What follows is some fantastic pieces of art by Butcher Billy. His Legion of Supervillains has historical figures ranging from the likes of George W. Bush and Mark Zuckerberg to maniacs like Charles Manson and Adolf Hitler being portrayed as some of DC Comics most well known fiends. When asked about the project Butcher Billy had this to say.
[quote] Some might say all art is a reflection of the times we live in. If back in the day comics and movies were pretty naive and faced only as pure escapism, today’s fiction has to evoke reality to create something truly meaningful… and frightening.
This series is an experiment where a dictator, a psycho, a murderer (sometimes they are the whole package) or even a suspicious figure from real life is mashed with a comics bad guy – strangely related some way or the other with his counterpart.
The depressing thing? Realising that if the comic book super villains were actually the ones threatening real life, the world wouldn’t be such a bad place. [/quote]
Some incredible thought has gone into the creation of these characters. Not only is the artwork stunning and very representative of the counter parts he is copying, but also the characters fit perfectly. For example George Bush as Two Face shows his flimsy approach to politics, while Bin Laden as the bomb throwing terrorist Green Goblin who cares little about who he hurts as long as his agenda is met follows the path he lead in real life and Hitler as the greatest threat to mankind Galactus shows even now his evil has never been matched. The most inspired choice is Charles Manson as The Joker who in real life followed his own crazy and manic plans to their tragic end. Each one is superbly crafted and it is very interesting to look at how each character links with his comic book version.
In my life time I have seen quite a few of these tyrants come and go, so the history of their deeds is still fresh in my mind, but for some they will never have heard of these horrific figure heads or chosen to ignore it. In that sense this is a great way to educate people about history through the medium of comic books which have now taken over the pop culture psyche. Though Mark Zuckerberg clearly isn’t a sociopathic serial killer like some of the other choices by Butcher Bill, it is still fascinating to learn about their histories through his art. It would be great to see more of these pieces, but for now look up the gallery of some of these people by clicking on the link here or visit his Facebook page and finally look at his portfolio here which showcases some of his other art that cleverly mixes and mashes up pop culture icons.
As a little taster of his work, here is his version of the classic 70’s movie A Clockwork Orange.
Now I know I already bashed the entire show and concept of NBC’s Hannibal pretty badly last time, but it’d seem that things about it keep looking better and better the more I hear about it. The brilliant casting of Macklemore Mads Mikkelson as Dr. Lecter is great as I previously mentioned, but now the big news is about Gillian Anderson returning to TV after several years of being off the small screen. Gillian Anderson as you’ll no doubt remember, played FBI skeptic Agent Dana Scully on The X-Files. Now she’ll be coming back to TV for multiple episodes in the show, playing Dr. Lecter’s own therapist.
Gillian Anderson
[quote] In a multi-episode arc on the upcoming NBC drama, Anderson is going to play Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier — murderous psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter’s (Mads Mikkelsen) own therapist.
“Every therapist needs their own head examined and we are ecstatic that Gillian Anderson has chosen Hannibal to mark her return to American television after 10 years to portray Dr. Lecter’s personal psychiatrist,” Fuller said in a statement. “Her intelligence and sophistication, not to mention her pedigree of ground-breaking TV, make her the perfect actress to match wits and psychological manipulations with one of the greatest villains of pop culture. I couldn’t be more excited.” [/quote]
Whoa whoa whoa, HOLD UP. That’s all find and dandy, yay X-Files whatever. The REAL news in that quote is the statement made by “Fuller” about the show. Which Fuller could that be? Well it’s Bryan Fuller, a name you may not recognize, but whose work you definitely will. He’s only the guy who made Dead Like Me, Pushing Daisies, the underrated Wonderfalls, and helped write the best parts of the first season of Heroes, aka the only good season actually worth watching.
Here he is pictured with a fox for some reason.
His pedigree alone has me interested in the show, even though it’s so drastically different from all of this other work in tone. Needless to say, the cast and creative team behind this show are certainly looking to be a home run, so maybe it’ll actually be really good? All I can say is that it’ll probably get canceled. Just like all of Bryan Fuller’s other shows.
