My Favourite Things: June 2013

It's summer! Right? Hello, weather, it's summer! C'mon!

1) Bitter Orange

We love James Urbaniak here at FRED so we were delighted to see a short film he has a part in pop up online. It's written and directed by Hope Larson and stars Brie Larson who most of you may recognise as Envy Adams from Scott Pilgrim.

It's a noir style 1920s caper and is full of sass, moxy, and guff. Well worth a watch.

Comics: 26th June 2013

For the first time this year I had to decide not to buy some comics because I'm broke. Two comics, to be precise. One was an easy decision. I just wasn't that into the He-Man series. The other was a bit more painful. Greg Rucka is a writer I hold in high-regard since his outstanding work on Gotham Central so when his new book called Lazarus started this week I had planned to get it. But with four other comics already out this week on top of the new 100 Bullets spin-off I forgot to pick up last week, well, it was just a lot of money.

These sort of Sophie's Choices will happen more and more over the summer as I try to sort my finances out but for the time being I hope that next week will be a quieter one and maybe Lazarus won't have sold out by then. Maybe.

- All New X-Men #13
- Written by Brian Michael Bendis
- Art by Stuart Immonen

People always made fun of Bendis for writing very "talky" books. It was never a problem for me because 1) I'm a very dialogue heavy writer myself and 2) I've always enjoyed his dialogue.

Case in point, two standout parts for me this week were two pieces of dialogue.

In the midst of a serious conversation and planning going into a battle, Iceman suggests "I could make everyone real cold". That made me legitimately laugh out loud (I love Iceman).

Secondly, Kitty Pryde delivers a rather memorable speech concerning "Mutant" being a taboo word and how certain members of the Mutant community are reacting to it. Both Kitty and writer Bendis are Jewish so you can probably imagine the conviction in that oration.

- Hawkeye #11
- Written by Matt Fraction
- Art by David Aja

There was a very large part of me that wanted to just write P I Z Z A D O G a couple hundred times and make that my review but I actually have stuff I want to say.

For a comic book that (as Fraction puts it) is "about nothing" its quickly becoming a character defining run, much in the same vein as Bendis' time on Daredevil. Lets face it, Clint Barton was probably not the most fleshed out Marvel character in the past ten years, maybe even twenty, but Fraction is building a rich tapestry of life. We're meeting his friends, his tennants, his dog, his enemies, and now his family makes a return.

This issue is written entirely from Lucky the dog's perspective and somehow it makes perfect sense. If that isn't a shining example that Fraction is writing like his life depended on it, I don't know what is.

Word-A-Week Vocabulary Vlog #46 - Otiose

Once again, the crappy audio continues until I can sort out my proper camera. In the meantime, big thanks to JJ Hawkins who submitted this week's word!

I Heart Graffiti: Ticking Dove

I'm sure this represents something, like peace is fragile and it could blow at any moment... I don't know. But it's quite possibly the best stencil I've seen in a long time.

Comics: 19th June 2013

- Avengers #14
- Written by Jonathan Hickman & Nick Spencer
- Art by Stefano Caselli

Apparently this issue is the "prelude to Infinity". I have no idea what Infinity is. I'm assuming it's some sort of "event". If I was a professional in any way I'd look it up, but this is a blog and I figure if I start doing that sort of thing I may get ideas above my station. It's like spell-check. Once you start, you'll be lifting your pinky finger when holding a drink and cleaning your monocle profusely. No thank you.

To be honest, I don't see how it's a prelude to anything other than the next issue of Avengers. It's very similar to most of the issues this series. I don't know. Am I getting jaded? Possibly.

And no, "getting jaded" does not involve gamma rays. Kids these days...

Aaron's WWEport - Winds of Change

Winds of change. It's not just a move by Wade Barrett. This past week has seen a near upheaval of change within the WWE. So many turns, people don't know their heels from their faces. I thought it an opportune time to do a report of where we are right now.

- Daniel Bryan is carrying the company.

Who would have seen that coming? D-Bry has been stealing the show for a couple months now but WWE have not been subtle with how much they're relying on him. Every week on both RAW and Smackdown the amount of focus and match time he has been getting has been unparalleled.



The crowd reaction has been insane too. I can't remember a wrestler getting as big a pop as him since CM Punk dropped his pipe-bomb three years ago and even then it wasn't as unanimous as the love for Bryan is. He's got every arena in the palm of his hands and JBL is almost masturbating on mic during his matches.

