Posted on March 10, 2010
By Mat K.
At first glance, as you run down our new release manga section on our website, the week looks interesting but with a couple exceptions (like Detroit Metal City Volume 4), overall not too exciting. But then you get to the bottom of the list and you have to blink twice because your eyes can’t quite make sense out of what you think you’re seeing. Stephanie Meyer has invaded the manga shelves! That’s right, the Twilight Manga Volume 1 has arrived. Now the cover merely states “Twilight The Graphic Novel”, though distributor listings actually say “Twilight Manga”. And the adaptation is done by Young Kim, which would technically make it manhwa anyway, but I digress. I know this comes as good news to many Twilight fans out there. You finally get to see your precious Edward in manga form. And I will say this, the cover art doesn’t look terrible. I suppose I’m just glad that Shakespere and the Bible made it to manga form before Twilight did.
And now that I’ve said that, I’ll say this: apparently, we’re not allowed to sell the Twilight Manga until March 16th. Apparently they just shipped it out a bit early to tease us all.
Now, big news in my book is the arrival of a new Yuu Watase series (if you’re not familliar, Yuu did Fushigi Yugi and Ceres: The Celestial Legend). Her new series is Arata The Legend, and is her first venture into shonen books, as opposed to her usual shojo stylings. Basically in a world where humans and gods coexist, Arata is the unfortunate successor to the matriarchal Hime Clan, unfortunate because if he’s not cross-dressing to hide his gender one minute, he’s fleeing for his life the next. Fun times. Watase does the celestial gods and humans thing really well; reincarnations, genetic clones, living stories, and alternate worlds. She’s always fun, magical, action packed, and sad. (more…)
Category: Manga, Mat. K, Recent Releases, Shibuya-cho, anime |
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Posted on March 10, 2010
By Devin T. Quin
TWO important bits of information before we move on to unimportant information, i.e. my column; First of all, March 14th is Daylight Savings time. This will mean that when you lose an hour of time Saturday night on the 13th, it’s not due to binge drinking. Well, ONE of the hours you black out for won’t be because of the drinking, at least.
The Second piece of important news is Free Comic Book day is two months away! Visit http://www.freecomicbookday.com/ to learn all you need to know for the busiest day in the comic book calendar! Remember: When FCBD does arrive the place to be is Forbidden Planet!
STAR DREK
We now return to your regularly scheduled comic book news column.
Dark Horse has volume nine of Hellboy’s continued adventures available in trade paperback this week with the release of Hellboy: The Wild Hunt. If you haven’t bought Hellboy in a while, or ever for that matter, this is a GREAT place to get aboard! Mignola and artist Duncan Fegredo make an excellent team, and this book changes Hellboy’s world FOREVER!
DC has MORE Grant Morrison Batman with Batman and Robin #10, as well as some early Blackest Night wrap-up with Green Lantern Corps #46. I’ll have to do some research into the longest crossover event of all time, but Blackest Night might be a strong contender! (more…)
Category: Comics, Marvel, Unkiedev, dark horse |
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Tags: Batman, Breaking into Comics, Green Lantern Corps, hellboy, Spider-Man, zombies
Posted on March 10, 2010
by Christopher Troy
Sorry for the delay folks, had some server issues and Final Fantasy 13 dropped, so I was busy the last 2 weeks. But as promised, here’s the first installment of assembling Unicorn kit I previewed in my first entry.
Those are my tools of trade, something I picked up about a year ago. Forbidden Planet should have these in stock relatively soonish, and they contain pretty much everything you need to get you started on building Gunpla. Those of you new to the hobby may be saying to yourself, “Chris. these are import kits, aren’t the instructions all in Japanese?” (more…)
Category: Gundam, anime |
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Tags: Assembly, Gundam, Gunpla, Model Kits
Posted on March 6, 2010
By Loran
Today (3/6) is a very special day. It’s not the birthday of Gundam’s creator, Yoshiyuki Tomino, the day the first Gundam kit was released, or the day the first episode of Gundam aired. In fact, this day is mostly significant to those of us living in the United States.
It’s the day Gundam Wing first aired on Toonami.
While yes, it was not the first Gundam fiction, (that distinction goes to the novelization of the original series), or even the first piece of Gundam animation available in English, it was the first time any Gundam series had been shown in the West since the infamous Italian broadcast during the early 80’s, but that’s another story.
