Kirby Krackle Sets Geekdom to Music

Nerd-Based Rock Music...it's not just for Harry Potter fans anymore!

Last weekend at NY Comic Con, I had a chance to pick up the debut album from Kirby Krackle, a pop rock duo that writes songs about things we can all relate to, including:

• Shooting people with the Blue Shell in Mario Kart
• The zombie apocalypse
• Becoming fed up with Event comics
• Playing Wii in a sexual context with your significant other

This is all well and good, you might say, but how's the rockage? Well, it's not Street Fighter: The Rock Opera, but KK certainly has some good hooks and snappy production quality for an independent debut. Stand-out tracks include Marvelous Girls, an ode to the more exotic girls of the Marvel Universe (the Genoshan verse is my favorite) and Another New Crisis, a heartfelt plea for Marvel and DC to ease up on the events.

Give em a listen with this handy widget, or you can head over to KirbyKrackleMusic.com for more info.





PS: If you have any lingering doubts about Kirby Krackle's Geek Cred, just know that I asked lead singer/guitarist Kyle Stevens what his favorite comic on the stands is, and his responce was The Walking Dead. That's a good answer. These guys check out.

New York Comic Con: Is Joss Whedon the New Merchant/Ivory? Also, Sunday Photos!

On Sunday at Comic Con, I so desperately wanted to see the Dollhouse preview screening, but missed it due to a prior commitment. But with a little help from my press pass, I made it inside for the following Q&A, and even got to ask The Man Himself a question. Here is a clip of his answer from Cinema Blend (they cut out my stuttering faux-professional questioning, THANK GOD).



To summarize, I asked what genre he most like to work in next, and his response was a "frilly costume drama" in either the Elizabethan era or the end of the 19th century. He noted the similarities between Costume Drama and Sci-Fi, because they exist in strange, unfamiliar worlds. "Also, heh, pretty dresses."

In other news, yes on Doctor Horrible sequel (who knows when), no on Serenity 2, no on a Dollhouse comic, and kind of on a Dollhouse Musical (Eliza sings in ep 3, but it's cause she's a backup signer). And Joss is a big Battlestar nerd, and said The Sarah Chronicles was his "second favorite drama on television.". Dollhouse premieres Friday night.

Okay! Now leaving the Whedonverse. Here's a photo random for Sunday, starting with actual factual Watchmen Babies!

These kids rule all. Homemade outfits for the win. Median age: 15. The reps at DC liked their costumes so much they enlisted them to help hand out their Watchmen swag. I hope they invited them to the premiere or something. These kids are fandom personified.

A Zoey/Hunter team! Awesome. Great makeup on the hunter, and Zoey found a fantastic jacket (though she said she wasn't crazy bout the "clown sleeves"). Excellent pose here.

Have you ever heard of Mana energy potion? It's an energy drink for gamers that supposedly contains the power of two redbulls in one of those little bottles. Ee-yikes! This lady was giving up tiny shots of Mana (blue) and the new Health potion (red). They both taste like death, blue slightly less so than heath. But I suppose that's how you know it's working. And I did manage to prowl the con for seven hours on no food on Sunday, so maybe these shots were the only thing keeping me standing.

2-D stormtrooper made of cardboard! Now that's what I'm talking bout.

This Scorpion was really awesome. You could walk up and challange him, and he would fight you. Like, seriously. With flying kicks and stuff. I mean, these guys were pulling punches, but not by much. Hence the crowd. Some times the best events at these cons don't happen in panel rooms, they happen on the floor. It's a comic con miraicle.

Doc Horrible was a really popular costume, and why not? Here's a Captain Hammer/Doctor Horrible twosome.

Great costumes here. That burlap sack mask is damn effective.

And finally.....Sunday was kids day, and there were actually a whole lot of kids there, in adorable muscled out storebought costumes. But the coolest kid I saw all day was this little Spidey, who was practicing his crawling on Marvel's red carpet. That's some good crawlin, son!

