Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
No, those aren’t photos. Hard to believe isn’t it?
They’re actually just two of the extremely life-like sculpts created by Bobby Causey. You can read more about his work here and see more of his sculpts at his site.
That’s the self-titled Corduroy Mafia at Heroes Con 2104. From left to right we have John Nacinovich, Jeff Streeter, me, John Beatty, Brian Jones and Royce Thrower.. How we gave ourselves the name Corduroy Mafia is a tale for another time. Instead I present my HeroesCon 2014 summary.
The Drive Up:
Doralya and I left Thursday afternoon. We drove halfway up and spent the night in Savannah at a Fairfield Inn. We got up early the next morning and finished our trip to Charlotte in plenty of time to get to the show.
The Convention Hotel:
We used to stay at the Weston, but for the last two years (and the foreseeable future) our con hotel is the Hampton Inn Charlotte – Uptown. What a great hotel! It’s super-clean with the friendliest staff I’ve ever seen. Free shuttle service and free breakfast made the stay even better.
Main Sketch Goal of the Show:
My main sketch goal was to meet (for the first time) and get a sketch from Hoyt Silva. I’m happy to report that Hoyt is as nice as he is talented — yeah, he’s really that friendly! Hoyt and I discussed a couple of possible Stallone characters and decided on Jack Carter. Hoyt said he could make that happen and is doing the piece as a take home commission.
Books signed:
Sketches:
Panels, Drink and Draw and HeroesCon Art Auction:
Meals:
The biggest surprise is that we only ate at Fuel once. It was good to keep that tradition alive, but not over do it. The best meal we had was at Fujo Bistro — we will definitely hit that place again next year! Buffalo Wild Wings also got our business. Sadly we did not make it to Mert’s.
In closing:
HeroesCon this year was huge. The wider aisles made movement easier. There were also additional sections this year with chairs and tables for con guests to sit, eat and visit. The bigger painting area was also a plus.
Seeing old friends and meeting new ones is always a fun part of the show. I won’t try to list them all because invariably I would leave some out.
This year I was able to talk Doralya into coming into the show on Saturday. We walked the floor and met a lot of artists (new and old friends). Doralya’s highlight was meeting Berni Wrightson! She has always loved his work and he personalized my copy of Frankenstein to her!
Thanks to Shelton and his crew for another great HeroesCon — see everyone next year!
Do you like scary stories, but don’t have a lot of time to read?
Perfect.
Here are 16 Truly Terrifying Super-Short Stories that are more than worth the time it takes to read ’em.
Source: Buzzfeed.
If all went as planned, Doralya and I will be arriving in Charlotte today for our annual trip to HeroesCon. It’ll be nice to get away for a “long” weekend… especially since I’ll be spending it at Heroes. There’s always plenty to do. Look at the guest list and schedule of events and you can see I’m not kidding.
Hope to see you there, but if you can’t make the show, don’t worry, I’ll post a full report later in the week.
[And Chris, remember: No parties!]
Total Film recently posted their choices for the 25 Greatest Film Noirs. While I would quibble with a few of their rankings, overall the list is solid.
If you’re a fan of The Mercenary Sea you’ll want to check out this interview with artist Matthew Reynolds. If you’re not a fan, check out the interview and maybe you’ll become one.
Source: Comics Trades.
The Expendables 3 trailer has arrived!
The piece above was created by John Paul Leon as a tribute to the legendary Alex Toth. It deserves to be seen at a much bigger size and thanks to the fine folks at The Bristol Board, it can.
Casey Kasem died today. Mr. Kasem was 82 and had been in failing health for some time.
Mr. Kasem was best known as the host of his American Top 40 Countdown which appropriately enough counted down Billboard’s best selling records each week. Casey Kasem also did voice work for commercials, and cartoons (most notably as the voice of Shaggy on the long-running Scooby Doo series).
I was a big fan of the Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 Countdown when I was a kid. In the last few years I made rebroadcasts of Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 Countdown: The 70’s a part of my Sunday morning routine. I listened to it as I updated the StalloneZone.
Casey Kasem usually ended his show by saying, “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.” Sage advice from a man who did just that.
My thoughts and prayers go out to Casey Karem’s family, friends and fans.
Have you seen The Infinite Jukebox? The Infinite Jukebox is an app that let’s you play your favorite songs on an infinite, ever-changing loop.
How does The Infinite Jukebox work? I’m glad you ask and we’ll let the folks at Infinite Jukebox answer…
How does it work? – We use the Echo Nest analyzer to break the song into beats. We play the song beat by beat, but at every beat there’s a chance that we will jump to a different part of song that happens to sound very similar to the current beat. For beat similarity we look at pitch, timbre, loudness, duration and the position of the beat within a bar. There’s a nifty visualization that shows all the possible transitions that can occur at any beat.
Some songs work better than others. So far my favorite is Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean.
The Mercenary Sea is an on-going series created by Kel Symons & Matthew Reynolds published by Image.
Writer: Kel Symons
Art and Colors: Matthew Reynolds
MAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMEN” Stranded in a Chinese fishing village, Jack and company must rescue the British spy “Top Hat,” who’s been captured by Japanese soldiers.
*** Beware – spoilers may be found below ***
The Good
The Bad:
The Ugly:
The Mercenary Sea should appeal to all who old time action and adventure.
Rating:
The Crow: Pestilence #3 is published by IDW.
Writer: Frank Bill
Artist: Drew Moss
Colorist: Oliver Lee Arce
Cover Shown: James O’Barr
Salvador heads to the Midwest to search for the men who murdered his family, only to find them involved in trafficking drugs…and humans. As The Crow watches, guiding him, he begins to exact his revenge. But why is one of the gang members speaking with the police?
.
The Good
The Bad:
The Ugly:
The Crow: Pestilence #3 is a comic for mature audiences due to violence and language.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Below is a first look at Fury, the new David Ayer film starring Brad Pit, Jon Brenthal and Michael Pena.
The second trailer for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is live!
