Let’s have some fun, shall we? Hit me with your five fave, and feel free to comment on everyone else’s list.

In no particular order, here’s my list:

“Teenage angst has paid off well/Now I’m bored and old” Serve the Servants-Nirvana

“If you should die before me/Ask if you can bring a friend” Still Remains-Stone Temple Pilots

“He said it’s all in your head/And I said so’s everything, but he didn’t get it” Paper Bag-Fiona Apple

“Jesus died for somebody’s sins/But not mine” Gloria-Patty Smith (cover of the Van Morrison song, but that line is Smith’s work)

“I can’t believe life’s so complex/When I just want to sit here and watch you undress” This is Love-PJ Harvey

Well that did not take long at all, seems the trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine that was shown at Comic Con 2008 has been leaked onto youtube. Personally I cant wait for this, I now have 3 movies I am looking forward to in 2009: Watchmen, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Terminator 4: Salvation. Check out the trailer.

Want to talk about a labor of love?  How about trying to catalog and document all of Marvel Comics’ graphic novels, trade paperbacks, prose novels, and children’s books ever published?  That’s exactly what Rob Weiner does in this thoroughly exhaustive reference book.  Over five years in the making, Weiner gives Marvel fans a one-stop shopping place for information on all of these books published through 2005.

As I paged through the book I was simply blown away by the amount of information inside.  I had no idea that there were so many books out there.  But of course, in the past decade, we’ve seen this trend towards preprinting story arcs of varying numbers of issue into book format.  Comic fans are no longer merely collectors and some are not collectors at all.  They still want to keep up with their favorite characters and buying one book every six months versus having to run to the comic store monthly is simply more desirable for a lot of people and for those people especially, this is a fantastic tool.

What I love about Weiner’s layout is that he didn’t just decide to list books in alphabetical order but instead he grouped the sections by subject matter or characters.  For example there is a section for Marvel’s Superheroes with subsections for individual heroes or groups of heroes such as The Avengers, Conan/Kull, Hulk and She-Hulk, Thor, X-Men/Mutants, Wolverine, etc…

Next is the section for special volumes and series like the Marvel Masterworks and Essentials lines and Epic Comics graphic novels, followed by sections for Children’s books, Prose novels, Marvel/DC crossovers, guidebook and indexes and more.  Nearly 400 page in all and it’s all backed up by a comprehensive index or indexes I should say as there are three of them:  one for title, one for artist/author, and one for subject making it easy to pickup and find exactly what book you are looking for.  There are even three appendices including one for all of the Marvel Superheroes game books and modules published by TSR.

Now if this were just a list that might be good enough but it isn’t.  Once you look up a book, Weiner provides the artist, writer, year of publication, ISBN#, the issues the book reprints if applicable and a comprehensive summary of the plot.  Now I don’t know if Mr. Weiner actually read all of these books but it doesn’t really matter…there is a wealth of information here that is indispensable for Marvel fans.   Extraordinarily researched and meticulously laid out, the book is well worth the $49.95 price tag.

Akiyuki, the main character of the animated series, lives on Sentan Island, a land that has preserved its status as a free and peaceful island in a world consumed by fighting between the Northern and Southern Governments. All of this changes when Akiyuki boards a bus along with a mysterious white-haired girl who transforms his arm with the lost memories and power of Xam’d.

As Xam’d, Akiyuki goes on a rampage and is saved when a foreign girl with red hair named “Nakiami calms him down, taking him back to her postal vessel. Akiyuki now must gain control of his powers and use them against the Northern Government’s latest weapons, known as “Humanforms”. Traveling the world on a postal vessel, Akiyuki hopes to return home one day, but until then he befriends other passengers on the boat.

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DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

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

“My giant-sized teammate is fighting a mechanized version herself on the streets of downtown Tokyo… I’ve been preparing for this day my entire life!” Andrew Wells, Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight #15.