See all these photos (and bonus pics) at the Geekanerd Flickr.

NYCC Sneak Peak at Pixar's Up

The wait was long, the security was draconian, and the room was practically empty... but the payoff was worth it. For a very lucky few, Pixar screened the first 50 minutes of this summer's film, Up. Lucky for us, we were tired enough from a day of running around the con that an hour+ wait in line didn't seem like such a punishment.

I'm not going to break this down with as much detail as the Watchmen open, but to be on the safe side: *Spoiler Alert*... I suppose... mostly because the movie so far has been little more than still images and a pretty teaser-I'm not sure how much marketing will show in the lead up to its release; but I was shocked at the direction the film took. So if you want to go into the movie fresh with no preconceptions, no need to keep reading. Then again, what I say below may very well be revealed in the next trailer, so who knows. Either way, read at your own risk.

Needless to say, Up was not quite what I expected. I was expecting a classic journey tale... perhaps on par with The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, or the Wizard of Oz, or Around the World in 80 Days, or, hell, even The Chipmunk Adventure... but the journey aspect of the film was relatively short lived.

That's not to say I was disappointed! Not at all. In fact, within the first 10 minutes, Up had an extended montage sans dialogue that was so unbelievably well executed and heartwarming that I was in tears. I've never cried at the first 10 minutes of a movie. I mean, if I ever cried at movies that is... cause I don't... cause only girls cry at movies... Anyhow, this montage will surely secure its place in cinema history. Talking afterwards, AHR suggested Pixar make an entire movie without dialogue... brilliant. Between this montage and the first 30 minutes of Wall-E, critics and fans alike should be clamoring for the same thing.

Anyway, broad strokes: Ed Asner's curmudgeonly Mr. Fredrickson is completely lovable, Jordan Nagai's 9 year old Wilderness Scout, Russell, is spotlight-hoggingly humorous (if at times a tad overbearing), and the balloon house is, frankly, awesome. Now here's where it gets a bit bonkers. Did you know there was going to be a goofy, giant mythic bird... or talking dogs? Me neither. Well there is. And they're all very funny. In fact, even if the journey element of the film seems short lived, Up has retained one of my favorite archetypes of the journey film: the assembling of the motley crew. And at the end of our allotted 50 minutes, it was quite a lovable team-I'd gladly sit through another 40 minutes watching this bizarrely mismatched group of explorers (you got your old man, your goofy kid, your dopey talking dog, and your wide-eyed, dodo-esque bird... what more do you people want?!?).

But all of this leaves me wondering if Up is more akin to a Dreamworks film... not that that's a bad thing-I loved Kung Fu Panda... but I worry that it may be lacking some sort of particular Pixar charm. I'm not sure what exactly... but something seemed missing. In fact, had it not been for the brilliant montage at the beginning, this could have passed for any other company's film; still great-but maybe not Pixar great. Again, this all sounds negative, but I left that screening smiling. And I'm wiling to wait till May for Pixar to prove me wrong again-they have many times in the past. Besides, I think they've earned a little blind faith over the past few years (at least enough to overlook Cars and pretend they have a perfect track record).

The First 18 minutes of Watchmen at NYCC '09

For a giant-sized handful of lucky fans at comic con yesterday, WB screened the first 18 minutes of the Watchmen, as well as an additional scene which has yet to be screened anywhere else. It just so happens AHR and myself happened to be among the lucky few. Now, at this point, I feel like an ass saying "*Spoiler Alert*"... I doubt there are even a few among you who don't know exactly how the Watchmen ends. But for those who don't, or at least for those who want to keep the movie fresh, stop reading.

As an added treat, Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons introduced the film clips. Even though Alan Moore may not be behind the project, Gibbons certainly seems to be. He had nothing but glowing praise for the film and the people behind it. Of course you have to take that with a grain of salt, but to be honest, after seeing the open... I have to say I'm pretty impressed. I've been expecting disappointment-I enjoy keeping my expectations low, but unfortunately that may be a challenge now.

