What does that mean? It means from here on out, you’ll be able to get all of your comics news from one source: THE DAILY PLANET (http://www.fpusadailyplanet.com)

This blog will stay on line for a while as be make the transition complete. But all of the bloggers you’ve followed like Chris Troy, Loran, and Unkiedev will be posting along side Jeff Ayers, Morgan Pielli, Matt D, and Dan Roth on THE DAILY PLANET.

So come by and check us out!

If there’s one thing I can’t stand in the video game world, is the current influx of “realistic military shooters”. I can’t explain why, but they just bug me. They all feel like the same game in a different package. It’s just soldiers versus more soldiers. It feels like if you want a first-person shooter with zombies or robots or aliens, you have to go with either the Halo series or Half Life series… and only one of those is getting new games at regular intervals… Still, the one that IS getting frequent games has some pretty cool-looking aliens, especially the ones you can play as.

First introduced in Halo 2 (to a certain degree), the Elite Ranger is the Covenant’s jetpack trooper. These are the guys you’ll see harassing you in Firefight games or guarding Zero-G sections of Covenant Battlecruisers. I’ll have to say they’re one of my favorite armors for the Elites, if only because it looks so different from the regular armors. I like the lack of exposed mandibles. One would have to wonder why a warrior race would leave their mouth so exposed in their armor…

Appropriately, the new mold for the Elite towers over the Spartans. It’s big and heavy and the blister certainly reflects that. I really like that McFarlane managed to keep all of these figures at the same price point, even if it means paying the same for a Brute as you would a Grunt. However, I’m not entirely sure I like the new Elite mold more than the one from Halo 3. While the hands are much, MUCH more manageable, they really falter when it comes to the legs. The lack of a ball joint in the hips combined with the construction of the feet make them sort of difficult to stand properly, and the added weight of the torso doesn’t help much, either.

I love the design of the Elite Ranger’s helmet. The mask is translucent but almost opaque, so at a distance it looks like you can’t see his face, just like in the game. However, I think the mask is glued in, so you can’t really get a good look at his face.

One thing that I was surprised that the figure included was a jetpack. I figured it was going to be a case of the Air Assault Spartan where you had to buy the jetpack separately. The Elite Ranger actually has a specialized backpack included with only this figure. I like it more than the regular Elite Jetpack because it feels more natural on his body—heck, I didn’t even notice it until I opened the package!

Weapons include a plasma grenade (of course) and the ever-irritating Focus Rifle. Getting the focus rifle into his hands is a bit tough at first since it might require the use of some warm water or a hairdryer. I can’t get it completely into his hands, but it stays. Still, it looks pretty cool, and he can hold it well enough in both hands. One has to wonder how a human would hold this weapon, however…

I can’t say I’m disappointed by my first foray into Reach’s Covenant figures. He’s cool, but not perfect. I do recommend him, as he’s probably the coolest Covenant variant on the market currently. Halo figures average at about $15 at FP, so if you want yours don’t hesitate—this guy’s proving to be popular!

Forget about elections, snow, wild tigers ripping at your face, bills, those same tigers ripping at your legs, problems with your girlfriend, problems with your boyfriend, problems with your tiger, global warming, house fires, the mumps, the whooping cough, rubella, zombie bites, swarms of bees, bees and tigers mating to breed flying, stinging death machines, and that crazy ending to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

SALVATION is here in the form of ace cartoonist Jacob Chabot.

WHO?!

To quote Christopher Walken, “Jacob Chabot is just like you or I…he puts his pants on one leg at a time. The only difference is, once he has his pants on He makes Eisner nominated comics.”

Mighty Skullboy Army Vol. 2, Jacob Chabot (W/A), Dark Horse

I have no problem writing that Jacob Chabot is one of the most talented cartoonists working in comics today…and the fact that he’s still working is an incredible miracle! Last time I saw Jacob’s stuff was over in Spongebob Comics Magazine where he draws an impressive amount of the material, and previous to that he had a two pager in the Fear Itself tie-in humor comic Shame Itself.

