Following up on last year’s The Art of Warhammer 40,000, The Black Library now gives of the logical sequel, The Art of Warhammer.  This hardcover collector’s edition contains 224 pages by some of the most noted Warhammer artists.  The art in this book has been culled from a number of sources including game supplements, rulebooks illustrations, book covers, etc…Warhammer fans are some of the most fervent fans there are, taking particular pride in not only the substance of the Warhammer world but also the style.  The visuals are as important to Warhammer fans as anything which is why they spend countless hours meticulously painting miniatures.  The graphics are what helped make Warhammer as popular as it is today with gaming items, books, miniatures, computer & video games, and more.

The roll call of artists includes the great John Blanche, David Gallagher, Adrian Smith, Karl Kopinski, Geoff Taylor, Alex Boyd, and Paul Dainton.  Each piece in the book give the name of the painting, the artist’s name, the original source, and the year.

I really love Taylor’s “Dragonslayer” from the William King Novel of the same name showing a huge red dragon breathing fire onto an airship above snow-covered mountains.  I also love the impossibly armored Engra Deathsword  by Adrian Smith, about as intimidating of a figure as you’d ever care to see.  Taylor’s Chaos Knights are also quite stunning.

Most of the book is in full color but there are some black and white illustrations as well, notably the Blanche pieces which are utterly dazzling in their incredible detail.  Blanche’s Citadel of Chaos has so much going on in it that you could spend hours gazing at it and continue to find new things you missed.  Another standout piece is Paul Dainton’s Tomb Kings, a two-page spread of skeletal warriors, some on skeletal mounts and chariots, marching forward into battle.

Games Workshop always puts out great looking books and this one is no different.  The hardcover book is printed on heavy, coated stock with dustjacket.  A gorgeous package!

Part of why I’m participating in this whole “blogging for a good cause” is because there is definitely enough terrible stuff happening in this depraved world these days.

Over the last few weeks, two terrible stories have really disturbed me and, to some extent, shaken my faith in the world at large.

The first story I’d like to discuss a bit involves a mother and son who were a victim of a home invasion and rape in West Palm Beach.

Not only did ten attackers (mostly teens) bumrush the mother and force their way into her meager apartment, but they forced the son to actively participate in the gang rape. When they were done, they poured all kinds of household cleaning products (including bleach) into the boy’s eyes.

Didn’t hear about it? That might be due to it happening in a low income housing area in West Palm Beach. People don’t like to talk about what happens in “the projects” of this country. People don’t like to talk about the slippery slope to a life of crime that can occur on the lowest scale of the low income class in this country. Single parents struggling to provide for their families because the other parent ran out at the daunting idea of trying to raise a family on the ridiculously low wages they make when they can find work. Kids getting lost in the shuffle, as they are left to their own devices more and more, as those raising them need to work several jobs. An absentee parent can’t offer much guidance to a kid…and an attentive parent can’t very well provide food and resources for their children if their ain’t enough income coming in.

This sort of stuff will become more and more common as the gulf widens between the haves and the have nots in this country. The situation doesn’t excuse the behavior, for certain…but, then again, is their really an excuse for this situation to begin with?

DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]

Sorry this column is a couple of days late, it’s just that… you know what? I was going to keep apologizing, but nah, I spent some time reading comics instead of writing it, and there’s nothing to apologize for. Not like I actually get paid for this thing….

This week’s column, now that we’re back to our weekly schedule (what’s a couple of days late, huh?), marks the end of my vacation. I go back to work on Monday, and boy, I don’t want to. Like I have a choice… this week’s column is certainly loaded with stuff, not really on nit amount (15), but on text. Yes, part of it is quoted from somewhere else, but I wrote me up some nice nits too.

Before we go on to the nits, I just came up with a new feature that I’ll do weekly. Nitpicker’s Picks Of The Week! What’s that? Well, nothing less than the best and worst comic I read the week before. In this case, the worst book I read last week was Superman/Batman #38. While it wasn’t as bad as previous issues have been, it’s still a boring book. Why do I read it? God only knows. And the best book last week was Knights Of The Dinner Table #129, a book that never fails to satisfy me, and this week’s issue was chockfull of funny moments and plot advancement.

