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(From "Captain Courageous" number 6, 1942.)
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Posted in Daily Random Panel
(Frequent commenter, legendary HeroMachine creator, and Forum moderator Kaldath was kind enough to write up the following article today. Be sure to thank him in the comments! -- Jeff)
Kaldath - Today I saw within my newsfeed on facebook and update from the Terry Brooks Facebook fan page that really surprised me. Apparently Hollywood is interesting in turning the Shannara novels into a TV series, especially the "Elfstones of Shannara" title. Oh how I remember picking up my first every fantasy novel, which was “The Sword of Shannara” which was the first book I ever read by choice and not because I was being made to by one of my English teachers to write a book report on!
"The Sword of Shannara" hooked me on reading. The rich fantasy world of Shea Ohmsford, his brother Flick, their friend Menion Leah, the Towering Druid Allanon, and so many other facets of the story brought me hours of pleasure. I lost myself in the struggles of these characters, in their fight against the dark forces out to destroy them, and I absolutely loved that book. That love carried over to nearly all the other books in the Shannara series including the one being groomed for the little screen “The Elfstones of Shannara”. In this book the Son of Shea Ohmsford, Will Ohmsford, is tasked by Allanon to protect the elven princess Amberle Elessedil on her quest to restore the dying Ellcrys which is the Elven tree of life. The Ellcrys guards not only the Elves but all life from a horde of evil demons which the tree locks safely away from the world, and has done so for thousands of years before it began to fail.
When I saw they were making a book out of one of my most beloved fantasy novel series, my first response was one of joy. I would dearly love to see these characters in action on my television, but then I remembered another book series I loved which was turned into a TV series. “The Legend of the Seeker” based on the Sword of Truth Series written by Terry Goodkind was some of the most god-awful television I have ever had the misfortune to lay eyes on. The thought that the the Shannara series could be ruined the same way as the Sword of Truth was sickens me. We all know how hard it is to translate the written medium to live action, especially that of a fantasy world full of magic and dark beings, and while I am certain there is potential for some great TV to come out of this I somehow have my doubts.
What about you? What are your thoughts on "The Elfstones of Shannara" appearing on TV? Do you think it a good thing or does the thought fill you with dread of another ruined memory?
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Posted in Meta, Randomosity, Things I Like
You will hardly ever hear anyone say that the scaly underwear look beats whatever else you might drag out of the closet. But in this case, it applies:
Apparently there are strippers in Atlantis, because it looks like Aqualad mugged them to steal their boots and gloves. The choker isn't helping that impression any, either. But I want to get past the idea that the future ruler of the seven seas might possibly be a secret cross-dressing mugger and ask Aquaman how he and his wife's blonde and red hair, respectively, resulted in a child with a black Afro.
No, wait, that's not at all what I wanted to ask. The real issue here is not "Which of the Royal Atlantean Guardsmen has kinky dark hair" but "How in the name of Poseidon does that shirt stay up with no armpits?" Does he Super-Glue the part that's over the deltoids? Did he command two starfish to reside there permanently, desperately holding onto the spandex with all five legs?
Regardless, I'm pretty sure the fish's cut-off dialog in this panel reads "Verily that outfit is about ten kinds of Wrong!"
On the other hand, I bet that metal belt is handy for holding the one dollar bills that routinely get shoved in his face.
(Image and character ©DC Comics and via The Vault of Buncheness.)
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Posted in Bad Super Costumes
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Posted in Daily Random Panel
(In lieu of our usual "Versus" matchup, today I'm bringing you a guest article about how you can help in a fight to save City of Heroes, the popular super-hero MMORPG. It's the players versus the world! The article is by Jason Brannen.)
[Illustration by Joe Rossow]
On August 31, NCsoft announced the abrupt closure of their City Of Heroes MMO. NCsoft immediately terminated its entire Paragon Studios staff, ending all development and plans ending services on November 30. The game launched over eight years ago and allows players to create their own customizable hero/villain and battle to save the world/and struggle for unlimited power. It was still profitable and one of the first non-fantasy MMOs on the market.
The announcement left the game's community in shock, but within hours, a rallying cry had gone forth. The players behind a group of virtual heroes began battling to save their Paragon City in the real world. Artists, programmers, financiers, legal professionals, and journalist volunteers began long-term planning. #SaveCoH appeared on Twitter. The Save our City of Heroes Facebook group was created. The community published multiple electronic banners, profile pictures, and forum signatures to spread their message. A write-in campaign quickly materialized. A petition organized by Meggan Russell has had more than 15,000 signatures in the first week.
Michael T. Eastham, subscribing for more than eight years, writes to Taek Jin Kim, CEO of NCsoft Corporation, "In the time since I first received an invitation to join the game, I have moved four times, held six different professions, had two friends and two beloved relatives pass away, and restarted and completed college. During hardships, I knew I could turn to those people I had made friends with within City of Heroes, and to the game itself as an escape from the pain and fatigue. I created countless characters, each unique with life of their own, whose problems I could create, and solve, giving me power to tackle my own hardships. City of Heroes has been there for me for a quarter of my natural existence now, and much of my life has been touched by its influence. When I went to college, I chose to go into game design because I held the dream of one day helping to craft the characters and stories I had become attached to within Paragon City.
