Showing posts with label Comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comics. Show all posts
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With great fashion sense comes great responsibility![/caption]
This is Edem He came into the McDonald's around the corner from South Granville wearing a brilliant Spider-Man hoodie which he said he bought downtown at a comic shop on North Granville Street. Not only that... he was wearing toe shoes, which are not the same as ninja tabi-shoes but still very cool.
With great fashion sense comes great responsibility![/caption]This is Edem He came into the McDonald's around the corner from South Granville wearing a brilliant Spider-Man hoodie which he said he bought downtown at a comic shop on North Granville Street. Not only that... he was wearing toe shoes, which are not the same as ninja tabi-shoes but still very cool.
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Justice delayed is justice denied? Karl Urban as Judge Dredd, handing out the sentence.[/caption]
Dredd is an excellent 2012 film adaptation of the long-running British science fiction comic strip Judge Dredd. It's the second try; the first adaptation, Judge Dredd, made in 1995, sank without a trace, under the weight of Sylvester Stallone's ego.
For the 2012 remake, Karl Urban (Star Trek, Almost Human) leaves his ego in the trailer and unleashes his inner Dirty Harry to give a remarkably nuanced performance as an honourable police officer shaped into a relentless killing machine by a brutal future.
Justice delayed is justice denied? Karl Urban as Judge Dredd, handing out the sentence.[/caption]Dredd is an excellent 2012 film adaptation of the long-running British science fiction comic strip Judge Dredd. It's the second try; the first adaptation, Judge Dredd, made in 1995, sank without a trace, under the weight of Sylvester Stallone's ego.
For the 2012 remake, Karl Urban (Star Trek, Almost Human) leaves his ego in the trailer and unleashes his inner Dirty Harry to give a remarkably nuanced performance as an honourable police officer shaped into a relentless killing machine by a brutal future.
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1995 U.S. postal stamp.[/caption]Google -- celebrating it's 15th birthday today -- was not named after a comic strip character. The official history is that when founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided, in 1997, to ditch the original name -- "BackRub" -- they chose "Google" as a play on “googol,” a number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. They did not name it after the famous cartoon character Barney Google. One blog wonders about this.
The above classic Jeep, seen in Kitsilano, on the other hand, probably was named after a comic strip character: Eugene the Jeep, a go-anywhere, do-anything, little critter, who debuted March 16, 1936, in Elzie Segar's Thimble Theatre newspaper comic strip, now called Popeye, after it's star. The Willys MB U.S. Army utility vehicle was introduced five years later in 1941. The theory is that soldiers were so impressed with the new vehicles that they informally named it after the character in the Popeye strip which was "small, able to move between dimensions and could solve seemingly impossible problems." This isn't the only origin story for the name, but it's the one I heard growing up as a rabid comic fan! Click the images to enlarge them.Selection of great pre-Popeye Thimble Theatre comic strips ►
search on the phrase “Google in 1998” ►
Does the publisher of Better Homes and Gardens have a sister publication devoted to garages? Oh. ... It does? And it's called Popular Mechanics? Well they must have quite a few subscribers in the areas of Vancouver I frequent, because often as not, garages have been tricked out as workshop-playrooms where grown up boys can relive the fun of shop class.
Chris is a card-carrying member of this garage band. His space brings to mind Santa's workshop, with just a hint of mad scientist. And consider how Victor von Frankenstein might have turned out if, rather than graveyards, he'd had Vancouver's alleys to scour for materials. That's where Chris finds the junk stuff, he "re-purposes" to make steampunk-ish light fixtures.
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Here he's used an old meat grinder to make a light fixture, and he has plans for some baking pans he found.[/caption]
Chris explained how he was turning to his skill with lighting to generate some income since being hit by a car a while back. The accident left him with serious injuries and he was unable to continue in type of work he had been doing. He said he currently had one paying lighting project on the go, so we can hope, as the saying goes, that the future looks bright.
Chris "shops" the lanes of the Kerrisdale neighbourhood (about 30 blocks South of Broadway Avenue), where he naturally finds lots of cool stuff. Here he shows off two real prizes: An old, seemingly mint condition, Fisher-Price medical kit, and Spider-Man board game, also in great shape, probably dating from the early 1970s. The box cover illustration sure looks like it's by the great John Romita, Sr. Click the images to enlarge them.
