Category Archives: Uncategorized

Uncategorized

Best of the Genre: Biggest Badasses – Westerns (Part 1)

1 Comment

I love westerns. Love them. But unfortunately, I honestly don’t see any new westerns coming out that’ll totally upend and reinvent the genre, thus establishing a new character that could trump any of the following ten. That’s not to say that the western genre is stagnant, or recycling material, but it’s a genre that has clearly peaked, and is in its twilight years, where most modern movies are looking back at its respective genre, rather than looking forward. New great westerns are still being made, they’re just not nearly as popular as they once were, and as such, innovation is mostly being left by the wayside. I suppose you could count Django Unchained as innovation, but I’m still very skeptical on my opinion of that film, a skepticism I’m sure isn’t shared by my colleagues here at Grizzly Bomb.

Continue reading Best of the Genre: Biggest Badasses – Westerns (Part 1) →

Uncategorized

Know Your Sith! Week Two: Darth Andeddu

Leave a comment

Another week and here comes another Sith. Since we went with a Sith Lord from the most recent era of Star Wars lore, I thought this week we could go with one of the more ancient Darths. So don’t let his weird name scare you off, introducing:

DARTH ANDEDDU

 “Knowledge is power and true Sith do not share power.”

Race: Humanoid      Home Planet: Prakith

Claim to fame: Was able to master essence transfer and live for thousands of years.

Moment of Shame: Hiding for a thousand years and dying a few minutes after awakening.

Sith Affiliation: Andeddu stood apart from the other Sith Lords.

Darth Andeddu started out as just a mentioned Sith Lord in the Clone Wars era, the undercover Jedi Quinlan Vos using his lightsaber crystal for a time and his holocron gatekeeper showing up breifly. He became somewhat of a fan favorite, probably because of his silly name and not much information surrounding him. He showed up again in the Legacy Era Comics as Darth Krayt asked Andeddu’s holocron gatekeeper for the secret of essence transfer in order to stop his Yuzzahn Vong affliction from overtaking him.

Darth Andeddu lived thousands of years before the Legacy and Clone Wars eras. He was of the ancient Sith such as Karness Muur, Tulak Hord and Freedon Nadd, dabbling in Sith Sorcery in order to prolong life. The secret of immortality isn’t an uncommon thing with Sith and Andeddu was probably one of the most successful along with Karness Muur whom he developed many of his techniques from. Andeddu was a somewhat paranoid and cowardly Sith Lord, fleeing to his homeworld of Prakith for fear that the other Sith Lords were plotting to overthrow him for his knowledge and secret of sustaining life. He remained on Prakith until his body died and his own personal dark side cult “Malevolence” guarded his tomb until their master could return.

Talk to the hand Bitch!

Eventually Darth Krayt of the One Sith got ahold of Andeddu’s holocron and sent his right hand man Darth Wyyrlok to recover all of Andeddu’s knowledge on Prakith so he had more time to subjugate the galaxy under his rule. Wyyrlok’s quest boiled down to him having to face Andeddu one on one in the flesh after it was revealed that Andeddu’s holocron also held his essence in it and needed to be reunited with his body in order for him to be resurrected. After a pretty awesome yet short fight with Darth Wyyrlok, Andeddu is finally put to bed forever by the horned Sith Lord. Wyyrlok then plunders his remaining knowledge before departing Prakith and leaving Andeddu just as he feared for thousands of years…. dead by the hand of another Sith Lord who wanted his knowledge.

Andeddu may have been a coward, but he definitely had the right idea about survival and staying alive. He started off as menacing when he was finally resurrected and began his duel with Wyyrlok, but he was ultimately a coward as Wyyrlok pointed out before killing him. Definitely a knowledgeable Sith Lord, just not a very brave one.

Aaaaaaaaaand…. that’s Jenga.

Stay tuned next week for another installment of Know Your Sith!

Check out last week’s lucky contestant: Krow Your Sith!

