Dork Art: Cap on a Harley!

Marvel just unveiled this nifty bit of Marketing/Advertising Poster for Captain America: The First Avenger.  The artist is Adam Kubert and it depicts Cap riding into battle on a Harley-Davidson "Liberator."  Read the whole article/commercial here.

--Brad

Dork Art: 6 Mondo Captain America Posters For Comic Con

Oh man oh man.  These are some pretty phenomenal prints from Mondo.  The muted Tyler Stout print second from the top is probably my favorite, although Olly Moss' Hydra Propaganda poster at the very bottom is totally badass.  And the two Eric Tan's in the middle sure are pretty too.  Seriously doubt I'll be able to get my grubby little hands on any of these at Mondo's Booth #433 but I'll do my darndest.

--Brad

Dork Art: Watcher in the Woods!

Found over at Reelizer.  Wouldn't the world be a much better place if you saw this beautiful poster hanging in a theater lobby rather than the typical Evans & His Shield photo?  I think of all the pop art associated with The First Avenger this might be my favorite so far.  This artist is Kevin Howdeshell and if you jump on over to his site you'll discover some other nice bits of illustration 

--Brad

Wait. Garth Ennis Has Directed A Movie?

Just discovered over at Bleeding Cool that Garth Ennis, the creator of Preacher, has written and directed a new short film called Stitched that will premiere at this year's San Diego Comic Con.  How this managed to stay secret for so bloody long is beyond me, but color me curious.  Not just with Preacher, but Ennis has created some of my favorite comic books like Just A Pilgrim, The Boys, Punisher Max, and the grotesque Nick Fury mini-series.  And if yer awesome like me you can even pick up a copy of the DVD at the Avatar Press booth at this year's San Diego Comic Con.  Abso-freakin-lutely.

--Brad

Dork Art: Mondo Cap! Mondo Transformers 3!

This Wednesday you better hit up your local comic shop cuz the fourth issue of the prequel comic Captain America: First Avenger has one badass cover supplied by Mondo and artist Tyler Stout.  I think this is some seriously cool news, especially for all you Mondo fans like me.  App Games, VHS Releases, and now Comics.  Mondo is stretching out into all kinds of formats and I can't wait to see them take over Pop Culture.

As for their poster line, well that's still kickin' butt too.  Below you'll see their latest.  Transformers: Dark of the Moon comes to you from artist Jesse Phillips and will be released this Wednesday on the Mondo website.      Both the standard and the varient measure 18 x 36.

--Brad

Heroes Are Made In America! New Cap Trailer!

Below is the Brand-Spanking New trailer for Captain America and it is Bad Ass.  Love watching Cap crack some heads with his shield.  I will do whatever I can to catch a screening of this film cuz I think it might be a little hard to snag a viewing while in San Diego this July.  Wish me luck, True Believers.

--Brad

Captain America Wallpaper!

The official Captain America website has released a whole bunch of cool stills from the movie along with some nifty wallpapers.  I am trying real hard to stay away from spoilery promo material and I should be avoiding stuff like this if I don't want the hype to take over my brain, but I am so so so so so excited to see this movie and I hope hope hope hope hope it does not suck.  The above wallpaper has me all giddy.

--Brad

John Carter Poster

There ya go.  The Teaser Poster for Disney's upcoming John Carter.  But even though this poster sports an "M," the Mouse House has decided to leave the "Of Mars" off the title of the cult novel series by Edgar Rice Burroughs (the mad mind behind Tarzan and The Land That Time Forgot).  That just annoys me.  Who wants to see a flick called John Carter?  Not me.  Sounds like some dud biopic.

The new film is directed by Andrew Stanton who helmed the classic Pixar adventures Wall-E, Finding Nemo, and A Bug's Life.  Hopefully he has better luck making the jump from cartoonland to live action than Jonah Hex butcher Jimmy Hayward.  John Carter has been trying to get to the big screen for a long time.  Bugs Bunny director Bob Clampett tried to unleash some animated adventures in 1940, but couldnt get the funding.  Below is a short clip of what that might possibly have looked like.  I can't imagine what a wonderful world we would be currently living in if that had happened.

And since Disney has enveloped Marvel Comics, maybe we'll see some cool graphic novels come our way.  Currently Dark Horse has the publishing rights to the old Marvel John Carter series and they might even have the comic rights for new adventures...but maybe not.  I'm loving the current Dark Horse omnibus (you can open to any random page and soak up some oddball crazy pulp) and would love to see a new series.

