Just watched Spidey 3, and I loved it. Looking at the way the film is doing great. And after the disappointment that were Superman Returns and Batman Begins, its good having 2 movies back to back successfully adapting a classic comic to the movie screen (300 and Spiderman 3), which is exactly why DC cant beat Marvel at the cinemas. DC throws away a damn good story and takes a sub-par one, and even screw up the main characters to almost unrecognizablilty. Who wants to see yet another Batman origin story? Or another Superman vs Lex Luthor and some Kryptonite?

The Box-office speaks for itself-

Ghost Rider $224,476,751
Spider-Man $821,708,551
Spider-man2 $783,766,341
Spider-Man3 (1st week) $375,000,000
Xmen2 $407,557,613
Xmen3 $459,256,008

300 (Frank Miller) $431,952,000

History of Violence $60,313,870
Constantine $230,884,728
Batman Begins $371,853,783
Superman Returns $391,081,192
V For Vendetta $132,511,035

Lets take Batman begins. Bruce Wayne was supposed to be a Ryu-style wanderer who turns into Batman, and doesnt kill people. Al ghul was supposed to be an immortal. They first encounter was great classic. Batman was offered a most powerful organization, riches beyond that which he possesed, a beautiful woman (Al Ghul´s daughter) and the biggest temptation of all, immortality. Batman turned it all down nobly. Add Frank Miller´s beautifully-written Batman:Year one, and youve got a great film.

Instead we got an ex-terrorist Batman that kills a temple-full of the terrorist group he was a member of, the story seems like a cheap Batman knockoff comic, and Ras becomes some dumbed-down character. Now if we look back at all his films, its the same thing, characters are destroyed, mangled, and new stories that dont hold justice to the ones in the comic are slapped over, and the worst, I cant decide if bat-nipples or Batman revealing his identity to every girl he sleeps with is worse.

The chemistry between Batman and each villain is destroyed, with the exception of Two-Face and Catwoman. And Superman? 5 films of Luthor after Luthor. And dont get me started on Kryptonite.

Now Marvel films. While secondary characters (Juggy, Rogue, Harry) are sometimes changed drastically, the main characters and the main villains stay intact. Instead of writing sub-par stories from scratch, actually entire sagas are lifted from the comics and adapted into a film version, sometimes succesfully, sometimes not. The chemistry between the main heroes and villains remain intact. Spidey-Goblin, Magneto-Xavier, Venom-Peter, Dr Doom-Richards, its still there.

DC until the late 90s had some of the best writing in comics (and funnily, a good half of Marvel´s writiers now are previous DC ones), its time DC put some faith in their stories. Because when Xmen 3, as flawed as it is, beats the entire worldwide gross of Batman Begins and Superman in its first week, its too much of a shame.


It was like watching a Calvin and Hobbes film where Cavin is a 13-year old emo who imagines killing others all the time while Hobbes is a real-life tiger stolen from a zoo.

Or a Lord of the rings movie where Frodo is a Hobbit assasin and Sauron is really just an old wizard with a machine to produce the "EYE" effect on his tower.

DC movies suck compared to Marvel´s, merely because they dont put faith in the characters themselves, and instead have to change them drastically, even though up to the late 90´s, DC had the best comic stories ever written. Now if we talk about animation, even being a Marvel fan, Id say vice-versa. While DC makes stylized versions of their stories and pass some great Bruce Timm animation over them, Marvel does like DC does with their films, destroy characters. Evolution and Anime FF are good examples.

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For those who have just joined the fray, a month back a certain millionaire "artist" called Todd Goldman was found by a fan of an artist at Something Awful to have copied an old comic of his into a painting (read about it here)


After much outrage, Todd Golman has issued a half-arsed apology

POST POP-ARTIST, TODD GOLDMAN, CONTROVERSAL PAINTING

CLEARWATER, FL, April 11, 2007- Popular post pop-artist, Todd Goldman who has made a career of making fun of the world with his sarcastic commentary and cartoon icons, has mistakenly used the design of an another artist in two of his recent paintings. Todd's painting, "Dear God, Please Make Everyone Die", was inspired from a drawing he received unbeknownst to him belonging to an underground web comic artist David "Shmorky" Kelly.

In addition to painting, Todd designs t-shirts for his clothing company, David & Goliath. Todd and his design team create and receive thousands of design ideas every month. It's no secret that Goldman creates a lot of his painting ideas from his t-shirt designs. Goldman says "I made a judgment error and didn't research the background of this particular submission. "My intention was not to copy Mr. Kelly. I have never seen his work before and would never intentionally knock-off someone else's idea."

Goldman has issued a formal apology to Mr. Kelly and has stated that he will not be using his design again in the future. As a gesture of good faith, Goldman has pledged not profit from his mistake. He will instead donate his proceeds from the painting directly to Mr. Kelly or his charity of choice.

That letter was followed by a rather nasty war in Myspace, where fans of Mr.Kelly and the forum that pointed out the plagiarization had their Myspace profiles erased and replaced with this image.



However, that didnt stop people from noticing his stolen art, and galleries with other stuff he stole from being shown at sites like Myke Tyndall´s blog and Fleen, it seems that Todd Goldman is trying to shut them down by claiming sticking his lawyers on them. The webmasters of those two sites have received this from Todd-

Dear Sir or Madam:

This firm represents Mr. Todd Goldman. I write on behalf of Mr. Goldman regarding certain comments and disparaging remarks that are posted and housed on your website (www.miketyndall.com).