It's all incredibly deserved success and I hope it continues. With his match being called short on RAW I think it shows just how valuable the heads backstage think he is. They were more willing to cut a big match short and protect Bryan than risk injuring him. Daniel was clearly happy to carry on and I believe Randy has the experience to be able to look after him out there but backstage panicked and I think that speaks volumes.

It seems we're all extremely glad he's OK.

Word-A-Week Vocabulary Vlog #45 - Abderian

Apologies for the dip in sound quality, alas since my camcorder broke this was the best I could scramble together.

Game of Thrones Exhibit

On Saturday I took a trip up to Northern Ireland to see the Game of Thrones exhibit they had for two weeks in the Titanic Belfast Centre. It was only a small exhibit but it had some cool props and costumes. Here are a few pictures I took, you can click them to see larger versions.

There were lots of the swords from the show but I was particularly smitten with the Stark shield.

Weekend Justice #196: Valar Portcullis

Being the rock and roll superstar that I am, sometimes it's tough to make time for all the rad and radical things I do. As such, I have been remiss in my Weekend Justice duties. The revolution came and they were first against the wall. But I make a short return this week, so step off that ledge. Life is worth living again.

I join the usual crowd of Widge, Jon, Rox, Scott, and Tuffley to discuss such madness as:

• The world's most popular Irish podcaster returns!
• Game of Thrones post-mortem!
• Arya, major asskicker
• How to rock on the Iron Throne and ideas for the Westeros Theme Park
• The importance of communication
• The new McDonald's gambit
• Catching up with Doctor Who with added Whovian annotations
• Buddy cop bigotry
• Time travel rules
• ...and more!

To listen to the episode CLICK HERE or to download directly CLICK HERE.

Comics: 12th June 2013

Only one comic that I regularly buy came out this week so I took a chance on a couple comics I knew nothing about but liked the look of in the shop. Lets see how I got on...

- The Manhattan Projects #12
- Written by Jonathan Hickman
- Art by Nick Pitarra

Sometimes I wonder what the families of the real-life characters from this book think of it. Or even if they're aware of it at all. Enrico Fermi is portrayed in this book as a mentally dull child who is killed and cloned by a homicidal alien. Considering he's a Nobel Prize winning physicist in reality, it's a comparison that I'm sure could ruffle a few feathers of a grandchild somewhere. Or, maybe it's so ridiculous that nobody could take it seriously.

Whatever the reaction, even Fermi's family couldn't deny that this is a fun, inventive, and always interesting comic book. One I look forward to every issue.

This month, another danger from within threatens the team and blood gets spilled again. The usual.

- Six-Gun Gorilla #1
- Written by Simon Spurrier
- Art by Jeff Stokely

I'm not going to lie, I bought this entirely based on the front cover (by Ramon Perez). Just look at it though. Can you blame me?

The inside is pretty great too. It's an alien world where people are fighting in an old-west/American civil-war style battle. Some of the grunts are hooked up with eye cameras and are beaming live, gory entertainment to the folks back home. This story follows one such heart-broken grunt who manages to survive the first wave of attack (unusual for a man in his division) and gets himself into a whole heap of trouble. Who comes to his rescue? None other than our title character. A pistol wielding, poncho wearing gorilla.

If this thing doesn't sell a million copies in the first week there is no justice in the world. I'm just sad to find out it's only a 6 issue story. I'll keep you posted for when I start the "Bring Back Six-Gun Gorilla" campaign.

- Thumbprint #1
- Written by Jason Ciaramelia
- Art by Vic Malhotra

IDW pulled a very sneaky trick on me. You'll see in the top left corner of this comic a list of names. Traditionally these would be the names of the people involved in the comic. Now, it's not shown on this image I found online, but in real life "Joe Hill's" is also printed above the U and M of "thumbprint". So, with these two contributing factors, I had assumed that I was buying a Joe Hill comic. My first Joe Hill comic too (I had heard good things about him). Colour me surprised to find out that the only connection is that the story is based on his novella of the same name. Bugger that.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, is the comic any good? It's OK. It is to be commended for involving a lot of important issues; women in the military, the mistreatment of prisoners, veterans' readjustment to society, etc. For whatever reason currently, I'm not hooked. We'll see how it goes.

The Drive In Of DOOM! - Hellboy

This month's movie is the wonderful Guillermo Del Toro film Hellboy. I'm a fan of both him and the comic so I was very pleased that the two fit together so well.

As always with these Drive-In commentaries, when me and JJ agree on a good film it means that we meander a lot in our conversation because there is only so many times you can say "this is great" so be prepared for tangents. Specifically: my fascination with the different version me and JJ had. It seems the US cut and the European cut are quite different and I couldn't let it go.

