From early 1994, here’s the one and only match-up between Rick & Scott Steiner and Bret & Owen Hart. Check out the wild post-match brawl.

Part 1:

(more…)

Full Disclaimer: I am a former soldier and an Iraq War veteran.

In watching CNN Headline News this morning, I saw Robin Meade report the new U.S. death toll in Iraq: 4000. In addition, at least 80,000 Iraqis have died, and that’s to say nothing of the 4.5 million, MILLION that have either been forced out of their homes or even the country. Now, don’t get me wrong, Saddam Hussein was a ruthless, vicious, waste of humanity. He genuinely needed to be taken down (though not like this, but that’s a whole different discussion). When oh when will we step up and acknowledge that this just isn’t going well? The worst stat Robin put out there? Last year, 2007, was the BLOODIEST for the U.S., with the death toll hitting over 900 during that year alone.

But hey, the surge is working…

Because it’s never too early to rock!

Happy Monday, kids!

DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

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

“Watching was Charles the Dominator of family on TV–SUBMISSION OF NICOLE EGGERT!” The Head, All-New Atom #21.

Catching up as fast as possible; this is the first column dealing with books published in March, specifically, the week of 03/05. Last columns DT! was correctly spotted by “Mini-Dissector” himself, Snakebyte, as Data being referred to as a Lieutenant, instead of a Lieutenant Commander. Any geek, particularly any geek as geeky as Gordo (from KODT) knows that!
(more…)

by John Stvan: Shots in the Dark’s Halcylon

Forum ninjas (ˈfȯr-əm ˈnin-jəs): The secretive thread jockeys of the night who lurk about the digital corridors of Bungie.net, at once being fans and more-then-fans. Shots in the Dark was enthused when Evilcam, one of Bungie’s cadre of elite super-forum users, agreed to indulge us with an interview.

(more…)

Happy Easter to one and all! Whether you’re celebrating by going to church, gorging yourself on chocolate and multi-colored, hard-boiled eggs, or just sitting around the house taking naps (like me), all your friends at Shotgun Reviews hope you and your family have a great day.

What do you say we take a look at what’s been going on out there in Shotgun Land over the past week? Let’s do it, Rockapella!

(more…)

I’ve been reading a lot of old Calvin and Hobbes strips lately, and I realized something that I never noticed when they were originally published years ago. If you read the strips in the context of our post-Columbine/Virginia Tech society, you realize what a terrifying little bastard Calvin really was. He has no friends, can’t separate fantasy from reality, has no respect for his parents, and is always trying to blow shit up. If Calvin was a real child instead of a fictional character, you can bet he’d eventually end up in a prison psych ward when he was an adult.

The year was 1987 and “The Lost Boys” was one of my most favorite movies ever! The flick had high-flying action, scares galore, giggles-a-plenty, sexiness to spare, and not one, but two Corey’s! As a young impressionable teen it was nearly impossible not to love this horror film (remember how cool the main girl was? Her name was Star people! Now that is the very essence of awesome!).

Flash forward to today (21 years later - I am so old!) and a sequel to “The Lost Boys” is just now hitting the streets? And not only a new vamp-filled movie but a comic book too? What took so damn long? It’s not like this movie has aged to become a cultural milestone like Indiana Jones - who arguably is an American Icon and whose new movie is also finally coming out 20 years later. Many of ”The Lost Boys” past radicalness (hair via glam rock band anyone?) is now the very definition of cheesiness.  I fear - more so after seeing the new film’s trailer (see it below) - this blood-thirsty boat has sailed!

The sequel’s biggest offensive (from what I can gather from the trailer); Vampire skateboarders. Yes, please let that sink in a bit…ok, really, Vampire freakin’ Skateboarders? Oh man, gag me with a spoon! How in the world can this even be considered cool today? Sure skateboards are still uber pops and all, but terrifying creatures of the night on a wooden board with four wheels soaring through the air? Not so much. (Plus, isn’t it an occupational hazard for these bad boys to be riding on wooden boards seeing as how the wood of their boards can be used as weapons against them? Not too smart these 2008 vamps.) Quite possibly, in 1987, these X-Game outsiders could have been the ultimate in cool, but today; dorky and goofy is more like it.  

Oh, hell, why am I even raging against this toothy machine? I know I’m just gonna see it opening night, vampy Tony Hawk and all. Hopefully with my expectations set as low as possible I might just find a smidge of enjoyment. Hopefully.

Click here to scope out the happs on the new flick:

http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1583178&vid=215372

Comic book monsters are generally supposed to be scary, but it looks like they’re taking a back seat to the real-life horror of the economics of comics (hey, just call me Jesse Jackson, Jr- no wait, that one’s taken, I guess it’ll have to be JJ the 3rd- DY-NO-MITE!), and perhaps even scarier, to the mass market book chains and their wares. 