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Drool all you want, you'll just mess up your computer screen.[/caption]
Chris is a card-carrying member of this garage band. His space brings to mind Santa's workshop, with just a hint of mad scientist. And consider how Victor von Frankenstein might have turned out if, rather than graveyards, he'd had Vancouver's alleys to scour for materials. That's where Chris finds the [caption id="attachment_4867" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Here he's used an old meat grinder to make a light fixture, and he has plans for some baking pans he found.[/caption]Chris explained how he was turning to his skill with lighting to generate some income since being hit by a car a while back. The accident left him with serious injuries and he was unable to continue in type of work he had been doing. He said he currently had one paying lighting project on the go, so we can hope, as the saying goes, that the future looks bright.
Chris "shops" the lanes of the Kerrisdale neighbourhood (about 30 blocks South of Broadway Avenue), where he naturally finds lots of cool stuff. Here he shows off two real prizes: An old, seemingly mint condition, Fisher-Price medical kit, and Spider-Man board game, also in great shape, probably dating from the early 1970s. The box cover illustration sure looks like it's by the great John Romita, Sr. Click the images to enlarge them.
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Drool all you want, you'll just mess up your computer screen.[/caption]Another "garage band" member ►
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Remember how popular that ripped "punk" look was in the 80s? Click the image to enlarge it.[/caption]
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The actual cover, coloured by Lynn Varley. Click image to enlarge.[/caption]
The original cover art for the 1986 "comic" Dark Knight Returns #2 is up for auction, and could reportedly command upwards of $500,000 US. The black and white illustration by writer/artist Frank Miller, depicts Miller's conception of an older Batman of a near future who has come out of retirement to try and stem the chaos of crime which has engulfed Gotham City.
The four issue Dark Knight Returns mini series was one of the first high production value comics, or "graphic novels," aimed at the new speciality comic book stores. It was Frank Miller's second one for DC Comics, following the success of his Ronin mini series. Miller had come to DC from Marvel, where he'd done a remarkable turn as the writer and artist of the Daredevil title, infusing the comic with a film-noir sensibility -- adding popular new characters like Elektra, and revitalizing old ones like the Kingpin.
The Dark Knight Returns was a commercial and critical success. Together with another DC mini series, The Watchmen (1986-1987), it signalled the advent, in North America, of comic books for adults -- of the awfully-named graphic novel. For the Batman franchise, it meant a vital new source of creative energy, which has fueled all the Batman films, from Tim Buton's 1989 film through Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. None of these films actually use any plot elements from Miller's mini series, but it still informs all of them. The Superman franchise has nothing like it, and they can stop making "reboot" films any time now -- please.
Remember how popular that ripped "punk" look was in the 80s? Click the image to enlarge it.[/caption][caption id="attachment_2921" align="alignright" width="197"]
The actual cover, coloured by Lynn Varley. Click image to enlarge.[/caption]The original cover art for the 1986 "comic" Dark Knight Returns #2 is up for auction, and could reportedly command upwards of $500,000 US. The black and white illustration by writer/artist Frank Miller, depicts Miller's conception of an older Batman of a near future who has come out of retirement to try and stem the chaos of crime which has engulfed Gotham City.
The four issue Dark Knight Returns mini series was one of the first high production value comics, or "graphic novels," aimed at the new speciality comic book stores. It was Frank Miller's second one for DC Comics, following the success of his Ronin mini series. Miller had come to DC from Marvel, where he'd done a remarkable turn as the writer and artist of the Daredevil title, infusing the comic with a film-noir sensibility -- adding popular new characters like Elektra, and revitalizing old ones like the Kingpin.
The Dark Knight Returns was a commercial and critical success. Together with another DC mini series, The Watchmen (1986-1987), it signalled the advent, in North America, of comic books for adults -- of the awfully-named graphic novel. For the Batman franchise, it meant a vital new source of creative energy, which has fueled all the Batman films, from Tim Buton's 1989 film through Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. None of these films actually use any plot elements from Miller's mini series, but it still informs all of them. The Superman franchise has nothing like it, and they can stop making "reboot" films any time now -- please.
DC Comics animation has done an animated version of the Dark Knight Returns. ►
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