UFC 99

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UFC 99 is tonight.  Although there are a couple of good fights on the card, there aren’t enough to tempt me to get the PPV.  Let’s take a look at what they do offer…

Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis Vs. Dan “The Outlaw” Hardy: Both men come in with similar records [21-5 vs 21-6].  What makes this fight interesting is that these guys seem to have a real dislike for each other stemming from Hardy calling Davis a “fake Irish man”.  Whew!  Talk about insults.  I’m going with the fake Irish Man over the fake Outlaw.

Spencer Fisher Vs. Caol Uno: Fisher has the much better record and I’ve seen him fight before.  You guessed it, I’m taking Fisher.

Mike Swick Vs. Ben Saunders: This may be the fight of the night.  Swick is 13-2 and Saunders is 7-0.  Both men are strong, fast, and skilled.  I’m going with Saunders in what I expect to be a fast paced and brutal fight.

Mirko Cro Cop Vs. Mostapha Al Turk: Cro Cop is working his way, he hopes, back into contention.  I predict he’ll win by knockout.

Cheick Kongo Vs. Cain Velasquez:: Congo is 6-4 and a solid 240 pounds.  He has a record of 24-4.  Cain is 6-1and 240 with a 5-0 record.  On paper it should be a tough fight.  I think that Cain will have his way with Congo and end it before the final bell.  Cain appears to be the real deal.  We shall see.

Rich Franklin Vs. Wanderlei Silva: The main event pits two of the most popular former champions in the game against each other.  Both men need a win to get back into the title hunt.  Silva is going down in weight and Franklin up.  They’re fighting at a catch weight of 195.  I think that Franklin will win.  It should be an entertaining fight.  [As crazy as it sounds, I think we’ll soon see Wanderlei Silva fighting Anderson Silva even if Wanderlei looses to Franklin tonight.  They don’t like each other and Anderson worked with Franklin for tonight’s fight.  Of course if Wanderlei wins, there’s even more reason for them to fight… I just don’t see it happening.]

Florida SuperCon

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I spent last Saturday at the 4th annual Florida SuperCon and had a blast.  It was my first time to the FSC, so I really didn’t know what to expect.  I’m happy to report that the show was well run, and contained plenty of media guests, artists, activities, and panels to keep fans of all interest levels entertained.

If you like checking out convention photos, then you can click on the individual links in the post or here to see a slideshow of photos [with additional ones not linked below].

I walked onto the convention floor just a bit before the doors opened to find Pat Broderick setting up.  It was cool talking to Pat, and refreshing to hear that he still collects art.  In fact, Pat was disappointed to learn that legendary artist Gene Colan wasn’t going to be able to make the show due to health reasons. Pat had hoped to get something from him.

Dick Giordano was surrounded by fans the entire day.  Dennis Calero was set up and sketching.  I had hoped to get him to sign my copy of Duane Swierczynski’s Severance Package novel [Dennis did art for it] and it was the first place I ever saw his work.  Can you believe that I accidentally left my copy at home?  [I didn’t forget my Walking Dead hardcover and was able to get Tony Moore to sign it.]   Still, it was nice to meet Dennis.

Another artist that I met for the first time was Mitch Breitweiser.  Mitch was twittering from the show and cracking me up with some of his tweets.  It’s also possible that Mitch has some magical powers, since I took at least one photo of him and when I got home none were on my camera!

Sean Shaw was set up and drawing when he wasn’t talking up the UFC!  In fact artist alley was hopping with folks like: Saint James Comics, Derrick Fish, Chris Darden [who was painting], Alex Ferrer, Austin Janokowski, Richard Green and so many others.  I picked up two Stallone sketches at the show: Andrew Charipar gave me his take on Deke from “Nighthawks” and newcomer, Cayce Moyer took a shot a Rambo.

It seemed that every third person was in a costume and man, there were some really good ones.  Like this one, or this one, and especially this one.  I taken more photos of the costumed guests and you can see them here.

Brian Thompson, Ted Raimi and Bruce Campbell were the main media guests.  Ted Raimi did a one hour panel where he talked to the audience and then led folks chosen from the crowd to join him in a skit of “How a Movie Gets Made in Hollywood.”  Bruce Campbell won the crowd over with a one hour session where he simply took questions from the audience.  Talk about rapport with the fans, stage presence and great sense of humor.  I enjoyed that panel more than any I’ve ever seen and I’m not a HUGE Bruce Campbell fan… or maybe I should say I wasn’t…

As you can probably tell, if you’ve read this far, I had a great day at the Florida SuperCon.  I expect that next year will be even better since I’m going to try to make it for more than one day.  If you can, you should too!

Heroes Once Again

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I missed out on Heroes Con last year.  Normally, we plan the family vacation so that we’re in Charlotte the weekend of the show.  It just couldn’t be worked out last year.  Up until a week ago, I thought I’d miss the convention again.  But thanks to some buddies who’ve invited me to join them, I’ll be there when the doors open on Friday, June 19th and plan to hang around until they throw us out on Sunday, the 21st.

I’m excited because I’ll get to hang with a group of friends I haven’t seen in a while – “The James”, Hal, Will, Matt, Jason, Gary,,, I’ll get to see some artists/writers whose work I love – Ed Brubaker, Otis Frampton, Chris Brunner, Eric Canate, Evan Bryce… aw, you can check out the guest list here for yourself.  Then if you get the urge, make plans to come to the show.  [ I’d hate for you to miss out.  Trust me, I know how that feels, and it ain’t fun.]

Francesco’s Zombie Jack Carter

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Francesco Francavilla is a talented artist.  I visit his art blog and pulp blog regularly.

