Penguin

Pre-orders are up at HLJ.

And here I remember young Riley pencilling his first pages for "Proof" while working down at my comic outlet, "Another Dimension".

Hope the licensing deal paid him a few well-earned simoleons.

Man, I really dig the YF-30. The more I look at it, the closer it comes to supplanting the VF-22 as my favourite VF!

... and then there was one.

I chanced upon volume one of Macross Plus at a Rogers Video rental store in Calgary in September that year. I'd started on Macross with Robotech, especially the RPG since only half of it aired on TV in Calgary, then found a copy of the DYRL program and the LA Renditions release of Macross II at the Sentry Box, a game store (and still a major geek Mecca 20 years later) that also carried a bit of anime at the time. Macross Plus totally blew me away, and I got my comics store to get the rest of them for me. With volume 2, Yoko Kanno's music had me totally hooked.

Heh... I can still remember looking through that program and being completely confused at all the characters I recognized from Robotech in unrecognizable costumes, thinking "didn't Roy die?" The stills of the mannequins from the Minmay/Hikaru "on the town" bit had me completely bewildered.

I've got 'em all preordered already. I got the Japanese release of Mononoke (love the Japanese disc covers), but I always support the Ghibli domestic releases. Spirited Away is also out on Blu-Ray in Japan, so it shouldn't be too long before we see it domestically too.

Can't wait for the original GitS release. Not a fan of 2.0 at all.

The Patlabor 1st OVA and TV series are domestic releases. Like Keith wrote, still waitin' on the second OVA. Been a while since the last TV series volume was released and still no announcement. Hope that doesn't forebode anything ominous. Love the Japanese movies releases. Completely worth it.

Personally, I love the Marvel Heroic RPG. It's my favourite RPG in some 30 years of this hobby. I could write an essay on it without breaking a sweat. However, it's not for everyone. Those who enjoy the simulation side of RPGs would find the game too abstract, and for others its lack of boundaries can be daunting. Since my crews have come to prefer lighter and lighter rules, they took to it enthusiastically.

As a system it works well for the super hero genre. I always found super hero RPGs to be too limited in their need to codify every effect any given power is capable of. The MHRPG relies on improvisation and imagination on a theme more than strict definitions of every power, and allows for a much more "comic book" feel. Other genres, however, might not model so well under such a style.

Picked up the 5e PH last weekend (as select hobby stores got it early). Nice piece of work. My groups are both playing the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying from Margaret Weis Productions right now, so I'll have to look for an opportune moment to bring D&D back around. Still deciding if I'll run Tyranny of Dragons. Might just wait for the DMG and MM first.

Looking so forward. Looks like fun.

Don't collect a lot of Lego, but when I do I go all in. Currently working through the Sydney Opera House. It's sitting next to my PS4 right now. There's a similarity between them that's not apparent at first glance.

All the latest Iron Man figures have had extra hands at 90 degrees.

The Coulson character seems to be written as the exact opposite of everything that made him charming in the movies. A character like him isn't meant to be a deeply involved leader, or have a huge amount of backstory - the repeated hinting at an old romance with the Peruvian military officer seemed quite forced, and also very much out of character. He's supposed to be the messenger, the guy who follows orders and colors within the lines, but has a little bit of a bumbling quirkiness that makes him endearing. The "Charlie" to the Angels. (Side note - he seemed to look quite a bit different in Episode 2, did his hair style change?)

I'd have to disagree with you a little in your assessment, as regards the "messenger" and "Charlie" comments. From Iron Man 2 to Thor to Avengers, it's clear he leads all the time, from the front, and that people respect and look up to him (Natasha included). The Marvel One-Shots show him to be a kick-ass field agent. Quirky, yes, but I never would characterize him as bumbling. He's steadfast, calm, and assured (except maybe around Steve...). "Charlie" was just a disembodied voice on the phone. Characterizing him as that really is the exact opposite of everything we've seen in all the movies.

This is starting to veer into "man crush" territory... I think I'll quit before it gets odd(er)...

I usually do a horror movie marathon for the month of October and try to catch up on any stuff I've missed in the last year or so. This year I went with some classics, some favorites *, and a few I haven't seen yet. Going to try to get through them all before the 30th.

Cool. I've been doing the same thing for years now... though it includes both horror and Hallowe'en-themed films. I go bit more overboard, though . Here's this year's list.

