Here's a look at some Battle Bash/Lucha Libre cards from the Battle Bash comic released in France a couple of weeks ago. Battle Bash collects previously released comic fight scenes from Luchadores Five, Tequila and Tikitis and 15-pages of original comics by Inés Vargas and Sanford Greene. Jerry and I were actively involved in the development of this project. We couldn't be happier with how the final product turned out.

Over the last couple of years, US Pro Wrestling has developed a strong following amongst kids in France. Jerry and I conspired to introduce that audience to the world of our Lucha Libre combination with a comic collection that combined new comics built around the Pro Wrestling concept, reprints of our favorite Lucha Libre fights, and our very own Card Game. 36 cards are included in the middle of the book and can be used to play a 2-player card game. The game is simple yet fun (Jerry's son gives it an enthusiastic thumbs up!)... and it includes character cards of your favorite characters from Luchadores Five, Tequila, and Tikitis.

Below are some pics of the cards being played. I chose the characters used, rules, and point system. Jerry worked his magic with his design skills using art by Gobi, Bill, Fabien M and Sanford Greene.

Here's a lovely shirt designed by long-time Muttpop fan and talented artist/cartoonist Alexis Ziritt. A strong "Dos Rayos" mask design is cool in and of itself... but is brought to a whole new level with his green flesh and purple eyes. As huge fans of anything Hulk-inspired, we love the design. The shirt is on sale today only (Thursday, July 8th) for just $10. The catch is, it'll only be on sale for another ten hours at Ript.com. After that they're gone! If you're interested in purchasing one, you can CLICK HERE to get more information about purchasing.

The King Katch test sample and King Katch creator Fabien M were seen at the Japan Expo in France this past weekend. The King Katch sample was provided by our factory in the exact pieces they intend to divide and produce the production version of the figure. The video gives a decent sense of the size of King Katch in comparison to the production Tequila figures. Fabien M gave an enthusiastic thumbs up. Now we must part ways with dear ol' King Katch and have him assist the factory in producing his production twins!

Regular Muttpop poster, PoonDockTaint, pointed out that Touma's upcoming Mr. Patriot figure looks a bit like our upcoming King Katch figure. Are the similarities the result of mere coincidence or deliberate inspiration? It's all in the eyes of the beholder. I've posted comparison shots of both figures for you to decide!

Now's as good a time as any to mention that King Katch original will be released by the end of 2010. We're hoping to bring the resin test sample to SDCC... but it looks like the factory may need it before the convention to begin work on the official production molds. We'll keep you posted as we receive news from the factory.

Humanoids has just made available live streaming access to both the first issue of "Unfabulous Five" and "Bouncer" for FREE. The "Unfabulous Five" continues from where the "Luchadores Five" story left off in Lucha LIbre #6... so it'll be well worth checking out. Also, "Bouncer" is one of the best Western/Old West stories I can recall ever being told in comics. It's a worthy read that I highly recommend (it also helps that I edited them both!).

There's two ways you can read the comics: your computer's internet browser and iPad. The computer version is a competent way to read both comics. But we're super proud of our comics and the intuitive iPad interface we've developed. These two issues are the first of many we will be offering to comic fans and iPad users.
You can access them on either your iPad or computer by clicking HERE (for "Bouncer") and HERE (for "Unfabulous Five"). As long as you can access the internet, you can read them. Naturally, the better the internet connection, the quicker you can access them.

Humanoids will also launch a separate application called iHumanoids in the Apps Store by the end of this summer. With iHumanoids, many of Humanoids' comic titles will be available for downloadable purchase. Once downloaded, you'll be able to read them wherever you would like, with or without being connected to the internet.

Check out both comics and let me know what you think!

I'm looking forward to playing SIN & PUNISHMENT: STAR SUCCESSOR (aka Sin & Punishment 2) on my Nintendo Wii. As a fan of the first game on the N64 (I even spent $90 for an import copy!) I'm curious to see what Treasure (the game makers) are able to do with the Nintendo Wii system and controller. As any regular reader of this blog can gather, my gaming tastes tend to skew "old-school" and "Japanese". Treasure's one of the best developers to capture that.

A quick glance at the game screenshots suggests a somewhat bland art style (I'm not digging the washed colored and zombie puppet protagonists) but anybody that has played a game by Treasure knows that it's all about the gameplay. Treasure games are known for having responsive controls and so much stuff on the screen that your brain feels like it's on the fringe of exploding while maintaining an overall sense of order that makes you feel like you will progress further with a little more practice and skill. From that standpoint, this game looks like it will deliver.

There's an old gaming "legend" that claims that the developers at Treasure were the original programming team that developed several of Konami's classic action games including GRADIUS and CONTRA. A little investigation show that to not be entirely true (only 1-2 Treasure programmers worked for Konami)... but the spirit of many of Treasure's game can be found in many of those Konami classics. Despite having an almost religious reputation amongst old-school gamers, Treasure's never had a huge breakout success. Fortunately their philosophy towards games (making them punishingly difficult and arcade-like) and independent approach to making games (using a small but talented staff to develop games one-at-a-time) allows them to continue developing games for their devoted fans.

Anybody interested in checking out other Treasure classics should try and find Ikaruga (for the Gamecube and Dreamcast; I've talked about it multiple times on this blog), Gunstar Heroes (for the Sega Genesis), or Guardian Heroes (for the Sega Saturn).