Thursday, August 27, 2009

Ryan Reynolds

Ok, so Ryan Reynolds has got some great movie deals going right now...

in 2011

Ryan Reynolds will have the lead role in both of the following:

-The Green Lantern as Hal Jordan, aka The Green Lantern (by DC Comics)

AND in the same year he will be...

-Deadpool (by Marvel Comics)

Both movies are slated for release in 2011, GL is already in Pre-production and Deadpool has been announced. It's just funny to me that he will be playing two major characters in each of the big comic-book universes so I had to share.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Comic-Con, the aftermath (or, how to pay for next years tickets or collectibles)




















Well as anyone who read my Comic-Con posts knows or has talked to me, Amanda and I got a lot of free stuff at Comic-Con and had a blast. But as time passed and I read the various free comic-books that I got I decided to see how much some o
f this stuff was worth and found that I had a couple pretty valuable items. So of course I did what any sensible person would: I listed them on ebay right away.

So upon doing so I had a grand ol' time for seven days as I watched people bid up my free comics. Here are the results:

Invincible Iron Man #1 Movie Cast Variant signed by author Matt Fraction
ratio 1:100 (this means that for every 100 normal covers printed there was only one of these printed)



















Winning bid: $49.99

Deadpool: Merc With a Mouth #1 Sketch Variant (exclusive to Comic-Con)



















Winning bid: $45.50

Uncanny X-Men #510 Campbell Sketch Variant (exclusive to Comic-Con)




















Winning Bid: $76.25

Amanda and I got these all throughout our time at Comic-Con this year and we had a blast!! This was just a nice little added bonus at the end. We got other variant covers as well but these were the only ones worth anything significant and therefore the only ones that I sold.

Other thing I forgot:














The very first night of Comic-Con I searched out and found Todd Lockwood, the artist that has done all the new cover art for all the new Drizzt novels. He is an awesome fantasy artist and I stumbled upon his booth last year after I had spent all my money. So this year I made it a point to go to him first thing and get the artwork that I wanted and get it signed. So that was really cool.

Here is one of the paintings I got. It's from a Drizzt book called The Orc King.














Here's another sample (below) of one of the covers he did for a recent Drizzt book called The Pirate King (the second one in the series). And the other painting I got is one called The Ghost King and is the third in this series of books (it's a trilogy).

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

House Update

So our house is progressing nicely. They bumped up the completion date more than a month to December 8th (it used to be Jan. 15th) so we should expect to move in around the 14th of December, just in time for Christmas! Anyways here are some pics of the progress, I grouped like angles together so you can see the progress. Enjoy!!

The first set is the view of the lot coming from the garage...

























































The Backyard...




























Here's the front door



Saturday, August 15, 2009

Comic Books















Here's my shelf now that Comic-Con is over

Friday, August 14, 2009

Comic-Con, Day 4 (The Last Day)

Sunday, July 26


















































This day was a sad day, cause it was the last. But we lived it up and got a couple last minute deals and some more free stuff. It was another great day and lots of fun. We only went to one panel and half of the one before it to get good seats...

11-11:30am The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd
I still have no idea what this was, but I won all six seasons of it on CD from a raffle that they had. So I'll have to check it out...

11:30-12:30pm Spotlight on David Petersen
This was a pretty cool panel . For those who don't know who this is or don't even read comics, this is the comic for you!! David Petersen writes a comic called Mouse Guard. Not only does he write it, but he does the pencils (draws it) and does the colors. He also started on his own without a publisher and is a self-made success. Something that doesn't happen often in comics. Apart from that, his story is one that can be enjoyed by all. An awesome story with some great art! It is one that I'll read to my kids (when I have them). Great panel and we got a cool print of the new story line that he'll be starting next year. I got a poster signed by him and so did Amanda, we both got our print for the new story line signed, and I got his new book signed (last year I got his first book signed). Plus I got some little statuettes of the characters from the first book! Here are the links to book 1 and book 2.

















Some other cool things happened that day, like we went by the DC booth to see what was going on and we ran into this guy:

















For those who don't know who this is, this is Geoff Johns, I mentioned him in my post the other day about Blackest Night, he's the writer of it and has been writing Green Lantern for four years now. He has done a lot of good stuff and is an amazing writer. Anyways, like I said, we were just walking through the DC booth and there he was, not at a table or anything, just standing around with a fan or two. So I got this picture with him and had him sign one of the Superman comics he wrote that I happened to be carrying 'cause I bought it that day. How cool?!