Anyway, let's get to it. The film opens on Blake chilling in his swanky apartment and a series of news clips on tv about escalating Cold War tensions and whatnot. There's a brief Nixon press conference and a few other clips not featured in the comic. I'm always wary of added material, but I'm really enjoying all of this era specific news footage; plus their Nixon is the perfect amount of cartoony Nixon characterization... not too goofy, but just evil enough to be a caricature.

Blake's fight with the shadowy assailant is now a full on scene, not just a series of flashbacks as it was in the comic. The fight sequence is impressively choreographed... though it's a bit dancy for my tastes (in its defense, AHR loved it). I just pictured that fight as a bit more desperate and brutal-no fancy moves or anything, just a good old fashioned ass-whoopin. But it is a superhero movie, and those Hollywood fight coordinators have to do something with their time. There was some impressive knife play, I'll give it that.

Immediately after Blake is tossed out the window and we've held on the requisite falling, blood-stained button; we go into the title sequence. And here is where the brilliance begins; this is what truly impressed me. Set to Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'", the title montage is made up of beautifully composed, nearly frozen in time moments of this world's history. Starting with a happy photo of the 1940's Minutemen, the montage slowly devolves into the grimmer reality of the "present day" Watchmen universe. Things were happy during WWII (I mean, who wouldn't be happy punching Nazis?), and then everything went to hell.

A few images worth mentioning: a recast version of the classic V-Day celebration photo of the sailor kissing the woman in the street... now its the sexy Silhouette kissing that lady... hooray for lesbianism. Even though I might find it hard to believe that these times were so forgiving as to celebrate lesbians in the street, I'm not one to ever complain about lesbians. So I won't. The excesses of the 70s are humorously covered as well-one shot features Andy Warhol showing off a Marilyn Monroe-esque print of the night owl. Another features a smug Ozymandias walking into a lavish studio 54. Of course the sad fates of the original Watchmen is covered, as well as some particularly sad shots of a young Walter Kovacs.

Ok, we're past that brilliance. We were lucky enough to see the scene following the titles as well-Rorschach inspecting Blake's apartment and discovering his alter ego as the Comedian. Despite a few well muttered "hurm"s, I have to say I'm skeptical of Jackie Earle Haley's Rorschach voice... its basically an impression of Christian Bale's Batman voice... and I was never really sold on his Batman voice to begin with. I wish he would have gone with a more monotone, emotionless take on the voice as opposed to the gravelly goodness of the Dark Knight.

After the open, we were blessed with the chance to see the cafeteria scene of Rorschach in prison. I've been trying to keep my fanboy cool, but this sucker had me gushing. It was pretty damn badass; despite the fact that if you closed your eyes, you could hear Batman yelling "I'm Not Locked Up In Here With You, You're Locked Up In Here With ME!" But here is where you really see how perfectly Jackie Earle Haley fits the role. He looks perfect (even if he doesn't sound it).

After the screening, Dave Gibbons answered a few brief questions. He guaranteed people that Doc Manhattan's nudity would remain explicit, he apologized to "cephalopod lovers" and broke hearts when he announced there would be no squid monster at the end (though he reassured us that though the MacGuffin may be different, the ending is still the same)... Lastly, he touched upon an interesting point. In response to a question about the potential for the film to change the superhero film genre, he expressed disappointment in the direction comics took after Watchmen. Together with the Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen heralded one of the darkest ages in comicdom (both in theme and quality) Apparently, back in the day, both Gibbons and Moore joked that if they were to work on another DC property, they would have loved to work on Captain Marvel; a decidedly happier and lighter character than any of the others. Gibbons expressed hope that the Watchmen movie wouldn't have the same effect on superhero films. Though it is interesting to note that timing wise, the movie coincides with the darkest Batman movie to date-and one that has already promised to change comic book movies. Hopefully the success of Iron Man and Spiderman will keep things balanced in the future. The last thing the now blossoming superhero movie machine needs, is another early 90's era dark age.

