MonsterOfTheWeek.com

Book Reviews for 12/5/11

2011-12-06T07:11:00.001-08:00

Daybreak
Zone One: A novel

Reviews as of 11/27/11

2011-11-27T19:39:00.000-08:00

The Future Foundation (Vol.1) HC

Superman/Batman: Worship HC

5 very good reasons to punch a dolphin in the mouth : (and other useful guides)

Let's get it on : The making of MMA and its ultimate referee

Reviews as of 11/7/11

2011-11-08T09:21:00.000-08:00

Batman. Arkham reborn
Usagi Yojimbo: The shrouded moon
JLA: World War III
Scott Pilgrim: Finest Hour
Crisis on infinite Earths TPB
Sentinel vol. 1 & 2

Long Beach Comic & Horror Convention 2011 Review

2011-11-02T15:29:00.000-07:00

Saturday, October 29, 2011 Review

Welcome folks, it’s another round of Comic Convention reviews! It’s been almost four whole months since the craziness that is called San Diego Comic Con and so the time to hunker down and chill a bit at the Long Beach Comic & Horror Con has arrived so it’s time for my review.

Long Beach Comic and Horror Convention 2011 Review (LBCC / LBCHC)

In its third year of livelihood, the former Long Beach Comic Con has been re-named Long Beach Comic & Horror Con ran from Oct. 29^th-40^th at the Long Beach Convention Center.

Ticket prices started at $25 for single-day passes with 2-day passes available as well. Kids that are 10 and under have free admission. There were also special writing and inking panels you could pay to attend, one of those things I’ve never seen at a Con before, the pay-to-play aspect of a panel.

Besides the name change and ramping up of the “horror” theme this year was the drawback of the previously 3-day event to just a Saturday and Sunday programming. It appears due to last year’s light Friday afternoon attendance along with exhibitor’s ability to set-up shop on a weekday for a smaller Con helped funnel the event to this shortened timeline. The shortening of the event to just two days seems to have worked, the artists and vendors I spoke to said that the Saturday event had more traffic than last year though Sunday was indeed a light on attendees.

Compared to this year’s earlier Long Beach Comic Expo which was a very small one-day event held in one room, the LBCHC was held in the downstairs main hall of the Center along with several rooms on the main floor for panels (which I didn’t attend any of).

Get Up & In

I arrived at the event way early since I wanted to park in the main lot under the convention since it is very helpful to be there if you’re buying a lot of items and need to store them in your car instead of carrying it around you all day. I was told that the parking lot would open at 6 a.m. but didn’t open until 8:30 a.m... They originally blocked the entrance with cones so I thought they were full of vendor autos already so I therefore parked in the open-air lot across the street. It was $1.00 more and involved a bit more walking, but not too bad. I learned my lesson though and got to the lot on Sunday before 9 a.m. and was able to get a nice spot next to the elevator that took you up to the main entrance.

Ticketing this year was a lot better planned than last year. If you got there early (an hour) there were just a few early attendees so you just had to wait in front of the ticketing line until the registrars got their printouts for you to check-in. There was separate booths for exhibitors/press, dame-day ticket purchases, pre-paid/online by alphabet, and lifetime membership passes.

I bought my ticket via the Living Social 2-day pass deal ($22 vs. normal $45) and they couldn’t find my name on the registration list. They did take my confirmation printout and gave me my badge and wristband as well as the limited edition Hulk #1 LBCHC edition which was unexpected. Last year it was crazy long getting tickets; it could be sped up more if they doubled the people handing out badges.

The line wrapped around the escalators to the west wing of the con as the event neared the 10 a.m. opening. There was a small announcement ceremony that the event holders had near their banner which was hard to hear since the PA system was too far away and turned down low, and I was just less than 10 feet away from the MC. The announcement stretched to 10:10 a.m. so the Con opening was delayed until the MC said his thing, it would have been better to have the opening ceremony BEFORE the convention hours since I’m ready to go in at 10 a.m. and not listed to some yapping that I can’t even hear.

Doors finally open and a slight rush of people take off down the escalators and the line behind be breaks down a bit with people in line behind me are taking off passing me by. The big lines start off at Jason Scott Campbell’s, David Finch’s, and Amanda Conner’s booth initially. The longest line for an artist I could see all day was Finch’s. JSC might have been longer at one point but his was stationed at the front entrance which I didn’t pass by too often.

The Lowdown

The show floor was a lot bigger this year with the entire hall almost totally filled with booths and tables. There was a wrestling ring area, small laser tag and plenty of table and chairs near the food aisles in case you needed to sit down.

There were a good mix of indy stores and self-press publishers, small toy vendors and comic booths. There were a few booths selling Golden Age/Silver Age and CGC books as well as the booths selling TPBs for 40-50% off and moderns for .50 cents to a buck a piece. I ended up taking a couple back-pack refills worth of back-issues!

Who ‘Dat?

The main thing for the LBCHC though is the artist’s alley which is the main attraction for the Con. The area was large and the center points of the convention center, the aisles were nicely spread wide apart so you didn’t have to worry about traffic compared to the set-up at SDCC. There were tons of artists and writers you could meet and get original art, prints, sketches, books, etc.

One of the positives about going to a comic convention is meeting the creators in-person that you may not have been familiar with or exposed to their works. It’s been a generally positive experience in meeting the creators and them explaining their wares to attendees. Meeting with the creators and them being nice and personable brings a positive response from comic readers in my opinion.

After seeing some of their works in-person, buying some OA or sketches I ended up following their works. I pick-up their back issues, purchase their artwork, and follow their new projects. So remember artist alley people, be nice to the people stopping by since fans help keep your projects in the news!

Comic Artists and Writers Alley

Here’s a general run-down of the creators I personably stopped by their booths and met. There were a lot more creators there for sure but this short synopsis is for the ones I checked out. So check it out people.

Bernie Wrightson (Swamp Thing, Doc Macabre) – Legendary comic artist, I’ve gotten his autograph on a couple Swamp Thing items at the previous LBCC shows and this year was able to finally buy an original piece of art. While the published pieces were still out of my price range this time his portfolio folder container preliminary artwork than ranged from $10/$20 (rough sketches of weapon designs, panel layouts) to $100 (preliminary creature designs!). I almost went for a winged creature preliminary drawing but ended up choosing a prelim. from a Warblade comic featuring him fighting a Daemonite creature. He and his wife dress up as scarecrows on Sunday.

Thomas Jane (The Punisher, Hung, The Mist)- The actor had a nice booth near the entrance promoting his comic publication (RAW Comics) and also set-up next to artist Tim Bradstreet, and kicking it laid back while wearing aviator glasses and a cigar while at the booth. Didn’t see a line at his booth when I went there and had him sign a Punisher movie adaption comic. Told him I just finished watching the entire first season of Hung DVD a few days earlier. He also had a panel Saturday night with Tim Bradstreet. He does drive a sweet Masarati which I saw him jump into at the close of the convention.

Job Bogdanove (Power Pack, Superman)- One of the main artists during the big “Death of Superman” event for DC back in the 90s. Missed getting a sketch when he was at the Hero Initiative booth. Ended up getting a Doomsday head sketch from him and he told me that that drawing was for the first time he get the handle on Doomsday’s skull framework and was very pleased with it. Me too, the DD sketch he made was kicking and his pricing for a head sketch was very reasonable.

Joe Benitez (Titans, Lady Mechanika)- After missing his signing at booths for the past year I finally got his signature on a few books, I’m disappointed that I didn’t request a quick headshot commission since his booth was pretty empty near closing time and his pricing was reasonable as well. I saw him complete a couple headshots of Lady Mechanika for someone and they look sweet.

Darwyn Cooke (Parker, D.C.: The New Frontier, The Spirit)- Busy man at the Con, jumping in at the Hero Initiative Booth both days as well as the IDW booth to promote his new Parker book. He did quick head sketches on the Parker: Martini Edition HC book that I saw as well as hand-tinting color on a $20 Parker limited edition print. He was signing books all weekend for donations to Hero Initiative. He even told me a story regarding pilot his Chuck Yeager autograph when he was signing my New Frontier Special comic.

Amanda Conner (Power Girl, The Pro) – One of the booths with the constant lines of fans all weekend. There were comic fans who wanted sketches and prints as well as people becoming instant fans when seeing the line around her and then watching her draw. There were a good amount of people who got from her the half-torso drawings that takes about 20-30 mins. To pencil, ink, and color as well as those who got the quick 3 min. head sketches which she did for donations for the Hero Initiative. She was very nice to the fans and happy in answering questions both days. Buy some of her prints if you ever get a chance to see her at a booth!

Jimmy Palmiotti (Jonah Hex, Ash)- Sitting next to Amanda Conner at a parallel booth is her husband and noted writer/inker, Jimmy. Very nice guy and was signing a gazillion books for fans (Jonah Hex, Freedom Force, Power Girl, etc.). Once of the few booths where he was just there to sign for fans and not actually selling anything. Very nice talking to people and asking how they were enjoying the show.

David Finch (Moon Knight, Batman) – THE BUSIEST and LONGEST line around both days was for the current hot artist on Batman: The Dark Knight. He was going solo that this show vs. SDCC, so the line for sketches and signatures was the same so you would be waiting hours for his signature if people ahead of you were getting sketches, some people I know were in line for 2+ hours. Almost every other person in line for him wanted head or torso sketches so he was booking all day and even lost his voice at the end of the show on Sunday. Also a nice guy and thanks his fans when getting sigs on books. I wish I got a head sketch commission from him. He only does pencil sketches (no inks) for the convention sketches, does anyone know if pencil work displays fine on the Marvel Fallen Son blank covers?

Ray-Anthony Height (Spider-Girl, Fear Itself: Fearsome 4)- One of fun artists to get sketches from at cons since his drawings are always so good. I had to skip out this time on getting a sketch due to budget constraints but I finally was able to get his “Bigtime: Spider-Girl” comic that he did signed. He was also working on a full-figure drawing with color of Hawkgirl that was just fantastic.

Drew Johnson (Wonder Woman, The Authority)- One of the first artists I ever talked to when I started going back to Cons last year and also the artist that I always end up walking away with art from at each show, this time a page from Supergirl and an inked & water colored drawing of Raven from Teen Titans. I also got a nice Ms. Marvel sketch from him too.

Christos Gage (Avengers Academy, Thunderbolts)- When I found out this writer was appearing I had to bring tons of his books to sign. Writers at the show (especially from DC’s new 52 relaunch) were a good amount than I’ve seen before. Again, nice guy and signed all my books and thanked me for reading.

Scott Lobdell (Teen Titans, X-Men)- I only saw him at his booth for a couple hours late on Sunday, I originally thought he skipped out on attending. He had a good amount of fans there, especially those wanting his sig on the new 52 books he’s working on.

Kevin Eastman (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)- Had a steady line during his signing appearing Saturday night. I was mis-informed he was going to appear on Sunday too which bummed me out when I found out he wasn’t coming back on Sunday. Would have loved to get the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles HC book and have him do a quick sketch on it.

Mike McKone (Spider-Man, Teen Titans)- Had him sign a ton of Teen Titans comics sine his volume of the series I am actually trying to complete the entire run. One day I’d like to be able to afford one of the original art pieces.

Dustin Nguyen (Batman, Detective Comics)- Had some cool chibi prints of his D.C. and Batman/Robin characters which is always a draw to attendees. Thanked me for reading when I had him sign a Detective Comics book.

Whilce Portacio (Batman Confidential, X-Men)- A busy man between 1-3 p.m. since those were the hours he was signing at the Golden Apple booth the Hulk #1 ltd. Ed. That he did the cover for.

Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo)- Nice creator of the phenomenal book and was cool to sign and doing a quick Usagi sketch on the covers. He was there only on Saturday. I do have an idea for a commission for next time I see him.

Todd Nauck (Spider-Man, Young Justice)- Had a steady amount of fans stopping by and getting sketches and signatures. One of the stalwarts of the So. Cal convention scene with many fans.

Steve Niles (30 Days of Night, Simon Dark)- Had a panel and booth at the con and was signing books for fans and dressed as a classy devil on Sunday.

Mark Waid (The Flash, Irredeemable)- Did signings at Hero Initiative on Saturday and for a couple hours at his booth on Sunday. He was hosting a writing panel as well. Nice gentleman and I pretty much got his signature on all my D.C. comics I had of his in my collection.

Tommy Yune (Robotech, Speed Racer)- Didn’t see him at the RobotechX booth on Saturday until the convention closed, so I caught up with him on Sunday. Kinda blindsided him which I asked for his sig on a “couple” books and I whipped out a stack of comics…he’s lucky I only brought the first issues for sigs and not entire series!

Jason Scott Campbell (Danger Girl, Cover Artist)- Had a sweet booth smack-dab in the center of the entrance way. Steady long line both days, didn’t get anything signed this time (see my So. Cal Comic Con report from this Summer). Wish I checked out his convention sketch prices.

Gerry Conway (Firestorm, Spider-Man)- Another legendary writer that I brought books to sign for when he was there on Saturday. Was signing at the Desert Wind Comics booth and gave sigs with donations to Hero Initiative.

Mark Beachum (Samuree, Flare)- Brought him a couple old-school Samuree books from the Continuity Comics days for signing. He showed it to his pals since they haven’t seen some of his old work before from the series.

Ale Garza (Teen Titans, Supergirl)- Had him sign my Supergirl comic issue, was there both days but closed his booth early on Saturday.

Bob Layton (Iron Man, Hercules)- Was initially stationed at the back of the convention on Saturday but thankfully was put in the main center of artists alley for Sunday (I think he get Stan Sakai’s booth). Got my Hercules book signed and had cover recreations available.

JonBoy Meyers (Arana, Spider-Man)- Picked up a sketch of Dagger (of Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger duo) and his sig on a Green Lantern TPB, was bummed at the last con that I didn’t get to buy his reasonably priced preliminary sketches he was selling. Will definitely be picking up more from him in the future.

Mike S. Miller (DCU Universe: Legends, Superman)- One new artist I stumbled up at the show that had a striking similarity to Jim Lee/Ed Benes. He is the inker on the comic version of the DC Universe Online game. He had really sweet OA for sale and I just missed out on timing on getting a sketch from him. Will be on the lookout for his at shows in the future.

Norm Rapmund (Booster Gold, Superman)- Didn’t get anything signed this time, but if you know the 90s then you now Norm Rapmund’s work. I need to grab some Superman comics now for the future.

What Else Was There?

A booming public address system that’ll jostle you if you’re standing underneath one of the speakers. Very disconcerting especially at Amanda Conner’s booth, while you’re watching her draw the PA would come on and startle you.

There was a backstage show with karaoke and star wars Jedi performances. So if you needed to sit and wind down you could watch some side-performances.

Wrestling ring- You could hear people hitting the mat across the hall when they were performing. Don’t know if there was tons of attraction going on there though.

Laser Tag area near the ring where for a donation you could play laser tag against people in Star Wards costume.

The inaugural Masquerade Ball was scheduled at 8 p.m. Saturday night, but it was being held a full hour after the convention hall closed, so by the time you were ushered out you had to kill an hour before the event happened. Would have been nice if the event happened closer to the hall closing time in order to direct leaving visitors to attend the event. Does anyone have video on YouTube of the Masquerade event or link to it?

There was also a Magic: The Gathering/Warcraft card gaming event being held, but since Mr. Monster isn’t into it, didn’t pass by it for a review.

Lots of zombie cosplayers due to the same night the Long Beach Zombie Walk was happening down the street where they were trying to break the zombie attendance record or something.

Lots of really intricate Cosplayers and their costumes both days along with store-bought ones. More kids in costumes during the Sunday event.

All-in-All

I had a blast and washed away all the bad jive from the San Diego Comic Con fiasco (buying tickets, entrance line, foot traffic, etc.). LBCC is a laid back show, you can spend an hour or 2 days just hanging around. A great place to talk to creators, check out comics, see cosplay without hassle. Pricing for the show is light-years better than the Wizard World cons whose target is mainly autograph signings and photo ops with B- & C-level actors.

What Can Be Improved?

Since the con is still in its infancy, there are still a lot of kinks and things that can be improved.

Here are my humble suggestions:

1. More publishers! Apart from Top Cow & IDW, there were none of the other big name houses in attendance. Where was Dark Horse, DDP, Archie, Bongo, Valiant, Image and most importantly Marvel & DC? In order to try and establish the show as a preeminent comic book convention in the U.S., LBCC will need to get more support from the big dogs. Some of the publisher’s top artists already set-up booths, so why not have the pubs truck their booths from SDCC and set-up in Long Beach as well? Would love to get signings from Geoff Johns and Jim Lee at a D.C. booth, Joe Q. and Lenil Francis Yu at a Marvel booth.