The guy is working hard to make a living in a field he loves, a field with diminishing returns and thankless hustle. Jacob caught a break when he won Dark Horse’s online comics contest several years’ back. At the time, the comics industry could see money to be made off web comics but couldn’t quite figure out how to do it. Both Dark Horse and DC’s ZUDA web comics were run as contests…I think we all won!

Thanks to this period we not only have the amazing Chabot’s Mighty Skullboy Army, but we also have Steve Ellis and David Gallaher’s Harvey Nominated and highly awesome weird west werewolf comic High Moon at DC’s ZUDA.

But I digress.

OF SKULLBOYS AND STAPLES

The Mighty Skullboy Army features the half-assed attempts to take over the world by a squat, tuxedo-wearing Skeleton. Though a brilliant inventor, he only seems to know two ways to solve problems: Throw money at the problem or send in his army.

In this particular case, Skullboy’s eponymous army of might consists of just two individuals, a clanky blue robot and a wiry monkey. Both of them are smarter than he is. Both of them are far more even tempered.

Skullboy sends his army against school bullies, Future versions of himself, bears and whatever else he feels he can. The stories feature around gentle humor and wacky situations…kinda’ like a dumb Ritchie Rich meets Red Dwarf.

The art is striking, tight ink control over crisp clear lines. Cute characters full of flow and style. It is some of the most visionary and exciting American comics being done today.

If you can find the first volume of Mighty Skullboy Army anyplace BUY IT instantly. Lucky for all of us, the second volume of this flat out amazing comic is available this week from Dark Horse.

Buy it, enjoy it, treasure it forever and DO watch out for flying bee/tiger hybrids. Bigers? Tees?

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More musings from Unkiedev, Earth’s own sidekick, can be read at unkiedev.blogspot.com

Well okay, the title’s kind of a lie. Most of the new stuffs we’ll be looking at came in towards the end of 2011, but you know, I was busy playing catch up with the best of list and attending MAGfest (which again, was awesome). However most of the awesome new arrivals are STILL in stock (for now!), so we might as well go over what those things are just in case you the reader are interested. Which hopefully, you will be.

On the left, you’ll see a picture of the Robot Damashii Wing Zero Custom (from the Gundam Wing OVA “Endless Waltz”) from Bandai. I’m not exactly how new it is on the shelves of Japan, but we finally have it in at FPNYC, so that’s all that matters right? The Winger Zero Custom joins the Tallgeese 3 as the 2 Wing-related Robot Damashiis we have in, as well as the Gouf Custom and the Gundam Unicorn from the Universal Century line. All 3 of these figures are super articulated, come with a nice selection of variant parts and weapons, and are 2nd only to the Revoltech in overall mecha quality, which is impressive for a line that hasn’t been around as long. We’ve sold out of the One Piece/DBZ/MegaMan/Tiger and Bunny releases super fast, so if you want yourself a super articulated Gundam figure, you best come get them as soon as possible.

Our next new item is definitely not as articulated or well sculpted as the RD figures, but are a fraction of the price, and are awesome none the less! It’s the first line of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Minimates, featuring a selection of familiar faces, as well as some more obscure one, something Art Aslyumn has been good at doing for the last couple of years. The first four 2-packs consist of The Phoenix & Morrigan, Iron Man &Arthur, Dormannu & Trish, and 2 of my favorite characters from the game, Dante & Deadpool. Wade aside, Art Asylum has done a terrific job of building upon the basic Minimate bodies, giving each character a unique look. Be warned that not all of them come with cool accessories like Arthur, Dante and Deadpool, but hey, they retail for $10 and come in 2 packs. It’s a pretty good deal none the less. And there’s at least 2 more waves to drop in 2012, including the likes of M.O.D.O.K., which will be a must buy.

