If you know Muttpop products, then you are familiar with the amazing design work of Gobi, Bill, and Mense. The 3 talented artists were our inspiration for creating Muttpop. When Jerry was showing me the amazing character designs Gobi, Bill, and Mense were doing for his various Lucha Libre comics I demanded that we find a way to make toys of those characters. As with all talented people, the 3 artists continue to grow in skill and imagination. So much so that they've decided to share some of their wild ideas via their newly dubbed site CATFISH DELUXE.

I had the pleasure of helping them out with the English on the website. It was really fun reading descriptions of the different universes... and even crazier to later see those universes realized in their beautiful illustrations. I recommend... no, I COMMAND you to check out their site! :-)

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE CATFISH DELUXE WEBSITE.

When I was a kid, I'd ask my mother to let me hang out in the magazine section of the local supermarket while she shopped for groceries. All that food shopping go me bored and I was too big to sit in the front of the shopping cart. So a nice compromise was I was able to browse the various magazines at the front of the store while she went about getting our weekly supply of food. My browsing was usually limited to a few comics, videogame magazines like Gamepro and EGM, and some sci-fi special fx magazines. I remember the first time I saw a photo of Robocop on the cover of one of those Sci-Fi magazines. WOW! It was that amazing image of Robocop stepping out of the police car (see below). To my 9 year-old brain it was the epitome of everything that I thought was cool... and it drove me CRAZY that I was too young to watch the film. The designs of Robocop and the ED-209 were like some sophisticated version of my favorite transformers and I was willing to stomach the bloody gore to watch the movie. Sadly, my parents wouldn't let me. As soon as I could, I rented to film (I think I was 12 years old when I finally saw it) and fell in love with Robocop, ED-209 and all the sex and violence my pre-adolescent eyes could handle!

With time, ED-209's movements don't really hold up (the animation looks like it's done by a Harryhausen reject). I've come to realize that many scenes seem border-line stolen from Frank Miller's DARK KNIGHT RETURNS comic. But I still love the music, Robocop and ED-209 designs. As long as I forget Robocop 2 and 3...

I completed NO MORE HEROES 2 about a week or two ago. I enjoyed it but didn't feel the same level of cohesion that I felt with the first NO MORE HEROES game. It's still a great deal of fun and, despite a few bits of irritating gameplay, it's a gaming experience I strongly recommend for anybody that owns a Nintendo Wii, has a sense of humor, and doesn't mind some sex & violence in their videogames.

I'm on a bit of a Grasshopper/Suda51 gaming binge these days. In anticipation of No More Heroes 2's release, I went back and played No More Heroes 1 to completion. Since beating No More Heroes 2, I've decided to give Grasshopper and Suda51's previous game, KILLER7 on the Gamecube another shot and am currently playing it's last of 6 chapters.

Since I literally started playing NO MORE HEROES 2 the day after completing the first No More Heroes game, many of the changes felt jarring. The graphical style is a bit more realistic than what was used in the first game. There are still bits of that harsh polygon shading style I like in KILLER7 and the first game but Grasshopper has refined the graphical style to one that feels more like Capcom's Resident Evil 4 and the Final Fantasy games. There's a softness to the facial features that gives the main character, Travis Touchdown, a feminine quality that I didn't really like. His eyes look like they've got touches of mascara and his lips and hair look a bit too "glam" for me.

NMH2 has also done away with the overworld from the first game and made the mini-games an unnecessary side bit to the main beat-em-up game. In the first game you had to play the simplistic mini-games to earn enough cash to enter the next death match. This time around, you can go straight to the death matches. The mini-games are still very relevant because the money you earn from them allows you to upgrade your fighting speed and/or health, buy new light sabers, and buy new clothes.

Like the first game, mini-games are basic affairs. Most mini-game controls are simple and, appropriately, the games graphics look like old 8-bit NES games. It's a novel visual concept. But I was surprised at how the look and gameplay of the mini-games completely took me out of the game. As annoying as the mini-games were in the first No More Heroes, I felt like I was always in the same world as the fighting levels since their visual consistency and presentation were identical. But as the visual style changed from 8-bit game to the regular polygon style in NMH2, I was constantly reminded that I was playing a game and had a harder time connecting with the world of the game. Yes, it was nice to get straight to the more exciting fighting bits... but I didn't feel the same level of intimacy with the city of Santa Destroy that I felt in the first game.

