Badabing/Mkopke/Benji presentan:

Köpke y Benji (buenos amigos y dibujantes, con los que estoy trabajando en Sin Comentarios y Greetings from Murderville, respectivamente) pintaran "en vivo" un mural el la bohemia tienda de comics Badabing (del buen Giacomo), en la Zona Rosa.

Entrada libre, estara rocker, yo ya vi el diseño y ROCKEA BRUTAL (Wells style!). Deberian ir a ver que onda y pasarla brutal antes de salir a fiestear el sabado!

SHE (a little something I am working on).

She, always hiding behind trees, like butterflies in August, delicate and colorful, and I can see through - the net of course.
I get some smiles and she flies back in flirty irony, always to close but never close enough. As always I could feel your breath but never your sweat. Because to tell the truth, there are all these rules written between the lines, and hide and seek we must analyze, find the patterns an summarize the numbers in eloquence. trying to find the answer of why?
Always a nice time but never a significant one, looking for catharsis in mischievous smiles.
As quick as a bat - they all fly, ideas, emotions, delusions and deals made to the femenine side of the succubi kind, walkyries if you like. Barehanded they can all rip a heart aside from the torax, and never keeping in mind that the wound is mortal, they smile. She, sneaks in silence, and though I know she is behind me I never can quite see her smile.

Who reviews the reviews?

Welcome again to another review made by Spike Valentine (made famous by the time his dog bit him while jumping a fence), but, this time, in post-Watchmen movie period of history (which actually didn't do as good as it projected to be, box-office-wise, and there are many reasons for that), where everyone is a self-important, pseudo-intellectual that thanks to the internet, has an opinion. I will make my idiocy be heard by reviewing the reviews!

First of all, the one made by the guys of Comic Book Club (follow the link to see the review, dumbass...). Like Pete, I wasn't fond of the new ending, but, ok, I think that will work for new audiences. This one I think is a very good, objective, and unpretencious way to see the ups and downs of the picture with the eyes of people that actually reads comics, not just read Watchmen because of the film. You can catch their review of the comic-book right here as well ;)

Next, from NEXTNEWNETWORKS (former house of "the Stack" which was the show now known as Comic Book Club) we have the reviews from Beyond The Trailer and Movie Math.
These ones have more of a mainstream point of view to it, looking at it as mostly a movie and giving us the opinions of attendants (fans of the comic-book and civilians), the numbers behind the movie, and the opinion of the hot hosts. The only point I want to make here is, that, well, the yuppie girl in Beyond The Trailer said a movie should stand by itself, and I say it depends, for instance, The Dark Knight is not based on any specific comic-book arc or issue, in that case I think it's ok to think this way. BUT Watchmen is the adaptation of an specific, twelve-issue series and in this case, I think it should stay as faithful to the source material as possible. Grace Randolph, I think, is hot, but, didn't get Watchmen and it seems to be the only "graphic novel" she has touched, her personal review is mostly dumb and it shows that maybe she hasn't read Watchmen after all. I don't mind people that have not read it, just, say you haven't, don't try to be all "down" with culture you don't get.

Now, this blogger Blunty (alleged geek), he does have access to interesting sources (Zack Snyder, Malin Ackerman, Jeffery Dean Morgan) and saw the movie almost before everyone on earth. But, there must be a reason for it, and I didn´t realize it until I saw the film, this one mostly looks like propaganda. The guy is well informed, but if you see his review, for instances, claims there is almost no slo-mo, that is an actual lie. And what he says about the ending, is quite over the top, casting is either very good or very bad (Silk Spectre II), there´s Warner money behind this guy, which isn't bad, just don´t invest a lot in this guy's blog.

Now this idiot Cumonass, one of those morons that says the movie sucks to seem "cool" or "intelligent" (which he is not). He mostly reads some reviews and calls it a review on the film (as opposed to the review of the review). Doesn't add anything to the subject, don't waste your time, and now, for a real review...

Hollywood Elsewhere impresses the eye with this article on Watchmen named "A Staggering Failure". This review has some points other not-so-negative reviews have made about Malin's casting; Carla Gugino, for me, did quite a job with her watered-down role, Nite Owl II works very, very well as well. It also says storytelling is all over the place, which is not, I have seen it twice, once with comic-book devotees and once with civilians, in both cases, me and the rest of the people I watched it with liked it and understood the plot very well. Here we se the suspicion of WB paying for good reviews, well, dude, that happens all the time with most of the movies! Plus this review seems to be there with "I don't like it, so I must be cool", I would say this is biased by pretention.

Te common man review, the one's I've heard mostly agree on distracting music, the hideous casting of Malin Ackerman (there are so many way hot girls that also act way better), (most comic-book fans and I) weren't impressed with the new ending, and me and one friend agree on Rorschach's character was not a good adaptation (though this doesn't affect the movie, as a hardcore fan of Rorschach, I would have rather seen the monotonous one, though I realize that wouldn't have worked with new audiences, which is the main target).