2. Cosplay is one of the big draws to a convention, look how it exploded at SDCC and also how gigantic Anime Expo is with cosplay? Well LBCC is smack dab in the middle location of both of them (with AX in L.A.), so why not ramp up the promotion of the event? The masquerade inaugural ball this year was a good step, too bad it was starting one hour AFTER the convention hall closed so unless people were going to hang out for an hour they left. It would be nice to had greeters telling people at the door when the convention was closing that the masquerade ball was happening still to help remind them. Invite the “key” name cosplayers to attend the event and have them in panels, copy how the new Comikaze event is having Yaya Han at their show.

3. Bring in MORE comic book dealers. Make it a priority presence to keep increasing the dealer booths, bring in modern dealers, TPB/HC resellers, manga, CGC and old-school comic dealers to attract the different niche collectors.

4. Where are the original art dealers? One of the things I liked at this year’s SDCC were the many OA dealer booths where you could peruse artwork and purchase them from a wide range of periods and artists. At LBCC there were none apart from the artists selling their own OA pages. Bring in some OA dealers and combine the comic book experience.

5. Add more check-in booths for pre-registered ticker buyers. Don’t keep people waiting in line longer than 15 mins. Trying to get their badge or you’ll turn off their giddiness by waiting in line for so long. I’ve read reviews from first-time attendees and they’re not coming back because they were so turned off by the line and wait time on Saturday.

Reviews as of 8/1/11

2011-10-09T17:00:00.001-07:00

Day by Day Armageddon
Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour
Usagi Yojimbo: The shrouded moon
JLA: Waorld War III
Sentinel Vol. 1 & 2
Batman: Long Shadowss
Batman: Secrets
Batman and the Monster Men
Green Lantern: Passing the Torch
Wonder Woman: MIssion's End
Wonder Woman: Down to Earth
Spider-Girl Vol. 2
Incognito

Comic Book Original Art: Framed and Displayed Pages- Pulp Heroes & Robots

2011-08-13T16:09:00.000-07:00

Theme for August 2011 Comic Art: Pulp Heroes & Robots

Reviews as of 8/1/11

2011-08-07T07:16:00.000-07:00

Thor: The Mighty Avenger (Vol. 2) TPB

Daytripper

Hellboy: Masks & Monsters

X-Men: Messiah Complex

Bad Girls

San Diego Comic Con 2011 (Sunday) Report & Review

2011-07-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

SDCC 2011: 1-Day (Sunday) Report and Review

Now I haven’t gone to the San Diego Comic Con since before it grew into GIGANTIC proportions (around ’03 or ’04). I first went to Comic Con in the late 90s when you could pretty much see all the booths in a couple of hours; I’ve also been when the build-up was happening to its mass-market popularity so heading out to and experiencing Comic Con today was quite an experience (good & bad).

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE

As those who experienced the hassle of ordering tickets for 2011 know it was both a major pain and chore just to acquire them. Online ticket purchase crash earlier this year on several occasions causing SDCC to continue to adjust dates when the public can try to order them. Those that took time off to try and purchase them during the first round got skunked since it wasn’t until many weeks later that ticket ordering kind of started. It was a Saturday morning that the final announcement that online ticket purchase was finally available, of course the site was hammered immediately and only those that managed to refresh their browsers over and over to hit an order screen were lucky.

I was inquiring on some comic message boards if Sunday tickets were easy to acquire since I did not know if I had time to try and log on Saturday, forum responders said Sundays were slower and tickets should be available through the next day…thankfully I didn’t listen to them since Sunday tickets sold out within minutes of open registration. I was able to get two Sunday tickets after F5ing the browser for close to 5 hours. I was even told that some people’s friends who were in IT had commandeered their office servers to try and acquire tickets only to get one pass.

I sure miss the days of being able to stand in line the same day as the event and still be able to get in.

LET’S ROLL TO SAN DIEGO

I knew that there was pre-paid parking now available on-line to order ahead of time, but when I checked the day before of course every pre-paid parking option was closed, so I hoped for the best for parking situations. In the past I was able to park in the Gas lamp District just a few blocks from the convention center about an hour or two before the convention started, and that was on Saturdays. This year I decided to head out early and arrived in downtown San Diego without any morning traffic. I hit Market Street and headed to the last open-air parking spot I remembered being able to park at. Behind the Metro Transit and hotel was the parking lot, of course half of it was roped off for trailers and containers for the event. There was a short line to get in and space was limited, thankfully getting there at 8:00 a.m. still managed to get a great spot…

Parking Cost: $30.00

Of course the cost of parking was ridiculously high, the highest I’ve paid, beating out daily rates in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The short walk across the railways was a plus though and well worth it if you needed to drop-off items in your vehicle in-between events.

THE LINE OF LINES

Getting out of the car and seeing the convention, you see throngs of people. Tons. So it was time to find the line entry, I remember being able to stand in line near the entrance back in the day, this time it was starting behind the Marriott hotel. When I say behind, I mean waayyyyyyy behind. The line for Sunday morning stretch from the entrance, the side, the back, the parking lot, the marina parking, the back of the marina and then wrapped again. It took about 15 minutes just to walk from the SDCC entrance to where the end of the line began. Once in line it was thankfully orderly and it started moving forward around 8:30 a.m. The march took roughly 20-30 minutes to get to the upstairs ticketing counter. Getting your badge pass was ultra-quick and took less than a few minutes to acquire. I remember when the computer ticketing (along with the manual book) was first introduced and the process still took a long time.

Once badged-up, we received our convention book (now in Color!) and also got the cool daily Con report that was helpful if you wanted updated news just for the day. The freebie table was weak with just flyers and handouts, I still don’t know why people stand in line for that, just go online and get the same information.

There was a line to get in and spoke to another guest who said he was only able to get Sunday tickets. The line started moving around 9 a.m. to get into the Convention which amazed me since most Cons I’ve attended only open exactly at the time (the event time was listed to start at 9:30 a.m.). Went down the elevator and finally into the Convention hall and it is still huge. Since we were still early and I wanted to hit Artist Alley first to get some signatures I could not find an event staffer to ask where the location was. Once staffer said it would be on one of either side of the Hall….gee thanks.

Other staffers were talking on their cell phone. Thankfully I had a staffer point out the location on our guide and point us in the right direction. Arrived at the artists alley and it was pretty empty with only a handful of artists already set-up, must’ve had a hard partying Saturday night! I rounded the artist’s alley a few times since it was the location where all the original art dealers were.

ARTIST’S & THEIR ALLEY

Here’s my brief synopsis of the artists I was able to meet or at least pass by. I was disappointed that I missed because their booths were listed under a Studio name and not theirs so I didn’t bring any books for them to sign. I wanted to stop by some dollar book booths to try and root for comics for signature signings, but just didn’t have time to stop and sort with all the traffic going on.

I wish SDCC would give a larger font for artists or the booth vendors since I always had to stare pretty thoroughly to make sure the artist at a booth was the person I was looking for and not some assistant or someone else since I’m not familiar with their faces.

Jeff Smith- Saw him at his booth for signing between 4-5 p.m. when I came by at the start time the line for his signing was two booths long and I was just one person shy of the cut-off line. Since I had to see another booth before closing I knew there was no way I could wait in line for his signature so I ditched the line. I walked by around 4:45 p.m. on my way out and saw my place in line was still a good 15 minutes away from getting to the front.

Adam Hughes- No line at his booth when the convention started, didn’t know he was going to be there and I had no books on me. Didn’t know if he signed at certain times of if you could just walk up to him.

Jim Steranko- Also didn’t know he was attending, I just walked past his studio booth and saw this man all dressed up for a swanky night on the town.

Bill Sienkiewicz- Again also didn’t know he would be there and had no books on me.

Jim Califiore- Shared a booth with Mike McKone, friendly person and signed books. Stopped by his booth later the day and was chatting with one of the attendants there, ended up getting a Secret Six page for a really good low price. Would have loved to get a full team art page.

Mike McKone- Got him to sign a couple books, had some good sales on his remaining Sinestro Corps original art. Would have gone for some art but tapped out already.

Brent Anderson- Only saw his booth in artists alley at the end of the day, can’t believe I missed his listing since I have just picked up a good run of Astro City books. Checked out his OA pages but I was priced out from acquiring any of them.

Sergio Aragones- Had an actual booth at the back of the convention near the food alley and not artist’s alley. Was away from the booth when I walked by. Stopped by later the day and waited about 20 minutes in line to get him to sign a book. His booth allowed up to 3 free autographs otherwise it was suggested to donate $1.00 per additional books for donation to the CBLDF. Sergio signed and made little quick sketches on each book. Books were cover price and you could get a poster. A gentleman purchased an original Groo page and Sergio did a quick head sketch and colored it as well. He was intrigued when I presented him with the pop-up cover Mighty Magnor comic I just got, asked if he can pop-it up and I said yes and he proceeded with his Swiss-army knife to cut the top so we could see the pop-up cover in action.

Cliff Chiang- Saw him at his shared booth doing an interview, again another artist I have been following recently and didn’t know about was appearing. Missed trying to get one of his preliminary cover art pieces that I could afford, but his booth was packing up early (4:45-ish) so I didn’t have a chance to buy anything from.

Jerry Bingham- Another friendly artist accommodating the signing of one book I brought. I didn’t get to bring Son of the Demon TPB since it was the over-size format and didn’t have room for it.

Zander Cannon- Did a quick signing of books for me and showed me three of his available Top 10 OA he did with Gene Ha, great pieces out of my price range. Had a good amount of Smax art for reasonable prices as well.

Tony DeZuniga- Legendary Filipino artists, was able to get him to sign my Adventure Comics with the first appearance of Black Orchid which he is a co-creator of.

David Finch- Popular artist with a slight line-up at his booth. A good amount of fans awaiting sketches, thankfully his wife separated those of us only wanting signatures so we didn’t have to wait long while he sketched for others…that’s the way to do it!

Ale Garza- Got two quick signatures on some Teen Titans books, don’t know if it was a tough day or not but he was the only artist I met that didn’t say anything to me when I asked for his signature.

Scott Hampton- Was able to get my dog-eared Books of Magic TPB and a couple books signed. Scott didn’t have a stirrer for his coffee in the morning so we were watching him stir it with one of his markers. Another accommodating artist, his original art portfolio was great and I wish I could afford one.

Chad Hardin- One of the very first artists readily available in artist alley in the morning, wish I had his new Zatanna comics on hand. He and his wife were enthused when I had him sign the slightly older Countdown to Mystery series. I got to remember to bring the entire series for signing next time since it took me a few years to track down all the issues.

Jamal Igle- Was able to get him to sign a couple books as well.

Ron Lim - I couldn’t find his area in artists alley that day, anyone see him there?

David Mack- I’m so glad I brought a few Kabuki comics, I remember seeing him years ago and never having anything ready. So this year even though I didn’t see his name on the website (I didn’t remember his studio name) I brought a few comics in case (I also brought some Rob Liefield comics but didn’t see him there). As he signed my comics he asked me if I read his new series, I told him I was just getting back in comics after over 10 years out of the loop and he was kind enough to give me 3 comics for free. I do wish I stopped to ask for a quick Kabuki head sketch, drats!

Todd Nauck- His booth was pretty busy throughout the day so I had to skip him signing a comic. Thankfully he pretty much hits every So. Cal convention I’ve been at so I’ll catch him next time.

Dustin Nguyen- Was setting up his booth in the morning so I waited a bit so he got all his settings squared away. Asked if I liked the Streets of Gotham series and I of course said yes.

Peter V. Nguyen- Saw Peter at Long Beach Comic Con earlier this year and after finding out he did a Secret Six comic brought an issue for his signature, told me it was his first D.C. comics gig.

Whilce Portacio- A mainstay of local So. Cal conventions, able to get him to sign some comics. Always attracts a good contingent of fellow Filipino fans.

Philip Tan- Went passed his booth in the morning when it was empty, but later that day I could not find his location at all.

ITS SHOWTIME- THE FLOOR

After the brief walk-around artist’s alley (now about 9:30-ish) I headed back to circle the entire convention floor room. I was going to try and hit the Supernatural panel in Hall H, but a person in line said that the line started way early in the morning for all the Hall H shows and pretty much impossible to get in now. Once 10:00 a.m. hit the convention floor booked-up, I’ve never seen this much traffic even during the Saturday SDCC events in the past I attended. I had to navigate the booths with my elbows out to keep people from running into me since it was so tight. There was only a couple aisles where traffic was light, but once you hit the middle of the convention floor, the perimeter or the opposite end of the artist’s alley, video game area foot traffic came to a stop. Every major booth, especially those with exclusive items (i.e. Hasbro, D.C., Nickelodeon, etc.) had lines stretching within minutes of the door opening. I remember the last time I was in line and that was when Hasbro was selling Pimp-Daddy Destro.

This was the first convention where I did not stop to check out the booths since my main goal was to see the entire floor, and with the amount of people and space there was no way I could look around at each booth in detail and walk the entire floor. I even missed out on checking the upstairs signing booths to see all the B & C-level actors/models since I did not want to trudge upstairs again to see what was going on.

Timeframe to walk entire main showroom floor: 9:30 a.m.- 1:30 p.m. (4 hours) going at maximum pace.

It was tough to take pictures of items in booths or have your photo taken with the statues/life-size figures since there just wasn’t a lot of breathing room or break in foot traffic for good clear shots I thought. Any booth that had a line of more than 5 people I stayed away from since it meant that the booth would have snaking lines where I wouldn’t be able to bust through (talking to you D.C. & Walking Dead booths!).

WHERE MY COS-PLAYERS AT?

When I overheard other attendants and even other coverage reports I knew that I wasn’t mistaken that there was not tons of cos-players on Sunday. I was used to seeing costumed people every 10 steps from before, but this day it was rare to see a steadily streaming costumed folks, heck even nearing the end of the Con along the outside lobby I didn’t see anymore cos-players to take photos with. The usual roving Star Wars or Anime groups I did not see at all.

SHOW ME THE COMICS

I was pleasantly surprised to see a fair amount of comic booths at the show after hearing their near demise. Still the comic book booths were fairly limited and in my opinion accounted for less than 25% of the booth-types at the show. Saw the usual costume, cable tv, clothing, swords & sorcery, small-publishers, toys, and tons of anime-related items mostly.

Of the comic booths available, the main chunk were those catering to golden/silver/bronze age fans with a sprinkle of booths selling key, moderns and trade paperbacks. While the vintage and modern comics were retailing at their usual guide or cover price, come Sunday there were a fair batch of booths selling their TPBs from 50% to 60% off cover price.

With my handy-dandy Evernote on my phone, I was tracking the booths that had modern comics for sale around .50 cents to a dollar; though I only noted less than 5 booths with cheap issues and usually only averaging 2-3 short boxes of which there were people already circling like vultures around. Though I circled back there just wasn’t an opening for me to look through the boxes or have space to even take a peek.

I’m hoping Long Beach Comic Con rocks out later this year since I’m still looking for some issues to fill in my runs without needing me to go online.

HUNGRY!

Took a break around 1:30 p.m. to drop-off the signed comics (I took too much since most of it filled my backpack) in the car and lighten the load off my spine. Thankfully the air conditioning and the cool San Diego weather was good that day and the usual July heat was not in effect that day. Walked into a Café for lunch but was turned away since they were closing, along with pretty much every restaurant and dive near the Gaslamp District for some reason. I didn’t want to walk too far off so we walked a few blocks trying to spot open food places and those that were still open had lines up the whazoo.

Ended up taking a break at a Deli across the street from the Sprint tent and ordered some sandwiches ($8.00 a pop). Ate outside to people watch and saw all the peddle cabs with their Comic Con themed rides (Game of Thrones seat, Captain America wheelcaps) along with tons of trucks, motorbikes, bicycles pulling advertising for upcoming movies, tv and other fun things. Anyone see the lady peddle-cab driver dressed up in a schoolgirl outfit? How come no one was taking that bike for a ride around town, come on fellas!?

FINAL COUNTDOWN

Finished lunch and headed back to convention center for a last couple hours before the close of the day, this time had an agenda to get some final signatures from the artists that were not at their booths earlier.

I spent the rest of the day picking up some original comic art and checking out the booths selling OA and animation cels. Since it was Sunday, I knew this was probably the best time to get deals (one of the reasons I chose to go on Sunday besides not hitting Saturday crowds). I was able to shave a few bucks off some purchases just by asking the sellers what their best price for an item was. I was even able to get a discount just by inquiring if there was any more art available to view.

IT’S A REAL ART-A-FAIR UP IN HERE

Since I’ve been checking out original art this year and SDCC is pretty much the only major game in Southern California to see a good amount of art dealers in one spot. I’ve preferred to purchase original art directly from artists in order to definitely confirm that the artwork is original as well as properly answer if a piece is pencil, ink over pencil, ink over blueline, with or without stats, preliminary, etc., but most of the pieces I’ve been looking at were being repp’d by OA Dealers.