An American Werewolf in London

Carrie

Cloverfield

Dark Skies

Darkness

The Descent

Dog Soliders

Evil Dead (2013)

The Fog (1980)

From Beyond

From Dusk 'Til Dawn

House of the Devil

The Howling

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Jaws

Jeepers Creepers

Jennifer's Body

Land of the Dead

The Last Exorcism

Let Me In

Night of the Creeps

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

The Others

Pan's Labyrinth

Pitch Black

Quarantine

The Ring

The Ruins

Silent Hill

Creature From the Black Lagoon

Freddy vs. Jason

The Shining

Stake Land

Sleepy Hollow

The Crazies (2010)

Splice

Sinister

Slither

Splinter

The Thing (2011)

The Thing (1982)

30 Days of Night

Trick 'r Treat

28 Days Later

Blood: The Last Vampire

The Exorcist

Poltergeist

Videodrome

Hallowe'en (1978)

Hallowe'en II

Hallowe'en III: Season of the Witch

Hallowe'en H20

Resident Evil

The Omen (1976)

Uzumaki

Dagon

House

C.H.U.D.

The Blob (1988)

Near Dark

Body Snatchers

The Legend of Hell House

Them!

Monster House

Humanoids From the Deep

Hellraiser

Hellraiser 2: Hellbound

Not that the film didn't already have my attention, but it's getting better with every reveal.

Did you watch "The New adventures of Old Christine" I have only watched a few episodes when I noticed it has Clark (Son of Col) as the EX husband?

Never have. I've never been much of a fan of Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Why do they keep referring to Fitts/Sommons like they are one person?

Because "Fitzsimmons" is an actual last name, so it's an attempt at punnery to have an apparently inseparable pair named "Fitz" and "Simmons".

I feel the need to give it a few more episodes, 'cause I like Clark Gregg as Coulson, but it is a little bland so far. It needs something to distinguish it from the pack.

Tango & Cash is one of the great guilty pleasures in Stallone's film catalog.

Ditto for Kurt Russell's catalog. Loved the Jackie Chan rip-off moment too.

Fan rage = mostly boring

They rant, and rage, and fuss, and whine, and make pronouncements of doom and promote their "wisdom" on everything that Hollywood does wrong and how they would fix it. A few come up with some truly hilarious bits, most not so much, and few spectacularly stupid moments. The film will be made, it will be good or bad, and life will go on.

I've been a Batman fan longer than some of these fans have been alive, and I'll still say if there are things in life that merit this kind of ire and negativity, Batman movie casting is not one of them.

Love the Adam West peition... predictable, but fun nonetheless. That original Batman movie is still one of my favourites.

And Affleck? He's a reasonably skilled actor who got overexposed and has made a decent comeback. He's as good a choice as any, IMHO.

At Comic Con, Singer revealed who does the time travel in Days of Future Past...

Already have the Bandai Visual / Honneamise Honneamise (lol) Blu Ray / DVD combo released domestically a few years ago. But I may pick this up just to support such an awesome license rescue.

+1

Too, too happy to see this...

http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN983657/Gun

Any chance they will keep the design closer to:

I actually like the design, but the movies reek of the 80's (yes, I know, most of the films were made during that time) and need some TLC in the special effects department.

Just to be nitpicky, only 2 out of 28 Godzilla movies were made in the 80s. Percentage-wise, "most" of them were made in the 60s, with 8 of 28.

I choose to be cautiously optimistic, even though I wasn't hugely fond of Gareth's Monsters, because more Godzilla is always good (I even tolerate the 1998 version... mostly... kinda.... *shudder*).

That's the first Arcee I'm tempted to get.

Fair enough... but I still think it's a weird choice of words. When I first heard about District 9, I thought "hmmm... wonder if that will be any good", not "I've never heard of that before... I can't see how it's any good".

But you can't say you've never had anyone recommend it. I just did. If you're a fan of big space ships, bigger guns, and sharp humour, you should be hoping this film lives up to its source material.

As per the normal rules of the internet, this should be the point where someone posts "Are you nuts? Pay no attention to him. Guardians of the Galaxy was complete crap!..."

I still don't understand why they've decided to make this movie. I simply can't see how it's any good. Certainly during my entire tenure reading Marvel comics I never had a run-in with a single one of these characters nor do I understand why they would be interesting to watch or include in some Marvel Team Up movie.

"I simply can't see how it's any good." Not to be combative, but if you've never read any of these characters, why would you have an opinion like that? Is that how you approach any story you've never heard of before?

Unless you've read some of the more recent cosmic/sci-fi Marvel story arcs, like "Annihilation" or "Reign of Kings", it's not likely you would know anything about these characters. Even though they've all been around more than 30 years, they've never been more than obscure until very recently.

As to why they decided to put money on the Guardians, we can only speculate they see some potential in exploring the more traditionally science fiction aspects of Marvel, using the more cosmic than magic interpretation of Thor as a starting point.

I read the entire run of this incarnation of the Guardians of the Galaxy and loved it. Solid action, excellent wit. If Slither is any indication, James Gunn should be able to do it justice. I'm looking very forward to this film.