The Best Comic Movies... Almost.

Hi comic fans... whew... I was really angry when I started writing this and using the word FUCK a lot... But as I started writing I realised that this is actually a pretty good list... A sound mathematicaly fair process to rank films based on comics on Dark Horizons

Leading up to Surrogates, it's pretty much the predictable faecal insult to comicdom I would expect (though I didn't mind the last two Punisher movies) and after that, it's pretty close to what I would say is an acceptable if slightly spotty chart... But this is MY BLOG as as I'm the only one reading it so I'm gonna share my 2 cents(with myself)... And  I do have a few issues...

• I DON'T understand how Xmen Last Stand made it above Catwoman (truly one the worst comic adaptations ever).
• I think either Hulk's beating 300 is a little odd...
• Superman Returns? I don't know anyone but ME that liked that film (and I didn't like it much).
• Watchmen should be at the top as far as I'm concerned but I DO understand why it may not have been received as well as other films*
• American Splendor, Ghost World? All good but numbers 3 and 4- pffft!
• And don't get me started about all you raving fan-boys and the goddamn The Dark Knight, it was good and Heath was amazing and YES, I know my wife and I are the only people who agree BUT but it was poorly edited (even non sensibly in parts) Batman was bland and Two Face's 'turn' was out of the blue. It WAS NOT the film you all thought it was... 

*because you're an idiot

But, it is an interesting list... enjoy!

100 Ways To Die In Skyrim

A little long (15mins), maybe a few spoilers, but often amusing…

DTV: Survivors

Survivors
It breaks my heart that this BBC series was cancelled after two seasons but this is a gripping remake of the 1970’s series of the same name. With high production values and a great authentic cast, this series follows a hapless group of disparate ‘everyday people’ who survive a virus that wipes out 90% of the population. Like a Zombie tale without zombies, our heroes must deal with many issues that we take for granted and the idea of having to rewrite the rule book on morality and society.

Turn it on.

WOW! Chuck Norris

WOW! Chuck Norris

How To Last in a Tough Business Filled with Rejection.

A thoughtful article on How To Last in a Tough Business Filled with Rejection.
 
“A man of knowledge knows that his life will be over altogether too soon. He knows that he, as well as everybody else, is not going anywhere; he knows that nothing is more important than anything else. … Under these circumstances his only tie to his fellow men is his controlled folly. Thus a man of knowledge endeavors and sweats and puffs and, if one looks at him, he is just like any ordinary man, except that the folly of his life is under control. Nothing being more important than anything else, a man of knowledge chooses any act and acts it out as if it matters to him. His controlled folly makes him say that what he does matters and makes him act as if it did, and yet he knows that it doesn’t. So when he fulfills his acts, he retreats in peace and whether his acts were good or bad, or worked or didn’t, it is in no way part of his concern.”

Mad Men Barbie

Mad Men Barbie now available!

Helveticards

Can’t tell your Jack of Clubs form a 3 of Diamonds? Try Helveticards

The Urban Beehive

A concept by Phillips: The Urban Beehive

Pillow Fight Accessories

Design student Bryan Ku produced these fantastic ‘pillow fight’ accessories…

Homeboy Industries: Adam Amengual

A photographic portraiture series by Adam Amengual for non-profit organisation Homeboy Industries, helping former gang members start a new life.

Travel Photograph: Road Kill Adventures.

This is the photography Blog of a friend of a friend of mine; some stunning travel shots including Iran: Road Kill Adventures.

2011 National Geographic Photo Contest

A stunning and fascinating collection: The National Geographic Photo Contest 2011

Prometheus

Images from Prometheus, the new Alien prequel.

Guillermo Del Toro's Pan’s Labyrinth Sketch Book

See and hear Guillermo Del Toro speak about his sketch book for Pan’s Labyrinth

Movie Titles Stills Collection

WOW!… This would have to be the ultimate resource for Movie opening titles: Movie Titles Stills Collection

Woody Allen: A Documentary

Getting good reviews is this new documentary on Woody Allen, cunningly called Woody Allen: A Documentary

Movie Posters that never were…

Movie posters that never were…

God’s Eye View

A mesmerising Supercut of ‘God’s Eye View’ shots from the movies by Brian Carroll, set to a track by one of my favourite bands ever- A lot of fun!