I found that most of the mini-games were unplayable with the traditional wii-mote and nunchuck controller combination. Most of the games needed some very precise movement that was not possible with the nunchuk's analog stick. I was just about to give up on all the mini-games when I decided to start playing them with the classic controller and immediately noticed that the controller's gamepad was the perfect way to get the precision I needed. One other bummer was the poor quality of the mini-games graphics. It seems as though they were built to play on an HD TV. On my Standard TV, the mini-game screen was very small and graphically blurry.

With the wii-mote and nunchuck, the actual fight mechanics for Travis are improved ever-so-slightly from the first game. General fighting feels identical to the first (in a good way). Also, the different light sabers you can select in the game give you different strategies for fighting. Some are fast but weak. Others slow and powerful. I also noticed that some sabers are faster when in the high offensive position versus low. All of that gives you a lot to experiment with during fighting.

As with the other Grasshopper/Suda51 games the story is non-sensical in a stream of consciousness on acid kind of way. Oddly, I found that this game was even more non-sensical than the others. There were a lot of interesting bits to the story and I love the way it plays with different game styles like Resident Evil 4 and Metal Gear Solid. But there doesn't seem to be as much of an overall theme as in the first game. It's just a bunch of interesting moments. Most of those moments are satisfying, a few will irritate the crap out of you.

Overall, I'm glad to have played No More Heroes 2. There are enough great characters and neat ideas to forget about the occasional odd gameplay choices.

Lots of weird things have been happening in the world of comics. Disney bought Marvel. Paul Levitz, DC's President since 2002 was asked to step down and take a more active role as a writer while Executives from DC's corporate owners, Warner Bros., decided what the next big step with the company will be. Today that next step was announced as Jim Lee and Dan Didio become Co-Publishers and Geoff Johns becomes a Chief Creative Officer. Assuming that Warner Bros. gives all three guys a generous amount of power and creative control, this is a great move for DC. But it also made me realize something else: the current American Comic Book Market is one whose foundation is built on the crazy day in 1992 when 7 "superstar" artists decided to create Image Comics. With time, Image has been blamed for the comic book industry collapse in the late-1990s. But if you look at the careers of many of the more popular Artists (and to a lesser extent writers) of the last 10 years, the Image influence is undeniable. Add to that the significant improvements in overall comic production quality (particularly to paperstock, lettering, and coloring technology) and the many companies and imprints built as a reaction to Image's success and it's obvious: Mainstream Comics today would not exist without the creation of Image Comics.

The obvious connection to DC's announcement is Jim Lee. Jim Lee's been the "golden child" of comics for the last 20 years. The Image founders widely acknowledge that thier biggest move was getting Jim Lee on board with their crazy idea of starting a publishing company... so it's fitting that he is now co-publisher of DC. But what other series/creators can we easily link to Image?

Brian Michael Bendis began writing superhero comics with his POWERS series (which began as an Image book).

Leinil Yu (artist of Marvel's 2009 event comic SECRET INVASION) was discovered and mentored by Image Founder Whilce Portacio.

David Finch (artist of Marvel's ULTIMATUM and DC's upcoming BRIGHTEST DAY) mentored under Image Founder Marc Silvestri.

SAVAGE DRAGON creator Erik Larsen gave many young artists like Jeff Matsuda, Andy Kuhn, Rob Haynes, Tomm Coker, and Jason Pearson some of their earliest professional comic opportunities.

Chris Eliopoulos career as a letterer began when he was hired by Erik Larsen to hand letter his Savage Dragon comics after seeing a few sample pages of his comic strip test pages. Chris' career would expand with the forming of the Virtual Calligraphy digital lettering studio, one of the lettering companies consistently used by Marvel.

The current tone of mainstream superhero comics is heavily influenced by Warren Ellis' amazing run on Image comic's STORMWATCH. The last couple of story arcs on STORMWATCH introduced readers to the beautiful work of BRYAN HITCH, an artist who broke out with the STORMWATCH spin-off AUTHORITY and mega-success with Marvel's ULTIMATES. In fact it was widely acknowledged that Marvel's ULTIMATE universe was inspired by Ellis' & Hitch AUTHORITY. So much so, that Hitch was teamed with Authority's second writer (Mark Millar) on the seminal ULTIMATES comic series

IRON MAN and X-MEN writer Matt Fraction admits it was Ellis' seminal run on Image's STORMWATCH that reinvigorated his interest in comics. He was first getting noticed as a vocal and active participant in Warren Ellis' old Discussion Board.