Sidenote: For anyone who enjoys a good read, some of the best writers today are in comics...

Later on that day we went to the DC booth and Amanda and I both got free Black Lantern rings! Anyways, that's all I can remember about Sunday. And i'm pretty sure that that covers most of it. Amanda and I had such a good time. She bought her first graphic novel and wants to do the whole thing again next year. I do too of course so we look forward to that. Love'd it.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Comic-Con, Day 3

Saturday, July 25

Happy Birthday to me! This was a good day, heck it was my b-day...and boy was it a good one.















































This was a pretty good day, with some fun panels, some more free stuff, and many cool people to boot (like the guys from Mythbusters in the picture)

So first things first, we got there in the morning and just enjoyed the exhibition hall. We wandered around to see what we hadn't yet, we played Lego Rockband (yes there is a Lego Rockband coming out this Holiday season!! and yes we got to play it) and got free Lego Rockband lanyards and T-Shirts for playing, and we just had a good time. I had already spent all my money so I didn't have to worry about that little portion of CC, so the free stuff was calling my name.

12-1pm Comic Strip Syndication
This was a fun little panel where we got to see Stephan Pastis, Richard Thompson (Cul De Sac), and Keith Knight (The K Chronicles). They talked about issues in newspapers right now, comic strip syndication, and answered questions from the audience. This one wasn't as packed as Pastis' spotlight, but it was still interesting for me (although I don't think Amanda enjoyed this one).














2:15-3:15pm DC: Green Lantern: Blackest Night
This was a really cool panel. Featuring Geoff Johns (current writer of Green Lantern), Pat Gleason (who's currently working on Green Lantern Corps), and others. For those who don't know, Blackest Night is here is a brief synopsis: "Throughout the decades, death has plagued the DC Universe and taken the lives of heroes and villains alike. But to what end? As the War of Light rages on, the prophecy of the Blackest Night descends upon us, with Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps at the center of it all...The dead rise across the DC Universe, bringing terror and darkness with them. What are the Black Lanterns? What do they want? Will Earth's greatest heroes survive long enough to find out – or will they join the Black Lantern Corps?"
So basically, any dead character in the DC Universe right now can come back as a Black Lantern and the story should be really interesting. Anywho, I'm following the story issue by issue; and
that's the first time I have ever done that (I usually just read the final story after it comes out in HC or TPB form) but this one is worth it.

Oh, one more thing...Whilst in the panel, Geoff Johns had the crowd stand up (mind you this room seats 2,000 and while not 100% full, it was more than 75% full) and he swore us to the Green Lantern Oath!! How awesome! Plus, a room full of some 1,500 people who all knew the oath was pretty cool too, oh my what a nerd I am.













3:30-4:30 Spotlight on Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury, need I say more? The only disappointing thing about this panel was that his assistant guy kept talking and talking, geez, we were there to see Bradbury not that schmuck. His biographer was also there, and he knew that so he kept the focus on Bradbury. Anywho, now that I've vented, the panel was great. It was just fun to hear him speak and hear his passion for life and hear where some of his ideas came from. Oh yeah, earlier in the day when we were wandering around sight-seeing, we saw Bradbury being wheeled through one part of the convention center right next to us!! That's what one of the pictures below is (thanks Amanda for spotting him go right past us).


























That was the last panel we went to on Saturday, and we just enjoyed the venue a bit more. While there, we also got a signed picture of George Lazenby (actor who played James Bond for one film) and that was awesome though I didn't think to take a picture of him.

After we left Comic-Con, we went out to eat for my b-day dinner. We chose Outback Steak House (always awesome!) and here are the pics from that, one is of a side that I got which was amazing (it was crab stuffed shrimp and I liked it more than my steak!):


Sunday, August 9, 2009

Raging Planet - Lightning (Discovery Chanel)

I just watched this really cool series on Discovery and I really enjoyed it. Here are two clips about how lightning is formed...

There weren't any embed functions so here are the links. It's worth watching so click away!

http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/raging-planet-making-lighting.html

http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/raging-planet-lightning/index.html