Let’s go on with the nits, shall we? (more…)

Hellooooo Shotgun Readers!

Blogathon is less than two days away now - I’ve purchased massive amounts of (fair-trade, in the interest of staying true to the principle of the thing) coffee, and we’ve basically got our schedule settled.

There is STILL time to get your pledges in. Having finally settled on what it is our highest pledge will get, I have decided to share it with you, the readers - it’s a pretty fabulous prize.

Yep. $25 amazon gift certificate. If there’s a tie for highest pledge, I will draw a name from a hat.

So get those pledges in! We promise it’ll be fun. To sponsor us directly from here, click this link. Remember, we never see a penny of it, it’s completely tax-deductible, AND you’re helping to do a good thing.

And don’t forget to join us, Saturday morning beginning at 9 AM EST (6 AM PST) for the festivities, at http://shotgunreviews.com/blogathon

Results from gerweck.net

Another whole lotta nothin’…

WWE U.S. Champion Montel Vontavious Porter retained over Matt Hardy. One of Chris Benoit’s great professional accomplishments before he did what he did was getting MVP ready for the big time. Pairing him with Hardy could only help him here. A decent opener with good action. MVP went over with the Playmaker.

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We’re mere hours away from the Big Show, the 10,000 lb. gorilla of the genre fan universe, the San Diego Comic-Con International. Already, news outlets have lined up to either pay homage (as several respectful articles have already done, acknowledging the show as a pop culture force) or make fun of guys in stormtrooper outfits. In the past, I’ve mainly gone to shows to either a) promote Shotgun or b) cover stuff for various outlets, like Newsarama.

This year, I’ll be doing a version of bizarre triple-duty. Mainly, I’ll be working the booth for Fangoria Comics, where I was recently made Associate Editor. That booth is going to be a good time; we’re teamed up with Shocker Toys and Vampira: The Movie in a multi-booth spread that will feature signings from the likes of Michael Madsen and Ken Foree (that’s right! The guy who said, “When there is no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth!”). We probably won’t be announcing my book yet, but that day should be coming soon.

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It’s hard not to be noticed when you drop a video like “Y’all Should All Get Lynched”, but NYOIL is pleasantly humble and effervescently funny when he meets the little Lyrical Lounge Interview Queen that could, Angelica LeMinh, as she travels across international borders and domestic waters to chat with him on his side of the Staten Island ferry.    

ALM: Is NYOIL an acronym?

NYOIL: It used to stand for “New York’s Original International Lover” but I had to retire that because it became too ridiculous (laughs). Now it’s NY Oil, oil is black gold, we’ve been at war for oil, the youth has been dying for oil. I think the youth is black gold, and that’s what I’m going to war for, the youth, this hip hop.

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Results from gerweck.net 

A week late and a dollar short, as my old man used to say. Let’s just get this over with quickly…

Christopher Daniels won the 10-man Ultimate X match to become #1 X-Division Contender. The opening part of the match was an Elevation X match, where if you were thrown out over the top rope before all ten men entered the ring (at 1-minute intervals), you were eliminated. You know, I don’t even think that AWA’s Team Challenge came up with the complicated rules that TNA uses sometimes. So, before Senshi came in at #10, Puma, Petey Williams, Shark Boy, and Sonjay Cabdriver got eliminated. So, now it’s a 6-man match before it even got started… nice false advertising there. Anyway, the only big spot after all that was Frankie Kazarian hitting a Diamond Cutter on Daniels off the top rope. The focus of the match was basically to hit Daniels with as many cars as possible while still allowing him to win the match. After the match, I guess Daniels, Elix Skipper, and Senshi reunited as XXX, and I’m pretty sure no one cared.