In other casting news, Canadian comedy fans might recognize another name – The Kids in the Hall star Scott Thompson. Thompson will play Jimmy Price, the third member of the FBI crime scene investigation team headed by Laurence Fishburne’s Jack Crawford, the head of the FBI’s behavioral science unit.
The excitement behind the casting of the Guardians of the Galaxy film just keeps escalating. With the recent news that Chris Pratt is joining the movie as the leader of the Guardians, we have been given even more exciting news with the release on Nerd Reactor that the new Conan and GameofThrones actor Jason Momoa has screen tested for the role of ‘Drax the Destroyer’. This is a role that has some stiff competition with the likes of Isaiah Mustafa (Old Spice adverts) and Dave Bautista (former wrestler and villain in The Man with the IronFists) are also gunning for the role.
For people unfamiliar with the character here is a brief recap: Arthur Douglas started life as a human and family man, until Thanos killed his family. His spirit was then taken and placed into a new and more powerful body with only one goal in mind, to kill the creature that destroyed his life (for a more detailed description click here).
Recent news from Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter via tweets has indicated that although he has screen tested, he has not been offered the role. Borys comment:
Then even more news was revealed again via twitter, but this time from El Mayimbe saying.
So where does that leave us? Well no further forward I am afraid. We still do not know who is going to be cast in this role, but we do know that no one has the role so far. Views seem mixed on Momoa wanting the role and the amount he wants for it. My personal view (which is based only on his appearances in Conan and GameofThrones) is that, although he looks the part physically, I am not sure if he has enough acting experience to be asking for this amount of money. I have not seen his role in BulletintheHead, but I know it did not perform as well at the Box Office as expected (a fate that Conan also suffered from).
With pretty much every Marvel produced product having had a successful Box Office run, we can assume that this movie should be no different, and could be the next step in Momoa’s film career. I would hate to think that he was shooting himself in the foot over this.
What do you Grizzly Bomb readers think? Please comment below or on Facebook about how you feel about this situation.
Watching USA Network today, it’s hard to believe that once upon a time, its biggest claim to fame was being home to one of the longest running animated children’s shows, Calliope. Nowadays, Calliope is long forgotten and USA has gone on to be quite the success story when it comes to original scripted programming on a basic cable channel.
When season seven of Psych premieres on Feb. 27th, it will do so as the second longest running original program in USA’s history. When season eight premieres (filming starts in April), it will tie Monk, the network’s record holder for longest running show. However Psych‘s chances getting a season nine, and surpassing Monk are slim. And looking slimmer by the day.
Over the summer, there had been rumors that Dulé Hill was not interested in signing a new contract when his current one, that is good through an eighth season, ran out. Now there’s news of another major cast member who is planning their post-Psych life.
Maggie Lawson who plays the adorable and incredibly patient and understanding Juliet O’Hara has been cast in an untitled ABC pilot. Created by the Cullen brothers, Mark and Robb, who have worked together on both Las Vegas and Heist, the show has James Caan starring as an ex-baseball player and is billed as a new Modern Family. We’ll just have to wait and see if it makes it to air, but what does this mean for Psych?
Theoretically, the show could continue. USA has shown it has zero issue with moving around scheduling (seriously it’s been a year since a Psych episode last aired, ridiculous) and with season 8 getting ready to start filming, they could extend it another season or two if Dulé Hill returns? Maybe?
Okay, probably not. So what’s a Psych-o to do? Well, first take solace in the knowledge there is plenty of warning for the end of the series which should hopefully result in a satisfying wrap up. It would suck to put in eight years of time into watching a show only to get to the end and have them just be canceled with no warning and therefore a crappy last episode. Nothing chaps my ass more than when shows get surprise canceled and there is no resolution.
Secondly, let’s enjoy the time we have left. Like last season with the Hashtag Killer, the powers that be over at Psych have put together another interactive online game, “The S#cial Sector“. I know it’s probably lame, but I really enjoyed Hashtag Killer, and have already started the first week of S#cial Sector. While it’s not as good as Hashtag Killer, it’s still fun and I’ll probably play all eight weeks. If USA does nothing else right, they do have a somewhat firm grasp on how to get people involved in shows like Psych with the online and social interactive aspects. Did you know that 30 Rock has won awards for their various webseries? Probably not, because they don’t advertise that stuff whereas USA, an NBC family member does, and quite well.