Wrapping up the new releases, we have the final 2011 wave of Marvel Universe figures (Wave 17), as well as the final wave of direct retail DC Universe Classic figures. On the Marvel side of things, we have X-woman, Storm, and Psylocke making their debuts; Young Avenger Patriot, and regular offender Thor in an appearance from a Matt Fraction penned mini series as the new unique sculpts, with Shadowland, Daredevil, and Iron Fist as repaints of pre-existing versions of the characters. I picked up Storm so expect a spotlight/ review on her soon. On the DC end of things, we have a modern (pre new 52 modern) Green Arrow, a pre-relapse Red Arrow, Hawk and Dove, and slimmer Sinstero figure, a Reverse Flash, and a variant White Lantern Flash using the same sculpt, with Blackest Night villain Nekron as the Build a Figure for the wave. Both line posses the strengths and weaknesses that you’ve come to expect over the years, but do a good job expanding both lines universes. As always, I urge you to come pick any figur you want from these lines ASAP, especially given how given the MU stuff sells out, and the fact that DCUC line is now over in the direct market.

And with that, we’re off to an awesome start for collectors in 2012! Happy hunting FPNYC faithful!

Like its younger, better-looking Gundam brother, the GM II has gone pretty unappreciated in the model kit world. There was one plastic kit back in the original Zeta Gundam line, and at least one conversion kit made for the HGUC GM. While I do like its design overall, it’s really not that much different from a regular GM. Even technically, some of the GM II units are just upgraded One Year War stock, and even the new units aren’t that much better than the original suit. Still, it’s a GM, and every series has to have its lovable “redshirt” good guy unit.

Chances are, the average person won’t be able to tell a GM from a GM II if they just saw them in passing, aside from maybe differences in the color scheme. It’s not a very exciting design, especially if you already have a regular GM. Maybe Bandai just wanted to see what the kitbashers came up with for stuff based on the regular GM. Or they just wanted more money for B-Club, who knows.

By and large this is just the GM III kit with a few of the runners changed. Nothing wrong with that, but one thing does end up a bit odd: the hip armor. The hips still have the holes for mounting the missile launchers from the GM III, but there’s nothing to go there. It seems like a bit of an oversight, but maybe Bandai’s planning some new variant that will actually use them. What that variant is, I haven’t the slightest.

As far as articulation goes, everything that was said about the GM II holds true here, so no complaints in that department. However, while the GM III got two four extra hands (two fists and two open hands), the GM II has none of those. Strange considering the GM II is a cheaper kit, but I guess they wanted to make it as cheap as possible.

The weapons layout is the same as the GM III (unsurprisingly), minus the missile pods of course and with one saber instead of two. Curiously, the kit comes with yellow saber blades, probably because it was released as a Zeta Gundam kit (Titans colors), and we all know bad guys in Gundam have to have yellow beams for some reason.

The head is basically a GM’s head with new “earmuffs” and an antenna, with the same new visor style as the GM III. I can dig it.

I love the assortment of stickers here, especially the ones for Torrington Base. It’s like they knew what I was planning… Sadly there are no Karaba labels, which the GM III came with.

Part of my reason for buying this kit was because of a kitbash plan. I purchased two, one for a standard built (I’m going to do it in classic GM colors as per my addiction) and the second will be made into the custom unit from episode 4 of Gundam Unicorn, the GM Semi-Striker. I even purchased a second GM Striker for the task, though I didn’t realize how noncompatible the parts were. I have some GM Kai parts I can use, however, and the shield won’t be much of a problem after the huge disaster with the Full Armor Gundam…

I like this kit overall more than the original GM, and it’s a bit more versatile than the GM III, but it doesn’t really wow me. I do plan on doing some army-building, however it’s not as economical as its older brother the classic GM. I give it a recommendation, though, especially if you have some Zeon suits looking for a punching bag. If your Zeon suits need a punching bag, come to FPNYC and pick up yours!