To end on a "positive" note, here is another awesome viral video for the Watchmen, courtesy of The New Frontiersman.

Photos: New York Comic Con 2009 - Friday

Friday was Geekanerds "lazy day" at Comic Con. No stress, no running from panel to panel...just a stroll around the floor, chatting up creators and PR people, trying to get free stuff, and watching a bunch of uncensored episodes of Shin Chan.

I did manage to take a few pics of some of the more extraordinary sights...

Like this for example!

The ladies of Valve! This is Zoey from Left 4 Dead and Chell from Portal, but of course you knew that. I suggested this pose, and I saw them using it again later on the floor. This is because I'm a director, and when not blogging, I help the world by directing it to be more funny and visually pleasing.

Sketches, booths, Leias, and the requistite Storm Trooper, after the jump...


Look up in that window...see that? A Stormtrooper. He was watching me. Probably thought I was a Jedi. A lot of people make that mistake.


This was the best promo booth I saw. It's for a Showtime Show about clones (the name escapes me) but they were giving people a chance to watch clips of the show on those movie-goggle things while standing in cool sci-fi tubes. There's no reason these people had to be in tubes - it's purely for visual effect of the passerby. Get it, they look like clones! Eh, maybe you had to be there.

Mario seems genuinely surprised to see that Hunter. I guess when you're used to dealing with like, evil mushrooms and turtles, killer zombies are a little above your paygrade. I was genuinely surprised not to see more Left 4 Dead cosplay...there was a general lack of interesting costumes over all...I'm hoping it will pick up tomorrow.

Nice booth, Squaresville! What was the New York Times doing at Comic Con in the first place? I think they just unpacked their table, looked around, and left at around noon.

I guess this sweatshirt is old news, but it was the first time I've ever seen it. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I know it's not cool to like Boba Fett ever since Lucas killed that Golden Goose of Coolness with overexposure. But honestly; this is cool. The sweatshirt is by Ecco and can be purchased online for a Ben, and I don't mean Kenobi. I have to say, the dude in the picture did a good job accesorizing it, I think it was a smart purchase. I love cosplay that doesn't replicate a costume, but creates a cool outfit BASED on a character, like this.

Hey, remember this panel from Cleaners #2? It was the recipient of the Banana Randomizer Award in Panel Dicussion a few weeks back. I had the opportunity to meet the creators of Cleaners, who were both super cool and happy to talk about their work with a nerd like me. They had a book of the original inked pages, so I took of picture of my favorite scene. Artist Rahsan Ekedal was even good enough to sign a copy of issue #1 for me with a little picture of a shark fin.

Free fortune cookies in the press room! And possibly a free book? Honestly I didn't even notice anything beyond the cookies.

Okay this photo is blown out, sorry. But still - two slave Leias! Eh? Ehh?

More to come tomorrow!

Belated San Diego Comic Con Pics!

Ok, so I'm a terrible guerrilla e-journalist. I know this damn thing happened over a week ago, but I accidentally shipped the camera these photos lived in back to NYC before uploading them. Pretty stupid. Anyhow, better late than never.

Anywho, Comic Con. Pretty awesome. Though word to the wise: plan ahead. We managed to score tickets at the last possible moment and ending up going down for Saturday evening and Sunday. By that point, pretty much all of the cool exciting stuff had already been announced and we missed a ton of great panels. The only panel we got to was actually one of the very last panels of the whole damn thing-but I'll get to that later...

Above is the fabled Owl Ship from The Watchmen. Or is it Owl Pod? Whatever the kids are calling it these days, its pretty damn cool... even the innards are all aglow with science. Probably all for show-but there's no doubt in my mind that any one of those buttons could have killed hundreds.

Follow the jump for more pics!

Here's a Cylon and the bizarre SciFi booth. I thought at first it was supposed to be like the interior of a Cylon Basestar or something... nope. Just a color changing globular thing. Also, SciFi had very little to offer Battlestar Galactica wise... (that awesome Cylon was from another exhibitor) so I wasn't too interested in staying too long to figure out just what that thing was supposed to be.