All that said, I am going to need a group hug of some sort. It seems like a lot of my shows are ending in the very near future (if not already) and I’m already experiencing withdrawal symptoms. So what say youPysch fans? What should I watch next? Go ahead and give me some suggestions down in the comments box, or simply share your favorite Psych memory. We can get through this together.
For the past several days the internet has been aflutter with anticipation for Sony’s press conference, which promised an announcement to excite the masses. Sony had been pretty outspoken about letting Microsoft take the first step in announcing a next-gen console so when they dropped word that they’d be leading the race, hosting a major reveal event tonight, it came as a happy surprise. I’ve frequented the PS4/Xbox 720 rumor mills over the past couple months and considering they’re slated to hit stores in an estimated 8 – 10 months, I feel like we’re entitled to some cold hard facts and previews to drool over. At 6:00 PM this evening (EST), Sony was kind enough to acquiesce. Here is a recap of the Sony Meeting 2013.
Defying all expectation, the meeting actually began right on time kicking off with the typical video montage fanfare before our emcee, Sony President Andrew House, took the stage. Taking no time at all for formalities, House immediately began talking about the PS Vita and its mobility and flexibility. He went on to stress the importance of cross-play and being always connected. Following a brief recap of Playstation’s success and failures leading up to present, House indicated that the current state of connectivity and cross-platform interaction demanded a new console. This new console, of course, is the PS4.
At this point I’m feeling a little anxious – talk of mobile gaming and ‘always-on’ systems typically means Facebook integration and the sort of added features that become more irksome peripheral ideas than anything else. Being able to post my new platinum trophy on a friend’s wall is a nice little gimmick, sure, but I don’t want this to be the focus of my Playstation 4. My first impression is one of tentative concern. This could be a positive way of telling us all use of their games requires online connectivity – a verification process that could cause whole experiences to be ruined by a lapsing internet connection.
House then introduced Mark Cerny, the ‘lead system architect’ of the PS4, to talk about the Playstation 4’s inner workings. The Playstation 4 is very definitely a powerful machine, what Cerny described as a ‘super-charged PC’. The specs listed exactly as spoken:
CPU: x86
8GB RAM
CPU almost 2 Teraflops
System memory GDDR5
Highly enhanced PC GPU
Shortly after going over the innards of the next Sony console, Cerny revealed the brand new Dualshock controller, which closely matched some concepts that have been floating around the internet recently.
Photo: playstationgang.com
This is purely an aesthetic nitpicky thing, but I’m not a fan of the new controller. The raised edges on the analog sticks are ugly, as is the touchpad, and anyway I’ve always loved the consistent model for the Dualshock. I’m sure after 4 months of owning one the Dualshock 3 will look like a sad piece of archaic technology, but to fresh eyes this is a visual step down.
Cerny then gave a superficial demonstration of the tech by showing off a real-time demo of the new Unreal engine, which featured two immense demons causing large-scale destruction in a snowy environment. The visuals don’t immediately stand out as a leap forward, but if you know where to look you can tell the graphics are definitely improved.
And shortly after he revealed his next title, a new IP called Knack which, despite its cartoonish, simple visual style showcased an impressive amount of fluid, moving objects (The protagonist himself is made up of several dozen of these).
Cerny continued to talk about the power behind the PS4, mentioning there will be virtually zero time between boot-up and game start. Similarly, downloads, streaming and sharing content will supposedly be nearly instant on the PS4’s system. In fact, Cerney stated demos can be started even before the download is complete.
The kind of speed and power indicated seems far beyond anything I’d expect from a console gaming platform. Beyond what I’m willing to believe as well, until I can see it in action (at least this is what I’m trying to tell myself between squee-ing).