"To hold a pen is to be at war."
-Voltaire-

Who watched the watchmen?

Yesterday I went to the long awaited premiere (mostly by comic-book enthusiasts) movie of Watchmen, based on the limited series comic by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. This adaptation was exceptionally directed by Zack Snyder with an amazing cast and photography that almost made me cry (in a very, very happy way :), that takes us into an incredible journey into one of the greatest novels of the 20th Century (according to Times Magazine).

First, reviewing this as a movie by itself, ignoring the history of the franchise; It is an AWESOME film, easily one of my favorites in the genre and all time quite possibly. It's so beautiful, only complain in graphics is Dr. Manhattan, it does look "plastic", but it doesn't spoil it. Great action sequences, a ton of compelling dialogues including voice-overs. The mock footage of historical events is so greatly conceived it's like history rewritten. Plus, the Minutemen and the Comedian, a real HOME RUN! The OST was a little distracting though, and Silk Spectre's II acting was not matching the film requirements. It's a long movie, but in the good way, you won' t feel uninterested in the plot or characters one bit, and you get a great, deep and long flick for an average ticket price so, go Watch'em :D

Now, the geek side takes over and accompanied with spoilers!!! I think Zack Snyder's conception of Rorschach had little to do with the comic-book character, hated that, specially the scene where he describes the kidnap investigation he leaded. The traits of character are made so clear in the comic, and he seemed not to get them at all. Dr. Manhattan also fails to deliver his inhumanity, he seems more like, frightened or shy all the time. I also wished there was more of the Minutemen (I really almost cried of happiness when I saw the title & credits), the New Frontiersman/New York Gazette bits, technology, symbolisms, and also, the commercial need to rename the team CRIMEBUSTERS to Watchmen, I think was unnecessary. Not a big fan of the new ending really, it seems that people forget it's kind of like a personal tribute Moore made in honor of H G Wells that worked marvelously, it was lost to a not-so-good-but-not-so-bad one where Manhattan is the key to the conspiracy.

In general terms, this is a movie worth your while, brutal realization, it promises to become a classic, and possibly inspire a lot of people, I am very pleased with it. Zack Snyder, in my opinion, is the most talented director for this kind of films, and you can tell his love for Watchmen is absolute, like the love of the comic geek community (at your service). But, it's obvious it just can't be as good as the comic-book, it's impossible.
I suggest you do both, read the paperback and see the flick, the world of Watchmen is always a good, interesting take on this joke we call life.

On a little sidenote, even though Paramount pictures acted like jerks with the internet sites interested in covering Watchmen (which, seriously, you guys should reconsider your position). And weirdly enough, there was some advertisement of the movie with Moore's name on it (I will post it when Mkopke scans it). They did go all the way with the premiere invitations and a cellphone/iPod baggy, which you can se posted down here, courtesy of Manuel "Mkopke" Garcia (producer of Spicy Chilli Candy, creator of Katmandu and co-creator of Rock N' Roadies, along with yours truly) and my crappy webcam.

Doctor Manhattan: You sound bitter. You're a strange man, Blake. You have strange attitudes to life and war.

The Comedian: Strange? Listen... once you figure out what a joke everything is, being the Comedian's the only thing that makes sense.

Doctor Manhattan: The charred villages, the boys with necklaces of human ears... these are part of the joke?

The Comedian: Hey... I never said it was a good joke! I'm just playing along with the gag...

-Alan Moore, Watchmen-

Angel; Aftermath: Beautifuly bringing back the status quo.

Just finished reading this issue, after After The Fall, everything seems to be back to normal but, everything seems to be so different at the same time.
It's an interesting way to set-up the new arc. It does have a "new season" feel to it. A well-known character is back being suspiciously nice, and maybe W&H is not so-long-gone after all.
Though we don't see much of good ol' Spike, Lorne, and Gunn, it looks so very interesting, and I am sure we'll see these guys around.
Kelley Armstrong is doing a nice job plot & script-wise, even though it will only last 6 issues, I can safely say the story won't go stale due to a change in the writer side. And art-wise, Dave Ross did a very nice job, and I enjoyed it so much, it's what this title needed, someone other than Franco Urru, which personally, almost ruined After The Fall for me, and Ross did nicely.
I wish the guys from Comic Book Club tackled this issue, specially since Alex is a huge fan as well.
By the way, Dollhouse rocks and Whedon still proves to be quite an entertainment genius! Though in my opinion, Season 8 is getting a bit out of control ever since that issue written by Jane Espenson, no wonder that Point Pleasant show did poorly.

"Very occasionally, if you really pay attention, life doesn’t suck." -Joss Whedon-