Obviously there was tons of Star Wars junk. Tons. Especially given the upcoming release of Clone Wars. But you know what, it's Comic Con-I imagine you'd be hard pressed to find a year where there wasn't tons of star wars shit. Anyway, here are some cool jedi posing it up for some girl with a pink iPhone. Also, there was a startling surplus of Boba Fetts roaming the floor-I heard a rumor they were security-but I'm not sure how believable that is... I just think there was a sale somewhere on Boba Fett helmets. Though cool-I'd prefer the menacing uniformity of stormtrooper security anyway-Fett loses something when there are hundreds of him. Oh, and here's a gross, to-scale Jabba... for the record, his lips weren't that bright-he was just too accurately portrayed and the gross slime on his lips caught my flash and glowed a bit.


Here's the first Iron Man suit from the movie. Pretty impressive up close.


Pretty awesome Destro and Cobra Commander in front of some sort of evil Cobra drilling ship-you just know a bunch of Cobra grunts died in the testing phase of that death trap.

Lego Batman! I'll take this opportunity to talk about the one panel we did get to. It featured Grant Morrison and Deepak Chopra discussing the "soul of the superhero" and "modern mythology." Pretty heady stuff-but very fascinating. Lots of meanderings on human potential and how science fiction can get us there... and Grant had a pretty cool bit on the need for a new kind of storytelling. In response to a question on Orwell's 1984, he talked about how that kind of bleak distopian future-somewhat a standard convention in current comics-was originally meant to serve as a sort of warning of "what could be." However, he argued, its becoming more like a self fulfilling prophecy. Therefore he called for artists to tell a new kind of story-one that focuses on human potential and all that. Not sure how creepy labcoat joker fits into his theory though...

And finally-some cool costumes. I learned that apparently you can make ANYthing out of duct tape. I was shocked at how many costumes were made entirely out of duct tape-even skirts and capes... which I think are probably much easier to manage as, you know, actual fabrics. I didn't take too many pics of awesome costumes though-there were almost too many that I was overwhelmed and could never get my camera out in time. But I couldn't resist taking a shot with this awesome Bender. Unfortunately the poor guy had been terrorized by some sticker weilding hooligans the day before so he asked me do a sticker sweep on his back-he was clean! Also, side note: I thought I was all cool wearing that Galactus tshirt from R. Stevens... apparently so did 12% of the people at comic con... and it didn't help that he was there selling the damn things. Curse our free market!


And to end it, this was by far the coolest costume I saw there. It's completely homemade and to startling detail. It comes with an articulated tail made out of what appeared to be a bicycle tire. This geek really went all out. Kudos to you sir (or madam... it's hard to tell under all that plastic, rubber, and duct tape).

So I got there a bit too late for some serious in depth coverage-but hopefully this satisfies some of your Comic Con lust. There's always next year.

Stars of Star Trek Sing Their Hearts Out

Nothing brings out the ham in an actor like a hotel bar and a grand piano. Thanks to the all-seeing eye of YouTube, those of us not fortunate to be at the Hyatt during ComicCon can still enjoy the spectacle of Riker belting out the jazz standard Ain't Misbehavin' as if it were the eleven o'clock number in the top show in town. Dude really gets hot at about :15 seconds in.

After the jump, Sisko musically humiliates some web cartoonists at the same hotel, and classic musical moments from three Star Trek captains and an android...


Here, Avery Brooks, Scott Kurtz, Kris Straub (of PvP and Starslip Crisis) try to make their way through "At Last" and "Summertime" with considerable prompting from the brassy lounge pianist.

Cringe Alert: Between Sisko's quasi-incoherent drunkery, Kurtz' frequent self-conscious looks at the camera, and the fact that this already interminable video was obviously edited down from a much longer take....this is the sort of nerd/idol fantasy meetup that is probably exceedingly painful when it's actually happening, but at least makes a great story afterwards.