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Below, in this post, is a little more information about me, specifically (that’s Barb), and the Shotgun team’s plans for our Blogathon blog. Of course, all of this is tentative right now and probably won’t be finalized until sometime on Friday, but I want to personally implore each and EVERY one of you - please, pledge something. Even if it’s only a dollar, you can really do some good here. This is all about communities coming together to do good, and the CBLDF could use your help. No amount is too low, and remember, we here at Shotgun NEVER see a penny of the money. We’re doing this to help out, not to profit (which is why, you’ll notice, there isn’t a single ad anywhere on the Blogathon section of the site).

Please, please. Even if you’re thinking you can’t really spare the cash right away, you don’t have to worry about making a payment to the CBLDF until AFTER the event is over - that’s this Saturday, July 28th, by the way. So won’t you help us do a good thing, by clicking this link and agreeing to make a donation if we succeed?

Our information is below:

Name: Shotgun Reviews

Blogathon blog: For Great Justice!

Blogging for: Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

About me: I (Barb) am a fourth-year thon veteran and a third-year event volunteer. So, naturally, when I got the chance to do something as a project with one of the websites I do work on, Shotgun Reviews, I was all about it. Shotgun’s Editor in Chief is one of my professors at a small midwestern college, and I suggested the idea to him. He thought it would be a great idea. We’re going to have a team of the Shotgun contributors writing stuff throughout the event. The rest of the team - as of now, that’s Vince Scalabrino, Kevin Huxford, and Lucas Siegel - are all first-year thonners, and I want to make this as wonderful an experience for them as I can. I hope I’ll do them credit as a team leader.

Why I chose my charity: Because Shotgun is so entwined in the comics culture - Troy, and a number of the other Shotgun writers as well, also write for Newsarama.com, and Shotgun Reviews recently announced the start of its very own geek culture podcast - we felt that the CBLDF would be a cause close to the heart of Shotgun’s readers. And, given that the CBLDF fights to protect first amendment rights (something most of us feel needs a little protecting these days), we felt it was a worthwhile cause.

My plans for blogathon: There will be all sorts of ridiculous good times. For my post, I’m going to be drawing little short, three-pane silly comic strips featuring terrible art and nonsensical captions. Lucas may create some short podcasts to post on his times, and I hear tell that one of our bloggers has some vacation stories in mind for filler. All in all, it ought to be a crazy day. Plus, we’re going to give some sort of awesome schwag to our highest-amount sponsor.

Sponsor us: by clicking here!

ewwww, not like THAT! sheesh. Anyway, the Shots in the Dark team will be representing Muggles everywhere as we travel to a magic-ified Hero Headquarters in Wheeling, IL TONIGHT, Friday 20th of July! The party celebrating the launch of the seventh book starts at 9 and runs past midnight, when you can buy your copy! There will be a real magician there putting on a show at about 10:30, and Shots in the Dark will be recording an extra special Potter-cast! Get it? Huh? Do you get it? I replaced “Pod” with “Potter.” Now do you get it? Cause it’s all about Harry Potter, with book summaries from the first six, a movie review of the 5th movie, and a little peek at what’s to come in Year Seven: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Get it now? Potter-cast. Heh. I crack myself up. Well, See you there, and if we don’t, check back tomorrow night for the all new episode of your favorite geek culture podcast, Shots in the Dark!

DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]

Alright, so I’m back from my vacations… well, I’m still on vacation from work; I have until the 30th off… so, enjoying myself. I am, however, back from the trip I took with the wife and kid. Wife and kid who have already started job and school, so I’ll have a week on my own during daytime.

I’ll miss them, but I’ll catch up on some stuff I had to watch. Believe it or not, I had not been hooked by “Heroes”, even though I had the first eleven episodes in a DVD, and I had watched half of the first episode. I finished that episode, and I was hooked. Really good show, not only because of the good plot and acting, but because of the fact that it homes in us comic book geeks with a lot of clichés that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Well, sorry for rambling, let’s get on with this week’s nits! Actually, I was going to comment on how awful Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Space Between’s ending had been, with more awful character faces, and a rushed plot that felt like it was missing several pages… but never mind…

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www.babygrande.com - $$$$

Honestly, some time we (those who dare call themselves the hip-hop generation) over think the music that’s currently being released to the masses. Either, we live amongst the naysayers with a proverbial grumble that “hip-hop” is dead - banishing the thought of purchasing any and all music from the genre (even from the indie circuit), or we ride the radio waves of POPularity, happily content “snapping” and poppin’ right along with our local blinged-out disc jockey.