If you stayed without a few aisle radius of the artist alley then you would have seen the bulk of the OA dealers. There were several scattered dealers across the show floor on the opposite side (i.e. Anthony’s Collectibles, etc.). I was surprised at some OA dealer booths where the bulk and focus of the artwork were Silver Age or earlier pieces along with older comic strip art with nothing more modern (aka Cheaper priced).

It was nice seeing some Jack Kirby pieces, but with their prices starting around $3k I didn’t stick too long at those booths. I was able to pick up a Filmation Hawkman cel that I’ve been wanting to acquire at a really good price, for some reason eBay prices for Hawkman’s cartoon skyrocketed this past year. Stopped by Anthony’s Collectibles and his booth had tons of art to go over.

I had time to go through only several folders and ended up getting a nice Paul Gulacy piece that I’ve been trying to acquire from a couple different sources. I probably would’ve picked up more at this booth but some pieces listed on his online store were just recently bought. Good deals though if you purchased multiple items. Passed by Cool Line Artwork’s booth pretty fast as well as a smaller booth that had a Mark Bright page from Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn II (too $$ I thought for a so-so page).

Booths 4200-4400 had the big grouping of original art dealers together. I know that Romitaman.com and Splash Page Art were in that batch. Lots of nice items to look through and not very heavily trafficked so you had a good chance of browsing through the lot of art without too much of the hassle of people side-by-side. It was pretty laid back at their booths as I was pretty much rummaging through the files and no one asked me if I had any questions at all. I did have some OA pieces I reserved from Mike Burkey (Romitaman.com) and was able to pick up a couple Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight pages (one of my favorite storylines) as well as a dramatic Spider-Girl page by Pat Oliffe (I’ve never read the comic yet but the page looked nice).

Wish tons more OA dealers showed up more at local cons as those that set-up in San Diego.

FINAL IMPRESSIONS

Wow, that is one busy, congested and stress-inducing comic convention. Sunday’s event was overwhelming, I can’t even imagine how it was on Saturday when all the heavyweight events were happening. Got to see a ton of things that I don’t even remember since I was too busy zipping by. Met some artists in-person who were very cool. Spent too much money I know I will regret. My legs and back ached afterwards, but it was still an interesting and worthwhile event.

Would I go back again to San Diego Comic Con? No, because the event has grown so large and so crowded that while fun, it was stressful as well. Just the act of acquiring tickets to the event was a chore that took me half a day for which I will not be doing again.

Maybe if the convention center expands to give more aisle room for foot traffic, non-site crashing ticket buying and banning people with strollers (parent’s with newborns and small kids, leave them at home if you need to push them in a stroller, its not worth it to jam up people all around you especially if you stop in the middle of the floor to gawk at things).

It’s probably a lot more fun to attend SDCC if you attend the entire 4-day event so you’re not rushing around to see everything like I did, though you can expect to pay TOO MUCH for the hotel room, overnight parking and hiked-up food prices during the show dates.

See you Comic Con, I’ll check you out online for the foreseeable future.

Comic Book Original Art: Framed and Displayed Pages- Swamp Thing

2011-06-26T20:12:00.000-07:00

Theme for June 2011 Comic Art: Swamp Thing

Comic Books: Trade Paperback & Graphic Novel Reviews as of 5/10/11

2011-05-10T19:04:00.000-07:00

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne

Batman: The Widening Gyre

Fables: Witches

D.C.'s Blackest Night

The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects
Thor: The Mighty Avenger

Comic Book Original Art: Framed and Displayed Pages- Supergirl

2011-05-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

Theme for May 2011 Comic Art:Supergirl

Long Beach Comic Expo 2011 Event Review

2011-05-01T18:50:00.000-07:00

I attended my first Long Beach Comic Expo 2011 this year and did have fun even though the venue was smaller than expected and some locations blocked off due to filming.

The Long Beach Comic Expo is indeed a small comic convention, it doesn’t use the main convention center’s ballroom (compared to the regular Long Beach Comic Con) and actually the event is held in one of the side banquet rooms. Even though the room and Expo event wasn't gigantic by any means, the room was packed and by noon you could expect to bump into people while traversing the aisles or going through comic long boxes.

I originally thought that since the convention hall was small that I would be out of there in less than an hour… I ended up spending most of the day there mostly checking out the artist area and a few comic booths. You could actually walk through and see all the booths in about 10 minutes if you wanted to at a brisk pace.

I arrived an hour early to the Long Beach Convention Center and since the Expo is a one-day event compared to the 3-day Long Beach Comic Con, I was able to park in the main parking lot underneath the center. I recommend arriving early to park in the underground parking since if you plan on buying items and do not want to haul them around all day, being able to hop into the elevator and drop-off the items in my car multiple times was a plus.

This is a comic-related focused event, and unlike the LBCC or Wizard World Anaheim shows, there were no “celebrities” manning booths here. Booths were primarily comic-oriented with a good amount of golden/silver/bronze age dealers, comic artists (seasoned & independent) as well as a few booths selling cosplay-related goods.

Personally, I’m a modern comic reader/collector and this Expo only had a few booths selling modern comics. Bargain hunters note that I spotted only a three bargain-related booths; one booth with a couple short boxes of 50 center comics and a big booth selling dollar comics that was packed full of buyers throughout the day. I still prefer the Frank & Sons event for bargain-basement cheap reads, but I was able to get a backpack full of comics here as well to help fill in some gaps in my collection.

Since the Con lacked wide-berth spacing, I was constantly being bumped into while looking thorough boxes in the floor where someone would end up swooping above my head or bumping into me if they didn’t pay attention that someone was indeed on the floor. I had to stand up and elbow a few people off me a couple of times for those that don’t realize a thing called “personal space.” Thank goodness I’m not a scrawny little geek and doesn’t mind standing up to let people know to back off me to give me some breathing room. As usual, there were some smelly con-attendees there; oddly they mostly consisted of late-middle aged gentlemen.

The main reason to attend the Expo you ask? The artists and professionals there of course! Almost half the booths at the event were manned by artists, publishers, writers, etc. I was able to bring some comics from my collection and get them signed by notables such as Bernie Wrightson, Mike McKone, Marv Wolfman, Drew Johnson, and Eric Canete. I ran out of time the night before otherwise I would have looked through my collection a bit more thoroughly to find some Trent Kaniuga, Dustin Nguyen, and Peter Nguyuen comics for them to autograph. I was bummed that Peter Nguyuen was the artist on Secret Six (which I dig a lot) and I have at home, but didn’t realize he was attending.

Note to the Long Beach Comic Con program writers: When you list the artists attending the show, it would be very helpful if you can include next to their name the comics they worked on as a quick reference.

With the small venue, you were assured being able to communicate directly with the artists and get yourself a print, sketch or original art. I ended up purchasing several original art pieces as well as getting a couple sketches. Conventions like these I think help visitors get into learning about artists they may never have dealt with or know about their work before. Generally some basic sketches ranged from $40 for head/busts to $80+ for full body commissions. Don’t have a lot of cash to splurge on OA? Go ahead and support your artists and help pay for their booth by buying an art print or sketchbook. Most of the artists there were mainly amicable and nice to talk to. My suggestion for artists looking to sell sketches or drum up more traffic to their booths? Smile, there were a few “name” artists that weren’t too happy looking sitting at their booths which I think contributed to their less than stellar audience traffic.

I did enjoy artist’s booths with low general sketching prices. I missed out on one artist that was selling roughs and preliminary sketches for between $10-$20 that I planned on buying but missed out since he packed-up earlier than the show’s closing and I was caught up at another booth.

Shame that a couple aisles and the front of the center were blocked off where they were filming some web-show thing and the crew kept telling people that certain areas you couldn't walk into.

The positive part was the artists for me (I'm not a big GA/SA comic collector), so being able to meet, get signatures/sketches/OA was cool. Some artists seemed very busy throughout, though some did start packing up around 4p.m. Most of the artists did say they were planning on attending the Wizard World Anaheim Convention, a few saying only on Saturday though.

A few Cosplayers attended with mainly the Star War’s 501^st Legion group in full-force. Since the ballroom was small, there was not much space for the cosplayers to march around and show their wares. Many of the cosplayers were nice and didn’t mind picture taking with some of the attendees.

Looking forward now to the full-blown Long Beach Comic Con in October!

Comic Books: Trade Paperback & Graphic Novel Reviews as of 4/2/11

2011-04-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

Batman & Robin: Batman vs. Robin

Fables: Vol. 12, 13, 14

Captain America: Road to Reborn
Captain America: The Two Americas

Superman/Batman: Night & Day

The Dark Tower: Battle of Jericho Hill

Halo: Helljumper

Invincible: Ultimate Collection Vol. 3, 4

Cover Run: The DC Comics Art of Adam Hughes

Comic Book Original Art: Framed and Displayed Pages- Green Lantern

2011-03-22T18:13:00.000-07:00

Theme for February 2011 Comic Art: Green Lantern

Comic Book Original Art: Framed and Displayed Pages- The Spectre

2011-02-01T18:06:00.000-08:00

Theme for January 2011 Comic Art: The Spectre

Finally had a chance to get my OA into some frames and onto my wall. Put together my Spectre retrospective up for now. Planning on switching up the theme every once in a while.

Digging on the 11x17 frames that are super-cheap at Michaels, just need to keep the pieces out of direct sunlight.

Also framed a blown-up copy of Mike Grell's Batman: Masque and a Green Lantern sketch by Dean Trippe on either side.

Deals of the Week: Shoes Galore

2011-01-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

Picked up back-to-back shoes at the local thrift store a couple weeks ago some pretty slick kicks. Also found a pair of basic black Nike golf shoes for $15.00 that were replacing a pair of busted-up Nike golf shoes as well. Prior to heading out of the store a nearly new pair of white/black/red basketball shoes caught my eye for $13.00.

Threw them both into the washing machine and a couple days outside in the sun and they looked almost brand new!

Software Recommendation: Any Video Converter

2011-01-20T23:55:00.000-08:00

Just in case you need to convert files to .swf, I ended up using this Any Video Converter freeware off Download.com and one of the few converters allowing .swf conversion.

Computer Issues: Plugged in, Not Charging Battery Issue on Windows 7

2011-01-13T12:38:00.000-08:00

This issue just happened to me tonight after I did a Windows Update and turned on my eMachines, Win7 laptop (less than 10 months old) that started to show me the "Plugged in, not charging message" that I initially thought was due to the recent Windows update.

First I just turned off the laptop and removed and placed back the battery. Once I booted up and plugged the adapter in it showed 100% charge, but when I removed the cord, the battery setting read 96%. When I plugged the cord back in it read 100% still. So I knew there was an issue.

It does look like you have to do the disable, unplug AC, shutdown, then replug, boot-up to get the charge to start working again since when I just disabled/enabled, nothing changed.

Here are two ways to try and get your battery charging again.

INSTRUCTIONS #1

Turn off laptop and unplug the AC power.
Remove the laptop battery.
Put the AC power back in and turn on the laptop.
When you are back up and running off of the AC power, shut down the computer again.
Once shut down, unplug AC power.
Put the laptop battery back in followed by the AC power again.
Turn on laptop. Hover over the battery icon and hopefully the icon shows it charging now.

INSTRUCTIONS #2

You will need to go to your Device Manager and uninstall MS ACPI compliant Control Method Battery and then uninstall the device.

Unplug the AC adapter then shut down the laptop.

Re-plug in the AC adapter, then reboot. Roll-over and check the batter setting icon to make sure it reads Chargin. Did not have to scan for hardware changes.

Comic Book Store Review: Midtown Comics NYC

2011-01-11T10:40:00.000-08:00

SUMMARY

I've earlier purchased about $25 worth of comics the month prior, but during last December Midtown Comics had a good 30%-40% off back issue sale that I couldn't pass up to help fill my collection.

I purchased some mostly moderns with a stack of Bronze issue Vertigos. Conditions were from VG-FN and upon initial inspection look as so. Only disappointment I have along with the previous order was one comic book I needed to complete my run was out of stock. This particular DC comic I ordered last month and appeared available, but when my order was fulfilled it was marked us unavailable. So when I was purchasing the following month and the issue was shown as available I ended up picking it again instead of buying it from MyComicShop.com since the price was a bit lower. Unfortunately for the second time when my order was fulfilled the comic was marked unavailable once again.

While Midtown Comics does have a nice selection of comics, their backlog of older pre-90s back issues are lacking compared to MyComicShop.com, but they do shine in their packaging which come boxed tightly and using some big bubble wraps. The comics also came packed bagged and boarded which trumps MyComicShop.com's bagged-only shipment.

Shipment was odd since while I did receive an update within three business days, the package was initially ground shipped via UPS to a central facility in my state and then shipped a second time via USPS which I thought if it was shipped directly via Postal would have arrived a few days earlier. My first shipment initally seems to hang around the UPS sorting facility for a couple days before it was finally tracked again on USPS.

Ordered over $75 get free standard shipping.

OVERALL
Midtown Comics would rate close to a 4 out of 4 for me only if the availability of a particular comic didn't end up out of stock in two particular instances where it was ordered as well as if they had a wider range of back issue selections.

Pricing, fulfillment and shipment were adequate and refunds on missing comics were prompt and overall experience a positive. It would be nice if their Want List button was available during invetory search without having to drill down into the particular comic's description page (MyComicShop.com has a more streamlined Want List set-up)

Sign-up for their newsletter and receive member-only coupon codes for discuounts.

Rating: 3.5 out of 4 Monster Stars

Comic Book Store Review: MyComicShop.com

2011-01-06T18:19:00.000-08:00

SUMMARY
Purchased around $50.00 worth of bronze, copper and modern age comics from the only store mycomicshop.com aka Lone Star Comics in Texas where they have B&M stores. Out of the 40+ set of issues, only one comic was out of stock which was promptly refunded to my payment account.

Shipping was pretty fast, with just under 7 business days from payment to receipt of comics via USPS Media Mail. All comics were bounds pretty tightly in cardboard and taped and boxed. Condition of the comics were near as stated.

The only issue I have is that apart from two comics being bagged and boarded, the remaining batch of comics were not. I don't know if this is to cut cost on shipping weight or space, but I find it pretty hokey for a comic shop to ship comics unbagged and boarded.

Regarding shipping, while I did receive a notice that my order was shipped I did not receive delivery tracking information via an email or elsewhere on my online account.

OVERALL
While the lack of shipment tracking and lack of bags/boards, the fast delivery and only one missing comic makes this a worthwhile try. Sign-up for their newsletter and receive member-only coupon codes.

Rating: 3.5 out of 4 Monster Stars

Comic Books: Trade Paperback & Graphic Novel Reviews as of 12/16/10

2010-12-16T10:34:00.000-08:00

Captain America: The Red Menace

Book Review: December 2010 + Zombie Books!

2010-12-04T22:42:00.000-08:00

Rot & Ruin: Grade A
Patient Zero: Grade C- (Same author as Rot & Ruin but very clinically written and boring at times)
Handling the Undead: The author of the novel that inspired both Swedish and U.S. film's Let The Right One In/ Let Me In (boring).

Comic Books: Trade Paperback & Graphic Novel Reviews as of 11/27/10

2010-11-27T08:22:00.000-08:00

Captain America: The man with no face
Thor and the Avengers
World War Hulk

So Cal Comic Con 2010 Review

2010-11-21T16:30:00.000-08:00

Mr. Monster attended the First Annual Southern California Comic Con (aka SoCal Comic Con) on Saturday, November 6, 2010 and it was a nice little show (actually a bit bigger than the one held monthly at the Rose Bowl...more dealers here).

Photos courtesy of SPDREYCER, more here.

Getting To The OBGC!
Arrived around 11:00 a.m. expecting slim pickings of vendors and guests since it was being held at the Oceanside Boys & Girls Club (Northern San Diego Country) and saw the parking lot a bit packed. The place was busier than I was expecting which was cool and a lot more dealers than I thought would be there. Cost to get in was $3.00 which was fair and you could also buy $1.00 raffle tickets for three drawings held in the afternoon for comics and comic-related prizes.

On their bare-bones website it stated you could get in for free with a flyer from one of the local comic shops, too bad it didn’t list which shops you could pick them up?

Selling The Wares
There were good amount of sellers with CGC and GA/SA items as well as two to three smaller sellers letting go from their collection with .25 and .50 bins that I was able to picked up a few fillers from. Not any rare finds in the cheap-o bins, though I was able to finally get The Demon Annual #2 (First Hitman appearance) from a dollar bin.

