjoyed seeing the dark side of the High Council, a side that is coldly logical yet incredibly inhumane and unpleasant.  Yet, I appreciated that Hickman doesn’t use this to go the obvious route of making them evil.

That said, returning to the idea of enormity and impossibility, nowhere is this better displayed than in the issue’s ending, which was pure awesome.  It’s great, great cliffhanger that will have you dying for more. This comic is truly all about achieving the extraordinary and operating on a limitless scale.

Meanwhile, Eaglesham has a better outing this month.  His technology looks great, but more than anything, the entire comic has a warm, comforting, and accessible feel to it.  The book feels both awe-inspiring and inviting, friendly even.   Considering some of the massive things Eaglesham’s drawing here, that’s quite a feat.  He also does great work on the facial expressions, being spot-on with his depictions of even the subtlest emotion.

What’s Not So Good: This isn’t really a Fantastic Four book, nor is this looking to be a Fantastic Four arc.  This issue is basically entirely about Reed Richards and his dopplegangers.  The Fantastic Four have one admittedly fun conversation at the breakfast table, but that’s all we see of the team.  Hell, while it was good, that whole scene wasn’t even entirely necessary save to remind us of their presence.

I complained about this last time as well, but Eaglesham also has the annoying superhero artist tendency of making every male character look like a jacked up power-lifter.  Seeing an army of Reeds all looking like linebackers is quite annoying and Johnny looks almost silly, hulking over the breakfast table.

Conclusion: Pure fun and what a comic should be, I’m completely thrilled to be reading the FF again.

Grade: B+

-Alex Evans

Готви се втората част на “Ghost Rider”, в която главната роля ще поеме отново Никълъс Кейдж. За сценарист се спряга Дейвид Гойер, създал историите за Нолановите Батмани.

Освен това можем да очакваме така популярните “рестартирания” от “Фантастичната Четворка” и “Деърдевил”. Четвъртото заглавие, което подготвят от Фокс, е самостоятелен филм за Сребърния сърфист.

Никълъс Кейдж в "Ghost Rider"

]]> http://comicsen8mm.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/festival-de-noticias/ Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:19:23 +0000 Rondador http://comicsen8mm.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/festival-de-noticias/

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No tengo tiempo para nada ni para nadie últimamente… Así que os dejo un auténtico aluvión de noticias de estos últimos días. De todo un poco:

• Un par de imágenes de un ensangrentado Paul Bettany en el rodaje de Priest.

• Sony se hace con los derechos de He-Man y los Masters del Universo tras la ruptura/finalización de contrato de Columbia con Mattel. Fuente
• Jason Bateman comenta que no ha sido llamado aun para formar parte del reparto de la secuela de Hancock, cosa que sí ha confirmado Charlize Theron y Will Shmit. Fuente 1 y Fuente 2
• Marvel sigue planeando nuevas películas de Daredevil, Silver Surfer, y Ghost Rider 2, en la cual participará activamente David Goyer, creando la historia, y supervisando los guiones. Esperan contar de nuevo con Nic Cage. Fuente 1 y Fuente 2.
• Y hablando del Rey de Roma, ojo a la fotillo con la indumentaria del Superman de Tim Burton…

• 2 nuevos fichajes para el Thor de Kenneth Branagh: Jaimie Alexader (Kyle XY) como Sif y Colm Feore, con papel aun por desvelar pero con total seguridad de villano. Se unen así a Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Tom Hiddlestorm (Loki) y Natalie Portman (Jane Foster). Fuente.
• A través de su página de Twitter, Rob Liefeld ha confirmado tras una charla con Lauren Shuler Donner, que Masacre, en su spin-off romperá la cuarta pared (hablará al público), llevará la vestimenta roja que todos conocemos y confirma a Ryan Reynolds como el protagonista.Fuente.
• Y ya que estamos hablando de la productora, comentar que estaría bastante interesada en producir y meterse en los proyectos de X-Men 4 y los Nuevos Mutantes. Fuente.
• Información calentita de Watchmen The Ultimate Cut… Fuente.

