Going away for the weekend so I won’t be updating tomorrow. I hope everyone in the U.S. has a safe and fun holiday. See you all Monday.

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I watch Yahtzee’s game reviews every week because they amuse me greatly. This week, he decided to take on gaming webcomics that aren’t Penny Arcade. Somewhere along the way, he calls out Tim Buckley for doing a miscarriage story arc in a comic known for slap happy gaming humor. Yahtzee doesn’t call Ctrl-Alt-Del or Tim by name, but I can’t think of another gaming comic that has done a miscarriage story arc. Yahtzee then goes on to dismiss gaming webcomics altogether for clogging up the internet and wasting space. I can’t wholly disagree. And his overall assessment of the genre is quite accurate and funny. But let’s get into this miscarriage thing.

I don’t read Ctl-Alt-Del on a regular basis. I’m not much of a gamer so I don’t get the jokes. I did see the comic in question and I thought, from an artistic standpoint, it’s a very powerful four panels. Some of the best stuff I’ve seen Tim draw. But should a creator change the tone of his comic so abruptly just for one arc? And can the comic ever return to its happy days after such a devastating story?

When I saw the comic, I was reminded of sitcoms. Every once in a while, they’d sneak in some deadly serious episode with a poignant message or lesson to teach. There’s the famous pedophile episode in Different Strokes, Good Times had a child abuse arc, Fresh Prince took on driving while black, Roseanne examined domestic abuse. The list goes on. Although these episodes might be controversial, audiences tend to accept them and move on. Why should it be any different for webcomics?

UPDATE: Aha! I see that Yahtzee has a deep seeded hatred for CAD. Scroll down to his post entitled “You CAD” in which Yahtzee describes why it lacks the funny.

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“Keep it classy, San Diego.”

Borat and Burgundy, together at last!

Sacha Baron Cohen with play super sleuth Sherlock Holmes with Will Ferrell playing Doctor Watson in an untitled comedy from Columbia Pictures.

Well, there’s nothing to do but play the caption game. I suspect the movie title will be along the lines of Sherlock Holmes and the Case of [insert caption] or something to that effect. So have at it!

[Via Variety]

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Hey all you SAF fans! As it turns out, the Ottbar is booked to the gills on September 13. We could try to sneak in there and coordinate with all the other acts, but it sounds like a ruddy nightmare. So instead, the Ottobar is giving us the entire freaking day of September 20! We don’t have to worry about other acts getting all pissy and kicking us off the bill. It’ll be all us!

I’ll post more details as we hash them out. One of our ideas was to invite local artist to display their swag for an artist alley type deal. With an entire day available, we might do something like an artist alley during the day and main event in the evening. We’ll have to work those details out. But for sure, my favorite band in the universe, Peelander-Z, is playing the Ottobar on the 25 so we will be giving away tickets for the show! We may even have a special guest or two. More as it develops.

After the long weekend, we’ll be getting together to plan things out so we can start booking artist tables, maybe grab some sponsors, and start the ball rolling.

Super Art Fight returns to Baltimore September 20! Fight ON!

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More adventures in rock climbing. You know, we should take pictures next time we go.

So Audrey and I took our belay test at Earth Treks in Rockville and I’m happy to report we both passed. Now we can go climbing together whenever we want. All that’s left is buying our own gear and our path to the dark side is complete!

We got the gym a little early because we planned to leave a little early to pack for our trip up to Boston for the weekend. But we ended up staying until the gym closed. Just had too much fun hitting the walls! Audrey is already hitting some of the more advanced competition climbs. She’s like a ninja spider monkey! I’m still struggling with some of the intermediate climbs. Didn’t fall this week, but I completely failed one climb. And I kinda cheated on another one. Oh, and my fear of heights is still quite strong. I made it up to the top of one of the 45ft walls and stupidly looked down. I got a little dizzy and my throat clenched up.

Can’t thank Nelly and Jim from Morlock, Garth, and Brian enough for introducing us to the gym. Going to try to remember to bring along a camera next week so we can share the insanity.

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Photo from Millarworld. Insert angelic “ahhhh.”