If you’re into pre-modern comics then this was a nice little show to attend since those were the types of dealers you would find setting up the longer tables for along with CGC graded items. A few sellers were there with the usual 40-50% off TPBs and some comic-related toys. I was able to pick up a Hot Wheels Batmobile (first Keaton film) for $2.00!

Show Me The Art . . .
Now I stopped by the show since I was going to be in the area anyways and what got me to attend was a couple of artist attendees that were going to show up there.

First off was Mr. Bob Layton who was the Iron Man artist from my days of reading that comic. I was able to get Bob Layton to sign some of my Valiant books he wrote and/or inked and an Iron Man comic as well. He had a table with some of his prints and was doing commissions as well. He had a portfolio with some original art for sale including art from the un-published Iron Man: The End. Unfortunately Mr. Monster’s budget wouldn’t allow for the purchase of Iron Man art that day, one day though!

There were a group of Wildstorm artists in the alley there and I was able to pick up an OA from artist/inker Richard Friend of a piece from the Batman/Superman comic and got him and Whilce Portacio to sign the piece as well. Wish I had more disposable cash to get some Iron Man OA from Bob and some other OA from the alley artists.

Show’s Over Folks
For a first showing it turned out pretty well and if the event producers decide to continue hopefully they can attract even more vendors and industry people. The only thing I could suggest is to give paying attendees at least a raffle ticket as part of the admission price instead of buying it separately. Since I didn’t expect to be there during the three raffle times (starting around noon to the end of the show at 5-ish) there was no particular incentive for me to buy one if I had to stick around to win something so when there was a drawing I didn’t even pay attention. Give attendees some raffle tickets along with their entry purchase to keep the audience excited and they can buy additional tickets if they want to increase their chances.

Overall a nice small con and hopefully they repeat it and get some other cool artists like Bob, Whilce and the Wildstorm team too in the future!

Long Beach Comic Con 2010 Event Review

2010-11-16T15:36:00.000-08:00

Mr. Monster went to Long Beach Comic Con 2010 on Friday, Oct. 29th and had a pretty good time.

Goth-Harley Quinn & Black Mask (Left). Star Wars Honda Del Sol-style (Right)

Ticket Registration Woo-Hah!

On some online comic boards there were those writing about their online registration experience and bad ticketing information after you bought it online, it was pretty bad on-site too. Got to the convention around 2:00 p.m. and saw a line at the ticketing booth, I thought that was for the people who were paying for the tickets online...nope, those were the pre-registrants.

If you pre-registered online you had to get in line, and for me it was a 20-30 minute wait. BUT if you didn't buy it ahead of time, you were directed to the cash or credit card booth which had NO line. So it was better to not even pre-register there. Man, between LBCC and Wizard World Anaheim (jacked up “convenience” fee on-site) you would think they would have learned better line and pricing management from San Diego Comic Con.

For Friday’s event there was only one booth for pre-registrants, but there were two booths for on-site payees (one cash, one credit), and even one booth for Exhibitors (which the person manning it was just lonely sitting there). I overheard the a volunteer saying that the opening of the con earlier that day was messy with bad line management. LBCC needs to step it up with figuring out that online registrants should be FASTER in getting into the Con than payees just...I mean that's what they had on their Buy Tickets page noting pre-registration should be a good deal faster.

Oh, and I think on-site parking at the structure was $10 or $15 bucks. The parking signs for the Con pointed to the three-level structure at the back side of the Con so you had to hoof it a couple blocks across the street and then back up the stairs to get in.

Bring On The Show!

The Hulk angry about the Con pre-reg line as well.

Overall the Long Beach Comic Con was nice once you got inside. The last time I was at the Long Beach Convention Center was six years ago when Wizard World held their first So. Cal event there before moving to Anaheim. Outside at the front entrance of the Convention Center were some Star Wars cosplayers as well as the semi-famous Honda Del Sol decked out as an X-Wing ship.

Compared with Wizard World Anaheim (WWA) earlier this year the show booths were more comic-related instead of celebrity. mini-SDCC lite, though I did like WWA since they had more quarter bin booths vs. the mostly dollar booths (I'm a bargain reader). Some of the celebrities there were the WWF/WWE Honky Tonk man, Corin Nemec (Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, currently on Supernatural t.v. series) and couple others that I didn’t really know too well. The celebrity signing booths were set up in a circular manner and probably had 7-8 booths, small in comparison to the three long double-sided rows of booths at WWA.

Original Art and Autographs

The Justice League hanging out.

Lots more artists at LBCC as well and picked up some nice OA from a couple of them and got some signed comics as well. This was the first show I brought some of my comics to get signed by some of the show attendees though not all of them appeared that Friday (ie. Rob Liefield, Mark Waid, etc.). I did get in line for a couple of the set-time signings for both writer Jeff Loeb (Batman: The Long Halloween, Superman for All Seaons) and creator/artist Mike Mignola (Hellboy).

The signing for Jeff Loeb took me 20-25 minutes since there were a couple groups of fans that brought a box, and I do mean a BOX, of comics for him to sign. I’m guessing he signed about 50+ comics for each three people (flippers/resellers) there. I grossed to one of the other people in line about them bringing in their entire collection but this fellow collector (both of us along with the rest in line had maybe 1-3 items to sign) said it was expected since they don’t put limits on amounts to sign for such a small Con and since Loeb’s a writer they’re generally o.k. with signing tons of stuff. Not cool with me, either impose a limit or have those with more than 10+ items do it at the end. Waiting that half hour wastes my attendee time and I PAID to be there and not wait in line when I could be elsewhere in the hall.

Thankfully the signing for Mike Mignola was a lot better. I expected his line to be even longer since he’s creator of the famed Hellboy series and a cool artist in his own right. I only brought a couple old Phantom Stranger comics to sign and bumped into the signing area near the end of his signing time and saw there was only about two to three people in line. I asked one of the show volunteers (lots of them there and pretty good in answering questions) if the line for Mike was long earlier and he said no. I got Mr. Mignola to autograph my two comics (will bring the remaining two left in the mini-series next time) and asked him if he could sketch a Spectre on one of my blank comic covers. Mind you this was the first time I ever asked an fully-published artist at a show for a sketch. Mike asked if the Spectre had a moustache, which I replied the Corrigan version did not but the new Crispus Allen did. He did a quick marker sketch for me of the hooded Spectre. I’ve since read Mike doesn’t sketch at bigger shows like SDCC, so this was a cool treat being last in line for once.

I was able to get a Blackhawk comic signed by Howard Chaykin, Wetworks #1 by Whilce Portacio and a Swamp Thing comic by Bernie Wrightson. Unfortuneately Mr. Wrightson doesn’t do sketches at Cons anymore (one of the few I would’ve paid for a quick sketch) but had some preliminary ST panel art for sale there.

One of the cool things about the LBCC from the days I attended Comic Cons (7+ years ago) is now I’m into original comic art and this show had a good amount of artists to pick up items from. The show had artists tables separated into opposite areas of the Hall, some attendees didn’t like this but I felt it helped make the show feel bigger by letting you peruse artists a bit less claustrophobic.

I walked around the artist alley and being there still pretty early the area wasn’t too crowded and some artists not fully set-up yet. So one of the first tables that caught my attention was for artist Drew Johnson who was a penciller on the recent Wonder Woman, Supergirl comics and the past The Authority. He had his original art (OA) portfolio open and some nice un-published Wonder Woman caught my eye and so I checked out the other pieces in there. While the WW art was out of my budget I did pick up four nice Supergirl OA pieces and asked Drew to sign the accompanying comics they were in that I found later that show. He was also cool enough to do a quick Wonder Woman head sketch on my Zero Hour comic cover. Definitely an artist to check out and chat with. Next time I’ll have to see if I can pick up one of his Authority pages to add to the collection.

Near the end of the show I saw one of the cool recent Supergirl comic covers as part of an artist’s booth and found that the artist Joshua Middleton was drawing and had some OA for sale. I poked around and found one of the Supergirl comics he drew the cover for as well as a few issues of the Superman/Shazam: First Thunder that I waited in line for him to sign. As I waited for him to finish a commission piece I saw he had some nicely priced OA and I ended up picking three pieces out; one Metamorpho/Aquaman interior page (along with the comic) and a couple from the aforementioned Superman/Shazam series.

I do regret not waiting in line at Amanda Conner’s booth for a sketch since by the time I walked around and went back to her booth about 1-2 hours later she was packing up for the day. I also wish I found out how much Arthur Sudyam (Marvel Zombies cover artist) charged for sketches since I would have liked to get one done by him as well.

There was a booth by Cool Lines Artwork who are professional OA sellers and they brought tons of OA from different periods to gawk at. Too bad buying one of their pieces would pretty much cause me to default on mortgage payment otherwise they had some pretty iconic Silver Age- Modern covers to drool over.

Overall if you’re looking to meet artists, get OA or chat with industry people, LBCC is the place to be.

The COZ

Zombie-Hulk

Took a couple photos of the few roaming cosplayers that day but there wasn’t too many running around. There were a few DC-group themed people and a big Zombie-Hullk there. There was a cool Firestar there as well. Ended up in line in front of a Gothic-themed Harley Quinn and Black Mask from the Batman series as well. From photos of the Con there were a tremendous more during the Saturday event.

The Books, It’s All About The Books!
Now Mr. Monster is generally a low-budget reader and what I liked about Wizard World Anaheim earlier this year were the couple big booths with 25 cent comics for sale. Unfortunately that wasn’t to be here at LBCC. Most booths were dollar or higher-end GA/SA sellers. There were only about a couple booths dealing with 50 cent bins that weren’t just junk 90s fodder. Picked up a big stack of items at one booth near the entrance for artist signings and fillers as well as one booth that had a few o.k. hardcover TPBs for 5 for $20.

The rest of the show were standard Con fare with toys, comic-related clothing, etc. Few booth babes there, but again this was a thin-Friday crowd. I was able to circle the entire hall in about 45 minutes but with thorough digging spent 4-5 good hours there.

That’s All Folks
Good times there apart from the ticketing fiasco, should be back next year!

Sergio Aragones signing at Hi De Ho Comics.

P.S. Attached a shot of Sergio Aragones (MAD magazine writer, Groo creator, artist) who was signing at Hi De Ho Comics in Laguna Beach today as well.

Comic Books: Trade Paperback & Graphic Novel Reviews

2010-11-10T20:04:00.000-08:00

Books of Doom
Captain America: Red Menace
Captain America: The man with no face
Justice League of America: Team History
Thor and the Avengers
Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk
World War Hulk

Event Reviews: Rose Bowl Comics & Collectibles Show (Pasadena, CA)

2010-10-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

Went to the Rose Bowl Comcs & Collectibles Show at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA. It is located inside the Rose Bowl grounds and is part of the large Rose Bowl Flea Market event, so you will have to pay the $8.00 admission fee to get in; the parking is free but be prepared for the crowds.

The actual Comics area is located right in the main entrance area to the left and is situated under the Rose Bowl area along an underground passage way in a room location unlike the rest of the flea market. The rooms is roughly the size of a class room and had about 15-20 vendor tables mainly selling comics and toys. A good majority though were toys that were modern and comics for $1.00. I popped in to check it out and didn't see anything that was that different than what you could see at the Frank & Sons Collectibles show in the City of Industry.

I did pick up four 25 cent comics to help fill in some gaps in my run. Several of the dealers had Silver Age and Copper age books for sale and some 50% off TPB (but none that was of interest to me). The event is pretty sparse so I don't recommend going to the Flea Market just to attend the show but more like a side-trip if you decide to check out the entire Rose Bowl market which is huge. It was pretty hot today so be prepared with drinks or you'll be paying $5.00 for a lemonade slushie from vendors there. Found a few vendors in the main market area with comics varying in ages, but were priced way above what they should go for, for example 90s glut comics for $1.00 which wasn't even worth it for haggling.

Comic Books: Trade Paperback & Graphic Novel Reviews

2010-09-03T13:57:00.000-07:00

Batman & Robin: Batman Reborn
The Flash: Rebirth
Tiny Titans: Welcome to the Treehouse
The Sandman presents. The furies
Strange tales
The stuff of legend
Arkham Asylum : madness
Greek Street: Blood Calls for Blood
The Stuff of Legend
Haunt
Arkham Asylum: madness
Strange Tales (Marvel)

Comic Books: Trade Paperback & Graphic Novel Reviews

2010-08-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

Recently read TPBs:

Swamp Thing : love in vain

Swamp Thing : reunion

Swamp Thing : Earth to earth

Swamp Thing : a murder of crows

Swamp Thing : the curse

Saga of the Swamp Thing

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen : black dossierLeague of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Century, 1910

Superman. Whatever happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

DC universe : the stories of Alan Moore

Top 10 : the forty-niners

Tom Strong: Terra Obscura

Tom Strong's terrific tales

Supreme : the return

Supreme : the story of the year

Superman: Brainiac

Superman, New Krypton

Superman. The coming of Atlas

Superman : Kryptonite

Superman, Batman. Vengeance

Superman, Batman. Enemies among us

Superman, Batman. Absolute power

Superman, Batman. Supergirl

Superman, Sacrifice

All-star Superman

Superman : secret identity

Superman : the wrath of Gog

Superman for tomorrow

Batman. Battle for the cowl

Batman. Whatever happened to the Caped Crusader?

Batman R.I.P

All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder

Batman : lovers & madmen

Batman, detective

Batman. : Death and the city

Batman and son

Batman : fear itself

Batman : hush returns

Batman : under the hood. Vol. 1 & 2

Batman. War drums
Batwoman: Elegy

Final crisis

Justice League of America

JLA : world without a Justice League

Infinite crisis

I can't believe it's not the justice league

Identity crisis

Green Lantern : rage of the Red Lanterns

Green Lantern. Secret origin

Green Lantern : the Sinestro Corps war. Volume one & two

Green Lantern. Revenge of the Green Lanterns

Green Lantern : rebirth

Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn

Secret invasion

Secret invasion : Runaways/Young Avengers

The mighty Avengers

The road to civil war

Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways

Avengers disassembled. Chaos

Will post some min-reviews and rating when I get a chance.

Free Comic Book Day Recap: May 1, 2010 Review (Orange County, CA Edition)

2010-05-02T14:55:00.000-07:00

Review: First time I have attended a Free Comic Book Day event after starting to slowly get back into reading comics. For those not in the know, FCBD, is a day held once a year where people can go to their local comic book shop (usually) to choose and pick comics selected for them to take home for free.

You get a selected group of comics from different publishers that offered reduced prices to the comic shops to try an entice readers to get into comics, so it's a win-win situation for both the publication and stores to try and woo new/returning readers into checking out comics books...for free.

Check the website for a list of the available comics you can choose. Some are full comic stories, others samplers or preview versions of stores giving you a snippet of a story with the continuation available if you buy the full comic. The free comics usually have "Preview" or "Free Comic Book Day" on top of the cover, so these aren't the same as the regular comics off the shelves. Some of the free comics are reprints of recent stories, or short stories to get readers into a story arc.

Pay attention when you go to your comic shop as some limit how many of the free comics you can choose. Some allow only one comic, while others more depending on how many they ordered. So if you want to try a few extra comics, you may need to visit a couple shops to get more reads.

I found the promotion of FCBD a great way to re-introduce myself and other back into comics and also get to visiting their local comic shops (these are available online) to peruse the aisles and possibly purchase event more comic-related items when stopping to pick up the free issues.

Local Orange County, CA Reviews on Free Comic Book Day 2010:

ALAKAZAM COMICS - Irvine: My first stop of the day, right before noon. Store is located near UC Irvine and in the adjacent outside shopping center. The comic store is not particularly big, just almost the size of a living room. There was a good selection of toys and new issues on the wall, they also have a shelf of graphic novels available for rent...good idea. Not too much to say of their back issue bins, a few long boxes but I did pick up a few of their 3 for $1 to check out some recent and 80s reads.

For FCBD they allowed one comic per person and had a good amount of comics to select, mainly the super heroes.

COMICS TOONS 'N' TOYS- Tustin: Located off the 55/5 freeways, this shop is tucked away in a corner of a small strip mall. From the outside it looked small, but when you walk through the doors it is a pretty big location with a long wall of the most recent comics and plentiful back-issue bins in two rooms as well as a large variety of toys and collectibles. Picked up a couple back-issues from their 50-cent bin, and may come back again just to look around more thoroughly.

They were very generous here for FCBD and allowed visitors to choose a total of five comic books with almost what seemed like the entire FCBD publication assortment that I didn't see at any of the other stores I visited, I was even able to get the Marvel "War Machine" HeroClix that I never spotted elsewhere. During the noon time, there was a medium-sized line, but was kept happy by having the very nice artist Deanne Trippe draw free sketches for the customers in line. Check out Dean's portoflio and see his cool work, reminds me very much of Darwyn Cooke's style. I first became aware of this artist through his simple yet endearing image of Supergirl from this io9 article

Good store, excellent FCBD selection list, free sketch, lotsa comics and toys. Score one for Comics Toons N Toys.