Movie buffs should check out the others on his site too…

Illustrator: Natasha Allegri

A lot of sweet illustration from Cartoon network artist Natasha Allegri

Graphic Designer: Reza Abedini

I was lucky enough to hear this Iranian Graphic Designer speak at AGIdeas, he truly is phenomenal talent: Reza Abedini….

Soviet Anti-Alcohol Posters

An interesting collection of Soviet anti-alcohol posters.

Concept Artist and Illustrator: Dave Rapoza

Video game concept artist and incredible illustrator of pop culture character icons Dave Rapoza

Game Of Thrones Season 2

If like me, your pants have only just dried out since the first season of Game of Thrones, you might like to watch this strictly ‘teaserific’ behind the scenes video for Season 2- Ooops, I just had another accident…

For those of you not familiar with GOT (that’s what the cool kids all it) it is the, epic and surprisingly faithful small screen adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s book series, A Song of Ice and Fire which focus’ on politics over high adventure (in a good way) and any character is up for grabs… It CAN be pretty heavy going though, particularly the later novels. Check out the trailer or better yet, read the books.

Movie Trailers

Rampart



The Grey

DTV: Sons of Anarchy

TV Series Recommendation

Sons of Anarchy

Finishing its fourth season and green lit for a fifth, SOA is a gritty, gripping series revolving around The Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle club in the fictional Californian town of Charming. Built on the foundation of a Hamletesque epic, the series charts their troubled control over the town and the criminal exploits they run out of it. It’s a great cast of characters and brilliant performances including  (Ron Pearlman, Katey Sagal and even Henry Rollins!) with some genuinely shocking moments throughout all 4 seasons (each a tight 13 episodes for those of you like us who have a lot of TV series to wade through). Now available on DVD. See the trailer.

Call me Ishmael

 "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago -- never mind how long precisely -- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off -- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me."

160 years ago, a promising young writers career came to an end when his treatise on life as a whaler was labelled by critics as a disaster; strange how it’s now a classic… Moby Dick celebrated its 160^th year anniversary this week and  I would recommend you read it; though it’s kind of like the Star Trek movies, skip every second chapter which goes into the ‘science’ of Whales (no, every second Star Trek movie isn’t about whales, it’s just crap)… You can download it for free here

Literary Tattoos

There are many sites dedicated to BAD tattoos, but here’s one showcasing thoughtful ‘literary’ tattoos.

Book: Missed Connections

This BLOG is the foundation for this nifty (and beautifully illustrated ) little book; Missed Connections  notes and messages for wayward, would be friends and lovers.

Victoria’s Secret Superheroes

The new Superhero inspired Victoria’s Secret catalogue. (SFW)

Custom Carbonite

Just in time for Christmas, your very own Custom Carbonite!

Toy Lamps

Evil Robot Design’s hand made custom Toy lamps.

Gruen Planet Finale Picks!

Thought I’d share a couple of great ads highlighted on the season finale of Gruen Planet.



A stunt by Carlsburg involving 148 bikers a movie theatre and a hapless couple.



And a legend of an Ad out of NZ finding the sweet spot between a serious message and humour for Drink Driving: Legend

Article: Why Kids can’t Search

An article on ‘Why Kids can’t Search’

"We’re often told that young people tend to be the most tech-savvy among us. But just how savvy are they? A group of researchers led by College of Charleston business professor Bing Pan tried to find out. Specifically, Pan wanted to know how skillful young folks are at online search. His team gathered a group of college students and asked them to look up the answers to a handful of questions. Perhaps not surprisingly, the students generally relied on the web pages at the top of Google’s results list."

Photography: Compression on the Tokyo Subway

A photographic study of compression, on the Tokyo subway by Michael Wolf.