One of DC's biggest financial successes in comics publishing of the last 10 years was Jim Lee & Jeph Loeb's run on BATMAN.

Comic book publisher IDW was founded by members of Wildstorm after it was purchased by DC and left Image.

Robert Kirkman was hugely influenced by Erik Larsen's SAVAGE DRAGON in his decision to pursue a writing career in comics. He would later co-create and write THE WALKING DEAD for Image Comics, the best selling black & white independent comic of the last 5 years.

If you include Image Comics DIRECT influence on other creators, their presence is even more significant:

Mike Mignola and Frank Miller openly acknowledge that the financial success of Image Comics led to their creation of the LEGEND imprint for Dark Horse, It was through Legend that Mike Mignola began his HELLBOY comics and Frank Miller continued his SIN CITY comics.

Joe Quesada and Jim Palmiotti co-created EVENT COMICS publishing in an attempt to create their own version of Image Comics. After finding success publishing their ASH comic book series, they made a business partnership with Marvel Comics to create the MARVEL KNIGHTS imprint. MARVEL KNIGHTS creative and financial success eventually led to Joe Quesada's promotion as Editor In Chief of Marvel.

Like I said, it's an Image Comics world. :-)

Since my wife enjoyed AVATAR a whole bunch (as did I), I decided it was a good time to introduce her to the classic films of James Cameron. Up until now, the only Cameron film she’s seen is TITANIC  (is there a women under 30 who hasn’t seen that film?)… I thought it was long overdue that I share some of James Cameron’s best work with her.

When I come to think of it, James Cameron’s list of movies isn’t that big. When you consider which of his films are “Must Sees” it gets even smaller. For me, the Cameron “Must Sees” are TERMINATOR, ALIENS, and TERMINATOR 2. ABYSS had its moments but fell a little flat for me. TRUE LIES was fun, but felt like Cameron’s reaction to stuff like DIE HARD and JAMES BOND more than being an honest Cameron film. TITANIC… well, I never saw TITANIC completely. I’ve seen bits and pieces of the film and recall over ten years ago walking in on my Ex-Girlfriend watching the end of the film on TV. I ended up watching that last half of Titanic where the boat is sinking and remember thinking that the movie was better than I had imagined because it had some guy falling to his death and ricocheting off of a gigantic propeller blade (morbidly awesome!).

My attempts at getting her to watch ALIENS (and indirectly Ridley Scott’s masterpiece: ALIEN) failed miserably. She immediately thought it’d be too terrifying for her tastes (darn it!). But I succeeded in suckering her into watching TERMINATOR because A: it has a love story and B: it’s a bit like Carpenter’s Halloween (which is oddly one of her favorite films).

I’ve had a DVD copy of TERMINATOR (in a nifty double DVD set with ROBOCOP) but haven’t garnered the energy to watch the film. In fact, I hadn’t watched the film in around 15 years. It was fun to experience it after all these years. Pleasantly, the film was as good or better than I remembered. Terminator is the ultimate 80s action flick with it’s black leather jackets, neon-lit urban landscapes, and feathered pretty girl hair. It’s structure is very simple but works.

At it’s spine, Terminator is freakishly close in plot to John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN: a mysterious man is breaking into homes and murdering women in cold blood. While Halloween’s Mike Myers tool of preference is his knife or bare hands, Terminator’s T-800 prefers an arsenal of guns complete with infrared scope. Much like what we see in Avatar, Cameron takes a very calculated approach in his use of the more hokey elements of the Sci-Fi genre. From a distance, Terminator is a relatively pedestrian story about a good guy protecting an beautiful girl from the bad guy. The sci-fi is all in the details: robots, time travel, apolyptic wars… but it’s all brilliantly played out in a very current interpretation of Los Angeles. The brilliant thing about this take is that it immediately justifies any suspension of disbelief. Sure, a “normal” guy can’t survive a crazy car crash or fire… but the Terminator’s a freakin’ robot! Rambo, James Bond, and John Mclaine never had that liberty. They can do the impossible because it’s a movie. Terminator can do it because he’s a robot from the future.