COMIC QUEST - Lake Forest: My usual local shop located right off the 5 fwy. Excellent selection of new comics, medim-sized back issue bins (though mostly recent titles only), and half the store is for gaming, so your D&D and Magic people check this out too. Nice quarter bins for perusing titles on the cheap, they do mark the UPC with a Sharpie though.

For FCBD they allowed up to three comics per person and pointed out certain titles people might be interested in, which is great for people not in the know and looking for "funny", "super hero", or "kid friendly" titles.

COMICS UNLIMITED - Westminster - Got to this store just past 4 p.m., so late int he day. They advertised the event so was very disappointed that by the time I got there all the FCBD comics were gone with only the BOGO Simpsons and a couple others available. Disappointing to say the least.

I went specifically to check their special 20 for $5 comics and it ended up just being four boxes of really, really, crappy 1980s books. The only discount they had was 25% back issues and some graphic novel discounts. Nothing spectacular at all for such a large store with a good location in a prime shopping center. it would have been nice if they at least reduced their back-issue bin prices to tempt customers into buying back-issues. They did have an artist signing there too.

Walked out empty handed here.

Conclusion: See you next Free Comic Book Day 2011!

Theater Review: Dreamgirls at the OCPAC

2010-05-01T13:00:00.000-07:00

Description: Direct from the world famous Apollo Theatre in New York City, Dreamgirls comes to the Center in a brand new, sensational stage production. Full of onstage joy and backstage drama, Dreamgirls tells the rags-to-riches story of a 1960s Motown girl group and the triumphs and tribulations that come with fame and fortune. Dreamgirls features the unforgettable hits "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," "One Night Only," and "Listen."

Review: Went to see the musical after watching the film on dvd recently. Originally paid for tickets on the third tier at the Orange County Performing Arts Center for $50 a piece. Once arriving at the theater and going up to the top level to get to our seats, was approached by an usher and swapped our tickets for a second tier seating. This has never happened before, last time we actually got bumped front row seats to a mid-seat location when the OCPAC mis-judged seating for the Phantom of the Opera and we ended up sitting further away when I specifically wanted front row seats. We didn't ever get an apology or comped seats for future shows, so getting slightly nicer seating for Dreamgirls was unexpected.

So we were on the second, final week of the run in Costa Mesa and there were a good many seats empty. A lot of the third tier and even the back rows of the main floor remained empty. The show itself was very good with great performances all around.

Notably was Syesha Mercado, a second runner-up from American Idol, playing Deena (the role played by Beyonce in the film). The actor playing James Early (the Eddie Murphy role) was great and a show stealer with all the jumping and movement. The actor playing the manager (Jaime Foxx role) reminded me very similar to the film actor with a similar sounding voice. Dynamic stage set-up with lots of moving backdrops and video used. It was nice to see the musical and compare the differences with the movie and song lists.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Golf Equipment: Mr. Monster's Golf Equipment History Checklist

2010-04-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

List of Mr. Monster's inventory of golf items since starting golf back in 2006 that I can remember.

DRIVERS: 9
Cougar Power Cat -10.5 reg. flex
Pinemeadow Tour780-10.5 reg. flex
Top Flite HCT Tour-10.5 reg. flex
TaylorMade R7 Draw with stiff flex Aldila NV shaft
Intech Ripper-10.5 reg. flex
Cleveland HiBore -10.5 reg. flex, gold shaft
Macgregor MacTec NVG2-10.5 reg. flex
Cleveland HiBore XLS-10.5 reg. flex with Graffalow ProLaunch Blue shaft
Nicket 4DX Draw (9.0) with Aldila NV shaft

Hybrids: 8
Cougar Power Cat 3 & 5
Pinemeadow Command #3
Pinemeadow Excel #4
Top Flite HCT Tour 5
TaylorMade Rescue Mid 3 & 4
Nickent Genex 3DX Ironwood 2

Fairway Woods: 5
Cougar Power Cat 3 & 5 wood
Top Flite HCT Tour 3 & 5 wood
Macgregor MacTec NVG2 3 wood

Irons: 3
Cougar Power Cat 5-PW
Top Flite HCT Tour 6-PW
Titleist 775cb 5-SW

Wedges: 11
Cougar Power Cat PW & SW
Top Flite HCT Tour PW & SW
Cleveland 588 Tour Action SW & LW
Titleist 775cb GW & SW
Wilson Harmonized SW
Nickent 3DX SW
Nicklaus Bear Trap SW

Putters: 8
Cougar Power Cat blade
Top Flite HCT Tour blade
Knight EZ Roll ZR10
RAM Laser EV1
Wilson Alignment 3000
TaylorMade Monza Roza
Never Compromise GM2 Exchange 3
Arnold Palmer P-101

Golf Shoes: 4
Dunlop brown/white saddle
Top Flite IN04-57 white sneaker
FootJoy Impulse
Nike Dri-Fit black

Golf Bags used: 7
Cougar Power Cat stand bag
Top Flite HCT Tour stand bag
Taylor Made F1 stand bag
Deluxe Sunday Golf Bag by Wilson
Fila Sunday bag
Spalding leather cart bag
Viper by Hippo Golf stand bag

Toy Review: Astro Boy- The Movie Toy (2009)

2010-03-02T18:45:00.000-08:00

Comment: Got these two Astro Boy- The movie toys at the Dollar Store today. They had these two and also Astro Boy dressed in a blue track suit and an armored-police looking guy (never sae the movie).

Quality is bad, so these may be rejects since most of the regular Astro Boy figure had bad paint applications. Can't tell what figure collection this is from since it's not the 3 3/4" set on the Jazwares site. Picked it up since I needed an Astro Boy figure for the collection, otherwise if it was $2 i would've passed due to the bad QA on these.

Rating: 1 out of 5

Movie Review: Legion (2010)

2010-02-22T12:53:00.000-08:00

Comments: Those of you expecting some exciting Angels vs. Angels vs. Demons movie with lots of cool action, this isn't the movie for you.

You get a lone angel (who cuts off his wings at the beginning of the movie anyways) who acts more like The Punisher or 80's cliche action stars with dual-guns bein wielded. Think more of the movies where people are trapped in a building with terrorists/mafia/aliens/zombies trying to get in and instead make them evil angel possed people.

There's one neat battle of a steel-winged angel versus our lead non-winged angel and cheesy wannabe Mary & Joseph, Messiah plot. The big action and scariness you see in the movie trailers are pretty much it. There's a lot of scenes of the characters acting very stupidly and getting themselves killed.

If you've seen the Prophecy direct-to-dvd series from the late 90s and 2000's, this would fit right in it. The two angels pretty much act like any Rambo/Predator hero-types but without the charisma.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

Movie Review: Planet Hulk DVD (2010)

2010-02-17T13:43:00.000-08:00

Comments: The Planet Hulk movie DVD is a screen adaption of the comic book saga of the same name. I’ve previously read the original Planet Hulk graphic novel so I do remember the elements of the series which could be described as Hulk meets the Gladiator-movie genre. So if armored monsters clashing in an arena is your thing, then this animated movie is for you.

There’s a brief bit in the beginning of the film that explains why the Hulk is being sent to another planet by the big-time heroes of Earth. If you do not know the storyline or keep up with what’s happened in the comic books, then you’ll probably not get why Hulk is skyrocketing out of earth and why he’s all of a sudden able to speak intelligently and not the behemoth of old.

There’s some changes in the storyline to accommodate the running time and character use. Planet Hulk covers roughly the beginning and middle of the Planet Hulk storyline with Hulk landing on an alien planet, fighting in the coliseum, and taking over the planet. The portion of the post-“King Hulk” storyline from the comic series isn’t covered and so if sales are good, there might be a sequel. There are some cameos from the comic series in the background and due to licensing issues probably, the Silver Surfer is replaced with Beta Ray Bill (aka Horse-Alien looking Thor).

The action is well-made and there’s a bit of drama going on. Pretty violent, so watch out for the kiddies. Animation style matches previous Marvel films like the recent Iron Man and Dr. Strange films.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Furnture Review: Hemnes 8-Drawer Dresser by Ikea

2010-02-08T11:27:00.000-08:00

Comments: Well it was finally time to ditch some old furniture in the bedroom and what ended up being on the list to buy was a dresser to class up the joint a bit. The strategy so far was to keep the look of the home in the dark wood color so that was the first step in the search. So where’d Mr. Monster end up at? Ikea of course. Found the Hemnes 8-Drawer dresser for $299 with its dark wood and silver knobs that should fit the look perfectly.

Trudging through the store the drawer comes in two long boxes. Assembly for the drawer I highly recommend having a second person with you to help hold up sections of the piece as you bolt on the parts. Now putting together furniture is not Mr. Monster’s cup of tea, so putting this bad boy up took about three hours with two items installed incorrectly and one item missing from the box.

First, the instructions called for the base (dark brown front) that was instead installed in the back of the body so I had to spray paint that piece to match since by the time we saw the piece was backwards, all the bolts were in place an could not be pulled out. Second, there was four bolts that were a bit different from the rest, we missed it and ended up digging into the middle center of the wood since the normal bolts were too long, that was our bad. Out of all the parts, there was one screw that was missing from the packaging (we looked), so ended up going to Home Depot (Lowe’s cost $2 more and we just needed one), to get the missing bolt which had to be purchased in a four-pack.

All in all it’s a nice piece. Would have been nicer without the mistakes and missing piece. Not bad for $300.

Rating: 3.0 out of 5

Golf Equipment Review: Arnold Palmer P-101 Blade Putter

2010-01-31T07:00:00.000-08:00

After getting into golf there are things you start to notice that differs it from other games, mostly how equipment changes on an almost monthly basis and trying to not get addicted and spending money out the wazoo. I’ve done counts before and I was really into buying new clubs once in a while. I t wasn’t uncommon to get a new driver every few months or try out new putters or even get multiple golf bags. After moving and consolidating all my gadgets, I decided to dwindle the equipment and use the money to pay greens fees.

I purchased a Never Compromise GM2 Exchange 3 putter a few years back that just sat in my back-up bag and ended up selling it. I went to a local thrift shop last summer and came across some old putters and saw one in a ratty condition but had good potential. I was previously using a Taylor Made Monza Roza mallet putter and wanted to try a blade more regularly. I purchased the Arnold Palmer P-101 putter and took it home to clean off the well-used putter. With the nicks on the head I ended up using some filler paint to cover the blemishes and was able to soap and clean off the original Golf Pride grips that was still in remarkable condition.

Comments: The Arnold Palmer P-101 blade putter has a classic look to it, stands out with a black-colored head with the trademark Arnold Palmer umbrella logo on the far left of the face. It’s heel-toe weighted and the neck is a nice flowing non-plumbers neck flange. I believe the one I have is 33”-34”. The feel is a bit above average and allows for goof swing speed management with a good overall weight to it. Off-hits do result in shorter length, due to the age (I don’t know how old), it’s not one of the recent putters touting high MOI.

It sure is s beauty with its simple and elegant look that I’ve had other golfers comment on the putter’s look that I haven’t had with others. If you like classic blade putters that you don’t often see (*Scotty Camerons* cough), check your local used bins for this club.

Score: 4 out of 5

Golf Equipment Review: Cleveland HiBore XLS Driver

2010-01-25T12:36:00.000-08:00

Comments: After selling my last MacTec NVG2 driver (see last equipment review), I decided to go back to the HiBore line from Cleveland after keeping the original version in my bag for close to a year (longest driver in use!), so I ended up with the 2008 Cleveland HiBore XLS version.

I previously tried the driver at a demo day and got good distance and low flight at the time. There was a sale at the local Dick’s Sporting Goods and couldn’t pass up the chance to get another 10.5 degree HiBore with an upgraded aftermarket shaft. Dick’s had for the same price as the stock Cleveland Fujikura Gold, either (in Regular flex) Aldila NV or Graffaloy ProLaunch Blue. I previously had an Aldila NV on my TaylorMade r7460 Draw driver and decided to try the ProLaunch Blue since the shaft seem a bit stiffer since I was looking for a lower launching ball flight.

The one thing I missed from the original HiBore that the XLS didn’t was the great metallic crisp sound off the face. The XLS had a deeper, more hollow sound to it. The sound isn’t as bellowing and muffled as the MacTec NVG2, but doesn’t have the “wow” factor as the original sound. The head is a huge 460cc and the deep scoop and alignment aid is nice. Red/silver graphics on the sole are nice as well.

For performance issues, the XLS is a good follow-up that has finally gotten me to consistently go 235+ yards on hits with some pure hits going up to 245-259 yards. Sweet spot is definitely larger and provides forgiveness that I needed. I routinely hit off center and shots still give considerable distance.

Haven’t been able to compare the XLS to the XLS Monster or the previous XL so I can’t compare the leap from the all-black XL or the huge Monster head.

The Cleveland XLS is recommended for those looking for a good amount of forgiveness and require a sweet spot for off-center hitters. Check your local stores for good prices with upgraded shafts that you may be able to get for around $130.

Score: 3.5 out of 5

Golf Equipment Review: MacGregor MacTec NVG2 Driver

2010-01-15T12:13:00.000-08:00

Its been a while since I’ve done a golf equipment review, so for the new 2010 year I will try harder to give all you budget minded golfers my personal reviews on value-priced equipment that I’ve personally tried. So here’s the first golf review of the decade!

Comments: Recently replaced a few months back my previous MacGregor MacTec NVG2 10.5 degree driver. While I really like my MacGregor NVG2 3-wood, the driver just didn’t have the pop or additional distance I was hoping for.

The MacTec NVG2 3 wood is a blast to hit, crisp metallic sound, thin face for hitting off the deck and provided me a good 210-225 yards off the tee. I was hoping for the same magic when I got the driver and the honeymoon did not last long. The NVG2 driver afforded me approximately about 5-10 additional yards only when I hit the face on the sweet spot. If I mis-hit the shot (which I almost always do), then the carry would just be the same as the 3-wood. The sound of the hit was also totally different than the fairway wood, while the 3-wood had a nice high metallic sound, the driver had a low, almost tinny sound to it. The best sound I’ve had from a driver was the first generation Cleveland HiBore with the smashing metallic sound that made even my bad drives sound like pure zingers. The MacTec NVG2 driver lacked the sound and performance overall.

For those looking for traditional looks, the NVG2 line was not for you. It had an almost all chorme-like silver exterior with rivot-looking weights on the sole. The Fujikura shaft was a Regular flex for me and did an ok performance. Grip though was a minus, MacGregor used a corded grip, which for oft-tight grippers like me would cause blisters. As mentioned, the sweet spot on the face was small compared to other 440cc faces I’ve tried, causing hooks/draws when not properly hit, odd for a game improvement driver to not have such forgiveness.

The headcover had a nice black look with a zipper so a player didn’t have to struggle pulling the cover over. While I’ve read others say the zipper scratched the gofl shaft, that didn’t happen to me.

If you would like to try out this driver, you should be able to find a good price for it as it was not a hot seller. Since the performance wasn’t for me, I do recommend the looks of it, I’m into the modern look and its mechanical silver exterior looks like a space ship on its way to knock your golf ball into outer space.

Score: 2 out of 5

Golf Course Review: Heartwell Golf Course in Long Beach, CA- 12/5/09

2009-12-14T10:23:00.000-08:00

Comments: Heartwell Golf Course in Long Beach, CA was a back-up course our group ended up playing at when the majority of public golf courses had pretty much had their pre-noon tee times booked a week in advance. Rather than not playing at all that day we were able to get a morning tee time at this 18-hole executive course.

Most of the holes range from 110 yards with a few other par 3's stretching to 145 yards. Most golfers can just pretty much load their putter and a few irons. All holes are pretty mucn straight in front of you with a couple holes next to a small pond so there's really not a lot of trick shots needed. Just hit straight and you're good to go, unless you're not a stright shooter or beginning golfer which attacts those players here especially those getting started out.

Since we played on an early Sat. morning, I expected it to be a bit non-congested, but the tee box on the first hole was backed up three groups. Once we got going there was 1-2 group back-up with about 5-10 min. wait at the longest to tee off. Completed the course in about three hours.

Fairways were in good shape, green with very few dry patches. The greens around the holes though had bad divots, seems as though not a lot of the players care or don't have the repair tool which they should just hand out at the Pro Shop since hitting onto the green from the tee is so easy that bad divots are pretty much a certainty. To compare the course to another layout, I would classify it as a mini-Mile Square Park Golf Course due to the flat layout and accumulation of trees near the tees that test you to not hit at them.