We have acquired articles posted on your website which contain defaming, derogatory and malicious statements about Mr. Goldman. Therefore, we request that you immediately remove these article from your website, as well as any subsequent articles and/or URL links of this nature regarding Mr. Goldman. Further, the hosting of such statements and/or URL links about Mr. Goldman is actionable defamation and libel that has caused irreversible damage to his character.

Unless we receive written assurance that you have removed these article, as well as any subsequent articles and/or URL links of this nature regarding Mr. Goldman, from your website by the close of business on Friday, April 20, 2007, we will have no other alternative but to take action to seek injunctive and monetary relief against you pursuant to Florida law. Please be advised that we will also seek to recover attorneys’ fees and costs associated with this matter. As time is of the essence, this action must be taken immediately.

This letter is not, nor should it be construed to be, a waiver of any rights or remedies available to Mr. Goldman under federal or state law, whether now existing or hereafter accruing.

PLEASE GOVERN YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY.

Sincerely,
Andrew P. Felix
SHUTTS & BOWEN LLP

Some sites that have held images comparing his work with art he stole from have removed their posts on him, fearing lawsuits. I suggest anyone who wishes to help out to continue mirroring sites displaying his art theft (like this site here). Let your local paper know about this.

Todd Goldman has a profile at the Jack Gallery website, they manage him (?). The gallery can be reached toll free by phone: 877.252.2122, or artist representation email: rep@S²art.com

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Today I woke up with a bad case of migraine... feels like a marching band has been playing on my head. Hopefully by 2 in the afternoon it will be better... anyway, I updated another page to the "612 to Apocalypse comic", am working on some site changes.
Also put together a "making of" the latest page.


-JCM-

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Like the Z-list, the technorati train was created to give bloggers higher technorati rankings. How do you participate? Simply copy the list below onto your blog, and favourite as many blogs as you wish from them. You can download the html for the list here. If you missed it the first time, it isnt too late to add the Z-list as well!

Did I forget your blog? Post a comment and I´ll edit you in.

My new added blogs

-JCM rpg art - Fave the Site
-15000 dollar mission - Fave the Site
-Kumiko´s Cash Quest - Fave the Site
-Money for marriage - Fave the Site
-Aglomerate - Fave the Site

The list
Net Business Blog - Fave the Site
Career Ramblings - Fave the Site
Ramblings from the Marginalized - Fave the Site
Juliocstryfe1@nutang - Fave the Site
Everyday Weekender - Fave the Site
612 to apocalypse - Fave the Site
Bobs [ReformatThis] - Fave the Site
JCM´s blog - Fave the Site
Armen’s Blog - Fave the Site
Gary Lee - Fave the Site
Dosh Dosh - Fave the Site
Nate Whitehill - Fave the Site
Ms. Danielle - Fave the Site
Jeff Kee - Fave the Site
Scribble on the Wall - Fave the Site
Jimi Morrisons Head - Fave the Site
Jon Lee - Fave the Site
Samanathon - Fave the Site
Eat Drink & Be Merry - Fave the Site
The Man of Silver - Fave the Site
Hannes Johnson - Fave the Site
My Dandelion Patch - Fave the Site
Nathan Drach - Fave the Site
SiteLogic - Fave the Site
Julies Journal - Fave the Site
Stephen Fung - Fave the Site
Ed Lau - Fave the Site
QMusings - Fave the Site

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As a kid one of my favourite things was to watch Japanese Sentai shows... not the americanized Power rangers crap, but real Sentai like Kamen rider and Jaspion. Sure some of them were downright ridiculous (like Lion Man, where you could see a huge zipper running down the "Lion Man´s" back, but looking back, some of those shows were quite good.

This below was one of the better fiights from the Jaspion series, amazing how a 30+ year-old Jap show has battles that beat the hell out of modern comic movies like Daredevil, Elektra and Ghost Rider.

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Really, this gets tired. Why does every long-haired dude in balck get typecast as a rocker by society? I mean, looking back the at some strange happenings-

1) Im returning from my dentist´s when a bunch of girls call me over. One of them passes me a regsitration paper and says "We´re having a battle of the bands in Sobradinho (a nearby town), bring your band along!" Blows kisses and goes off. And I dont even play any instrument well, nor have a band.

2) I´m in the bus and a bunch of punks, leather jackets with spikes and all, actually stand up from their seats to let me seat. After asking what Im listening to on my MP3 playaer (Rammstein), we proceeded to have a rousing conversation on the origins of punk, with them claiming the Clash as the fathers of punk, me claiming Iggy Pop was the one, and providing video evidence. They later get down from the bus, calling me "master" and telling me to come and bring my band over. Result? A busload of people staring at me weirdly for the rest of the trip, and some neighbours asking me when would I do a show.

3) Yesterday i´m returning home from wrk when I stop at a bar for a beer, and the barman comes over, sits down, passes me a note of R$ 50 and says the guitar is at the stage, I can start the show as soon as the band arrives.

If it wasnt for my genes stating that I will be bald by 30-40, I would´ve cut the hair, but then I´ve gotta flaunt it while I have it right? But sometimes I feel like wearing a tshirt saying "I dont have a $%#@! band!"

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