I was unfortunately not there from the first episode-I caught it after a friend told me about it on the playground. He mentioned two shows to me called “Dragonball Z” and “Gundam Wing”. I’d seen advertisements for the toys on TV, but had no idea what either of them was about. Wing was my first encounter with human-piloted robots, aside from Power Rangers and that horrendous CGI Voltron cartoon from the 90’s. My ten-year-old mind was astounded by these themes of war, character drama, romance-things I’d never seen before-well, with giant robots anyway. It was like… the storytelling I’d grown up with in movies like Star Trek and Star Wars that shaped my childhood became combined with the robots I’d come to love from Transformers. (more…)
Category: Comics, Gundam, anime |
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Tags: Cartoon Network, Damn Chris feels old. Toonami, Gundam, Gundam Wing, Gunpla, Model Kits
Posted on March 4, 2010
By Devin T. Quin
Maybe you’ve noticed the lavishly designed films by Guillermo del Toro or you’ve glimpsed the iconic red character design by creator Mike Mignola, either way you can’t be a comic book fan without having seen Hellboy.
Here’s a handy “What-What” guide to comicdom’s most celebrated devil.
WHAT IS HE?
Hellboy is an honest to god devil born of a high-ranking Lord in hell and a witch mother from England. He was summoned back to our plane of existence by Rasputin as part of a Nazi occult ritual in the 1940’s to raise the apocalypse beast. Due to poor calculations on the Mad Monk’s part, they DID raise the beast, just in a nearby field occupied by a special paranormal team of allies lead by Trevor Bruttenholm. The hell beast is only a year old. He’s large and red with horns and a tail, as well as a gigantic stone right hand.
A soldier attached to the division nicknames him “Hellboy,” and the name sticks.
Trevor then founds the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, or the B.P.R.D., a government subsidized occult focus group and begins to raise Hellboy as his own son. Through Trevor, Hellboy meets with the greatest minds of the Twentieth Century while being raised on American values (and pancakes). He becomes the greatest monster smasher of them all and soon looks to his teammates at the B.P.R.D. as family. Got that? He’s a devil turned good guy who punches monsters for Uncle Sam! (more…)
Category: Comic Books, Devin T Quin, Unkiedev, dark horse |
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Tags: Abe Sapien, B.P.R.D., Guillermo del Toro, hellboy, Liz Sherman, Lobster Johnson, Mike Mignola
Posted on March 4, 2010
by madgophermm5
So I should probably start this review by saying that I am not normally a snapper, which means I don’t normally just build a kit as is right out of the box. I usually prefer to take my time and paint my kits up very nice, however Bandai has come along way from the old Gundam Wing high grades that came out back when I was in high school and first getting in to the hobby. So after seeing some pics online of this kit built right out of the box, I decided it might make a fun little build, to pass the time.
There are so many good things to say about this kit I really don’t know where to start. The first thing I noticed was how few stickers came with the kit, which means almost everything is molded in the color it needs to be. The only stickers it comes with are the usual eyes, metallic green for the gun sight and the crest of the head, and it came with two white stickers for a piece atop the shoulders. The pink energy frame was very impressive and “gives it a really striking look” as my wife would say. This thing looks like a mini mg kit almost. All in all with no painting it looks almost exactly as it does in the box art. (more…)
Category: Gundam |
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Tags: Gundam, Gunpla, Model Kits, reviews, Unicorn
Posted on March 3, 2010
By Unkie Dev
Lloyd Kaufman. To some he’s a film god, the David to Hollywood’s Goliath providing sharp, urbane horror and comedy to a public tired of the white-washed crumbs of the mainstream cinema. To others he’s a crass schlockmyseter, a sad, self aggrandizing turd polisher who couldn’t even reach the levels of Corman or Myers as an auteur but who’s publicity eclipses them both.
I think that’s the way he likes it.
To me, Lloyd Kaufman will always be the second worst boss I’ve ever had. For two months in the fall of 2004 I was Lloyd Kaufman’s personal assistant. He goes through them like tissue paper. By Lloyd’s own admission “I’m a terrible boss to work for. I’m doing you a favor for firing you!”
Lloyd’s visit to the store for a midnight Blu Ray release of Poultry Geist: Night of the Chicken Dead scheduled for Monday the 22nd has me nostalgic for those wild days of yesteryear. The coolest thing about Troma, hands down? The office!
TROMA FIRMA
THIS is AMAZING! Drop by sometimes, they’re all pretty friendly, if not busy, and will let you peek-a-boo if you’re a fan! Movie props abound, as well as Troma memorabilia from the good times and the bad. (more…)
Category: Comic Books, Unkiedev |
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Tags: comedy, horror, Lloyd Kaufman, Poultry Geist, Sam Kieth, Troma
Posted on March 3, 2010
By Mat K.
