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Archive for December, 2007

Bad Day: From the editor

Posted in Bad Day on December 27th, 2007 by Shakil

Making the short film into a silent piece felt like the right thing to do. That was far from the original concept. Filming Bad Day had to have been one of the most awkward moments in our lives. We have witnessed so many things that have gone wrong. Pretty much everything that we had hoped for went down the tubes. We were left with many missing scenes. Something had to be done.

Read more »

Shooting Day for Poker Face postponed

Posted in Poker Face on December 27th, 2007 by Shakil

Shooting for Poker Face was originally scheduled for December 1st and it is currently being postponed until further notice.

Rock Star Games New Release Grand theft auto 5

Posted in Global Warming on December 17th, 2007 by Rob

while the comics page is being fixed here is another filler comic strip

GTA !

gta-vc-wii.jpg

the history of the comic book: comic spotlight, Pulp Magazines

Posted in comic book spotlight on December 15th, 2007 by Rob

Pulp magazines (or pulp fiction; often referred to as “the pulps”) were inexpensive fiction magazines. They were widely published from the 1920s through the 1950s.

The name “pulp” comes from the cheap wood pulp paper on which such magazines were printed. Magazines printed on better paper and usually offering family-oriented content were often called “glossies” or “slicks”. Pulps were the successor to the “penny dreadfuls”, “dime novels”, and short fiction magazines of the nineteenth century.

penny-dreadful.jpgpenny dreadfuls

Although many respected writers wrote for pulps, the magazines are perhaps best remembered for their lurid and exploitative stories, and for their similarly sensational cover art.

jungle-stories.jpg

pulp magazines often featured illustrated novel-length stories of heroic characters such as the Shadow, Doc Savage, and the Phantom Detective. However the pulps were aimed more at adult readers whereas comic books were traditionally written for children and adolescents.

doc-savage.JPG phantom_detective_5-36.jpgthe-shadow.JPG

Pulp covers, printed in color on higher-quality (slick) paper, were famous for their half-dressed damsels in distress, usually awaiting a rescuing hero. Read more »

smack city

Posted in Global Warming on December 14th, 2007 by Rob

while the comic book page is under construction here is some filler comic strip joke

sin city parody

smack-city.jpg

Beowulf

Posted in Books on December 4th, 2007 by Rob

Beowulf is an Old English epic poem the author is anonymous. Its creation dates between the 8th and the 11th century, the only surviving manuscript dating to 1010. At 3183 lines, it is notable for its length. It has risen to national epic status in England.

In the poem, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, battles three antagonists:

Grendel, boundary-land walker,who is attacking the Danish mead hall called Heorot and its inhabitants;

Grendel’s mother she is never given a name in the text, later in life after returning to Geatland (modern southern Sweden) and becoming a king, an unnamed dragon.

He is mortally wounded in the final battle, and after his death he is buried in a barrow in Geatland by his retainers.

beowulffirstpage.jpeg first page of the epic poem

Beowulf is a 2007 animated film adaptation by Robert Zemeckis, the film was created through motion capture.

beowolfposter.jpgThe film adaption differs from the epic poem but ties all three parts of the poem into a cohesive story. written by Neil Gaiman

if you have not scene this film take a night off and see it for yourself.

the only way to see this film is in 3d its worth the extra couple of bucks for the plastic glasses

buy the book here

buy the script here

buy the audio book here

there have been a few movies made about beowulf

Beowulf & Grendel (2005) buy this dvd here

Beowulf (1999)
Starring: Christopher Lambert

buy the dvd here

Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxons (2003)

buy it here

Beowulf (2006)
Starring: Benjamin Bagby

buy the dvd here

the history of the comic book: Platinum age part 3

Posted in history of comic books on December 1st, 2007 by Rob

Eastern Color Printing Company was the company that reinvisioned the formation of the comic book industry

An unemployed Jewish novelty salesman named Maxwell C. Gaines (Max Ginzberg) had a brilliant idea: he enjoyed reading old comic strips like

Joe Palooka,palooka.jpgMutt and Jeff,muttandjeff.jpg
Hairbreadth Harryhairbreadthh1927.jpgmaybe the rest of America would too.

pioneering figure in the creation of the modern comic book. In 1933, when Gaines devised the first four-color, saddle-stitched newsprint pamphlet, a precursor to the color-comics format that became the standard for the American comic book industry.

Gaines and his colleague Harry L. Wildenberg soon published in February 1934 Famous Funnies #1, Series 1, the first American retail comic book.

famousfunnies1cs.giffamousfunnies1b.gif

side note: we already talked about a comic book format, everything before this book should not be concidered a “comic Book” due to the content and book making style.

to all so called comic historians send the hate mail to me

this text below is from here

Harry I. Wildenberg, among his duties were to come up with ideas to keep the color presses going. He suggested the idea of a comic book used for advertising to Gulf Oil Company, one of his clients.

They liked the idea and hired a few artists to create Gulf Comic Weekly among them were Stan Schendel who did The Uncovered Wagon, Victor (last name unknown) did Curly and the Kids and Svess (last name unknown) doing Smileage. These were one full page, full color comic pictures. The entire comic was 4 pages long and had a format of 10 ½ by 15. The comic was given away at Gulf Gas Stations making them probably the first comic book published and distributed outside of the newspaper market. The comic was advertised on radio (telling people to go to Gulf Gas stations to get them) on April 30th 1933.

Much to everybodys surprise, the comics proved an very effective draw to the gas stations. People were quickly coming in and snatching them all up. Gulf decided to print out 3 million copies a week had the name changed to Comics Funnies Weekly. The series remained in tabloid sized and lasted 422 issues, ending on May 23, 1941.

A few weeks after coming up with the tabloid sized comic book, Wildenberg came up with the idea of doing a comic book. He said he got it when reading a tabloid sized comic strip page, folded it in half, then in half again. He noticed it was a convenient size for reading comics. He also thought publishing it with 32 or 64 pages would be a good size.

Wildenberg wasn’t the first to use this format though. From 1880’s to 1910’s the size was popular for reprinted comic pages. Pulp Dime Novels were already using that size and the Ledger Syndicate was also using 7 by 9 format for their Sunday newspaper comic strip inserts.

Convinced his idea would be popular Wildenberg secured the rights from many major Syndicates for to reprint their various comic strips. Among them, Associated, Bell, Fisher, McNaught and Public Ledger Syndicate. He had an artist make up a few hand make comics for demonstration purposes and then has his sales staff go around to all of Eastern Color’s biggest advertisers.

The first to respond (by telegram) was Procter and Gamble, asking for a million 32 page color comic book.

funniesonparade.jpgThe comic published in the spring of 1933, was called Funnies on Parade. Most remarkable about was it set a format standard, 8″ x 11″ . All 1 million copies were given away in a few weeks. The comic came with coupons for Proctor & Gamble products.

to be continued

side note: Harry I. Wildenberg said he couldn’t understand how anybody could read them. All he cared about is they had commercial potential and used that to keep the printers running.