Star Wars.com added ‘Hunting the Hunters’ to their webcomic collection.  It covers events that occur between season one and season two of The Clone Wars.  Read it onlin here.

The reader  is a little tricky to use.  There is a fit to screen option that makes the text a little bit bigger but I still needed to zoom in to read some of the text… either a sign of my age or because I was on my laptop.  The other problem is that this story starts on page 170 so you have to flip through to the desired page waiting for all of the earlier pages to load slowing down the load time.

I wished they would have just followed other webcomic successes like Looking for Group and made each page a full page.  The reading of the comic would be a more enjoyable experience and I don’t mean like so enjoyable that one might not buy the comic when it is published but more enjoyable so that someone on the fence about Star Wars would stick around long enough to actually read the story.  Also by following that model they could have increased the load time since each page is by it’s self and Star Wars.com would have been able to get more add revenue from comic readers as we would have had adds showing up for each page we read.

Though the delivery could use improvement the 5 page read is still interesting.

(via Club Jade)

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Dead High Yearbook is a hardcover comic book about a pair of dead teens who create a high school year book by matching live photos with dead photos of teens that have passed on. Each dead photo goes with a story and during this yearbook class, you learn about teens, their obsessions, and how they died. A great concept and one that could go further given the proper imaginative writers to work with. As it stands, the art is well done, but I just didn’t find any of the stories that exciting.

Probably the most interesting story is the one titled “Fear Pressure”.  A fat chick and a wimpy boy like each other. They go to a herbal remedy shop where they are promised their bodies will change to their liking. Soon the chick is losing weight and the dude becomes Arnold Schwarzenegger. Both of them are excited and love their new bodies, but then the remedy goes overboard. The muscle man explodes from the pain of his muscles expanding and the skinny chick dissolves into just an eyeball with a tail. In the end, they are together in separate jars, nothing but alien-looking blobs.

Horror fans may dig this book just for the cover. It looks like a real yearbook with a bloody handprint on the front. Who doesn’t want something cool like this to display in their personal library next to their flesh-like Evil Dead journal and vampire coffin kit? As for story, I might pick up later books to see if the stories get better, but this one is plain eye candy with mildly amusing tales.
If you would like to check this book out, they have a preview at Amazon.com here:
Dead High Yearbook

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Dark Horse Comics is launching a new iPhone app, and is offering the four-volume The Terminator: Death Valley comic (originally published in 1998) as iPhone downloads for 99 cents per issue.

I like the idea of Dark Horse branching out, looking into new mediums for delivering comics.  I’m not that excited about a Terminator comic but if this works and looks good we could be looking at a new method for delivering comics.  Imagine getting a subscription app that would allow the comic reader to receive new issues downloaded directly to them and in a portable format.  I hope that Dark Horse will explore making it available for other devices in addition to the iPhone.

(via SFScope)

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Out this week we have 5 DVDs to feature: X-Men, Volume 1, X-Men Volume 2, Jetsons: The Movie, Castle Ghosts of the British Isles, and J. R. R. Tolkien.

• X-Men, Volume 1:  I waited years for this to finally come out on DVD.  This is by far the best representation of X-Men beyond the comics.  I loved the animation style and the story lines were amazing.  I burnt through so many tapes of this series and now that it is on DVD it is a must own!
  • X-Men Volume 2
• Jetsons: The Movie: This is one of those movies that was not that great but loved by fans of the Jetsons.  This feature-length animated film came out in the 90’s and is based on the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon.
• Castle Ghosts of the British Isles: This program investigates the myths of ghosts associated with various castles throughout the British Isles.  I’m a sucker for these types of shows I love hearing the ghost stories from various places around the world.  Having not seen this production I will have to rent it to see if it is good.
• J. R. R. Tolkien:  This film tells the story of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.  This 1998 BBC production is finally out on DVD.  I really enjoyed other BBC productions like this one and have high hopes for the contents.  A high recommendation for any fan of Lord of the Rings and J.R.R. Tolkien.