The next speaker brought on stage was Dave Perry, one of the founders of Gaikai. Perry began by saying that Gaikai will be the catalyst for Sony’s new all-encompassing social structure. Facebook and Ustream will be integrated into this system, and additional features will include spectating or even taking control of a friend’s games. Reinforcing the idea of always-on and persistent play, Perry talked about reducing latency between the system and controller, and furthermore between the console and the Vita – that’s right, there will be remote play between the PS4 and the Sony handheld. Perry also revealed that in the future Gaikai will hopefully be used to stream older games, all the way back to the PS1, effectively serving as all backwards compatibility for the PS4.
Some of these social features are actually very cool. The Dualshock 4’s ‘share’ button makes it very easy to record video and share it with the friends, and spectating/joining games is something that has always been looming somewhere in the future of online play. I doubt I’ll ever do much with this stuff, but I think it’s neat, and hopefully it’ll do a lot to strengthen the PS community and brand.
After Cerny left the stage, the game demos began. The first official debutwas Killzone: Shadowfall and I think I summarized it pretty well on Facebook while watching it live:
Killzone is one of the titles we always see at Playstation announcements and while each game does a fantastic job showcasing the power of the console, the franchise is unavoidably boring. I’ve tried on multiple occasions to try to get into the series and never once enjoyed myself. That being said, despite immense levels of indifference coursing through every fiber of my being, the trailer looks gorgeous.
Next up was Evolution Studios who announced a new driving game called Drive Club. The game looks like it will take full advantage of PS4’s social features to take Need For Speed’s Autolog to a much higher level. Additionally, the amount of detail and care that has supposedly gone into the car models is near Peter-Jackson-Lord-of-the-Rings level stuff. All in all, though I’m not a racing game fan, this looks like a great direction to take the genre.
Following that, Sucker Punch showed the trailer for Infamous: Second Son. Infamous is another series that, for the life of me, I can’t get into. Friends of mine and critics I respect all like this series but I found the first game very generic and never could convince myself to play (Admittedly, I hear it’s far superior to the first one). The intro from Sucker Punch’s speaker sounded intriguing and actually reminded me a lot of Watch Dogs, however the teaser was just a lot of super powered fighting and douchebaggy protagonist mugging in front of the camera. Like Killzone: Shadowfall, the trailer looked great and I’ll probably never play it.
For the sake of length here, I’m going to list some of the other announcements and move on:
Jonathan Blow’s new game following Braid. The Witness.
David Cage came on stage (My cue to take a break) and showed a tech demo from Quantic Dream.
Media Molecule showed off something with PS Move and puppets?
Capcom announced they’re working on a new engine and showcased a work in progress, tentatively titled Deep Down. Looks insane.
Square Enix showedAgni’s Philosophy and announced a new Final Fantasy game is under development.
Following all of that, Ubisoft took the stage and showed a new trailer for the much anticipated Watch Dogs. This was not explicitly focused on any kind of narrative aspect, as we saw in the initial gameplay reveal in 2012 which featured a shootout outside a nightclub, but rather seemed to be a much smaller, more incidental interaction with some NPCs in the open world. And while I’d say this demo isn’t as exciting as that other one, I think it reveals a lot more about the potential this game has to blow the doors down on the limits we’ve grown accustomed to in video games.
Next, Blizzard made an appearance to announceDiablo III will be ported to PS3 and PS4 in the future, and finally Bungie rounded out the night with a brief look at Destiny, making it clear that now that they’ve achieved their independence from Microsoft, they will support Sony just as strongly as their previous overlords.
With that, we got a closing and a holiday 2013 release and that’s all for the Sony Meeting 2013!
I went into this press conference expecting long-winded PR nonsense interspersed with some mind blowing game previews, and instead I got pretty much the opposite – some really amazing tech was described and shown, Sony made very clear they’ve made a conscious effort to make it easy to develop games on the PS4 (The PS3 was notoriously difficult to work with for developers) and they are still dedicated to making real games rather than peripherals. Meanwhile the games revealed, for the most part, met expectations on the level. Still a mystery? Pricing and what the goddamn thing even looks like.
Welcome to Webcomic Wednesday, in which we feature comics available for free on the information superhighway, just in time for the Geek Sabbath (a.k.a. New Comics Day).
Attention Internet: Emi Lenox draws the cutest cats ever.
Grizzly Bomb 