Nearly two weeks ago, Penny Arcade launched the pilot for its upcoming online reality show, dubbed “PATV“. More episodes are promised soon.
If I may brag for a moment, during these past two weeks (and who knows for how much longer) my post covering the overlooked announcement of the then-anticipated reality show has dominated Google’s search results for the key phrase “penny arcade reality show“. It’s even eclipsed Penny Arcade’s own page announcing the series’ debut. Suck it, video game journos asleep at the wheel on that one.
With that shamelessness out of the way, I’m thoroughly excited to see the reality show come to fruition! I’m a decade-long fan of Penny Arcade with Jerry Holkins as one of my top wordsmith role models. Viewing the behind-the-scenes vignettes covering the creative process behind the comic strip fills the void that their oft forgotten podcast had left open. I look forward to each episode as they’re released…as should you!
Penny Arcade’s own Jerry Holkins (aka Tycho) subtly announced on Friday that a Penny Arcade reality show was currently in production. He felt it was necessary to make a statement to explain why he and partner Mike Krahulik (aka Gabe) have been accompanied by film crew during this weekend’s Penny Arcade Expo.
He went on to express excitement about the project, which he sees playing a similar part to their podcast–an inside peek to the regular (and not-so-regular) events that occur during any given work day within the Penny Arcade company machine. Fans can only hope that episodes of the reality show will be released with more frequency than the podcast, which is notorious for taking months between servings.
If you’d like an up-to-date taste of Gabe and Tycho in their natural forms, you can listen to the Dungeons & Dragons Podcast, where they’re joined by PvP’s Scott Kurtz and Wil Wheaton.
This past Monday, an official announcement was made that Disney has acquired Marvel Entertainment for approximately $4 billion. That feels…weird.
The knee-jerk reaction to this news is one of heartbreak. For the past couple of decades, Disney has had the reputation for focusing their empire into the ruling class of family-friendly entertainment. It’s been hard to find anything that’s come out of the Magic Kingdom™’s merchandise machine that hasn’t been goofy-grinned cartoon animals or pop star tweens. What will this wholesome gestalt for nuclear family values do with characters like Wolverine, Deadpool, and The Punisher?
If this had happened a few years ago, while Disney was under Michael Eisner, I’d immediately begin mourning. That era saw the acquisition of Jim Henson’s company, which we can now thank for turning the Muppets into an endangered species, teetering on the brink of extinction. Now that Eisner is gone and Pixar’s John Lasseter is Disney’s chief creative officer, we may be able to breath easier in how Marvel will be handled.
In their announcement, Disney assured us that while they will own and take advantage of Marvel’s gigantic catalog of intellectual properties, they’ll let the company manage itself. They noted that Marvel already has a sharp staff and system of operation, so they’ll be left alone to continue doing what they do best. All previous license deals for movies, video games, etc, will be respected and Disney will wait until they’ve expired to reclaim control over them.
This is where I get a little paranoid. The greater sources of Marvel’s income over the past decade have come from movies, video games, and other forms of media. Many of the licenses that are currently in play don’t expire until 2019. It’s suspicious that Disney would jump to acquire a property that they won’t be able to fully capitalize upon for another decade. Especially since there’s no telling how viable the Marvel brand will be in 5-10 years.
I wonder if it wasn’t the brand or the characters that Disney wanted from Marvel as much as something from their infrastructure. Maybe Marvel has other assets that Disney found valuable. Publishing facilities? Business relationships? Creative resources? It’s just a thought.
I don’t normally like to directly post video periodicals, but the latest episode of Zero Punctuation has struck a special cord with me. Rather than picking apart the usual video game of the week, Yahtzee has instead aimed his sharp tongue and wit toward gaming-themed webcomics. Being a fan of both video games and comics, how can I not sink my teeth into this?
Yahtzee paints a fairly accurate image of the standard “Mary Sue” template that most webcomic wanna-be’s derive from, lacking the imagination to create a premise outside glorifying their own ego through wacky hyjinks. Like most web-based media, there’s the double-edged sword in that anyone can create a webcomic…but that means anyone can make a webcomic. It’s more a detriment to the medium when the web is flooded by people who can, but arguably shouldn’t. It makes the task of sifting through the hacks and copycats all the more painful when searching for genuine talent.