The numbers were just released for February, and we’re faced with the worst month since February of 2001, with the #1 book (X-Force #1) and the entirety of the top books all down (fairly dramatically) in sales. On top of that, major mass market book retailer Border’s is in deep financial doo-doo, and may have to sell. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080320/bs_nm/borders_dc 

We all know we’re in a recession (and if you don’t know it, can I come live in your X-mansion?), and with the cost of “essentials” up and the dollar down (unfortunately not nearly as entertaining as the brilliant HBO special “Pimps Up, Hoes Down”) people are tightening their spending like Britney Spears doing Kegel exercises after the second kid, especially on the “unessential” items. With gas fast approaching the $4 a gallon mark, that $3 or $4 comic is a hard sell (man, I really need to finish working on the “comic-hybrid” car, an auto fueled by ramming variant cover comics into it’s tank. Patent pending, so don’t get any smart ideas, true believers), as it’s a wee bit more important to be able to get to work to earn money to eat and pay your mortgage (again, note to self- work on ‘edible’ comics, and water-proof comics for roofing and siding) then it is to keep up with who Spider-Man is banging (hey, he’s not married anymore. By the way, Spidey sends his thanks, Joephisto! And on a related economic note, “spider condom” sales have gone through the roof!)

The top books being down is scary enough, but it gets even bleaker when you turn your attention to the indy books at the bottom of the Top 300. The readership just keeps dropping at an alarming level, even on long running properties like Hack/Slash (especially scary to me, as the BUMP two issue crossover hits in Hack/Slash’s May and June issues, numbers 12 & 13- and yes, that was both a non-subtle plug and hint, GO ORDER MULTIPLE COPIES NOW!!!), and it’s getting harder and harder to be able to make a new title successful. 

So all that said, I’d like to know what books everyone will keep buying, and which they’ll have to drop. I’d also love to hear from creators about where their books stand, and what they’ll do if the market keeps dropping. Which, unfortunately, I’m pretty positive it will. At least until we as a country get our collective shit together, elect some fiscally responsible politicians and work towards making this country and it’s dollar great once again. 

And as many political journalists like to say, this is a no spin zone. Or, in the comic vernacular, a no “hype” zone. If we keep it real, we may actually be able to get it together and help each other find a way out of this mess. Stroking egos won’t stroke the comic economy, it’ll just make the pages stick together. 

So post your “keeps and drops”, and creators feel free to let us in on what’s happening in your part of the market.

Thanks for taking the time. 

Your bud in four color blood, Scott

One of the 12 “Dentmobiles” came to my hometown of Atlanta yesterday for about 6 hours. I went with a two friends and awaited the first van’s arrival at the corner of Teckwood and North Ave along with about thirteen other fans. The rally was simple: sign release forms, get swag, and yell at traffic. The worst part, for me, was the fact that I had a 102 degree fever and I felt like a bag of smashed assholes. However, I’ve been playing the viral games since the campaign started, so I wasn’t about to chicken out now. Anyways, it lasted for about an hour or so, then the van and Dent “volunteers” ran into some trouble when Georgia Tech security was told there were “protesters”. Luckily, an officer knew about the marketing and was no trouble at all. Soon after that, the van went to Atlantic Station outside of Regal Cinemas.

 This crowd was a LOT larger.

 I would say about 40 people showed up, with signs ready merch in hand, pumped up for a rally. Too bad the theater manager had different plans. A movie theater promoting a summer blockbuster? That’s just insane! Long story short, we were kicked out and met up later at Piedmont Park. About a third of the crowd from Atlantic showed up at that one. I guess it’s because there wasn’t a lot of natives there (?). My friends and I hung out with two guys from Tennessee and had NO idea where most of the places were, so I could only imagine if there were any other traveling fanatics in the rally.

 Next stop after the Park was to Little Five Points. For non-ATLiens, let me set the picture for you: the opening sequence in Moulin Rouge where Christian describes the Bohemian movement, but with a plethora of bums. This one was probably my favorite of the three though, by then, my voice was about lost and my body felt even sicker. But, whatever. I got a lot more stuff for my friends who couldn’t make it and that’s the important thing. This one was probably the shortest, mainly due to, in Little Five fashion, a bum fight. I had a good time all-around. It was nice to share my stories about this movie and the games I’ve been playing. I have one of the “cake phones” that came out in last December and the story about me being in Chicago while “Dark Knight” was filming.

It’s interesting to see how many of us fans are out there and how this movie brings us together. I can’t wait to see whatelse these marketing savants bring us.

Great country song… or greatest country song?

Looks pretty badass if you ask me! Color me excited!

If Polly Jean Harvey isn’t the best female singer/songwriter in rock and roll history, I would sure like to hear who’s better.

(And no, Troy, Belinda Carlisle is not the correct answer.)

ABC’s new quirk-fest sitcom Miss Guided (get it, “Miss” because it’s about a female ex-nerd and “guide” because she’s a guidance counselor at her old High School, wow, what a zinger of a title!) is a show with loads and loads of potential, it practically screams “this show is funny, so laugh,” but the execution of all that potential left me feeling a mixture of “haha, this is kinda cute” and “eh, not that impressed”.

I certainly can’t blame the charming and enjoyable Judy Greer, who is always fantastic in any second-banana role she’s ever played in all her numerous second-banana roles (best-friend to hot-girl-movie-star mostly). Greer is very likable, adorable and strives to add every ounce of goofy facial expressions in her acting arsenal to enliven her performance.

For me the problem with the show was in the humor; it was all too much, too fast, too soon. It was as though the creator and writer tossed everything she could into every second of the show to prove that this sitcom was going to be really, really funny - so stick around and watch, don’t leave, it’s still hilarious!

(more…)

How excited am I to see Gail Simone on the cover credits to Birds of Prey #116!?

Super Duper of course! She’s back, yay, how awsome, that book sure needs her!

Oh, wait, oh, crud, nevermind, it’s still Sean McKeever.

Bummer! Thanks a lot DC!

Rip! Off!

WhatEVER!

Great art though.