• Michael Caine ha confirmado en una entrevista que no veremos a Johnny Depp en la tercera entrega del Batman de Nolan. Ya sabéis, por esos rumores que lo colovaban como El Acertijo. Últimamente es el único que habla sobre la película. Además comenta que duda que se pongan con ella antes del 2011 porque Inception le va a taner bastante ocupado a Nolan. Fuente.

• Foto oficial del cast de The Losers (falta Zoe Saldaña).

• Ron Howard habla sobre la adaptación que prepara sobre The Strange Adventure´s of H.P.Lovecraft. Fuente.
• Warner Bros se pone en marcha con la secuela de Sherlock Holmes sin ni si quiera haber estrenado la película. Se sigue rumoreando con bastante intensidad sobre la posibilidad que Brad Pitt haga de Moriarty en la segunda parte. Fuente.
• Keanu Reeves ha comentado que el guión de Cowboy Bebop se está reescribiendo, ya que el primer borrador hacía que la película fuera demasiado cara para el estudio. Fuente.
• Mark Millar comenta la posibilidad de secuela de Kick-Ass. Fuente.

Bueno, y creo que ya está bien por hoy… Mañana más… Al menos antes de irme de vacaciones…

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This may be one of the strangest posts yet on my blog. Apparently in Billund Denmark the LEGO employees had a contest called “Cowparade 2008″ in which they could decorate a LEGO cow how they saw fit. It makes me think of the actual Cowparade that began in 1999 (check out the website).

On a recent trip to Denmark Blue Moose snapped some photos of the altered bovine.

In a staff restaurant at LEGO’s headquarters in Billund, Denmark, there is a display of entries from a customised cow competition held last year called “Cowparade 2008″; it looks like it was an internal competition open to LEGO employees only.

Now some of you “purists” out there (i.e. people who don’t alter their LEGO in any way), might be shocked at the alterations these cows have under gone. I can just see some of you out there asking “why would they do that to a perfectly good LEGO cow?!!!!!”

Setting hysterics aside and the fact that the cow only comes in a few larger sets you have to remember that for those that work for LEGO many of them are not as obsessed with the little plastic pieces as we of the LEGO fan community. Also you if you are working for the company that makes said plastic pieces, getting a sizable number of what we would consider a rarer piece isn’t that hard.

Plus, you have to admit, some of them are pretty funny.
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For the last set you need to see it in its original size to fully appreciate the different models. There are so many to appreciate. The “Iron Cow” and Silver Surfing Cow are a couple of my favorites. I would have to say, it is a mooooooooving experience. *

*Sorry, bad joke.

Marvel Toys (misc.)
Magneto; Thanos; Warlock; X-Man/Nate Grey; Thor, Lord of Asgard; Thor Classic; Galactus; Apocalypse

Photo courtesy of Axeshredder.com

I’ve been flogging the new hard rock supergroup Chickenfoot for months.  I reviewed the album.  I linked the “Oh Yeah” video on our Facebook page.

I bought tickets for me, Chris and the spouses when they went on sale.

Then we waited.

Circumstances required the spouses to drop out, but Chris and I made our pilgrimage downtown to the Verizon Wireless Theater on Wednesday night to catch The ‘Foot in all their glory.

Someone asked me this week what exactly Chickenfoot was.  Now, given the current state of “rock” radio (and I use that in the loosest of terms), its little wonder I sounded half crazed with my constant Facebook “FOOT” statusi.

In case you missed it, Sammy Hager, Michael Anthony, Chad Smith and Joe Satriani had a baby and they named it Chckenfoot.  That’s right, its half of Van Hagar, a Red Hot Chili Pepper and the guitar dude with the Silver Surfer fixation.

And let it be known my friends, they do rock.