Yet another column? My, I’m really serious about this catching-up business, ain’t I? Here I am with the column for comics published on the week of 06/04. Last column’s DT! was solved by Lt. Cmdr. Snakebyte, who correctly spotted that Fever was referring to “Vundabar”, but the speech balloon said “Vandabarr”, Badge for you, and you’re three badges away from being full Commander.
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Guests of San Diego Comic-Con this year have been treated to a sneak peek at the animation for a new Grant Morrison project. That’s right– animation. In collaboration with Virgin Comics and Perspective Studios, Morrison is bringing the classic Indian myth of The Mahabharata to life with his project titled MBX. Combining the tale of ancient families at war with technology and super humans, this collaboration is a first for both companies and versatile– feature film and video game adaptation announcements in coming months are expected.

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Tsutomu Senkawa is an average high school kid who is busy studying for his senior entrance exams. Tsutomu goes out for some fresh air, after a hard day’s work studying for a big test, when he runs into a guy fleeing from a pretty young lady. The pursued man is actually an interplanetary criminal on the run from a Federation agent called Birdy Cephon Altera. Caught in the midst of this chase, Tsutomu gets thrown by the man at Birdy, which kills Tsutomu. Fortunately for Tsutomu, there is a way to keep him alive, although it comes at the price of discarding his body. He ends up merged into Birdy’s body.

So Tsutomu is stuck sharing a body with a rather attractive, yet very strong but impulsive, space police agent, while trying to keep his apathetic family and more importantly, his girlfriend, from finding out about his woman problems. In the meantime, to make matters worse, Birdy still has to do her job. Together, they take on a rather secretive group of evil aliens planning to perform maniacal experiments on the unsuspecting inhabitants of Tokyo.

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I was listening to the radio last night, and I found myself surprised to be hearing an old friend. I couldn’t resist sharing with you folks:

Polybagged with a die-cut chromium silver foil gatefold pop-up scratch and sniff cover! Buy 100 copies and sell them in 20 years so you can pay for your children’s college tuition!

It is a world of fantasy, where magic reigns and monsters lurk, then there’s Lina Inverse! A cute, fireball-throwing sorceress who steals from the wicked and gives to herself! Along with Gourry, a handsome but not-so-smart swordsman, Lina faces the uncanny as she seeks fame and fortune. This is the fourth anime television series in the Slayers fantasy comedy franchise, and is slated for a 26 episode run.

This series totally sneaked up on me, to be honest I did not even know they where planning a fourth series in the franchise, not that I am complaining since I am a big Slayers fan since the first series back in 1995. So before I start, take note if you aren’t a Slayers fan give this a pass as the humor and animation style is a acquired taste. If you willing to give this a try I suggest you go find yourself the original series and movies before watching the new series.

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World Destruction focuses on Kirie Irunisu a young man who secretly possesses the power to destroy the world. He is forced to join a party that aims not to save the world, but to eradicate it and start anew. The show also features a young heroine named Morute Ashera, who also plays a big role in the series next to Kirie Irunisu. Based off Sega’s recently announced sword & sorcery fantasy RPG called: “World Destruction” for the Nintendo DS, which will be released mid July. The Anime adaptation is directed by Shunsuke Tada, who recently directed Production IG’s Tsubasa: Tokyo Revelations OVA series amongst others.

I have been following the development of the series for some time now, and yesterday I managed to download and watch the first episode. Since it was produced my Production I.G I was expecting something serious and epic in nature. But I was totally caught off guard by World Destruction, as it was the complete opposite of what I was expecting. Not that it is a bad thing mind you, but I am very unaccustomed to I.G producing which seems to be a light hearted fantasy action show.

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Personally looking forward to the following shows: Shikabane Hime, Michiko to Hatchin, Tales of the Abyss, Jigoku Shoujo 3 and Bonen no Xamdou. Click on the image below to see a small synopsis of each show and a air date, also included is a link to each shows website enjoy.

[Side Note] Thanks goes to Moetron for the information.

September:

• Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann: Guren-hen (Movie) - [09/06]
• QUIZ MAGIC ACADEMY ～The Original Animation～ (OVA) - [09/12]
• School Rumble: Third Term (OVA) [09/17]
• Amuri in Star Ocean (OVA) [09/26]
• Lucky☆Star (OVA) - [09/26]
• Battle Spirits Shounen Toppa Bashin - [09/2008]
• Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel (OVA) [09/2008]
• Hakushaku to Yousei - [09/2008]

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Set in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor (Christian Bale), the man fated to be the leader of the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators, and the future he was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a Terminator whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they find out a terrible secret that may lead to the possible annihilation of mankind.