February 26, 2009

Just an Update

I haven’t had a post in a while because I was trying to figure out if it was worth it to keep writing or if this was all going to be erased due to my Intro to Social Media class. Well its not! So here’s an update on whats going on with me and my projects!

A Nerd’s Guide To The Universe(S) is going great. We finished our third episode this week and soon it will start appearing on iTunes (within the next few weeks?). This coming Tuesday (March 2nd) will be our special PRE-WATCHMEN episode! 

Head In A Storm Cloud has a few projects in the pipeline, we’ll see what I can get going in the immediate future. 

I had a major breakthrough in the development of my detective film. Some of the plot points finally got worked out and I can move forward a little bit more. Hopefully, we’ll see a screenplay and script in the next month or two and a storyboard soon after that. When I say we, I mean me and the people helping me! You have to wait till its done! I wouldn’t want to give the story away!! 

I just finished readin Sinestro Corps War. Very impressive, of course it is Geoff Johns. Superboy Prime is annoying as hell. The Anti-Monitor went down to easy. The thing I thought was weird was that when these two universe destroying villians show up, the Anti-Monitor and Superboy Prime, all the heroes immediately react to Superboy Prime and not the Anti-Monitor hardly at all. Now don’t get me wrong, Superboy Prime, is by far one of the MOST powerful characters in the DC universe, but the heroes should have been downright terrified of the Anti-Monitor!! He destroyed thousands of universes! Hes fucking terrible! He is the worst thing they’ve ever faced! There was almost not reaction. They were all very preoccupied with Superboy Prime. 

My friend brought up the fact that some of the characters might not have remembered it. I think this was true right after the event happened, but I know at least Superman has had his memory of it restored since Infinite Crisis. Again, pretty weird. 

I’m reading Crisis On Infinite Earths right now. I’ve read the other crises -Infinite Crisis (woo), Final Crisis (meh) but I’ve never made it back to where it all started, but now I finally am. Ya know what? I’m pretty dang impressed. The dialogue is a little cheesy, but hey it was 1985.  This is how crossovers should be set up however. Every hole is covered and the story has a lot of depth. Very pleasing, Full review when I finish it. 

I am going home again this weekend so it’ll be one of those things where I’m going to be online a lot or none at all. Hopefully a lot cuz I have quite a bit of work I could be doing. I also might be doing a bit of traveling so check my Twitter to see where I am! Also, Mike from A Nerd’s Guide To The Universe(S) is now on twitter too.

See ya soon.

February 9, 2009

Coraline and Fables: Vol. 11

I spent this weekend at home with my family and my lovely girlfriend Caitlen. We celebrated her birthday and our anniversary. It was a grand old time. I love every minute I get to spend with that girl. I’ve known (and been with) lots of girls but none of them are like her. Ha, I’m not one for the mushy stuff (at least not on here) so I’ll get right to the point. This weekend I went and saw Coraline and finally got around to reading FABLES: Volume 11: War and Pieces. 

What can I say about Coraline other than its one of the best animated films I’ve seen in a long time. It deffinitely holds its own as one of the best stop-motion animation films of the last few years. Its easily as good as The Nightmare Before Christmas (In some ways even better) and deffinitely better than The Corpse Bride. 

Coraline is the film adaptation of Coraline, the horror novella by the amazing (comic book writer) Neil Gaiman (Coraline wasn’t originally a comic book however). It has been adapted by Henry Selick, the original director of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and is the first film by Laika animation studio. 

Henry Selick was the director of “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” Tim Burton produced, co-wrote, and came up with the original ideas for the project while Henry Selick, who (would go on to make a career out of directing stop-motion films) directed it and in my opinion did all the real work. I might as well get it out of the way and say that I am not very fond of Tim Burton. While he did do one of my favorite films, “Big Fish” and that most ofhis films are pretty good, I feel like Mr. Burton’a portfolio is very narrow. His movies are all very similar and he never explores anything new or reinvents his style. He’s found what he works and hes not going to change it apparently. Not what I would be doing if I was in his position. Then again he is the big time Hollywood director, but I digress. I think Henry Selick did much better without Tim Burton than Tim Burton did without Henry Selick. Coraline is just as good is not better than The Nightmare Before Christmas, while The Corpse Bride felt like a desperate attempt for Tim Burton to cash in on his The Nightmare Before Christmas namesake.

Fans of The Nightmare Before Christmas (cough* scene kids cough*) should love this movie. Its much better written, and perfectly balanced between adult and family themes. The animation is beautiful, especially where the CGI and stop-motion meet. There are some camera angles that i was very surprised to se in a stop-motion movie, very impressive. The voice acting is phenomenal, and you can tell the dialogue was very thoughtfully written. All and all this is an amazing animated movie. 