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Eben Brooks delivers again with this great track and video.  There is something oddly funny about the story of Barry Allen (The Flash) told like this.

I especially appreciate the images for City of Heroes in the video.  I am an avid player, and I love the way he used the images to add drama to the video.

If you know of any other good Superhero or City of Heroes vids, leave them in the comments.  I would love to see them.

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We at dashPunk say Fandom saves lives and here is a great story of how it literally saves lives.  It is also a great demonstration of the power of myths and having mythology in our lives.  Myths really set up a great communication short cut that is clear communications.

(via /Film)

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I love Batman, and it is really cool to watch the Bat Symbol as it changed over the years.  I have a couple favorites, but I am curious which ones you all liked best.

(via Bowing to the Future)

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Marvel came out with their top 10 villain picks of 2008.  Does the Green Goblin really deserve to be number one or should the Skrulls hold that title?

1. Norman Osborn
2. Skrulls
3. The Hood
4. Red Skull
5. Ezekiel Stane
6. Loki
7. Bishop
8. Mystique
9. Mister Fear
10. The Marauders

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Review of:  Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic

Overall Rating: 10   

The Watchmen Motion Comic is an amazing compelling experience to watch!  I really enjoyed it.  This is a direct translation of the comic from book to an audio video format.

For those out there who might be concerned that the movie will be too baroque to be understood this is a great opportunity to understand and experience the Watchmen as it was originally intended.

If you would like to learn more about what a motion comic is read my post on Exploring: Motion Comics

The visuals are pulled right from the pages of the comics which are just stunning.  When I started watching the motion comic I got lost in the art work.  Just sitting there mouth slightly a gape with eyes stuck on the screen, a pure moment of static arrest.

The motion for the visuals are done mainly with camera zooms and panning.  That said they also use a lot of actual movement within a panel and Rorschach’s mask does move but remains true to the expression that he would have for the respective panels.

The audio part of the motion comic is brilliantly read.  He reads all of the parts which for those not familiar with the medium can be a little confusing at first.  This is easily overcome with the amount of emotional acting and personality that is brilliantly captured for each character so as he reads them they have a distinct feel and style that is also true to the characters.  He actually got them to sound as I thought they would sound in my head!

To get a good feel for what the motion comic looks like watch this video of the Watchmen movie trailer redone in a motion comic style.  While I do not believe that the visuals are cut directly from the motion comic I would not be surprised to find out that they were.

The motion comic consists of 12 chapters about 30 min long totaling 5 hours of awesomeness!

It is now available on iTunes which is how I got it and on Tuesday March 3rd they will release the DVD copy which can be picked up here Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic.

For more on Watchmen and the movie read here.

Don’t wait. Guarantee your seat before you go and  avoid a sold out show. Skip the box office lines and buy movie tickets at Fandango.com.

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DC Comics is trying to encourage people who have read Watchmen Graphic novel to discover other graphic novels:

Five “AFTER WATCHMEN, WHAT’S NEXT?” Specials featuring a cover price of just $1.00:

• SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #21 SPECIAL EDITION

• TRANSMETROPOLITAN #1 SPECIAL EDITION

• PLANETARY #1 SPECIAL EDITION

• PREACHER #1 SPECIAL

• IDENTITY CRISIS #1 SPECIAL (Newsarama)

Don’t get too excited, these are not full graphic novels, they are promotional issues to wet readers appetites.

Identity Crisis

If you enjoyed Watchmen, I would recomend Identity Crisis:

When the spouse of a JLA [Justice League of America] member is brutally murdered, the entire super-hero community searches for the killer, fearing their own loved ones may be the next targets! But before the mystery is fully solved, a number of long-buried secrets rise to the surface, threatening to tear apart and divide the heroes before they can bring the mysterious killer to justice (DC Comics).

I loved this graphic novel.  The superhero murder mystery is very well written.  It would make a great movie to follow the Watchmen.

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