Davey Knowles and Back Door Slam opened.  We last saw them last year opening up Kid Rock’s “Rock and Rebels” tour.  They’ve gotten a lot better.  They’ve added a keyboard and they’re stepped firmly into that rich history of bluesy British rock bands.  Knowles even name checked Peter Frampton as a favorite artist.  It showed.

After the requisite intermission, Chickenfoot took the stage one member at a time.  Once the entire band was on the stage they launched into the CDs opener, “Avenida Revolucion.”  Its one of the album’ s strongest tracks and really set the tone for the show.

The band then proceeded to blast through the 11 songs from the album and a couple that didn’t make the cut, including a bluesy New Orleans homage.

These guys were having fun.  Hagar was, as Chris pointed out, “doing what Sammy does best.”  That statement will either make you smile or cringe.  There is no middle ground.  Love him or hate him, Hagar is one of the consummate hard rock front men.  He worked the band, the stage and the crowd like he has been doing for more than 30 years.  You wouldn’t believe he’s in his 60s to watch him on the stage.

In Chad Smith, Hagar may have found his perfect foil.  Smith mixed it up verbally all night.  That’s in addition to beating the holy hell out of his drum kit.  Smith is one of the most underrated drummers in rock and with Chickenfoot he gets to show he’s got more than just “punk funk” licks.  He drove the band all night while peppering the audience with drum sticks.

I can’t decide if Joe Satriani is an android or an alien, but he is most certainly not human.  Some of the sounds he gets out of his guitar are simply unnatural.  Amazing, but unnatural.  He stood on his side of the stage shredding, apparently oblivious to the shenannigans taking place to his left.

And then there’s Michael Anthony.  That sentence might just encapsulate Anthony’s Hall of Fame career.   He kept the rhythm section solid, laid down his trademark harmony vocals and did what he has done since the late 70s, he was Mad Mikey.

Did I mention these guys were having fun.

They teased “The Immigrant Song” with Smith pummelling his kit like a Viking declaring war and Anthony handling the high vocals riff at the beginning of the song.  Alas, it was not to be.

What did happen was the encore.  Free of original Chickenfoot material, the band launched into a tremendous classic rock encore starting with Hagar’s Montrose classic “Bad Motorscooter.”  Then it was the show’s highlight, at least for me…a cover of Deep Purple’s “Highway Star” with Satriani somehow simulating that song’s organ riff while still playing the lead.  The final song was “My Generation” which ended with Smith crashing through his drum kit ala Keith Moon.

If Chickenfoot is coming to your area and you like big melodic rock, buy a ticket.  If you’re a fan of any of the other bands these guys are members of, don’t go expecting a greatest hits show.  They’re a band and they’re playing their material.  Enjoy it for what it is.

Let me tell ya ’bout a kid called Kirby.  Wasn’t the name his mother gave him, but that’s what he settled on, so that’s what we called him, got it?  Weren’t too long before we’d have another name for him: The King.  “The King of Comics” we called him.  Let me tell you ’bout ol’ King Kirby.

Man was a visionary.  Was a time I’d say a man was the product of his experiences; ‘Art imitates Life’, that kinda thing.  Not Kirby.  Father was a factory worker – Jewish – came from Austria.  Kid grew up on Suffolk Street, New York; got into street fighting; said he liked it; said it was second nature to him.  Wasn’t the only thing second nature to him – kid was quicker with a charcoal than he was with his fists.  Too fast, they’d say – wouldn’t let him into college ’cause he made ‘em all look bad!

Before long he was drawin’ strips for the paper.  Went by the name of “Jack Curtiss”.  By the time the funnies found him he was calling himself all sorts o’ things: “Curt Davis”, “Fred Sande”, “Ted Grey”, “Teddy” – like he was some kinda superhero with a secret identity – see what I’m getting at here? Anyway, finally he settles on ‘Jack’, “Jack Kirby”.