Welcome boys and girls to the first release week of March, and it all belongs to Viz. The Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat go flying this week and I’m sure you’ll be getting a little giddy. First on my “things I’ve been waiting for” list is Tegami Bachi Volume 2. It’s a little annoying that it’s going to be taking so long to release the indiviudal volumes, but that’s the price we pay when a series is also being run in Shonen Jump magazine. WaqWaq and Tegami Bachi both released they’re first volumes at the same time. And while WaqWaq itself has not been entirely punctual, as much as I love it, at least it has made it as far as the third book already. Now we finally get to see the second book of Tegami Bachi, and I’m ready for more of it’s twilight watercolor style, (that’s twilight as in the time between sun and moon). (more…)
Category: Jump Comics, Manga, Mat. K, Recent Releases, Shibuya-cho |
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Tags: bleach, Cactus Secret, Osamu Tezuka, Shonen Jump, Tegami Bachi
Posted on March 3, 2010
By Unkiedev
IMPORTANT NOTE: Shipping this week is DC’s Nemesis The Imposters #1. Just so we are clear this is NOT the new Mark Millar comic from Marvel staring modified versions of DC’s Batman and the Joker. Let there be no confusion: the Marvel comic featuring evil Batman will be called Nemesis, too. I mean Nemesis #1, not Nemesis #1 from DC. That makes perfect sense, right? 
ON TO BUSINESS
I’ve been honorably discharged from the Military! RATS! Up till now I’ve had a cushy desk job reading comic books on Uncle Sam’s dime. That’s right: ever since the 1950’s the government has secretly paid a red blooded American male a living salary to sit at a desk and read every single comic book that ever gets released. I guess it was all part of a study to determine if Wertham’s “Seduction of the Innocent” held any water.
I found the job through that “Government Grant Money” book. Ya’ know, the one on TV that is sold by the guy who looks like the Riddler? (more…)
Category: Comic Books, Comics, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Recent Releases, Unkiedev, dark horse |
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Tags: Batman Confidential, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Chew, dark horse, DC, Green Hornet, hulk, Jughead, marvel, Nemesis, She-Hulk, Ultimates
Posted on March 2, 2010
By Mat K.
That’s right boys and girls, the real Mega Man Manga finally comes to the states courtesy of Udon Comics and Manga-ka Hitoshi Ariga. You all might remember Mega Man NT Warrior the Manga, and I know all the new kids these days got a kick out of it, but to anyone who remembers the old cartoon, and used to put cardboard tubes on their arms pretending it was a blaster, this is the real Mega Man. Featuring of course Doctor Light (the good doctor), Doctor Wily (the bad doctor), Roll (Mega Man’s sister), Rush (that’s his dog) as well as the bad boss robots you know and love. I know I’m a little bit thrilled about it.
And I would just like to take a moment to poke fun at the names of all the robot masters. Of course the naming was spot-on and overly simplistic, but how can you not love names like Heat Man, Spark Man, Quick Man, Flash Man, Top Man, Hard Man, and Wood Man (vulgarity aside, I always thought to wooden robot was some weird oxymoron). Of course there are plenty more in this volume alone, which just goes to show how awesomely jam-packed it is. (more…)
Category: Manga, Mat. K |
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Tags: dark horse, future diary, kurosagi corpse delivery service, Manga, mega man, udon comics
At first glance, as you run down our new release manga section on our website, the week looks interesting but with a couple exceptions (like Detroit Metal City Volume 4), overall not too exciting. But then you get to the bottom of the list and you have to blink twice because your eyes can’t quite make sense out of what you think you’re seeing. Stephanie Meyer has invaded the manga shelves! That’s right, the Twilight Manga Volume 1 has arrived. Now the cover merely states “Twilight The Graphic Novel”, though distributor listings actually say “Twilight Manga”. And the adaptation is done by Young Kim, which would technically make it manhwa anyway, but I digress. I know this comes as good news to many Twilight fans out there. You finally get to see your precious Edward in manga form. And I will say this, the cover art doesn’t look terrible. I suppose I’m just glad that Shakespere and the Bible made it to manga form before Twilight did.
Now, big news in my book is the arrival of a new Yuu Watase series (if you’re not familliar, Yuu did Fushigi Yugi and Ceres: The Celestial Legend). Her new series is Arata The Legend, and is her first venture into shonen books, as opposed to her usual shojo stylings. Basically in a world where humans and gods coexist, Arata is the unfortunate successor to the matriarchal Hime Clan, unfortunate because if he’s not cross-dressing to hide his gender one minute, he’s fleeing for his life the next. Fun times. Watase does the celestial gods and humans thing really well; reincarnations, genetic clones, living stories, and alternate worlds. She’s always fun, magical, action packed, and sad. (more…)