Uncategorized

Comic Legend Joe Kubert Passes Away at 85

Leave a comment

The comic community was rocked on Sunday by the news of  an industry legend’s death. Joe Kubert passed away on  August 12th due to multiple myeloma – a form of cancer that destroys bone marrow.

His work in the comic field is outstanding. Contributing to numerous titles in his overwhelming career, he is most famous for his work on Sgt Rock, for which he was still contributing right up to 2009. He dabbled with other comic companies, but was most well-known for his work at DC comics where he contributed his penciling talents to Hawkman and JLA among others.

DC Comics had this to say about the comic legend which can be found on http://www.wired.com

 We are saddened to learn of the death of our colleague and friend Joe Kubert. An absolute legend in the industry, his legacy will live on through his remarkable talent, with his sons and with the many artists who have passed through the storied halls of his celebrated school. An important member of the DC Comics family, Joe made an indelible mark on the entire DC Comics universe including his renowned and award-winning work on iconic characters such as Sgt. Rock, Enemy Ace, Hawkman and most recently Nite Owl. We are so honored to have worked side-by-side with such an unforgettable force in both comics and in life.”

– DC Entertainment Executive Team.

This statement has caused a bit of an outrage with comic lovers everywhere, because it essentially sounds like an advert for the new Watchman comics and not a tribute to a man that had been doing outstanding work for them all the way back to 1943. That’s near 70 years of service, and it’s been boiled down to ‘most recently Nite Owl ‘.

In addition to being one of the biggest names in the industry for the better part of the last century, but Joe also set up his own school for aspiring artists, and won Harvey Awards’ Jack Kirby Hall of Fame Award in 1997, and Will Eisner Comic Book Home of Fame in 1998. His two sons Adam and Andy are massively popular comic artists too, and it’s great to know that he has been an inspiration to so many people. My first experiences of him were through his sons. I’m a big fan of their work and it was through their work that I heard about their father. His work on Sgt Rock is still some of the best war stories I have ever read and his artwork is so distinctive you can spot it a mile away. The thing that struck me about his work is the way it seems so realistic. These people’s lives can be easily seen written on their face and in Sgt Rock’s case you can see the pain of war in his visage. Much how Harvey Pekar expertly showed what it was like to just be an average Joe Kubert’s work on Sgt Rock made me feel what it was like to be a member of the army.

He will be missed by the many fan that his work has touched, me included. To finish here are some touching words from the The Kubert School of Art …

Uncategorized

Graphic Novel Review – Enormous

Leave a comment

 Imagine if you will a world like ours. A world where there is no pollution and no crowds. Sure it’s because most of the population has been killed off but that’s not a problem hey? Oh did I mention the massive mutated animals that roam the landscapes eating folk? Yeah probably not every ones holiday destination but it is the basis of the new graphic novel from Image.

Continue reading Graphic Novel Review – Enormous →

Uncategorized

Know Your Sith! Week One: Darth Kruhl

Leave a comment

I’m proud to bring everyone a new weekly post that I prefer to call “Know Your Sith”.  And yes that is a play on the words ‘know your shit’. Just like Sith Happens and Sith-head. Basically we will feature a new Sith Lord every week and a brief bio including their claim to fame and some pivotal moments for them in the Star Wars universe. And just so everyone knows, we won’t be covering well known Sith Lords such as Darth Vader, Darth Sidious and Darth Tyranus. This is a chance for the Star Wars fans out there to have a little back story on Sith Lords from some of the expanded universe work out there including comics, games and novels.

At one point George Lucas issued an edict to the expanded universe writers and figure heads: No Sith and No Galaxy Spanning Wars. Also I think he said no more Wookie Jedi, which is a damn shame. But once the New Jedi Order series started the whole galaxy spanning war thing sort of went out the window. With the completion of the NJO series the no Sith rule also went out the window and now we have Old Republic Sith, post NJO Sith and Legacy era Sith. To the layman, those are several of the different time eras in the Star Wars expanded universe.

And now for this week’s Sith Lord:

DARTH KRUHL

“A Sith has many ways to kill.”

