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

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

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

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)

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)

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)

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

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