And I really just don't want a crappy movie.  Although, that poster (and equally bland title) fails to excite.

--Brad

Dork Art: Captain America Retro Poster!

Oh My...I Absolutely Love This Poster!!!!!  WANT!  NEED!

Unfortunately, Marvel only printed up 100 copies for the cast and crew of Captain America:  The First Avenger.  Five are being given away at the Hero Complex Film Festival this Sunday in Hollywood.  Cue Khan Like Scream: MAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRVVVVVVEEEEEELLLLLLLLL!

Thanks to Geek Tyrant for the find.

--Brad

A Fistful of Retro! (Brad's Picks)

Honestly, the best decision made concerning X-Men First Class was giving it the Cuban Missile Crisis backdrop of 1962 and dropping Charles, Erik, and the lovely White Queen in groovy 60s attire.  Whatever other problems this hard-to-please dork had with the plotting and teenybopper mutants can be dismissed with this fresh perspective.

Since Matt took Sky Captain, Black Dynamite, and Call of Cthulhu for his Fistful I had to go with some rather obvious choices.  The films below totally capture (I imagine since I didn't come into the world till 1979)  the feel and the joy of the time period being portrayed...or fetishized.  And my top two picks have been safe and sound in My Top Ten All Time Favorite Movies for quite some time.

5.  That Thing You Do!:  The saga of The Wonders is warm and wholesome and it's one of those rare films about the music industry that also produces great music.  I don't think this film or director Tom Hanks gets enough credit.

4.  Ed Wood:  Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland.  Whatever cinematic crimes Tim Burton has and will continue to unleash upon my poor, tired eyes will always be forgiven cuz once upon a time in the 1990s he granted us the gem that is Ed Wood.  A film about the love of film and the joys of forcing that love on others no matter how little money or talent you have.  Ed Wood gave me another personal hero to place atop my mantel.

3.  Chinatown:  Roman Polanksi's love letter to Film Noir is simply exquisite.  It hits all the beats and still manages to feel new and exciting.  A climax that punches you right in the gut and a villain so great he'd find his way back into cinema as a tortoise in this year's Rango.

2.  Miller's Crossing:  "Look in your heart" and witness the Coen Brothers' finest hour with this brilliant ode to the gangster film in which Albert Finney, Gabriel Byrne, Joe Polito, Marcia Gay Harden, and JE Freeman have never been better.  But at the end of the day is this exercise in language just a film about a guy and his hat?

1.  Raiders of the Lost Ark:  Speaking of hats...In just the same fashion as he did with Star Wars, George Lucas sets about concocting the ultimate ode to the adventure movie serial while at the same time crafting the Ultimate Adventure Film.  Harrison Ford's fedoraed silhouette has become so iconic it's easy to forget that Raiders started out as a retro experiment.  It just doesn't get better than Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark.

--Brad

Steve Rogers Returns To Captain America

We all knew it was going to happen.  In July (the same month The First Avenger launches into theaters), the original Star Spangled G.I. Steve Rogers returns to Marvel's Captain America.  And even though some of you might think that the only Cap is Steve Rogers and that this is a good thing...well, I say nay!  The best thing to happen to Captain America was Ed Brubaker, the Winter Soldier, The Death of Captain America, and Bucky Cap.  But then we had to have Reborn  with its LOST-like time shenanigans and we had to have the eventual return to the status quo.  A frustrating reality to mainstream comics.  

Anyway, Ed Brubaker is still with Cap and that's cool.  And I think Steve McNiven is a fine fit for Cap.  And I'll totally be there for the relaunch.  But as a fanboy, I don't have to be happy about anything.  Newsarama has a live chat posted with Brubaker and there are a few interesting tidbits to be discovered.

Bucky, You Will Be Missed

--Brad

Ultimate Spider-Man Reborn

So, I've been falling behind in my Ultimate Spider-Man but it's been impossible not to catch a few glimpses from this whole Death of Spider-Man thing Marvel maestro Brian Michael Bendis has been cooking up these last few months.  I absolutely loved his Bagley run of the series, thought the second volume was so-so and just faded away for a bit.  I should be picking it back up shortly.  Anyway, that above image is for the third volume in the Ultimate Spider-Man saga, and look at Spidey's new duds.  I gotta say "meh" but I won't seriously judge i.e. condemn until I've read it.  I will say that I'm loving what Mark Millar is doing with Ultimate Avengers, that Blade story had me in stitches.

