Microsoft Blue

via Geek & Poke

SuperHero personality test, 5 years later

I was diggin’ through the old posts and categories of this blog when I found this old take on the SuperHero Personality test. At the time I was Green Lantern.

Out of curiosity I did that one again and now …

You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 90% Superman 80% Hulk 75% Green Lantern 75% Supergirl 70% Robin 70% The Flash 60% Batman 45% Wonder Woman 40% Catwoman 30% Iron Man 25%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the “Which Superhero are you?” quiz…

Funny how things change!

bridging the digital divide

I found delicious the latest strip from the Geek & Poke guys on what, in everyday life, bridging the digital divide means for us young (or plain techie) people, living 24h a day in technology and web related world with our parents of people that just wants to use all this tech and go away with their lifes.

So this strip could be insightful for all those developing this “tech” today, or not ?

comics for sale

Probably it has gone out unseen but in the Pages section some time ago I’ve introduced the FOR SALE page.

In it I’ve put all the comics in my U.S.A. collection that I would like to sell.

I’m pretty maniac on the conditions of the single issue so if you’re interested, want to have some explainations or whatever on the subject just leave me a comment or get in touch with me, we will find a way for the sale!

Real Life comic’s heroines

OK, i will admit it …. i’m the worst between geek / merds. I do not only like any electronic device. Any personal computer. Any bull$hit on the web.

I do also LOVE comics …. comic book, comic strips, graphic novels. Anything. And when comics got real life bodies i’m happier than before !

P.S. = In case you haven’t noticed on the sidebar or by from this post (clicking on the image up here) I’ve decided to create an album on Flickr where to show all the images collected in those years of web browsing having a models re-enterpretation of famous comic books characters …. hope you’ll enjoy them as much as me

And if and interest will show up maybe I’ll found a group supporting this !

300

I was browsing the Apple Quicktime trailer’s page last day when i found out that 300 the magnificent story from comics (and storytelling) master Frank Miller is in production.

Frank Miller is one of the modern era Master of the comic book medium, having contribuited to renew and gain self acknoledgement since middle ’80 with his Daredevil and Batman, the Return of the Dark Knight operas.

After having gone away from the mainstream USA comics publishers (DC & Marvel Comics) he’s settled his home on Dark Horse Comics and published some creator’s owned comics, revamping pulp stories and renewing the black and white world.

We can all stand and admire his work on SIN CITY (which last year got a movie with some Hollywood stars acting).

In the second cycle of Sin City stories, entitled “The Big Fat Kill”, Miller cited the historical fight between Spartans and persians in ancient Greece. This historical event has been a strong inspiration to the writer/artist resulting in the 300 five issue series.

Here Miller explores deeply the event, adding his own “vision” to events, look of the characters and their motivation. Well worth a read (for convenience here is a link to the DeLuxe Trade Paperback)

So, as I was saying at the beginning of this post now the film is in production, here is the official 300 movie site (now a blog showing us the various phases of work).

action figures

figure: generally refers to a small human-made statue that represents a human (or deity or animal). They are typically smaller than life-size, and may be realistic or iconic depending on the skill and intention of the creator.

With this definitions anglophone indicate their “toys”. Yes, that kind of toys we used when we were kids, charaters taken from a cartoon show or comic books.

(Un)fortunately some aspects of these toys aren’t “kid’s stuff” only …

Let’s see what i mean.

In the United States the market of comic-books readers is built on pre-teenager kids and then 25-up grown up people.
Kids – the majority of them, at least – when puberty comes to their doors just run away from this medium, they hide that passion from their friends, following a prejudice where comics = “nerd, goofy stuff”. Then they grow up, get a life, get a kid or two, and then something happens and the ancient love just cames back in them.This time they have pig pockets, with enough money, and they can, and like to, spend more money on their passion.

A big portion of american teenagers in facts, feel a kind of shame in standing for their love for comics. If we watch the dvd extra of our favourite comics books inspired movie (Spiderman, X-Men, Batman and so on), we can witness the general discovery of that medium after the actor has begun documenting himself on the character he has to play.

So a strong market in comics and related material has born. And the collectionistic aspect of it takes a central role, as usual in a nation so hungry of hystory. The Action Figure has become to be a real masterwork, a little realistic statue that mimics the character we has grown to love. The War Machine toy up here is a perfect example of it.