To listen to the episode CLICK HERE or to download directly CLICK HERE.

I Heart Graffiti: Basket Case

More wonderfulness from the Evolve Urban Art guys.

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Charity Match Report

With only three days to raise money for the game I wasn't optimistic that I would raise any significant amount. However, everyone was wonderfully generous and with thanks to you lot I managed to get together €160 by the time I went to the game. I'm incredibly grateful to everyone who donated and I want you to know that you renewed my faith in humanity. In fact, my day job donated another €50 after the game too which brought my total up to €210! As a result the game raised a total of €2500 and we couldn't be happier so give yourselves a round of applause.

As promised, there are some pictures from the game courtesy of AlanE. I'll just post the ones that include me but if you'd like to see them all just click that link. You can also click any of these images to make them larger!

Comics: 5th June 2013

June 5th was the original release date for Hawkeye #11. The issue is entirely from the point of view of Pizza Dog, no, I'm not lying, and I was endlessly excited to read it (with no help from my friend Amanda who has been equally as eager). When I reached the comic shop and found no Pizza Dog I was in a panic. Had I missed it? Is it sold out? No, it's been pushed back a whole 3 weeks for release. Three. Weeks.
I sulked for the rest of the day.

But, here are the comics I did buy:

- All New X-Men #12
- Written by Brian Michael Bendis
- Art by Stuart Immonen

SPOILERS: The cover action scene doesn't happen. Not even a little bit.

But what DOES happen is a lovely brother scene where Alex gets to meet Scott at a time when he's not mental. If this comic does nothing but rehabilitate the image of Scott Summers in the comic-community, then it's still incredibly important. The character has been shat on by writers for far too many years and I think it's admirable that Bendis has found a way to cut to the core of Cyclops and remind us why he was the leader of the X-Men in the first place.

He's a good kid, he just needed to be raised differently, this is giving him that chance.

Also, god damn Immonen is a fucking amazing artist.


- Avengers #13

- Written by Jonathan Hickman

- Art by Nick Spencer

So the High Evolutionary is up to some of his (its?) usual tricks and starts using some of the alien kids as batteries. I'm slightly confused as to whether that's a bad thing or not though. I mean, when last I looked, these aliens are supposed to be kinda dangerous and an invading threat but the Avengers have decided to take them under their wing. It's all a little complicated.

Hyperion is centre stage again. He's a bit of a tricky problem. It's hard for Marvel to have any sort of superhero with a cape & heat-vision and not have the Superman comparisons come up. And for all sense and purpose he is a Superman facsimile. Same powers, from another world that has been destroyed, no family here on Earth etc. But Hickman is making a strong case for his involvement here and I'm begginning to enjoy him despite the little I know of him.

Word-A-Week Vocabulary Vlog #44: Kaput

Sometimes the universe doesn't want me to have nice things...

A Bit of Charity

Hey everyone, I'm not one that usually asks for favours. I'm a bit awkward and shit at that sort of thing. But, this Friday I'll be playing in a football match for charity and I could use your help with donations.

You Boys In Green is the Republic of Ireland's football supporters group and they do wonderful work for charities every year. This year their two charities are Aoibheann's Pink Tie which are an organisation to support the families of children suffering the horror of childhood cancer and Shine who supports people with mental ill health and their families in a number of different ways.

YBIG are hosting a fan match on Friday at 3pm in Irishtown Stadium, Dublin and anyone who wants to play has to raise at least €50 for the event. With at least 22 players needed to play a game that's at least €1,100 that will be raised (although obviously, everyone is working hard to get a lot more).

This is where you come in. If you could even spare a fiver, it would be going to great causes and will allow me to embarrass myself on a football pitch in front of the other boys. That's two for the price of one, folks. I can't make a show of myself without your help!

If I manage to raise the amount, I'll make sure to show some pictures from the day (lots of people already promising to bring their cameras). So just hit the donate button below and give whatever you can. I'll love you forever if you do.

For information on the charities you can read more at this link here http://www.ybig.ie/forum/ybig-charities-2013_topic42219.html and the initial thread to sign up for the event is here too, if you're nosey http://www.ybig.ie/forum/roi-fans-v-roi-fans-irishtown-june-7th-3pm_topic44316_page1.html

I Heart Graffiti: Phats

I don't live near The Bernard Shaw pub anymore, which means I'm missing out on prime graffiti on a daily basis but I took a quick swing by the other day and caught this colourful doozy.

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