"Everyone is experiencing the prospect of something we are passionate about being relegated forever to only existing as memories", says Tony Vazquez, administrator of the fan-run Titan Network. "We are Titans, all of us. We've shed blood, we've cried tears, we've never stopped and we're not about to quit now. We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time."
Links:
Save Our City! FAQ: bit.ly/SaveCoHFAQ
Titan Network: http://www.cohtitan.com/
Petition: http://bit.ly/savecoh
Write-In: http://bit.ly/write2ncsoft
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SaveOurCityOfHeroes
Twtter: http://www.twitter.com/#Savecoh
Notes:
City of Heroes (CoH) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on the super hero comic book genre, developed by Cryptic Studios, and published by NCsoft.
The game launched in North America on April 27, 2004 and in Europe (by NCsoft Europe) on February 4, 2005.
Twenty-three free major updates for City of Heroes were released since its launch.
On August 31, 2012, NCsoft terminated its entire studio (Paragon Studios), ending all development on CoH and other games with a planned end of services on November 30, 2012.
Jeff's Contact: Jason Brannen storyteller@fuse.net
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Posted in RPG Corner, Super-Hero Stuff, Things I Like, Versus
(From "Captain Courageous" number 6, 1942.)
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Posted in Daily Random Panel
Remember the Modern Warrior app, the first taste of the HeroMachine 3 engine? Now you can play with it again! Along with the Pinup Edition, Zombies, and more.
That's right, after much work and code wrangling, I am happy to announce that you can now get to all of the old HeroMachine Mini versions! I've put together a page with links to all of them, and also added a link in the header so you're never more than a click away from the full list.
I've tried to test them as well as I could, so hopefully you won't run into any major problems. Please let me know if you do. And have a good time strolling down memory lane!
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Posted in Meta
It's time for another new Caption Challenge! This week you're tasked with coming up with the best caption for this comics panel:
This one is a little different in that you're not filling in a dialog balloon, but rather coming up with a caption that might appear above or below the image. I'll pick out some as my personal favorites to highlight in a post next Monday, and then I'll choose one of those to bear the standard as the "Featured Creator of the Week" atop the right tool bar.
All entries must be left as a comment (or comments) to this post. Keep ‘em clean (appropriate for a late-night broadcast TV show), but most importantly, keep ‘em funny!
No limit to entries, but please, self-edit and only put up ones you genuinely think are good!
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Posted in Caption Challenges, Challenges
By: Andrew Hines
Though I haven't reviewed it in a while, I've enjoyed the last year of Stormwatch. It's a big picture title, which really pulls you in. They're not just there to save America or even the Americas plural. They exist in order to deal with big threats before they become a problem for teams like the Justice League. This issue deals with their entire history. It goes from the time that they were known as the Demon Knights and gives a new reason for the name change. In other words it tells us why they're called Stormwatch. The recurring characters throughout the history have been Adam One and the various Century Babies which seem to just be incarnations of Jenny Quantum.
Peter Milligan has given me plenty of reason to love Stormwatch in the few months. He began writing at #9 and has given us plenty of action. In this issue, however, action takes a backseat and the story takes over. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of action, it's just not (the comic book version of) "real time." Instead, we get to see some heavy-hitting past incarnations of Jenny Quantum and Adam One doing his best Benjamin Button impersonation. It's a new look at how to write an origin issue for a super team and frankly, it was an interesting one. I'm not typically a fan of "0" issues, so I was pleasantly surprised by this one.
Will Conrad has done a good job here on both pencils and inks. I say good and not great because at several points, both Jenny Quantum and Adam One begin to look like ReBoot characters a little bit. Overall, however it's a good issue, but those moments kind of stuck with me. There was slightly better work in regard to the effects generated by each version of Jenny. Along with that, the colors from Guy Major were a decent fit. The shading was a tad "off" in certain bits which didn't exactly help correct the ReBoot look.
It was a slightly above average issue in terms of art, but the writing was really what saved it. This one get's a "B-". My faith in the creative team's true potential is all that keeps it from getting a C-range grade.
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Posted in Super-Hero Stuff
We had lots of great entries for Character Design Challenge 99! Thank you all for sharing your creativity with us.
Unfortunately, the following folks are disqualified for not naming their files properly: StrangerousRex, Maniacmick, Jawsabi, sivad96, Mr. Chowderhead, DarkWarrior076, Overseer, Fennec Bob, BloodlessRose, Josh, ka5zr, jeremythurlow, zdog101, and tackin. If I can't tell who created it from the file name once it's downloaded onto my computer, there's no way for me to give you credit.
Moving on, here are a few of the entries that were my personal favorites:
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Posted in Challenge Favorites
Three middle-aged nerds (including yours truly!) review all of the MCU movies in chronological order. Short, funny, and full of good vibes, check it out and let us know what you think!
Nerdmudgeon.com