There are two things that struck me most when revisiting Terminator. First off, John Carpenter hugely influences Cameron. The way he shoots night sequences with rich hues of blues and reds feels like it’s coming straight out of a Carpenter film. As I said before, the overall structure and main character are an homage/inspiration from Halloween. Even their taste in women (androgynous mix of beautiful and strong) feels consistent. The other is that John Woo was HUGELY influenced by Cameron’s work on Terminator. I love Woo’s films like Hard Boiled, the Killer, and A Better Tomorrow. Never once did I make the connection between his Gun Ballet style and Cameron’s work. I cannot believe I never made the connection. The slow-motion gun battles, leather jackets, sunglasses, expressionless faces… all of those Woo stylistic trademarks can be found in Terminator. When watching the big Police Department gun battle in Terminator I couldn’t stop thinking about how much it must have influenced the huge gun battle in Hard Boiled. It’s pretty amazing seeing what a huge influence this movie was on the whole Hong Kong mafia film movement in the mid-to-late  90s.

All in all, it was a lot of fun watching Terminator. I should make an effort  to watch it more often. Now it’s due time I give Terminator 2 another shot…

My favorite Marvel Superhero is DAREDEVIL. There are many, many reasons for that. Not all of them are entirely objective. When I got into comics, I was at that age where I wanted to like stuff that others didn't... so knowing very little about what was the "hot" book at the moment... I decided that I would pick up Marvel's big revamp at the time: Spider-man 2099. I recall reading a 5 page preview in some weird holographic anniversary issue of Spider-man that my friend had and was really blown away by the art. So SPIDER-MAN 2099 became my first regular comic.

As time passed, I got tired of Spider-man 2099. The first 3 issues were really cool... but the art and story in later issues didn't have the spark I felt in that first story arc. I decided to give Daredevil a try. There was all sorts of buzz about Daredevil having a cool new costume. And the artist at the time (Scott McDaniel) was regarded as a cool new guy. I bought a few issues of that and HATED it. The costume was super lame (what was with those razorblades on the side of his leg!?) and the art seemed a little too odd for my taste. I stopped reading it after a few issues but recall people mentioning how awesome Daredevil was when Frank Miller was doing it in the 80s. As with anybody with a mild interest in comics, I knew about Frank Miller. Frank Miller wrote and drew THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS which was one of those widely accepted references of comic book perfection. At the time, I thought Miller's DARK KNIGHT was pretty nice to look at, but didn't read past the first 48 pages since it had too many words (hey, I was a 13!). I was really curious about what Frank Miller did on Daredevil... but this was before they were putting out trade collections of comics and I refused to pay a lot of money for old comics. So I had to wait to experience those "classic" issues of Frank Miller's Daredevil.

A couple years passed and I heard that Frank Miller was doing some new Daredevil comics (called DAREDEVIL: MAN WITHOUT FEAR). Only this time around, Frank Miller was just writing and working with some artist named John Romita Jr. The cover looked pretty cool, so I decided that THIS would be my first experience reading Miller's DAREDEVIL.

DAMN.

That's all I could say when I read that first issue of John Romita Jr's and Millers Man Without Fear comic. Something exploded in my adolescent mind and heart with the comic book bliss that first issue took me too. Everything complemented each other in the most perfect of ways. The pacing. The dialogue. The subdued colors. All of it was perfect.

I continued to feel that way all the way through the first 3 issues of Man Without Fear (pretty much until the end of Elektra's appearance in the miniseries). Issues 4 & 5 were solid... but didn't reach the level of perfection as those first 3 issues.

Since then, about the only Marvel comic that I've consistently picked up is DAREDEVIL. I'm by no means a Daredevil completist. But if I hear that there's some interesting things happening in that book, I'll buy it. As such, I've read and owned various copies of a lot of the better known post-Frank Miller stories: Quesada's run with Kevin Smith, Born Again, Bendis & Maleev's run, the Brubaker & Michael Lark stuff. I even went back and read those old Frank Miller Daredevil comics.

There are a few great Daredevil comics, some very good ones and a lot of mediocre ones. But none of them measure up to the feelings I had reading those early issues of Frank Miller and John Romita Jr's DAREDEVIL: MAN WITHOUT FEAR miniseries. For me, as a teenager, those first 3 issues showed me comic books could make magic.