AZM regular Devin Wolfe sent over news that comic scribe Mark Millar is interested in penning the next Superman movie. Coming off the high of wanted, it seems Millar is ready to get his movie on. And it sounds like Hollywood may be listening. According to Millar:

That Superman news is interesting, isn’t it? In the interests of clarity (because I’m sure this will be picked up somewhere) a very well known American action director heard about my love of Superman, approached my and asked me to team up with he and his producer to make a pitch for this. We’ve been talking for several weeks now and, if this is going to happen, we’ll know by Christmas. He has huge pull at WB so fingers crossed. But this is nothing more than a huge US name pulling me into his fold and making me part of a package.

That could be a lot of fun. Loved his run on The Authority and Ultimates and though I think Civil War wasn’t the best in the world, it was still entertaining. At this point, I’m ready for a complete revamp of the Superman movies. I felt Return sacrificed good story telling to fit into continuity and pay tribute to the original films. I think a writer like Millar could have made it work. I like the way much of his work reinterprets standard superhero tropes. And honestly, after Return, the Superman franchise can use all the help they can get.

[Via Super Hero Hype]

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AZM ally Mike Dent sent me this trailer for an indy Tokusatsu film entitled G. Now I may not know Japanese, but I’m certain “G” stands for “GODDAMNGENIUS!” This looks like such fun.

I wonder why the giant monster genre never really caught on here. We’ve got King Kong and now Cloverfield and that’s about it. Both did fairly well at the box office, but we’ve yet to see more giant States side monsters. Instead, we get those dumb fucks making Disaster Movie. I’d even settle for a few giant monster B movies. You know, someday, when I’m old and have amassed a redonkulous amount of wealth, I shall produce naught but giant monster movies!

[Via Justice Ace]

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The Hawkster twitted up this fun trailer for Rolando, an upcoming game from Handcircus for the iPhone and iTouch. How fun! I love the character designs. The game looks deceptively simple, but I’m willing to bet it becomes an instant classic.

Looks like Handcircus is a one-man studio run by Simon Oliver. Awesome! Seems like the iTouch and iPhone are well suited for smaller gaming studios.

So here’s a question. Is the user base for iPhone and iTouch big enough that Oliver can make a living off of making exclusive platform games? Also, can it do realtime 3D like the DS? Finally, are there any programmers out there that can make my dream of a Kamen Rider bowling game a reality?

Okay, that last one was rather random, but I have a fun idea for a little game full of SD Riders and bowling!

[Via Rolando]

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Way back in the day, long before the era of foofy foofy, Bridget Nielsen starred in one of the worst cult classic fantasy films of all time, Red Sonja. Not even Arnold Schwarzenegger, who a year earlier destroyed the box office as The Terminator, could save this abortive attempt to breath life into a dying genre. It’s amusing, kinda. Ernie Reyes, Jr. plays an annoying spoiled prince which is sort of funny. Maybe. If you’re high while watching the thing. Very. High. Hmmm… shitty 80’s movie that has since become a cult classic? Let’s remake the thing!

Robert Rodriguez will produce Nu Image/Millennium’s remake of Red Sonja with Rose McGowan as the lead. My familiarity with the character is cursory. I saw the original waaaay back in the day and I’ve only seen the covers of the comic so I have no idea if there’s anything more to her than a big sword and even bigger bags of happy fun. There might be some material there for Rodriguez and crew to mine, but I doubt it. The original was a dumb movie and this remake will probably be a dumb summer movie. Although it would be nice to see a female warrior not strapped into an impossibly tight and completely impractical skimpy leather studded bikini, this is probably not the film for that. This is probably the movie that will indeed feature the female warrior strapped into an impossibly tight and completely impractical skimpy leather studded bikini with dialog to match. Not that there’s anything wrong with Rose McGowan strapped into tiny leather, but I can get that for free on the internet.

Who knows, you might end up seeing it in the actual theater if absolutely nothing else was playing except for Uwe Boll’s latest. However, I suspect that if anything else is playing that weekend, including a Love Boat movie, you’d probably go see that instead.

[Via Variety]

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Long known for bringing laughter to children the world around, reader Michael Tricksey sent over these videos that expose the inner pain of Kermit the Frog. Who knew the price of fame is sucking a fuzzy wang. Kermit’s version of NIN’s “Hurt” is horribly disturbing and yet strangely moving at the same time.

And just to weird you out a bit further, here’s Kermit’s version of “Creep.”

[Via Sad Kermit]

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