Customer Service:
Didn't hit on the driving range, but there is a full range with mats to use. Cost for Saturday morning for non-Long Beach residents was $17.50, less than $1 a hole! If you're a Long Beach resident you even get a discount.

Score: 3.0 out of 5

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 10/9/09 through 10/16/09

2009-10-11T12:42:00.000-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 10/9/09 through 10/16/09:
50% off GREEN item tagged merchandise.

This weekend I also saw two MIB G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary: Cobra Python Patrol Conquest X-30 Jets for $9.99.

How to Turn OFF Windows Genuine Advantage Notification

2009-05-24T08:40:00.000-07:00

During my last Windows Service Pack update I ended up seeing after logging into my computer and Windows Genuine Advantage Notification pop-up window asking me if it should be installed to check for non-Windows complaint software. Heck no, this is one obtrusive update that I don't want.

After clicking on cancel, it always came back asking the same question after login. There was no way to cancel the notification question. After checking some websites, people's recommendation was to update the Registry, heck no. Too complicated. After seeing a tip from someone, I decided to try to just uncheck the notification from the Window's folder and it worked. No more pop-up. Here's what I did:

How to Turn OFF Windows Genuine Advantage Notification Instructions
1. My Computer
2. C: Drive
3. Windows folder
4. Task folders

So it ends up looking like this in Windows XP:
C:\WINDOWS\Tasks

5. Right click on the WGASetup application.
6. Click on the Properties window
7. Uncheck "Run only if logged ion" and the "Enabled" check boxes.
8. Click the OK button.

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 2/6/09 through 2/12/09

2009-03-09T18:52:00.000-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 2/6/09 through 2/12/09:
50% off Orange item tagged merchandise.

There's also super cheap priced 25th anniversary G.I. Joe toys at the Lake Forest Goodwill store as of 2/9/09!

Most of the items were in great condition, singles (even have the recent Resolute line). 2-packs, and vehicles.

Singles ($2.99 each):
Wild Bill, Cobra HISS driver, Cobra Viper, Snake Eyes (all 4 versions released), Duke, Major Bludd, Roadblock, Cobra Python Officer, Flint (3 styles), Cobra Commander, Hawk, Bazooka, Barbecue, Snow Serpent, Cobra BAT, Cobra Patratrooper, Baroness, Cobra nijiku and ninjas, Mutt & Junkyard, Croc Master, Wraith, Torch, Ripper, Scarlett (in blue outfit). Resolute Duke & Cobra Commander.

2-pack ($3.99):
DESTRO and CPL. BREAKER, DREADNOK TORCH and DREADNOK RIPPER, COPPERHEAD and SHIPWRECK, DUKE and RED STAR, FIREFLY and STORM SHADOW, Cobra Commander Vs. Tripwire, Destro & Iron Grenadier, Beachhead & Dataframe, Snake Eyes & Hard Master, Lt. Falcon Vs.Nemesis Immortal, Destro & Breaker, Rock N Roll & Deep Six

Battle Packs ($5.99):
Series 01: Weather Dominator Battle Pack: Roadblack, Destro, Lady Jaye

Vehicles ($5.99):
Ram Vs. Trouble Bubble
Vamp With Clutch
AWE Striker

Golf Club Cleaning Tips 101

2009-01-14T18:28:00.000-08:00

Golf Club Cleaning Tips 101

If there’s a certain item that Mr. Monster cleans the most, it’s my golf clubs. You spend a lot of time pounding out golf balls in the driving range tearing up their cheap range ball covers as well as bombing shots from the grass, dirt, sand, mud and rain. All-in-all, your clubs take a beating.

Basic club head cleaning

If the stains are easily removed by using a soft bristle brush then it’s time for a soaking.

Get a large bucket, place a few small drops of dishwashing liquid in the bucket and fill it with some warm water. Try not to make too many large suds and only fill up the bucket enough to soak the heads and NOT up to the hosel since that may weaken the glue that holds the shaft to the club head.

I then place my iron set (5-GW) in the bucket and leaning the grips to a wall or something to keep them upright. I like leaving the clubs soaked for about 15 minutes. Once the clubs are soaked I then pull one out at a time and place on a plastic sheet or newspaper (to capture water) and use a soft bristle brush and clean out the sole and head of the clubs. Usually the toughest stain are the ones left from the artificial grass from hitting mats.

Once the heads are clean just wipe them dry with a soft towel, and wall-a, you’re done and got a nice sparkling set with only the cost of a few small drops of dishwashing liquid (I use Sun or Ajax myself) and water. No need for special “golf club” cleaning detergents or such. Keep in on the down-low and cheap!

Golf Grip Cleaning

After a while the grips get dirty or you get a used set and don’t know where it’s been so you want to clean that puppy up. The main thing I try to not do is over-hydrate the grips which cleaning with water (makes them brittle faster) or using too much liquid soap (makes them slippery).

Too keep the grips shiny and close to new, I get a nice clean white towel (White lets you see how much dirt and such is still left on the grip but you can use any color you want) and place a few drops of liquid dishwashing soap on it then water it down. Once the towel is wet, then I twist it enough so it’s not soaking wet that it will make the grips soggy as it tends to soak in water.

Proceed with wiping the grips down until the oil, dirt, yucky items are cleaned off then wipe them dry with another non-wet towel. Once they’re nice and dry I like to personally spray them with a couple shots of anti-bacterial/disinfectant spray to make sure they’re clean as can been. After it’s sprayed let it sit for another 10-15 minutes and then wipe down dry. Let the grips dry out for a few hours and you should be left with nice clean grips!

Golf Shaft Cleaning

Here’s another part of the club that once in a while needs some cleaning, you can pretty much use the towel & liquid soap wipe-down as noted in the golf grip cleaning section. Just be careful when cleaning graphite shafts with the towel since if you have one that is coarse it may scratch the shaft. Mainly the times I clean the shaft is when you get a club that still has the retail stick or price tag on it. When the sticker is stuck and won’t peel out completely I bust out the WD-40 spray and let it soak for 15-20 minutes and then use a soft flat-edged item (or fingernail) to slowly scrape the sticker off. Once all the remnants are gone I then proceed with wiping down the area with a wet towel and dry off.

Golf Club Rust Removal

Now here’s a tricky item to remove, rust, since by the time you have it on your golf club head its probably bonded to it pretty good.

On a set of clubs I have that had rust stains on the inside perimeter of the back of the club I initially tried just using soap, water and a bristle brush to use but that didn’t do anything. I then used a generic household cleaning/rust removal liquid and that also didn’t work. I knew I had to break out the big guns. I ended up buying CLR (calcium, lime, rust removal liquid) to try out .

The instructions do say to start off using a small sample of CLR and diluting it with water, but since I wanted the rust gone ASAP I used the full concentration. Since I was targeting rust stains on certain spots of the club I used a Q-Tip to dab the areas affected by rust.

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 1/2/09 through 1/9/09

2009-01-02T10:42:00.000-08:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 1/2/09 through 1/9/09:
50% off Blue item tagged merchandise and Pink tagged clothing.

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 12/19/08

2008-12-19T20:52:00.000-08:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 12/19/08 through 12/25/08:
50% off Green item tagged merchandise.

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 11/14/08

2008-11-15T07:43:00.001-08:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 11/14/08 through 11/2/08:
50% off Orange item tagged merchandise.

Victims of the crash - Mother's Cookies- Small Business

2008-11-14T14:15:00.000-08:00

Victims of the crash - Mother's Cookies (2) - Small Business: "Mother's Cookies crumbled on Oct. 6"

Man, didn't know good ol' Mother's Cookes is bankrupt!

Fuel Gas Update: 11/13/08

2008-11-13T14:09:00.000-08:00

Wow, seems like ages since I was able to fill up my gas tank and be under $20.00! Took lunch to go get some fuel for the ol' car and stopped by the Shell station in Irvine right off Alto (off the 5 fwy.) and regular 87 gas was going for $2.39 a gallon. I thought the lowest I've seen in South O.C. was $2.43 but apparently not.

I really wonder how much lower it can get. I still remember from over 10 years ago when I could fill up my tank for around $15.00 when fuel was going for around a buck-twenty during the lows in the late 90s.

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 11/7/08

2008-11-07T19:29:00.000-08:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 11/7/08 through 11/13/08:
50% off Blue item tagged merchandise and Pink tag clothing.

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 10/31/08

2008-11-02T09:36:00.001-08:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 10/31/08 through 11/6/08:
50% off Purple item tagged merchandise.

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 10/21/08

2008-10-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 10/21/08 through 10/27/08:
50% off Green item tagged merchandise.

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 10/17/08

2008-10-17T21:13:00.000-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 10/17/08 through 10/24/08:
50% off Orange item tagged merchandise.

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 10/10/08

2008-10-10T21:37:00.001-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 10/10/08 through 10/16/08:
50% off Blue item tagged merchandise.

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 10/3/08

2008-10-03T20:39:00.001-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 10/3/08 through 10/9/08:
50% off Purple item tagged merchandise.

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 9/26/08

2008-09-26T07:12:00.000-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 9/26/08 through 10/2/08:
50% off Green item tagged merchandise.

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 9/19/08

2008-09-19T20:38:00.000-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 9/19/08 through 9/25/08:
50% off Orange item tagged merchandise.

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 9/12/08

2008-09-12T20:33:00.000-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 9/12/08 through 9/18/08:
50% off Blue item tagged merchandise and Pink tagged clothing.

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 9/5/08

2008-09-07T09:56:00.001-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 9/5/08 through 9/11/08:
50% off Purple item tagged merchandise.

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 8/29/08

2008-08-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 8/29/08 through 9/4/08:
50% off Green item tagged merchandise.

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 8/22/08

2008-08-22T22:05:00.000-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 8/22/08 through 8/28/08:
50% off Orange item tagged merchandise.

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 8/15/08

2008-08-16T19:27:00.001-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 8/15/08 through 8/21/08:

50% off Blue item tagged merchandise and Pink tagged clothing.

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 8/8/08

2008-08-10T09:52:00.001-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 8/8/08 through 8/14/08:

50% off Purple item tagged merchandise

Golf Equipment: Adams RPM Fariway Woods Sale at Walmart

2008-08-02T19:51:00.000-07:00

I was able to find and buy the Adams Golf RPM 5 wood today when I stopped by Walmart to pick up some items for only $17.00 and it was originally priced at $69.99 and it came with an Aldila NV (for Adams Golf) graphite shaft.

Since I haven't seen Adams Golf stuff at Walmart when I was there last week I thought I missed out on the $17 sale that I've read about on GolfWRX forums, but decided to stop by the golf department anyways to see if they had any golf balls on sale and BAM saw three Admas RPM woods in the Laguna Niguel store.

RPM Low Profile Standard

· Flex: A, R, S, X

· Grip: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

· Shaft: Graffaloy Pro Launch, Aldila NV or NVS

There was a 3 wood, 7 wood and a 5 wood (which was the one I needed). Only the 7 wood had the $17 clearance tag on it, but the check-out had it listed for $17. Good deal, it even had the Aldila NV shaft in regular flex that I needed (saw Stiff flexes before). Check it out if you need fariway woods for your set at Walmart now.

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 8/1/08

2008-08-01T22:37:00.000-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 8/1/08 through 8/7/08:

50% off Green item tagged merchandise

GREATEST HITS- Golf Review: Intech Ripper Driver Review: 7/28/08

2008-07-28T18:45:00.000-07:00

Since I've been slacking on my recent reviews, I'll be doing some "Greatest Hits" postings of my golf reviews that bring in the highest traffic to MonsterOfTheWeek.com.

Comments: Tried out the Intech Ripper driver (I guess considered Orlimar's more generic redheaded stepchild by King Par, the same manufacturer as Orlimar, Affinity, and Knight brands) on the course today and I was impressed with it, even my playing partner who was with me was impressed on it's distance.

I'm a high handicapper at the moment (20+) and currently using a TaylorMade R7 460 draw with 13 degree head and an upgraded Aldila NV 75S stiff flex shaft (I originally got this since I needed fast help with my slices and to get the ball up in the air easier since I had a slow swing speed in the beginning). Now that I'm better handling my swing with a driver I've been looking for a lower lofted driver (10.5-11 degrees) with a regular flex since the 13* driver I have pops up in the air too much nowadays. This Intech Ripper driver actually comes with an Aldila shaft. Never heard of this version, it's a "Reflex" version shaft name with low torque and high modulus (what is that?). Regular flex with reactive technology. Surprised it didn't come with Winn grips like the John Daly Dunlop drivers also at Walmart at the same price.

So I busted out the Intech Ripper on the first par 4 288 yarder on the course (I did the same course the day before with my TaylorMade) and hit the ball square on to about 235 yards which was on track the same distance I did the other day with my TaylorMade but actually a bit straighter. Good launch angle and good flex on the generic Aldila shaft. I used the driver on about 3 more holes and actually got maybe 10+ yards more than the prior day. Now this is probably that we were on a slower pace so I was able to line up my drives better and got my swing on a groove. There was one hole that I took a couple extra drives to see how much I could belt the Intech Ripper and I got a couple "thunk" sounds but they still went about 150+ yards and stayed pretty fairly on the course. The big positive I can say about the driver is that even though it's square it sounds like my TM driver with a nice medium pitch "click" sound when hit properly down the fairway and none of the aluminum bat sound as the Sumo2 and FT-i.

Though the Intech Ripper head cover is pretty weird looking, it actually pops on and off super-fast compared to the sock covers, the only thing I see that might go bad is the locking mechanism that attaches to the shaft might wear down and stop clasping to it or that the shaft area it locks into might start scuffing. Looks like the Fury and I think they should have made some minor cosmetic changes to the Fury or the Ripper/Cube body more to show more of a difference between the $40 vs. $250 version better.

The Intech Ripper was used n the driving range today and I'll have to say for a $40 driver it hit as well as my Taylor Made R7 Draw. I was hoping since it was a regular flex Adila shaft on the Ripper that it'd go a but longer than my TM with a stiff flex Adila NV 75S shaft, it went just as far though around 225-245 yards so it's the same distance as my current driver. The plus I'd have to say that surprised me was that I got consistent straight draws with only a few draws hit and actually no slices at all which I am prone to. So for the price I'd have to say the club is good, didn't know the carbon on the head is only a decal! So after use on the course two days and on the driving range this club is good for a high handicapper like me. Just to have another test I will compare my hits using my friend's Nike Sasquatch driver vs. the Intech Ripper.

Score: 3 out of 5

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 7/25/08

2008-07-25T21:04:00.001-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 7/25/08 through 8/1/08:
50% off Orange item tagged merchandise

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 7/18/08

2008-07-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 7/18/08 through 7/25/08:
50% off Blue item tagged merchandise and Pink tagged clothing.

Movie Review: Superman II (2)- The Richard Donner Cut (2006)

2008-07-12T08:32:00.000-07:00

Review: Thanks to the Circuit City DVD sale this week, Mr. Monster was finally able to purchase the long awaited Superman II- The Richard Donner Cut for only $5.99.

For those who don't know, Richard Donner was the director of the original Superman movie and was filming the sequel at the same time as part I. After nearly completing Part II, Donner was taken off the movie by the studio and replaced with another director, Richard Lester who ended up crafting his own story and releasing the sequel that we've seen over the last 30 years. Lester used some footage from Donner's version but Donner's unique take never resurfaced, until 2006.

After being seen by only a few and reading that Donner's version was also good (I liked Lester's Part II also) I wanted to be able to compare their films. In a short take Donner's version has the strongest take on Clark Kent/Superman's decision to lose his powers in order to be with Lois Lane, his speech on giving so much to humanity and only wanting one thing he desired was pretty strong. There is also additional scenes with Marlon Brando's Jor-El speaking to his son. Another strong point is that the three villains had stronger presence here and were more diabolical in taking over the U.S., I do wish that their deleted scenes that was not integrated into the main move WERE added in.

There are weaknesses to this film as well. The film misses some of the more light-hearted and comical aspects from Lester's film, scenes are not played out as long causing viewers to miss segments that would explain ideas better such as why Clark had to lose his power? I do wish they cleaned up some areas that did not make sense such as the villains able to talk to the astronauts on the moon (airless) and such. The ending for me was the low point since it takes the same cue as the original movie and so I wish they updated it for this version. Sure, it was the original intended ending, but since it was already done in Part I, why do it again 30 years later when they could have made the ending more logical. The first eight minutes of the movie is also a recap of the original film that ties into Part II, a bit longer than I feel should have been shown.

The score shouldn't reflect the overall enjoyment of the movie, it is enjoyable but if you were expecting something significant, then this DVD isn't it. It has certain good aspects not present in the theatrical version, but nothing super-new that would warrant non-superman buffs to go out and get this version. For film historians and comic book geeks, this one is for you. Compare and enjoy!