Of course that all pales in comparison to this video, which of course has the advantage of higher production values (ie a straw boater and cane).

Seriously, this is pretty much the best thing ever. If you're seeing it for the first time, I envy you.



Also, here is the stalwart Captain Archer doing the voice of a cartoon cat in one of the most underrated American animated musical comedies out there, Cats Don't Dance.


Then there's Brent Spiner, in the original Broadway cast of Sunday in the Park with George (his stuff starts around 6:30 in), sporting a snappy fin de siecle suit and an intensely nasal German accent.


And what musical Star Trek post would be complete without this slice of heaven? I know people enjoy this segment in a sort of freak show context, but I have to say after a few viewings, I think I appreciate what he's trying to do here. I "get" you Bill, I do. I even get a little choked up at 4:14...he should have saved that reading for the end, you can't keep the pace after an emotional high point like that. And neither can this post.

UPDATE 7/31/08:
Reader Dracula Jones (awesome) has pointed me to something I shamefully overlooked....

Wow. If anyone is friends with Guillermo Del Toro, please be sure he sees this before he gets started on principal photography. Though I'm kind of enraged by the fact that this song is all about Bilbo and Bilbo NEVER EVEN SHOWS UP in the video. Total tease.

Comic Con Goods: Sweeney Todd and Watchmen Posters

Sweeney Todd and Watchmen are the two upcoming screen adaptations that I'm most looking forward to. That said, I am much, much, much more excited about Sweeney Todd. What's my problem, you ask? Well, while Geeknerd deservedly focuses on comics, movies and games, the truly GREATEST popular art of our lifetime is the work of composer Stephen Sondheim, and Sweeney Todd is his masterpiece. And while this blog doesn't cover theater geekery, trust me, this movie is going to blow all the expectations of all non-belivers to ribbons. When Johnny Depp as Sweeney gets going, he'll show those torture-porn directors what blood-letting is really about.

Granted, Tim Burton hasn't made a great film in over a decade. But I have it on good authority that the Sweeney movie does justice to the genius of the source, and this poster sure strikes the right tone. Maybe Tim used up all his Brilliance Points on Ed Wood back in 1994, and it's taken till now to build them back up again. This poster from Comic Con strikes exactly the right tone.

Image via JustJared.

Check out the Watchmen teaser poster after the jump.

The Watchmen poster I'm less impressed by. While this poster also classes it up by using a new image from artist Dave Gibbons, at this point all I care about is seeing is what this cast of young'ins is going to look like in action. Nice of of them to align themselves with the source material for all to see, but it really is a teaser in the meanest sense of the word. Give us costumes!

Image via Newsarama via some cool dude's Flickr account.

Comic Artists Blog Their Way Through the San Diego Comic Con

Can't make it to San Diego for the Comic Con? Check out the blogs of some of Geekanerd's favorite writers and artists for an inside look at what they'll be premiering at the Con.

Neil Gaiman (Sandman, Stardust, 1602)

• Neil has been actively blogging his experiences at Comic Con, including when he presented the new Beowulf footage with Roger Avary, and the subsequent rooftop reception. The entry is tagged "Why I Am Crap At Parties", which reminds me of Why I Am In Love With Neil Gaiman.

Brian Wood (DMZ, Supermarket, the upcoming Dogs Day End)

• Today's entry links to some just-released preview art of Wood's new viking story, Northlanders. Plus a recent post titled "Things To Look Out For" indicates some information about Brian's "unnaounced" original graphic novel will drop during the Con.
  

David Petersen (Mouse Guard)

• Check out this post for a peek at the Mouse Guard sketchbook that will make it's debut at Comic Con. Petersen's art never fails to amaze.
  

Humberto Ramos (Wolverine, currently on X-Men)

• I'm a big fan of Ramos' art - you can buy his sketchbook online through his blog, plus he's got a scan up of the stickers he'll be premiering at Comic Con (wait, stickers? Is that it?!)