Race: Human (Home Planet Unknown)

Claim to fame: Almost took out the Emperor Roan Fel

Moment of Shame: Dying by blaster bolt. I mean seriously, you’re a Sith.

Sith Affiliation: The Order of the One Sith

Darth Kruhl definitely didn’t have much face time, but definitely made an impact and proved that he was pretty bad ass. Showing up in the widely loved Legacy comic line written John Ostrander, Darth Kruhl was one of the One Sith Order’s best assassins and intelligence operatives. We were able to watch him single handedly manipulate and ultimately bind the planet of Munto Codru to the will of his Sith Emperor, Darth Krayt, but it is Kruhl’s assignment following that which makes him stand out.

Darth Kruhl is charged with assassinating the exiled Emperor Roan Fel who at this point is the second most powerful being in the galaxy behind Darth Krayt. (Politically, not in terms of force use, though Fel was definitely no push over) After infiltrating the heavily fortified Imperial capital of Bastion Kruhl finds Fel meditating in his garden when he springs to attack. Unfortunately Fel was waiting for such an assassin. Kruhl fights valiantly, nearly killing the Emperor at one point, even without a lightsaber. But Fel finally gains the upper hand finishing Kruhl off with a blaster bolt to the guts.

The fight itself was one of the best in the Legacy comics, like a fight between two lone samurai in a bamboo thicket. Many of the fights in Legacy involve groups of force users and tons of limbs and heads flying to and fro, but this one felt more personal and the stakes were quite high. Kruhl more than likely would have never left the planet alive after killing Roan Fel but would have been regarded very highly by his Sith bretheren for sacrificing himself to eliminate Darth Krayt’s competition to the throne. Even failing in his mission I have to say… that Sith had balls.

Stay tuned next week for another installment of Know Your Sith!

Uncategorized

Graphic Novel Review – The Pound

Leave a comment

 

Do you like werewolves? Do you like people chasing werewolves in a slapstick kind of way? Then this may be the graphic novel for you! This is the Pound written by Stephen Nilson (Justice League Unlimited) and drawn by Karl Waller (X-Men The Movie Prequel).

The story revolves around two dog catchers called Scott Allison and Howard Lynch.

Now Scott is your basic hard man with a heart. He has a lovely wife called Jennifer, some kids (I forget the names but trust me they are just there for the hero to save so you don’t need to know!) and a kick ass handlebar mustache. His pal Howard has none of these and he’s a bit on the weak nerdy side, but they both have one thing in common. There jobless! So they set up their own firm and on a routine job accidentally capture a werewolf! Not to spoil the plot, but essentially from here the story goes into a scheme involving a werewolf and vampire council and a plan to turn all the people at the local fair into werewolves!

The characters are simplistic but fun. Scott and Howard are very much like ‘Tucker and Dale’ (from the film of the same name) but less red-neckish. In fact this could be called ‘Tucker and Dale vs. Werewolves’. The main villain is Dante, and he’s a big beefy werewolf grunt kinda guy who snaps necks when he is mad, and has a vampire lover. He’s like your typical muscle villain and does not really get his hands dirty till the end in a fun homage to the old monster team up movies of the 40’s. His son Darnell is a big part of the story to and is used as the exposition device to give us and the two leads the scoop on monster lore.

There is some violence and a bit of gore throughout this, but the tone of it is more up beat and reminded me of The Goonies or The Monster Squad. A bunch of colorful characters going on a weird adventure together is always fun to read. One annoying thing is that it seems every bloody character is a monster! It reminded me of the later series of Heroes where every Tom, Dick and Harry popped up saying “I have a power!” Other than this it is a very fun read with Stephen Nilson’s script doing the business and Karl Waller’s artwork been slightly cartoony, but dramatic at the same time. I love how he draws some of the werewolves like actual dogs with their tongues flapping about! I also liked how they introduced a new team-mate at the end without any of the team knowing.

The ending is really funny and leads into the sequel that is coming in September so its a great time to check it out.