Here’s Francesco’s take on Freddy from “Cop Land.” The sketch was free since I purchased Francesco’s Chiaroscuro sketchbook.   Chiaroscuro is 70 pages full of Francesco’s black and white work.  It features everything from quick sketches to more detailed work of characters like Hellboy, Batman, Kong, Marv, and so many others.  It arrives securely packaged [which is a major plus knowing my mail carrier] and the last page contains the quick sketch.

Francesco has another sketchbook available.  Schermoscuro is a classic horror movie guide in artbook form.  Francesco offers the same deal on it.  How could I pass up such a bargain?  I couldn’t.  I love that Francesco tied my drawing to the sketchbook’s theme by making Jack Carter a zombie.

RIP: David Carradine

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David Carradine was found dead this morning.  He was on in Bangkok, Thailand where he had been acting in a movie called “Stretch.” Although his friends are reporting that he had been in good spirits, and many who knew him are shocked, David Carradine’s death is being reported as a suicide.

Although younger fans will know him best as Bill from Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill”, older fans will remember him as Kwai Chang Caine from the hit series “Kung Fu” which ran from 1972 – 1975.  Some may be surprised to know that the series was originally developed to star Bruce Lee.  After the series, Mr. Carradine continued to find roles on television as well as films such as “Death Race 2000”, “Bound for Glory”, and “The Long Riders”. There were no real blockbusters in the mix, but David Carradine never seemed to be without a project that he made better simply by being in it.

David Carradine comes from a family of talented people.  His father was the famous actor, John Carradine, and his brothers Keith and Robert are also actors.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and fans.

Bring Back Black Cross

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The drawing above is of a character created by Chris Warner called Black Cross.  He made his first appearance [Black Cross, not Chris Warner] in Dark Horse Presents #1.  DHP #1 was an anthology and the first comic published by the folks who would go on to give us Frank Miller’s Sin City, Eric Powell’s The Goon, Hellboy by Mike Mignola, and on and on and on.

Black Cross was popular enough to spin off into a mini-series, a couple of stand alone short comic stories and a one-shot.  At one point, Black Cross was close to becoming a big screen feature with Howie Long in the title role.  At about the same time another Black Cross mini-series was in the works called “My War.” Neither it or the movie ever happened.

I always hold out hope that one day Chris Warner will bring back Black Cross.

It’s All on Kimbo Slice

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It’s all on Kimbo Slice.

Love him or hate him, MMA fans know the name.  Kimbo was the backyard brawler who became a Youtube sensation.  Then Kimbo transitioned to cage fighter and instantly began to headline cards.  It didn’t matter that he was fighting little known opponents.  It was even less of a concern that he wasn’t fighting for the UFC, seen by many as the premiere MMA organization.  What did matter was that Kimbo was winning.  And those wins made more people tune in,  which drove up ratings as well as Kimbo’s paycheck.

Then in his third pro MMA fight Kimbo was knocked out.  It was a devestating loss.  Suddenly Kimbo was seen as the Emperor with no clothes.  The organization that Kimbo fought for went out of business.  Dana White of the UFC said that the only way Kimbo would ever fight for him was if Kimbo earned his way by winning The Ultimate Fighter.  Most folks thought that Kimbo would take his money and fade away.

Last night Dan Wetzel broke the story that Kimbo Slice will be one of the sixteen heavyweight on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter.  Talk about a win-win situation for everyone involved.  Kimbo, if he wins, heck, even if he just does well, shows the world that he in’t just a backyard brawler. If Kimbo loses [and odds are he will], he will know how close he is to being able to compete with UFC caliber fighers.  Should it turn out that Kimbo was just a flash in the pan, a tough guy who was able to parlay his big fists into a few big paydays, he will still be able to walk away knowing that at least he tried.  He had the stones to put it on the line and enter the cage.

Kimbo fans are winners because they’ll get to see their guy mix it up agian.  If he wins [or does well], they’ll be able to say, [as my buddy, JB does to rub it in] “I tole you so!”  If Kimbo loses, they can also say at least he tried.  Who doesn’t like someone who gives it their best shot?  The Kimbo haters are winners because they can crow if Kimbo doesn’t win it all.  And even if he does make it to the finals and win, the haters will still have  tuned in each week hoping to see Kimbo take a whoopin’.

Of course Dana White and the UFC is the biggest winner.  Having Kimbo on the show gets them tons of publicity.  More press means more people tuning in to see next season of The Ultimate Fighter… and the great thing is it doesn’t matter to White or the UFC if Kimbo wins, does well or loses.  If he loses, that just proves that it takes a special breed of fighter to be successful in the UFC.  If Kimbo wins, it just means more people tuning in to pay-per-views to see Kimbo.

That’s why it’s all on Kimbo Slice.

Cody Starbuck

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This is the splash page to the first Cody Starbuck story that I ever read.  In fact it may be the first Cody Starbuck story that Howard Chaykin ever created.  It was part of an independent anthology comic called Star*Reach that  I picked it up at the first comic book convention that I ever attended,  OrlandoCon 77.  That’s a lot of firsts, isn’t it?

Cody Starbuck was good stuff.  It reminded me of an Errol Flynn movie in outer space, but created for a modern audience.  Someone should reprint all the stories in a nice new hardback edition.  Then once that’s done they can check back here to see what I else I’d like.

Florida SuperCon

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Next week is the Florida SuperCon in Miami.  With over 100 media celebrities and comic guests in attendance [including Bruce Campbell, Ted Raimi, Chris Claremont, Tony Moore, Dick Giordano, Dennis Calero, Mitch Breitwesier and scores of others], costume events, video gaming, panels and more, there should be something for everyone.

I’ll be there on Saturday checking things out.  Hope to see you there!