Today on the action figure market there is a number of firms, producing a huge number of “toys”, renewing their collection at least two times per year. This figures are getting more and more detailed, and to my knowledge the zenit has been a 66 points of articulation Spiderman, which enables it to assume every spidey pose that comes to our mind

If you’re interested, of all the firms out there, i suggest you to have a look at McFarlane Toys site, founded by the ex enfant prodige canadian artist Todd McFarlane, now owner & CEO of a multimedia empire (maybe someone remebers his Spawn movie – a sequel of which is in the works for some years now – which rappresented one of the starting point in the actual comic book inspired movie trend).

So, as i was saying there is a lifely collection market out there, where collectors buys entire sets of toys, religiously keeping them in their original blister, keeping them safe for collector’s sake. Then they go hunting for limited series models, variants, “errors” that had come to sale and so on ….

Knowing that i was litelary astonished when, flickering around I’ve discovered an entire new, active and willing community of photographers dedicated to picture out the “life” of their toys… Out of the box !!!

The images in this post are the first that ‘ve liked during this lazy moments dedicated in writing this post … a post that has been in draft mode since one month ago.

So, if this post has interested or enternained you i can suggest to go on Flickr and search for the tag toys or begin a search from the groups Life in Plastic“, “the secret life of toys” and the ones related.

PS #1 = i am consuming Flickr bandwidth searching for the Spideman / FON-router combo but i can’t manage to get it …. sigh!!!

PS #2 = the post’s 3rd image is dedicated to Samuele and Fullo “marketing proposals

technorati tags: flickr, toys, action+figure

JUNK, Kia Asamiya

Kia Asamiya returns on the italian bookshelfs and he does it with his latest manga !

A series still under realization & publishing in the japanese market, where it has come to it’s 3rd volume. The first volume now on sale takes us on a world very similar to ours, where JUNK armor suits exists, armors that can make a simple man a real destruction engine. The main characters will have to learn how to manage this power they have been given my a misterious organization, but lessons are hard to get, and every choise will be at their expences !

Under the collective title of Manga2000 by italian editor Panini Comics since five years now, are coming the best science fiction series in the comic book medium of all the world, and the fact that they are ALL coming from Japan can be an argument of reflection for future posts.

After the awesome, realistical PlanetES, between a violent and cruel number of Red Eyes and a mature, reflective, disilluse Eden are proposed more “light hearted” series like Gantz and now this JUNK by master Kia Asamiya, from many defined the most american of japanese authors.

He got stick to that label thanks to his anatomies, his kind of thematics in his mangas and has underlined this “love for american comics” with the publishing of some stories of X-Men (@ Marvel Comics) and Batman (@ DC Comics).

His new manga, JUNK is a few word can be described as a nice, clever and realistic dissertation of the “from great powers comes great responsabilites” theme os Marvel’s SpiderMan comics {i hope you have seen at least his two movies!}. As said into post introduction the main character is an average pal who, all of a sudden, comes to manage a great power.

We will live with him the voyage exploring the new powers and the possibilities that opens having them. And to withness and reflect on how they affect a man’s behaviour and the way he reacts and relates to the external world.

warning: S P O I L E R !!!

The main character is a quite “nerd” guy, but with the of “paranoia” possible only for a japanese “ideal” guy. A victim of many supruse (?), a kinf of Peter Parker, but “blessed” with a big dose of cinism. And then, at a certain point of his life, he gets an Irom Man like of suit and he sees it a way to revail to the world. But, as always happens when a man puts himself over the others, a spiral of violence,victims and misunderstanding borns.

Are we in presence of a real bad guy, or the redention is possile ?

JUNK, asamiya

G for Great

by the IMMENSE talent of Mauro Biani.

translation for foreigners:

V: remember, I have V for Vendetta …

Berluskoni: And you that i have A like Assurances, B like Banks, C like Channel-of-all-TV, [*] … and I’ve got all the other alphabet letters. So i’ll throw you out of all my M like multiplex cinemas.

[*] D come Denari-Tanti is not translatable (afaik) with a D-word, since Denari = Money, tanti = many ….

Etrigan, the Demon