Gothic Painter: Charmaine Olivia

Haunting and evocative Painter Charmaine Olivia

Drivn'

I posted a trailer for Drive a while back so I won't again but I dod see it this weekend- Fucking amazing! Thoughts of Old Boy, Ghost Dog and pretty much any Michael Mann movie. It was an intense, beutifuuly shot, actor's movie with genuinely shocking violnece. I god damn double loved it and here’s a great collection of ‘fan art’ and more…

Pop Culture Pin-Ups: Serge Birault.

Another stunning digital painter with some beautiful pop culture pin ups, Serge Birault.

Digital Painter: Loopy Dave

A gorgeous and amusing digital painter Loopy Dave

Gargantuan Psychedelic Street Artist: Aryz

Stunning, Psychedelic, epic scale street art by Spanish artist Aryz

Simplified Poster Art: Matt Ferguson

Not the best way to view his work but in the same spirit as Olly Moss, Matt Ferguson has some inspired, simple poster art of classic movies.

Composisaur Illustrator: Andy Council

Composilandscape illustration by Andy Council

Cute/Evil Illustrator: Kristin Tercek

If Mark Ryden did Hello Kitty, you’d get Illustrator: Kristin Tercek.

Trailers

The Iron Lady Pixar’s latest, with a female in the lead… Brave
The Hunger Games which brings to mind one of my favourite movies, an early and perfect mocumentary which walks the line between dark humour and cutting insight perfectly, released at the height of COPS and Survivor... Series 7: The Contenders

The Supercut

Supercut: Anatomy of a Meme

And a couple of my favourite Supercuts:

the sopranos, uncensored. from victor solomon on Vimeo.

Ben Balisteri’s: My Favourite Marvel Characters

Part of a brilliant series by Illustrator Ben Balisteri’s of some of his favourite marvel characters.

Custom, Pop Culture Plush.

Awesome, custom, handmade Pop culture plush.

Street Sculpture: Vhils

Video of street artist Alexandre ‘Vhils’ Farto, carving and sculpting this mural into a wall… Not a short clip but definitely fantastic.

Leg Hair Font

Created by Japanese student Mayuko Kanazawa, a font made out of leg hair.

Chalk Art: Julian Beaver

Now I might have made a disparaging in a recent post about chalk art but…Check this out…More from Julian Beaver

Duck Sauce’s Big Bad WTF

Ummmm, this kinda ISN’T safe for work (or at least it may get you some very odd looks from the boss and co-workers)…. I was up last Saturday night, one too many beers and one too many episodes of Star trek DS9 (YES- I am a party animal) when I flicked over to Rage (late night video clip show for our internationals here)… I honestly thought I’d dozed off and was dreaming. A pretty run of the mill track but one of those rare moments where you think ‘this can’t get any more wrong’ and it does, again and again and again. Duck Sauce’s Big Bad Wolf It really just has to be seen… though remember, it cannot be unseen…

Blog: Blackboards in Porn

Believe it or not, this interesting blog; Blackboards in Porn, IS safe for work… and dedicated to those set decorators who take their jobs seriously.

Photographer: Peter Baker

The evocative simplicity of Photographer: Peter Baker

The Hobbit Video BLOGS

“Who’s a Middle-earth fanboy? *points two thumbs* THIS guy!” 4 fantastic videoblogs on the production of The Hobbit… looks really great… Can’t fucking wait actually- But we’ll have to (December 2012).

The last blog is very interesting, talking about 3D, why those early costume shots of the Dwarfs we’ve been seeing look so ruddy faced and how concept artists (and fantasy art legends) Alan Lee and John Howe actually sketch in 3D- Crazy! Video Blog 1 Video Blog 2 Video Blog 3 Video Blog 4

Movie Poster Formula

A brilliant site showing us the classic movie poster formulas and how few original posters there really are… Personally, when I worked at a video store, I always use to like lining up the Steven Segal movies in a row- Try that yourself one day…