Score: 2.95 out of 5

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 7/11/08

2008-07-11T23:38:00.001-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 7/11/08 through 7/17/08:
50% off Purple item tagged merchandise.

*Orange County, CA locations only.

Comments: Mr. Monster was finally able to complete his Matrix Trilogy DVD set by getting the first Matrix movie for half-price at Goodwill for only $2.49.

I was also able to pick up fpr the Playstation 2(I'm old school like that) Need for Speed: Most Wanted for only $5.00. It looks like someone dropped off the Need for Speed trilogy set 3-pack (featuring Need for Speed: Underground 1 & 2, and Most Wanted. I debated getting Underground 2, but since I do rarely play games anymore I just wanted the latest one I can play for a few minutes.

Also, parents and guardians of kids in these stores. Please keep you kids with you and not running around like wild animals while you shop. Having them run around playing with items and trashing them is not good for the store and sooner or later they will get hurt.

Movie Review: Batman: Gotham Knight- 7/9/08

2008-07-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

Review: I thought Gotham Knight was a nice looking movie, but very plain and down right boring in parts. "Work Through the Pain" was the best section for me since it opened up another training aspect of Bruce Wayne that shows how he can take all the hits and near-death events and continue to survive.

"Deadshot" was a good section as well, closest to a comic book type story. The rest of the episodes were more in the vein of Batman vs. mobsters and moved slowly for me, they probably kept it this way to tie into the more Dark Knight theme without the more outlandish themes with more comic-type villains.

Did enjoy seeing the original Tim Burton Batmobile though. The animation style is pure Japanese anime, with certain styles reminding me of the over-the-top Fist of the North Star series from the 80s. Still, though it looked nice it had no substance or "wow" moments for a comic book super hero.

Score: 2.75 out of 5

Magazine Stuff: List of Subscriptions- 7/8/08

2008-07-08T13:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a listing of the current subscriptions Monster of the Week.com currently receives.

I highly recommend checking out Fat Wallet and Slick Deals for listing of deals to receive these and other free magazine subscriptions.

Blender

Callaway Magazine

Car and Driver

Computer Shopper

Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM)

Elle Décor

Golf Digest

Golf for Women

Golf Magazine

Good Housekeeping

Interview

Links

Metropolitan Home

Ode

Popular Science

SPIN

Star

Tennis

Travel and Leisure Golf

U.S. News and World Report

VIBE

Movie Review: Wanted- 7/7/08

2008-07-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

Review: Based on a comic book, Wanted (2008) is a send-up of the traditional "loser guy becomes hero" flick. I read the original comic series and that Wanted book varies greatly from the film. Let me break the two formats for you in case you want to compare.

Comic Book version- Wesley is a down-and-out guy with a cheating girlfriend, bad job and no direction. In comes Fox, a super villain assassin brought in to train Wesley after his super villain assassin father is killed. Wes then get trained by Fox and a myriad of villains and comic book-style monsters in the ways to kill others. Becoming aware of his abilities, Wesley robs, kills, rapes innocent people along the way to become an super villain killer.

It is explained that the evil villains have gotten together in the past and eradicated the super heroes from the world, so now no one can stop them. They rule earth and do what they wish. There is a fracture in the villain alliance and now Wesley must choose sides in order to gain control of the world. Bloody killings and deceit are shown as Wesley comes to realize his place in the world as a cold-blooded evil killer.

Movie version- Wesley is a down-and-out guy with a cheating girlfriend, bad job and no direction. In comes Angelina Jolie, a super villain assassin brought in to train Wesley after his super assassin father is killed. Wes then get trained by Jolieand a myriad of specialists such as the Gunsmith, Repairman, Butcher, etc. in the ways to kill. Becoming aware of his abilities, Wesley kills, people told to him by Morgan Freeman who explains that by killing one, it saves thousands along the way to become an super killer.

The movie does not explain who the people being killed are or why. It comes down to a cheesy fabric loom telling in secret code who should be murdered. There is no talk of the assassins as being "evil" at all, just killers doing bidding by a machine. There's a slight twist in the end to change Wesley's point of view as to who he should trust.

Still the movie varies greatly from the comic and tames down the killings, plot points to a more generic action movie level. Exciting in some areas, but hardly pushing any boundaries that you've seen in The Matrix, Mission Impossible series, etc.

Score: 3 out of 5 (movie)

Score: 4 out of 5 (comic book)

Golf Review: Sports Authority 4th of July Sale- 7/6/08

2008-07-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Sports Authority is having its 4th of July Sale this weekend and some of the deals are pretty good.

The Cleveland HiBore XL and Callaway X 460 drivers are selling for $149.99. The Nike SuMo Square, Callaway Big Bertha 460 and TaylorMade Burner Draw are going for $199.99.

Most of the house brands from Sports Authority such as the Tommy Armour and RAM brand items are also selling at a big discount, good for those beginning golfers in need of sets of clubs, gloves, shirts, golf balls. The 45-pack of Wilson ProStaff for $19.99 is a good price for those who need new balls and don't want those packaged used balls.

I do recommend calling the store ahead if you are looking for the golf clubs on sale. My local store in Orange County did not have any of the HiBore XL drivers on stock and apart from the Cleveland wedges nothing else from the manufacturer.

Movie Review: Get Smart- 7/5/08

2008-07-05T07:24:00.000-07:00

Review: Do you remember the old Don Adams "Get Smart" t.v. show? Well I do, barely. For a show I watched with my cousins when we were in elementary show I remember only a handful of items from the series. I remember Agent 99, Agent 86, Jaime, The Chief, the Cone of Silence, shoe phone, the opening sequence...and that's it.

I don't remember any episodes or plots since it wasn't remarkable, well that sums up this movie. Steve Carrell pulls off Agent 86 well, with the style of Don Adams I remember. His deadpan humor and determination to b a good secret agent move the film along well. Anne Hatahway is a smart, strong and confident Agent 99, though her character is a big departure from the original series, her character initially dislikes Maxwell Smart and hijinx ensues.

The plot is standard "bomb the world" scenario and the agents are to track evil Russian spies with nuclear weapons. There a slight reveal of a double agent and it was pretty easy to see, like a needle in a Rock. Thre are nods to the original show such as the t.v. show suit, car, cone of silence, brief use of the shoe phone and the motto, "Missed it by that much."

Overall Get Smart was an interesting diversion with a handful of laughs. I've read others call this an action movie with comedy and I see it the other way. The action sequences are over the top implausible, but fits in with th tone of the movie. Nothing too exciting or original, but still charming. Just like the original Get Smart series.

Score: 2.85 out of 5

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 7/4/08

2008-07-04T14:03:00.000-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 7/3/08 through 7/10/08: 50% off Blue item tagged merchandise.

*Orange County, CA locations only.

Golf Review: Wilson Alignment 3000 Putter- 7/3/08

2008-07-03T17:47:00.000-07:00

Review: Picked up the Wilson Alignment 3000 putter just over a couple of months ago and have been able to take it on the course twice and practice with it occasionally.

I don’t know how old this putter is and when it ended its production run but the version I have bought had some scrapes and wear on the face and heel of the putter.

The face of the putter is smooth with alignment marks on the top edge and back of the putter. The alignment dot helped me position myself over the ball better since I tend to angle my hits at times and end up topping or smacking the ground behind the ball.

Kind of like the See More putters, there is a dot and lines on the head letting you know if you are over the top, or under the ball at alignment. The weight is pretty hefty, this is old school steel face and shaft. The grip is a tough plain black rubber with Wilson inscribed in white at the front. The white Wilson logo on mine was dirty and I tried to clean it off and ended up taking some of the paint off so I tried to fill it in with some white paint again.

It has been almost two years from when I switched out from using my first blade putter, the one that came with my Top Flite HCT Tour starter package. I wanted to try going back to a blade to see if that would help me from hitting the ground since the mallet tended to make me aim and chop down on the ball causing chunks of grass to fly instead of moving the ball forward. During my first game with the Wilson putter it helped me stand over the ball. The following game though the magic wore off and my putting was in the dumps again.

For the value that you should be able to acquire this putter at I would recommend it just to get you standing over the ball properly then you can stick with it or move back to your other putter.

Score: 3.5 out of 5

Golf Review: Nike Dri-Fit, Sphere Dry and Nike Dri-Fit UV Golf Shirts- 7/2/08

2008-07-02T19:43:00.000-07:00

Review: Nike Dri-Fit, Sphere Dry and Nike Dri-Fit UV golf polo shirts. When playing golf and being out in the open environment, you know you have to take care of yourself or you’ll be exposed to the varied conditions of the course. From rain, mud, snow, sun and heat. Since I play in Southern California the main hazards are heat and sun. I’ve picked up a few Nike golf shirts and after starting off with regular polos and sweating through those easily, decide to choose my golf shirts with the moisture-wicking capabilities.

The Nike Dri-Fits play comfortable with some styles feeling like cotton while some are smooth-feeling like nylon or soild blends with the various fabrics and technology used. The Dri-Fits do delete moisture and sweat faster than regular cotton shirts. Where regular polos would be soaked on the chest and lower back for me, at the end of a game with the Nikes the perspiration is either gone or 1/3 as small as the cotton shirts.

The Nikes are prevalent so picking up a new shirt for under $30.00 is easy especially since styles are being introduced seemingly every quarter. I’ve been able to get Dri-Fits for under $20 at some Ross stores. The Dri-Fit UV are suppose to shield your body from harmful UV rays that do happen to get through the garment. I don’t remember seeing how long the UV is suppose to work or what SPF it is, but I haven’t had a burn or anything with the ones I’ve used. The one Sphere Dry shirt I have feels light and reminds me of the thinner Adidas ClimaCool shirts. For the price of the Sphere Drys versus a regular Dri-Fit shirt I don’t know if I noticed anything significant with the little openings cooling me down greatly.

For the good price and wide variety of styles to choose from the Nike Dri-Fit line is a good manufacturer to choose from. The fabrics do dry faster than other “moisture wicking” golf shirts I’ve had and there are just so many styles to choose from based on your mood for game day it’s hard not to like the Dri-Fit selection.

Score: 3.75 out of 5.

Golf Review: TaylorMade Rescue Mid Hybrids- 6/30/08

2008-06-30T21:33:00.000-07:00

Review: The Taylor Made Rescue Mid hybrids that I have are the second set of hybrids that I have had. At first I was using the clone hybrids from Pinemeadow and then decided to upgrade. I chose the Taylor Made Rescue Mid since the price at the time (2006) was decent since Taylor Made just released the more update Dual Rescue hybrids.

I currently play the 3 and 4 hybrids with regular flex, steel shafts and I do have to say that they are outstanding clubs for the price. When hit they project a nice steel click and fly decently. I am able to hit the 3 hybrid around 165 yards and the 4 hybrid at 145 yards. The clubs do show some slight ballooning and even with the 3 hybrid tend to pop up in the air easily. This is great when not a strong hitter, not that good for trying to blast a long shot from under a tree.

The grips are nice standard Taylor Made sleek and smooth style. The hybrids come with an easy to pull on and off cover with a detachable chain to call out the club number. You can routinely find these clubs brand new for under $90.00 these days, even lower for used version since it is now a couple generations old with the Rescue Dual and now the Burner hybrids proliferating the market.
These clubs provide a lot of forgiveness for me and am able to drive the ball further compared to when I hit long irons such as a Callaway 3-iron, Dunlop SST 5-iron and maybe even my new Ben Hogan Edge CFT (haven’t hit it yet) 3-iron.

CLUB	LEFT-HANDED	LOFT	LIE	HEAD VOLUME	CLUB LENGTH	SWING WEIGHT
GRAPHITE	2	No	16°	59°	105cc	41"	D3
	3	Yes	19°	59.5°	107cc	40.5"	D3
	4	Yes	22°	60°	110cc	40"	D3
	5	No	25°	60.5°	113cc	39.5"	D3

Score: 4 out of 5

Golf Course Review: UPDATED David L. Baker Golf Course, Fountain Valley, CA Golf Course- 6/28/07

2008-06-28T21:36:00.000-07:00

Review: David L. Baker Golf Course in Fountain Valley, CA. Game played on Saturday 6/28/08. Played a game at David Baker around 10:00 a.m. and the course was pretty light on golfers. I have never seen David Baker so sparse especially on a Saturday. I’ve seen the course backed up 3-4 teams deep, even during the So. Cal fires last year when the air was smoke-tinged and the course still had back-ups. Don’t know if the heat warnings earlier this week scared players off or people cutting back due to the economy, but we were able to complete the course in under 3.5 hours. We could’ve finished in about 3 hours but we did encounter a slight slowdown due to some five-somes on the course reading the greens pretty slowly.

The course fairways finally had some green color to it, still brown in some areas but betting then I’ve seen it in a year. After the first few holes the greens are fast and smooth, only on the first front nines are their outstanding divots and patchy colors.

The sprinkled ponds on the course took four golf balls from me that day, water color ranged from the normal green tinge to some weird looking brown murkiness. If you can still get on the course without traffic, then the $27.00 cost is reasonable. We did see around the early afternoon a group of three golf carts playing the first hole that looked like a golf class starting play that significantly causes a back-up on the course, so pick your tee time wisely.

Score: 3.25 out of 5

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 6/27/08

2008-06-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 6/27/08 through 7/3/08: 50% off Orange item tagged merchandise.

*Orange County, CA locations only.

Golf Review: Youth Nike Golf Clubs and Stand Bag- 6/23/08

2008-06-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

Review: Nike Golf sells a line of off-the-rack golf clubs and equipment for kids. I just went to the Nike.com site and I couldn't find a set description so they may be tweaking it still, a British site though as some item features.

For the aspiring young golfer, Nike offers sets of equipment based on their height. You can choose between Par Red, Birdie Blue, and Eagle Silver- tagged equipment for little tykes up to tweens. I will be reviewing the Blue color equipment since based on the color range only certain clubs are offered. The taller you are the more clubs to choose from.

The Nike kids driver (blue) looks like the previous 2004 adult Ignite driver, comes with graphite Nike shaft and steel club face. The driver has a nice pop and I've seen it pop balls around 125 yards, I do believe that the club should have a larger face since the version here is very shallow. The shaft also is very stiff and I wish Nike offered a more flexible version, why do kids with low swing speeds get stiff flex?

The hybrid club is approx. a 3- iron club and along with the mid iron and pitching wedge come with graphite, regular flex shafts. The hybrid is nicely weighted and offers good distance. The two irons offered in the Blue set are decent, though distance is not as long or forgiving as the prior clubs. An offering of a sand or lob wedge would have been nice to help out kids launch into the air balls from a deep bunker.

The Nike putter is the one color length that did not match up with the user. The steel shaft and half-circle mallet design in the Blue color was very short so the putter length had to be moved up to the Silver color selection, while a bit longer than needed, it at least wasn't as extreme as the short length of the blue. Putter comes with a soft polymer-like insert. Nice feel, though some grass chips do sometimes get caught in the edges where the insert in the face and body of the club meet.

Last but not least the golf bag, this one was also chosen to be the Silver instead of blue tag since the Silver offered more room. The bag is very light, comes with dual shoulder Izzo strap system and four pockets and four club dividers.

These clubs were previously picked up over a year ago during the yearly golf clearance at Target stores so some items like the bag was purchased for $15 compared to the usual $40-$50. Sports Authority stores also sell this line along with Nike kids golf shoes, golf towels, kids golf balls and gloves. Some of the club appearance have been changed in the current product line, the putter sold now looks more like the adult Ignite line with the triangular shape.

For an off-the-rack kids golf equipment and decent price the Nike line is a fine choice. The selection is nice is that you can buy just a few items (putter and iron) just to see if you kids likes the sport instead of have to plunk down a lot more buying a full array of equipment like the Callaway, Ping, Cobra, or La Jolla packages.

Score: 3.25 out of 5

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 6/20/08

2008-06-22T07:52:00.000-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 6/20/08: Blue items and Pink tag merchandise.

It looks like Goodwill Stores in Orange County, CA came to their senses and ended their short-lasting test of only having the color tag 50% off sale from Sundays through Thursdays.

For some reason they instituted several weeks ago that they would not offer the usual 50% off color tags on Fridays and Saturdays, i don't know if the bright reason for that was those days were their high traffic days and that they could bring more cash flow by not discounting items on those days. Well I'm guessing that that trick did not happen since in the stores I went to when they had the limited days, store traffic died down and these are stores that you do not go to splurge but to save money.

Thankfully it looks like the Goodwill stores came to their senses and brought back the color tag discount throughout the week with the sale items starting on Friday and switching at the end of Thursday. It was a rumor I overheard last weekend, I wish they announced it since there was a dvd set that had this weeks colors that I was waiting on to get discounted, but alas it was gone on Saturday.