FABLES. I absolutely love Fables. This is one of the best comic books of all time. Simply amazing. Seriously, if you  like comics or even great stroies in general you need to be reading FABLES. This book is astounding.

This weekend I finally got around to reading FABLES: Volume 11: War and Pieces. Does not dissappoint. Continuing the amazing ongoing storyline of FABLETOWN v.s. The Adversary, the war to take back the homelands finally starts in this volume and it is badass. I was dissappointed by the Bigby v.s. The Emperor fight round 1. I would really like to have seen Bigby just kick the Emperor’s ass straight forward with his magic powers and the fight could have been a little longer. It was one of those “Oh shit!” moments, “Bigby is going to throw down with The Emperor!” This was followed immediately by Bigby getting his ass handed to him, a major let down. Though the whole outsmarting thing in round 2 was cool, but the “Great Wolf” should have kicked some wooden ass. I love that he is this magical force of nature to be reckoned with, he helps sell the series.  The dialogue between the enemy troops referring to Bigby as a “Wonder Wolf” made my nerd sense happy. I was also very pleased with Boy Blue’s narration . Another character who just sells the series. 

 

Seriously, if you haven’t read Fables, GO READ IT.

February 6, 2009

A Good Night, and Heroes.

I made it home early tonight thanks to the exceptional driving of my room mate Adam’s mother. My wonderful girlffriend was here to meet me and we had a wonderful night laying around the house together.

The other thing that made my night wonderful tonight was that I finally got to watch Heroes: Fugitives: Chapter One. Yes, this is the first episode in Volume Four: Fugitives, which is the last twelve episodes of season 3. Let me just say this, I have watched every episode of Heroes from the very beginning. I’ve taken the good and the bad and watched it all. I have been a devoted fan of the show, but my faith has been waning.  This episode was awesome. It looks and feels like an episode from the first season. What Heroes should be. The only scenes in the episode that were bad were the ones that were in some way connected to Volumes Two or Three. The awkwardness of the character in the scene trying to deal with the crazy dispostion they have been left in.

My three main complaints:

1) Noah Bennet (Horn Rimmed Glasses) was completely out of character. The writers need to come up with some sort of bible for this character and stick with it. He hates people with powers, he loves people with powers, hes a good guy, hes a bad guy, who knows! The first seasonwho he was and his actions were mysterious, but eventually understandable and witin reason. Season Two, the writing was bad, but I guess his actions could have been justified. Season 3, his character was much closer to where it needed to be. Not perfect, but closer. I love this character. He has an incredible amount of potential. He could be one of the shows leading characters besides Claire, Hiro and Peter. Instead he is reduced to a second rate way of carrying out plot lines.  

2) Claire is annoying as fuck. All she does is bitch about everything, misunderstands the situation, then runs away from it, and finally change her mind again. She is an infinitely shallow character and is annoying as hell. Please, please , please fix her. 

3) Nathan  is another character who has been all over map. Seems like the writers can’t decide if they want him to be the ultimate bad guy or the ultimate good guy. 

That is 99% of my problems with Heroes. Character inconsistency. 

The best parts of this episode?: 

1) Mohinder and Peter’s taxi ride. Pure season one brilliant nostalgia. Made me Nerd-smile all over the place.

2) Sylar kicking the asses of the special-ops team sent to take him down. Perfect Sylar moment.

3) The entire last 10 minutes. That plane sequence is amazing. The whole thing. Peter kicking ass. Mohinder pulling the recue. Even the meaningless death of one of the prisoners as he flew out the hole in the plane’s hull. Awesome.

Finally, the three things I’m looking forward to the most this season:

1) More Michael Dorn (WORF!!!) as the President, like we saw at the end of the Volume Three.

2) I love seeing all the characters in one place together. Let the ass kicking in the following episodes commence.

3) Hiro getting his space/time powers back. Non-powered, non-cool. 

 

Thats my rant about Heroes! In other news, I’m still sick! Tomm night Caitlen and I are going to see Coraline with our good friends Ally and Cory. Stay tuned for that rant later.

February 4, 2009

Wednesday…….You know what that means……

Wednesday is a very special day of the week to comic book fans. It is the day that new issues of monthly comic book titles are put out onto the sheloves of our beloved dark, cramped, poster laiden comic books stores. If you’re a comic book fan, this is all old news (which I hope you are if you’re reading this blog). Today was Wednesday.

As always we (my room mate Adam and some friends) made the journey to the comic book store, Comics To Games. Albeit this time to its new loacation, which sadly is nothing like the traditional, homey comic book store mentioned above but more like a gleaming shopping mall and comic book shop’s love child with marble, bright lights, gleaming glass and its strip mall location. No complaints though, its a great store, especially the rewards policy. 