While I’m cheering Yahtzee on, he then gets to the deathblow, singling out the recent poor storytelling choices recently made in Tim Buckley’s Ctrl+Alt+Del strip. Said story inturrupted the usual “video games are teh lol” antics with a sudden miscarriage, both literally in the strip as well as in its attempt to shift gears into deep, personal drama. Buckley’s received much due criticism for this move, not so much for trying to transform his mediocre Penny Arcade clone into a legitimate artistic expression, but by how poorly it was executed. Had he not been so abrupt, easing the readers into the tragedy, the webcomics community might have responded more with praise, rather than amplifying its regular ridicule of his work and devotees.
I went out to see The Incredible Hulk last night…it was so-so. I liked this movie about as much as the last…and I was pretty “meh” about that one as well. I can’t even say that one could spoil anything about the movie, since the plot is pretty straight forward: The military is after Bruce Banner, Hulk smash, the military makes their own monster, monster gets out of control, Hulk smash. Hints for sequels. The end.
Tony Stark’s appearance isn’t even as impressive as it should be, since they put his scene into recent commercials. The one thing that might be a spoiler (and I don’t think I’m ruining it for anyone, really) is that there is a lot of setup for both upcoming Captain America and The Avengers films. In fact, the vibe of this “Hulk” movie seemed to be, “Okay, let’s get this movie out of the way so we can move toward The Avengers.” Supposedly, there was a scene filmed with Captain America (or perhaps his alter ego, Steve Rogers) for The Incredible Hulk, but they’re saving it for the DVD release. I’m hoping that someone leaks that into the internet soon because I’m genuinely curious to see who they’ve cast for that role.
I also keep reading about the next movie to be produced as an Avengers precursor being Thor. I dunno… Thor hasn’t been a relevant character in 25 years, let’s face it. And since his story is based so heavily in the fantasy realm of Norse mythology, it would be incredibly difficult to fit him in with the rest of the established characters. I would skip Thor and either choose another character to dedicate an entire feature or invest that money into making a truly extraordinary Captain America film.
The thing is, I’d even go as far to say that they’re ready to make an Avengers movie now. What I would do is kick off an Avengers movie where we see the familiar faces of Iron Man and Hulk, give Captain America an explosive introduction in the opening scene, then casually introduce one or two other supporting characters (like Hawkeye, who is great in The Avengers, but also doesn’t deserve his own feature) during the course of the movie to complete the team. Not hard to do and could save a lot of money for the studio so they can afford to make it as awesome as it deserves to be.
I do have to commend Marvel for being ambitious enough to take on the challenge of putting together an Avengers movie. I had my share of reservations back when they were working on the first X-Men flick since it had a complicated ensemble cast, but I was surprisingly satisfied. That’s the one thing that’s rocketed them to success beyond DC Comics… DC Comics has been flirting with the idea of a Justice League movie for decades, but they have enough trouble producing decent solo films for their characters, though I mostly blame their parent company of Warner Bros. for botching up that process. Meanwhile, Marvel’s been able to knock out at least two films a year. Now they’re showing that they’re bold enough to step up to the plate on The Avengers. “A team movie? Yeah, let’s do this! Make it happen.”
Now that I think about it, if they wanted to make a team movie, they’re already totally set up for The New Fantastic Four. Many don’t remember (and those who do, please find a girlfriend), but there was a brief moment in Marvel history where the original Fantastic Four members had been incapacitated, so a “new” team was formed to replace them, consisting of Spider-man, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, and Hulk. All of those characters have had their own films recently; some with sequels by now. I’m just sayin’…
But tangents aside, back to The Incredible Hulk. The scenes of Hulk fighting were fun to watch. The funny thing is that while the character of Bruce Banner’s story is usually interesting, it’s not as entertaining as “Hulk Smash!” Ironically, if the movie were 90 minutes of beginning-to-end “Hulk Smash!”, I would have paid twice the ticket price and pre-ordered the DVD that day.