--Brad

Excelsior! Stan Lee Cameos

A few days ago, IGN posted this lovely montage of all the Stan Lee cameos from X-Men's Hotdog Vendor to Iron Man 2's Fake Larry King.  My favorite in the montage is definitely Willie the Mailman from Fantastic Four, but my absolute favorite Stan Lee cameo has to be his exchange with Jason Lee in Kevin Smith's Mallrats.  Excelsior!

--Brad

Comic Review: Marvel Noir

Daredevil Noir
Author: Alexander Irvine
Artist: Tom Coker
Publisher: Marvel Publishing Inc.
ISBN: 9780785121541
Pages: 112

    Reminding me a bit more of pulp adventure stories than noir, this is still a moody book with some evocative art.  The murder and gangland war is all spot on, and there’s some good revenge hunting.  There’s even a nice femme fatale.  But Matt Murdock’s ultra-senses still seem more at home with The Shadow or The Phantom than with Sam Spade or Skip McCoy.

Punisher Noir
Author: Frank Tieri
Artist(s): Paul Azaceta & Antonio Fuso
Publisher: Marvel Publishing Inc.
ISBN: 9780785132769
Pages: 112

    This does some really interesting stuff in re-writing the Punisher’s origin, starting with the first world war, and bringing it up to the dawn of World War II.  Corruption and violence rule, and out of this bloody battlefield called New York, someone will rise and strike back.  Some cool and some weird twists await as the story unfolds.
    However, it is an origin story, and generally speaking, that’s just something I don’t need to read or view again.  Origin stories are played out for this reader.  I’d prefer they would just get to the meat of things.  Still, for an origin story, it’s pretty good. 
    The artwork is fine, if unmemorable. 

Luke Cage Noir
Author(s): Mike Benson & Adam Glass
Artist: Shawn Martinbrough
Publisher: Marvel Publishing Inc.
ISBN: 9780785135456
Pages: 112

    By far, the best of the Marvel Noir series that I’ve read, it also captures the spirit of noir better than any of the others.  It isn’t pulp adventure, it’s just a straight up, gritty taste of the underworld.  An ex-con for a lead, plenty of dangerous folk, murder, and  betrayal.  And it doesn’t just play with the story of Luke Cage.  More than the others, it reworks the very concept, making it much more in keeping with the genre.  This is NOT a superhero story.  As I read it, I was constantly reminded of Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins.
    The art looks good, but isn’t particularly special.  But this is a strong and worthy comic that crime fans should read.

    Overall, the Marvel Noir line is an interesting idea that seems a bit lost.  It’s really more Marvel Pulp.  I didn’t even bother reviewing Spider-Man Noir, as it’s hardly even a step removed from The Spider or Doc Savage, with almost no noir to it at all.  But I think the line was a cool idea, and I hope maybe it found enough of an audience to get another round sometime, maybe with some characters that fit the genre a bit better, like Nick Fury, Misty Night, Silver Sable, or some others.
    And heck, I’d love to see them keep putting out Pulp versions of their characters.  A pulpy version of Black Panther or Reed Richards could be a blast. 
    And on an art note, I kind of wish they’d gone with black &white for the Marvel Noir line.  Sure, sometimes the look was still very dark and shadowed, but black & white just looks so right.

-Matt

Time To Escort Adolf Hitler To The Gates of Hell! Full Captain America Trailer Revealed!!!

Well, I hate to say it, but I've gotta thank Entertainment Tonight for giving us our first full blown Captain America trailer.  This is much, much better than the previous Super Bowl spot and I can honestly say that I got goosebumps listening to Tommy Lee Jones' voiceover.  My favorite bit is Stanley Tucci's Professor Erskine explaining to wimpy Steve Rodgers why they picked him for the Super Soldier program," a weak man knows the value of strength, knows the value of power."  Perfect.  Plus, we get to see Cap throw his shield!  Yep, I've found my most anticipated film of the summer.

--Brad

Who Are Marvel's Mystery Men?

There appears to be lots of cool info launching from last weekend's C2E2 (the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo), but possibly the most intriguing tidbit was Marvel's announcement of their new Pulp Era comic series, The Mystery Men.  Marvel has been playing around with pulp concepts in their Noir alterverse to verying degrees of success, but The Mystery Men is there first real foray into a genre born outta 30s pop mentality.  Marvel entered the comics world in 1940 with Timely Comics, so expect plenty of Shadowy Doc Savagey retconning.  For more info check out Newsarama's full article here.  

--Brad