Adam likes to collect the books but I could care less. Comic books aren’t worth anything anymore, (*See Marvel’s attempt to make the Obama comic worth something by screwing up the printings or their foil covers from the 90′s*) I just like to read the stories and follow the medium. Anything I buy is for my own enjoyment, not for the sake of “collecting.” That coupled with the fact I have no money, and I know Adam will be buying the books we both like to read anyways I did not buy anything. What was brought home however was Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #3 of 5, Secret Six #6, Star Trek: Countdown (The official movie prequel) and Adventure Comics #0.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SPOILERS!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I was thoroughly pleased to see Bart Allen’s return in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds. As someone who grew up with Geoff John’s version of the Teen Titans, I was not pleased with his treatment in the aftermath of Infinite Crisis. I like what I think Geoff was going for in the series. By aging Bart and getting rid of Wally, it seemed like he was trying to do another generation leap for the Flash in Infinite Crisis. Didn’t go over to well tho with me and a lot of other people. Bart had barely been Kid Flash, I wanted to see more adventures with that generation of Titans (Cassie Wonder Girl, Tim Drake Robin, Superboy, Bart). Then the story of Bart got even worse with The Flash’s mediocre relaunch, series, and eventual “death.” So as a fan of the character I’m glad he’s back and in the right costume. 

Secret Six? No huge reveals, or anything, though I am surprised by Deadshot’s betrayal in the series for the card. I like that Jeanette is brought more front and center. She is an interesting character I would like to see more of.  The best things about that book continues to be its best attributes in this issues. Stellar, consistant writing and art. The art is not my particular favorite, but it is consistent and makes the story easy to understand. Not to gritty, not to clean, just where it needs to be, which is odd since its done by two people Nicola Scott and Doug Hazelwood. An odidity in dual comic book art.  The same applies to the writing, always consistent. Characters and situations are what they are supposed to be and the story plays out in a way thats entertaining but is not hard to follow issue to issue. The fact that every issue is absolutely entertaining and very tastefully done is Gail Simone’s (the writer) other great feat. As this is the only book I’ve read by her I can’t say if all her books read like this or not or if she is just lucky with this book. 

Adventure Comics was just a reprinting of the original story from Adventure Comics #267  circa 1958 in which Superboy meets The Legion Of Super Heroes for the first time. The real action came at the end of the issue with the Origins and Omens back up featuring Scar (the “dark?” Gaurdian of the Universe), Lex Luthor, Brainiac and…………..Superboy?

Yes, the Conner Kent, Kon-El Superboy, another one of my favorite characters “taken” before his time. Conner died in the hands os Wondergirl/Cassie Sandsmark in Infinite Crisis due to the explosion of the Anit-Monitor husk-tower caused by his fight with Superboy-Prime. There have been rumors that Conner was the new Nightwing appearing with the new Flamebird in the recent New Krypton story arc. This was only intensified by the fact we saw Conner using tactile telekinesis on opponents weapon. Nightwing and Flamebird will be featured front and center in Action Comics starting in March. In an interview writer Greg Rucka stated that the identites of the pair will be revealed in that first issue staring them. This made me very happy since if Conner was to come back as someone other than Superboy, the soon to be vacant role of Nightwing (another one of my favorite heroes) would be aperfect choice. This belief was challeneged however by Adventure Comic’s Origins and Omens back up story.

The story picks up where the New Krypton arc left Brainac and Luthor with Scar narrating. Luthor attempts to use Brainiac to escape when Brainiac reveals that it was he that was using Luthor. It is then that the Black Book of the dead is shown and Scar narrates that the only on who can save Luthor is dead and that they control the dead. A picture of Connner flying on the (presumably) the Kent farm in his well known black t-shirt costume is shown. Agh, I hope this doesn’t mean he won’t be Nightwing in Action Comics and that he’ll be a Black Lantern in Blackest Night. This may sound oddly sentimental, but I want more for Conner Kent than just being a emotional conflicting bad guy in Blackest Night. 

I have never read a Star Trek comic before. I’m a huge trekkie and I was very pleased. I don’t know how Data got to be Captain of the Enterprise-E  after he died in Star Trek: Nemesis.

In other news, I’m still sick. :-( Going home tommorrow though, can’t wait to see Caitlen (this weekend is our anniversary!!)….. and the doctor. Finally get this bug out of my system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 2, 2009

Hello!

Welcome! This is DakotaGraves.com This website is devoted entirely to me and that which I choose to spend my time on. Sounds kind of narcissistic you say? Well, its probably true. 

This is my very first blog entry. I’m not entirely sure what to say. 

I was really hoping to get A Nerd’s Guide To The Universe(S) started tonight but unfortuantely the weather and my health are not agreeing with that goal. Which brings me to my next point. I’ve been sick for a bout a week now and it is probably the worst I’ve felt since I got out of chemotherapy (I had cancer when I was 16). This is really ridiculous, my chest is going to explode. I coughed for nearly 5 minutes straight last night on the phone with my girlfriend. Pissing me off.