If you’re looking for fan service, this movie delivers. Stan Lee has his due cameo, with a line. There are quite a few nods to the 1970s TV show. Bill Bixby makes a subtle appearance. Lou Farrigno not only gets a cameo, but also a couple lines, as well as providing the voice of Hulk throughout the film. It took me a second to notice, but some of the soundtrack is clearly derived from some of the TV show’s background music.
This was a long review (of sorts), so here’s the bottom line: Wait for it to hit the dollar theaters. Maybe wait to rent it on DVD in case the rumor of the added Captain America scene holds any truth to it.
This week I got my hands on a copy of the new book by Scott Kurtz and his fellow cartoonist buddies over at HalfPixel, How To Make Webcomics. Is it because I plan on producing my own webcomic? Alas, no… I gave up on that flight of fancy years ago. I took it as a sign that I ran into creative blocks after writing about four strips.
All the same, I’ve been listening to their podcast, Webcomics Weekly for the past few months and have still found it quite informative. After listening to their discussions over the webcomics industry, it’s not long before you can apply their insights toward just about any kind of online business. Just substitute the word “webcomic” for “blog”, “software”, “cthuhlu plushes“, or just about any form of web-based product or service and their ideas still apply. You’ll learn about web hosting, connecting with your audience, advertising, dealing with criticism, and the like.
The book is very reasonably priced; you can get a signed copy from the HalfPixel site for $20, shipping included.
A few days ago I was at the local Big Lots where they’d just set up a bin filled with DVDs for only $3 a pop. It was in this bin that I stumbled upon some buried treasure. That being the complete collection of the 1943 Batman movie serials. Not a bad deal, since I was prepared to pay the listed price of $25 when it had first come out.
After watching most of it, I find it deliciously entertaining. While there’s a certain presence of camp from it simply being from the 1940’s, there are also aspects of what I understand to be Batman that I was pleased to see. Firstly, he was serious about being a detective. He’d go undercover in disguise for reconnaissance and use scientific tools to unravel clues. Also, it was clear that Bruce Wayne was the alter ego…a character that Batman would play to conceal his true identity. And even though he was a goofball, Alfred was faithful to what his character was during that time and it was cool to see him get involved in Batman and Robin’s plans.
All that said, there were some qualities of the series that were, well…pretty fucked up. From the top, the whole thing is incredibly racist. It’s somewhat understandable since it was produced during World War II and America was already balls-deep in anti-Japanese propaganda. The main villain was a Japanese agent, but played by an American with eye make-up, using an accent that doesn’t resemble any genuine Asian dialect that I can recognize. The writers were also not at all shy about using the term “shifty-eyed Japs” quite repeatedly.
While Batman had many aforementioned skills that I admired, sadly fighting was not one of them in this series. When Batman would bust in to stop the bad guys from their shenanigans, he would succeed only in that the bad guys would all drop what they’re doing to gang rush Batman and stomp his ass before making their get-away. In fact, if there’s an exact polar opposite to Hokuto Shinken, that’s what Batman practiced. If he did study any kind of martial arts, it consisted of one guy grabbing him from behind while another guy gut-punches him until he passes out. That and falling off of stuff. Buildings, bridges, overhead electrical cables… That grappling hook gun that he’s now most known for was clearly borne of habitual folly during the Roosevelt years.
Oh, and Robin drives the car. That just don’t work.
All-in-all, totally worth $3. If you can grab it up in your area, go for it!
I have to say that this article really puts my comic street cred’ to the test. Of the eight comics listed, I’ve heard of all but one of them (that being Y: The Last Man: Unmanned). And of the eight, I’ve only read two (Bone Volume 1: Out From Boneville and The Dark Knight Returns). Needless to say, I’m a bit embarrassed. I do have Watchmen, Marvels, and Daredevil: Born Again on my want list, but I’ve never gotten around to picking them up. I’ve tried Sandman off and on, but for some reason, it just doesn’t stick with me.
A couple of books that I’m surprised didn’t make the list? I would have included V For Vendetta, any Sin City trade, and probably some Will Eisner collection. Maybe Understanding Comics, if you count that as a graphic novel…
This past Monday, an 