A big yay for bringing in the old promotion back. I'm also hoping they're keeping the two-color discount together with one general color item 50% off any item (clothing, books, movies, accessories, electronics, etc.) and a second color just for merchandise. I think it will help drive additional sales if customers can expect to buy more items instead of waiting until a particular item's color is chosen.

I do have a suggestion for Goodwill which I think can bring it some additional revenue as well as make some shopping bargain hunters happy, offer discount code coupon books. For example for $10.00 a customer will receive a Goodwill store booklet with coupon discounts good for 50% any one color item, 25% off blue color clothing, 15% orange tagged books, etc. Buyers would buy this so they can buy on the spot an item they'd like to purchase at a discount and not have to wait, Goodwill can make some extra cash by selling a routine item for goods that may sit around for long periods (increased cash flow).

I'd also like to note that the San Diego Goodwill stores have a different pricing and merchandise strategy from Orange County stores. The one Mr. Monster visited in North County had hand labeled color tags, but the store did not have discounts based on the color (maybe it's only on certain sale days). The store was a lot smaller, but the selection of goods had more retail store clothing that had tags still attached such as Dockers, Banana Republic, etc. that were not the usual Target store overstock/return merchandise.

I wonder of the San Diego branches get donated items from mall/retail stores directly since I saw some with tags from Marshalls and TJ Max. The store even had a section on the clothing racks labeled New Items for the women's side, I guess so you don't have to spend too much time looking through for recently stocked items.

Golf Review: Nike Dri-Fit Golf Gloves- 6/21/08

2008-06-21T11:25:00.000-07:00

Review: I have been using the Nike Dri-Fit golf gloves for the last couple of years on and off. For the price they sell around $10.00. These are synthetic gloves and have held up longer than some other name brand gloves I have used in the past.

I did choose this Nike version since I was looking for black golf gloves and the Nike Dri-Fits were the most readily available at a good low price. They also come in a nice vented hard plastic case which helps keep them in shape instead of throwing them crumpled into the side pockets of your golf bag.

I have regulated this version of the glove to mostly practice and driving range so it's been going on almost a year for me. The last version I used during play laster about six months before rips appeared. This one I use for practice and sometimes play, the only wear showing up is that the synthetic leather around the thumbs and wrist area are rubbing off and exposing the lycra fabric.

The fit is good for a ML and breathes well without any major discomfort notice. Plus since this is a black colored version, dirt and stains are hard to notice. Major pluses for the glove holder.

Score: 3.5 out of 5

Golf Review: Neoprene Golf Iron Head Covers- 6/20/08

2008-06-20T08:08:00.000-07:00

Review: When I first got into golf I started noticing on my sets of irons that they were getting scratched up and dinged, and not just from hitting the ground during my horrible play!

Carrying your irons around in your bag during a typical day of play or even dragging it out to the driving range does cause the clanging of the clubs to happen at they batter themselves in your bag.

I decided then to try and keep my irons in nice condition as long as I can since I don't apply to the terms that certain golfers have in the thought that having scuffs and scrapes on your irons is a normal part of the game and a good "game scar" to show. Well, this can be applied to you car as well, it gets dings and bumps as well during normal use and if I see a horrible dent in it then I would get an auto body shop to fix that big dent on my car, that why I try and keep my car in a garage or not parked in tight spaces... I like keeping my things in good condition.

Still, not wanting to spend too much money I decided on neoprene covers. They're low-priced, easy to put on, and light. I got these shown in the photo from Walmart for less than $10.00. They had labels from 4-SW. I do wish they had eliminated the 4 or had one blank or "x" since I would have liked to use on on my lob wedge, so instead I place the 4 on it.

My other friends have variations on the materials for the head covers, some expensive like the Club Glove version and some with the old-school hard plastic material. These have kept my irons in good condition, though I do take them off completely during games since I do not like spending extra time putting them on and off during course of play as well as the possibility of losing them moving around the fairways.

I recommend getting them for as low-priced as possible around $10 since the more expensive versions you can instead get extra golf balls. Mine have started to rip a bit after almost 2 years of play, but only a little. Check out your local Walmart, Target, Big 5 or Sports Authority store for them locally.

Score: 3 out of 5

Movie Review: The Happening (2008)- 6/19/08

2008-06-19T19:29:00.000-07:00

Review: Another new hyped film by M. Night Shyamalan. The reviews haven't been kind and I'd have to agree. I liked the Sixth Sense and Signs (except the water deus ex machina), flat on Unbreakable, haven't seen The Village fully (kinda boring in the parts I've seen on cable), and don't want to watch Lady in the Water (read the spoiler and plot and it was ridiculous).

The premise to The Happening seemed interesting. People killing themselves from out of the blue and the rest of the populace trying to figure it it out and running outta the way. Well if you've see the recent horror film The Ruins, there's the plot twist inserted into this movie. The acting and actors were flat and the premise ridiculous when halfway through the movie a side character brings out his theory on why people are dying.

The studio keeps bragging on how this is the first R rated movie from M. Night and the scenes that should be enacted on screen to showcase the horror of the deaths are all shown IN THE TV COMMERCIALS. That's right, if you watch the trailer then 90% of the "gruesome" deaths are already shown to you.

The ending is a big let down with after 3 months post-mini apocalypse everyone seems all honky-dory and then another outbreak appears elsewhere. Beejezus! My main problem was how characters who seemed smart make really bad decisions: Leaving a Hummer behind when running away, not stying together or letting each other know they're moving, and the most problematic for me was escaping the root of the menace by closing door and windows...when the toxic "thing" should already be part of the oxygen based on where it's coming from. Beejezus Part II!

Score: 1.5 out of 5

In honor of M. Night's movies and the twists he put on them, here's a link from Yahoo! exposing the Top 20 movie plot twists!

Golf Review: Spalding Leather Golf Cart Bag- 6/18/08

2008-06-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

Review: I was able to pick up this Spalding Golf Cart Leather Bag at a thrift store for cheap, less than $10.00. The only problem at the time was that it was in bad shape, gum/tar marks, dirt, and regular wear. But seeing that it was a nice retro-looking bag and made of genuine leather, I wanted to give it a try since I did like the red with white trim look. After using cleaning agents to remove the gunk and a lot of elbow grease to remove all the dirt and such I was able to get this in pretty pristine shape.

This Spalding cart bag has four pockets. Two pockets in the front and one large side pocket and one small valuables pocket in the other side. The bag has three dividers and the strap is still in good shape.

All in all it is now in good shape and I bring it out on courses where I do not need a stand bag such as when the courses we play are cart-only. It's fun coming to courses having this old school bag in play.

Score. 3.5 out of 5. High rating since I bought it at such a low price.

Golf Review: Golf Digest Pull Cart- 6/17/08

2008-06-17T21:12:00.000-07:00

Review: Picked up this Golf Digest brand pull cart from Target and have had this in use for just under two years and it's holding up well. I paid $30.00 for it though it's sometimes on sale at the store for $25.00 when their golf clearance happens.

Here are some features:
• Lightweight pull cart has removable wheels
• Designed to fit any standard golf bag
• Lightweight, compact design for easy storage
• Convenient score card holder
• 20.47Hx30.7Wx45.6D"

This pull cart is pretty light and I'm able to carry it one handed up and down flights of stairs. The two golf ball and four tee holders are handy. More expensive carts have additional water bottle holders and larger score card holders, but then you pay for the price, if you do get the three-wheeled cart at least. The wheels, though plastic, have not had any significant problems or break-downs.

The downsides to this cart are as follows: 1. Having to tighten the wheels during the start of each game since they do loosen up throughout a game., 2. The pencil holder is hard to accommodate certain pencil sizes and ends up getting lost during a game. 3. Trying to keep the front of the bag facing forward does not work well since the bag tends to turn sideways throughout the game. I've had to either leave the bag facing sidewards (leaving one side of the bag and pockets inaccessible) or at times drilled holes and inserted screws into the top holder to keep the bag from turning.

For the price though at around $30.00, this is the lowest price pull cart you can find new. Sometimes Sports Authority has a three-wheeled version push cart on sale for $50.00 to $60.00 which is a good price. My golf buddies who have the more lavish Bag Boy three-wheeled push carts end up skipping on bringing them along since they take up a lot of trunk space while I am always able to take this version since it does fold easily into my car's trunk.

Score: 3 out of 5

Golf Review: Fila Sunday Golf Bag- 6/16/08

2008-06-16T19:05:00.000-07:00

Review: Picked up this Fila Sunday Golf Bag to replace my previous Wilson Sunday Golf Bag. I was looking for a Sunday Bag that was weighted at the bottom so the bag did not tip over when loaded with golf clubs like the lighter-weight Wilson golf bag. The Fila golf bag has one front golf pocket, one side valuables pocket, a mesh pocket, a clip ring, and one large side pocket.

The top section of the bag is cloth-lined so there is no need to worry about scuffing the shafts of the golf clubs. The should pad holster is pretty padded and holds the bag up well. I like that the Fila logo plays throughout the bag and even the zippers have the logo molded into them. There is an internal frame skeleton within the bag to keep the structure sound, I don't know if it's just my bag but the frame in mine twists easily making it seem broken but I cannot find within the seems a broken rod.

Overall it's a nice light Sunday bag which you should be able to find low-priced in the secondary market.

Score: 3 out of 5

Movie Review: Shutter (2008)- 6/15/08

2008-06-15T19:22:00.000-07:00

Review: If you've seen The Ring or The Grudge or the countless other asian remake films Hollywood has put out, then you've seen Shutter. If you'd like to see Pacey from the Dawson's Creek t.v. series get his due, then this is the movie for you. Standard fare for horror.

A newlywed couple move to Japan where the photographer husband is schedule to shoot. Strange appearances and ghostly images start to appear on film, windows, reflective things etc. so the wife starts to investigate. There's a small plot twist in the end that I saw a mile coming. There's maybe a couple jumps but nothing out of the ordinary.

There are tons of similarities to The Ring movie (which the American film I find the pinnacle of the u.s. remakes) with the dead girl, plot twist at the end, fly, appearing in media, etc. A good dvd rental or catch on HBO but nothing too spectacular or original.

Score: 2.95 out of 5

Goodwill Store: Color Tag Sale- Week of 6/14/08

2008-06-14T07:56:00.000-07:00

Goodwill Color Tag Sale for the week of 6/14/08: Blue

Since I haven't seen posted on any other websites or even noted in the Southern California Goodwill stores, I will be posting what color tags are being used for the specials of the week.

For those of you who don't know, every week the Goodwill Stores here in Southern California place certain items on 50% discount. Items in the store usually have colored price tags on them such as green, blue, pink, and purple.

At the beginning of the week (Depending on how it changes, either Friday or Sunday) one of the colored tags are chose and any items displaying that color becoms 50% off the listed price.

Now the 50% off is good for some items that form some reason Goodwill marks pretty high. Some of the electronics such as t.v.s and stereos they actually mark higher than new flat screens at retail stores or even tagged new items from Target which are out-of-season or returns but are not used at all are sometimes priced at Goodwill higher than the actual store price tag!

As noted in postings, I check out Goodwill for golf items sometimes such as getting Nike One Platinum golf balls for a dollar each (they were new in sleeves but the boxes were dinged), or buying old putters and wooden clubs for fun.

So check it out, maybe you'll find something good. It's also for a good cause.

Golf Review: Top Flite Golf Shoes- 6/14/08

2008-06-14T00:23:00.001-07:00

Comments: Picked up these Top Flite sneaker golf shoes at clearance at Target a while back. I wanted a golf shoe that was more inclined for walking the golf course than my previous Dunlop Sport saddle shoes so when I saw these sneaker types on sale I grabbed them.

Nothing too fancy about these Top Flite golf shoes. Mainly white with navy blue trim and the bottom has orange accents with stabilizers. Comes with meal thread Top Flite branded spikes. After I wore the spikes down I replaced them with Pulsar spikes but one thread on a spike from the originals has worn down so I could not rip it off at all. So the bottom of one shoe has all but one new spikes on it.

Cleaning is easy, just wash and scrub with a brush, I did add in gels for the long walks since the padded insoles were thin for me. It's not water proof so be careful on wet and muddy courses. The shoe has held up for me with only one cut inflicted on it after two full seasons.

Score: 2.75 out of 5. Lower rating because of the defective spike thread and limited water proof abilities.

Golf Review: Dunlop Sport Saddle Golf Shoes Golf Shoes- 6/13/08

2008-06-13T23:59:00.000-07:00

Comments: I purchased these Dunlop Sport saddle golf shoesand wore them for about 10 rounds of golf and I can attest that they feel very comfortable.

As you can see from the photos, the shoe is in good condition, spikes are original Dunlop spikes. There are scuff and marks on the toe of the shoes as well as on some sections of the heel area since I used these shoes when I rode golf carts and I tend to scuff my shoes on the pedals.

I do wish there was more cushioning in the show, I had to add in some gel pads for walking rounds so I usually kept these shoes as backups for when I rode golf carts and switched to my more sneaker-like Top Flite shoes for walking. I did get this shoe back in Maui at the local Walmart there for a low price and brought it back to So. Cal as my first official golf shoe. A good beginner's shoe for the price, less than $30.00 retail, but it does scuff easily.

Dunlop Sport Features & Specifications

Lace up these lightweight shoes for a day on the course. Maximum comfort comes from the cushioned footbed and rubber outsole. Synthetic leather helps with breathability and supports all ranges of motion. Get ready for tee time.

Dunlop Sport Shoes Product Details:

-Comfortable golf shoes with brown shoelaces
-Synthetic leather upper
-Cushioned footbed
-Lightweight rubber outsole
-Original Dunlop spikes with one Softspikes replacement
-Care: Wipe clean

Score: 2.75 out of 5

Golf Review: FootJoy Impulse Golf Shoes- 6/13/08

2008-06-13T23:51:00.000-07:00

Comments: The FootJoy Impulse shoes are made on a low-profile last featuring a modified oblique-toe design, which is a very popular look in casual shoe styling.

The FootJoy Impulse golf shoe is built for the green or even the red carpet. A combination of great metro styling with great fit, comfort and support. Soft full grain leather uppers. Low profile EVA midsol.

I just purchased this FootJoy Impulse shoes and wore them for just one round of golf and felt very comfortable. I have to say from just wearing it for one round compared to my previous Top Flite golf shoe, the Impulse is very light and padded so well that my feet and legs did not get as tired as with my previous shoes.

FootJoy Impulse Golf Shoe Features

Inspired by the spirit of the younger golfer - and to help score with a younger demographic - FootJoy introduced a new shoe line called Impulse that offers the unique "metro styling" seen in the trendiest areas of the world. The FootJoy Impulse shoes are made on a low-profile style featuring a modified oblique-toe design, which is a very popular look in casual shoe styling. The new category represents a fresh new attitude in men's golf shoe fashion.

The Impulse golf shoes are made using fashionable full grain leather uppers with a waterproof membrane, allowing the shoe to have limited waterproof ability. The shoe also features super thick PU-cushioned Fit-Bed and soft PU linings for comfort and improved cushioning. The outsole incorporates a TPU lateral stability bridge and a DuraMax rubber outsole for maximum durability.

Upper Technology
- Soft & fashionable full grain leather uppers
- 2-yr ltd. waterproof warranty

Outsole Technology
- DuraMax rubber outsole
- Pulsar cleats

In- shoe Technology
- Dual density PU Fit-Bed
- Dri-Lex moisture wicking linings
- Slip last construction
- New low profile Driving Last

Score: 3.5 out of 5

Movie Review: The Incredible Hulk (2008)- 6/13/08

2008-06-13T23:46:00.000-07:00

Comments: I thought the movie was so-so, the handling of the Abomination at the end was not thoroughly explained. Once the solider changes he starts thrashing the city and so they have to let Banner take him out?

This one played more of a cat and mouse thriller than the Ang Lee psychological version. Too me it felt more like a beefed up version of the Bruce Bixby show, still I did like some of the homages to the t.v. and comic sources. There are about three main action scenes with the Hulk and only one where he has some problems (the fight with The Abomination monster). There was never a sense of danger for Banner in the movie for me, not even at the end when he throws himself out of a flying helicopter. I do like how the super soldier is shown juicing up to match the Hulk, though adding extra screen time for his character would have been better than the scenes with Banner and Betty Ross which was standard movie fare and didn't add a real romance aspect to the story.

I liked Ang Lee's version for the more insightful dealings with Banner's psyche and where the Hulk comes from in his mind. This 2008 version I dig for the more closely comic book related origin and homages. Gonna have to watch Lee's version again to compare. I do prefer Eric Bana and Jennifer Connelly's representation for their character's and Norton's and Tyler's seem comic-lite.

Not as good as Iron Man though, time to see if Dark Knight topples it as the comic movie of 2008.

Score: 2.75 out of 5