Soon he lands a job at Timely Comics, which may not sound like much.  You might recognize it by its new name, MARVEL COMICS.  Then he draws this guy called Captain America, all suited up in spandex with the stars and stripes.  Very first issue, March 1941, front page, punches Hitler right in the mug!  You can’t pay ten cents for that kind of action this day and age!  This was nine months before Pearl Harbor, mind you.  Nine months! Can you see it yet?  This is what I been talkin’ about!  Kirby, an Austro-Jewish-American street fighter, makes up this character called Captain America, who punches Hitler in the face nine months before we even entered World War II.

Hitler gets his early, thanks to Kirby.

And here’s the real kicker: two years later, kid gets drafted in the US Army.  Lands on Omaha Beach ten days after D-Day, and his lieutenant asks him to scout ahead and draw recon maps!  Wasn’t all pretty pictures, though – nearly lost his legs in the winter of ‘44, to frostbite, of all things.  See? See?!  Dammit, do I have to beat you over the head with it?!  Captain America was frozen in ice, dammit!  How else could he come back to fight the Commies?  Man was a genius, a bona fide prophet, I tells ya!

Anyway, he got an honorable discharge in ‘45, and started doing comics again.  He did a bit of this and that – Young Romance, Young Love – the kid was in love, who could blame him?  Then he did Challengers of the Unknown and Green Arrow for National.  Eventually, though, he came back to Marvel.  It was there he started makin’ superheroes again – nothin’ major – just little ones like the Fantastic Four, Thor, the Hulk, Iron Man, the X-Men, Silver Surfer, and Black Panther, you know?  Stan’d say that they were all his idea, but we knew better.  Was a time when you wanted to draw Marvel, you had to draw Kirby.  He was their Holy Scripture – the A-B-C of comic art.

But it wasn’t enough for the King, he had to keep on movin’.  He signed with comic rivals DC and started work on his crown jewel.  He called it his “Fourth World”.   He wrote and drew four titles at the same time: the New Gods, Mister Miracle, The Forever People, and Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen.  (For the record, DC woulda given him any book he wanted – the Man of Steel, the Caped Crusader, you name it – but God bless him, he didn’t take ‘em, because – get this – he didn’t want to cost anyone their job!  That’s just the kind of guy he was.)  Now, I’m a simple kinda guy, and I don’t read so good, but I can call it like I see it, and this stuff – when you read it, it just crackled off the page like Pop Rocks, and it filled your head with these ideas, you know?  Things you never knew existed until Kirby put ‘em there, right up in your noggin’.  There were days I’d swear my head would explode, and I thought to myself, where does he come up with this stuff? He’d never tell me – didn’t have the time – he simply smiled and got back to his drawings.  He was off in his own little world – he called it “The Fourth World” – but I called it Kirby’s Dream Land.

Jack’s left us now, but I still see him everywhere.  Not a week goes by I don’t read a comic or watch a film dedicated to the King.  I just read a Batman comic this morning was dedicated to him – the guy never even wrote a Batman comic! If he’s not your favorite artist, odds are he’s your favorite artist’s favorite artist.  They call it “The Kirby Effect”.  Heh.  He woulda liked that.  Prolly woulda come up with a science-like explanation for it too.  But I worked it out myself the other day:

Art doesn’t imitate Life, and Life doesn’t imitate Art.  Life imitates Kirby.

Dedicated to the King of Comics

Jacob "Jack Kirby" Kurtzberg R.I.P. (1917-1994)

Directed by Australian filmmaker James McTeigue, who previously worked as the first assistant director for all three Matrix movies and Speed Racer and also directed V for Vendetta himself. The screenplay was co-written by newcomer Matthew Sand and comic book veteran J. Michael Straczynski, of the “Babylon 5″ TV show and the script for Clint Eastwood’s Changeling previously as well as the Silver Surfer movie.

Ninja Assassin will kill the box office on November 25th this year.

via first showing