Now, regardless of what side of the argument– left or right that you fall upon, (or even those in the middle, ‘doin’ their own thang’) what is often missed in this unsurrendering debate; is the fact that not every album from the lauded Golden-era of hip-hop is an A and B-side front to back, thought-out with no-debate unanimous classic. Sure today’s hip-hop and rap music has great opportunities around lyrical content and song structure, but the real tragedy I see on a daily basis is that we as a Hip-Hop Nation allow past spoils and the present sonic dictatorship of our ears command what we are willing (and wanting) to listen to.

We are a nation divided, and without pointing fingers in too many directions, we’ll just say that the powers-that-be have clearly crafted a glass ceiling that could most certainly use a sledgehammer taken to it. And with their collective sabbatical now over, The Polyrhythmic Addicts set out to do just that with Break Glass…

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It’s just me this week, because I wasn’t prepared and I didn’t tell anybody we were doing this, so let me just get right to it.

Rhino vs. Cowboy James Storm

This will probably be a good match, but you know Storm will win. My problem is the use of the alcoholism storyline so soon after the Benoit murders. On one hand, Rhino has looked like the sympathetic character by frankly discussing his issues with the bottle. On the other hand, it’s tacky and unoriginal. We all remember Jerry Lawler dumping a bottle of Jack Daniels all over Jake Roberts’ face. Same thing here.

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…That’s right. YOU folks can help us do something….

Something good. Something that will help protect the rights of those people who bring you all the comics you enjoy so much. It’s simple, it’s easy, it’s quick, and it isn’t even expensive.

We’re asking you to pledge your sponsorship for our Blogathon team. You can pledge in one of two ways: a flat amount for the entire event, or a per-post pledge. Pledging $.50 per post results in roughly $24.

All it takes is clicking this link, registering, and putting down the amount you’d like to sponsor us for.

As an added bonus, the sponsor who donates the most will get some kind of cool prize. We’re not sure what it will be yet, but you’ll like it. We promise.

Your donations, in the US, are one hundred per cent tax deductable, and you’ll be helping us here at Shotgun Reviews give a little bit back to the people who have provided us with so much entertainment for so many years. Please, won’t you do it for the comics?

This July, Shotgun Reviews will be taking part in a 24-hour charity blogging event known as the Blog-a-thon. The site, which specializes in coverage relating to all aspects of culture – music, film, comic books, anime and manga, and wrestling (to name a few) – will be blogging to raise funds for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Each blog collects pledges from sponsors – much like the (insert verb here)-a-thon format used by charity groups everywhere – to raise funds for an organization of their choosing. Sponsors, at the conclusion of the event, donate directly to the organization, which means that their bloggers never handle a single penny of the money.

The event takes place on Saturday, July 28, beginning at 9 AM EST (6 AM PST), and lasts through the next 24 hours. The Shotgun team, who have dubbed their blog “For Great Justice!” will post once each half-hour for the duration.

Shotgun Reviews’ junior Webmistress Barbara Hallock first came up with the idea in early 2007, when she began working on Shotgun’s recent site update. “I’ve been a Blog-a-thon participant and event volunteer for several years,” Hallock says. “It’s really a great event and it gives bloggers an opportunity to be such a force for positive change.”

Shotgun Reviews has a wide readership, and Hallock feels that the site’s readership could really be organized to do some good for the CBLDF. “Since the update, [the site’s] numbers have shot up drastically, and I think we have a social obligation to do what we can to further [the CBLDF’s] cause,” Hallock stated.

For more info, visit this link. The site has several relevant links, including information on how to sponsor the blog, and more information about the event as well. Those wishing to sign up for their own Blog-a-thon site can also find a link to the Blog-a-thon main page, where registration is open now.