Batman Returns - A Liveblog Through Nostalgia

Tim Burton’s Batman film is unarguably considered a masterpiece. For many, it is considered the best Batman film ever made. Batman Returns on the other hand does not get spoken about nearly as much. I grew up with this movieand the maelstrom of movie tie-in merchandise is emblazoned into my brain. Trading cards, toys, Happy Meals, action figures, comic books, advertisements, commemorative jelly jars, glasses from fast food restaurants, cassette tape soundtracks, lithographic bookmarks, clothing, stickers, and posters were just a few of the items my brother and I personally had. I distinctly remember the little holographic sticker of the Batman logo being on dozens of collectibles. Just this year, I saw party supplies featuring the movie font and the Michael Keaton’s face in a discount store in Lincolnton, NC.

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two things at once - Charlie the Knife review and interview

Charlie the Knife is the solo project of Will McEvilly of CSTVT(formerly Castevet). While this is technically a demo, the four songs are so well recorded and robustly arranged with acoustic and electric guitars, tambourine, backing vocals and some extra catchy synth work, that I would consider this a strong debut worthy of the arbitrary classification of an EP.

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The Pull List: Double Shot - Batman #21 and Superman Unchained #1

As a lifelong Marvel comics reader, I very rarely dip into the Distinguished Competition’s side of…

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Countdown to Fest 12 - Giant-Size Week 7

To make up for the lack of a new post last week, we’re doing an oversized post including some of…

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The Pull List - Daredevil: Dark Nights #1

Weeks is strong here, the veteran is certainly no stranger to DD, having penciled for two years in the early 90s and worked on the Last Rites storyline which was a sort of sequel to Miller and Mazzucchelli’s Born Again. While, I am not particularly familiar with Miller’s definitive work with the character I can see the similarities in the beats of the story in the pace as well as the staging of the drama. Weeks art, which got my attention, is recognizable and definitely invokes that mighty marvel style of the Bronze Age of Comics and reminded me a great deal of John Romita Sr. and Jr.

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Countdown to The Fest - Week Six

Sorry for the late post this week, but I was awaiting the new round of band announcements and we…

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Review: Old Man Winter - Life is Hell, and Hell is Lost

The pursuit of heaviness delves knew depths every year; often producing overly compressed results, overflowing with constant noise or worse the complete misunderstanding of what “heaviness” is and confusing it for high decibels or intense bass. Yet, sometimes, you come across music that is just best described as heavy. Truth be told, I think we all just want somebody to drop the hammer really hard from time to time and that is exactly what Old Man Winter does here.

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The Pull List - X-Men #1

X-Men #1
Writer: Brian Wood
Penciler: Oliver Coipel
Inker: Mark Morales and Oliver Coipel
Colorist: Laura Martin

One of the more disappointing moments of Marvel NOW! was the announcement that the adjective-less X-Men was going to end, meaning that we were not going to be seeing any more of Brian Wood and David Lopez’ incredibly underrated run. But months later, amidst another round of Marvel NOW! announcements we learned that X-Men would be returning with a new number one, Brian Wood, Oliver Coipel, and an all female lineup of X-Men. Needless to say, the internet was overjoyed. Just when it seemed like this day would never get here, we learned that the series was going to be delayed due to one of the creators having family issues. Instead of using a fill-in artists or writers, Marvel made the wise decision to wait until work on the series could continue.

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Restorations - “D” from their new album LP2

a neat take on the live footage video