"We are all in the gutter, but some of us..."
Taking Trash Seriously.
"...are looking at the stars."
-- Oscar Wilde
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This site is updated Thursday afternoon with a new article about an artistic pursuit generally considered to be beneath consideration. James Schellenberg probes science-fiction, Carol Borden draws out the best in comics, Chris Szego dallies with romance and Ian Driscoll stares deeply into the screen. Click here for their bios and individual takes on the gutter. Our Guest Stars shine here

While the writers have considerable enthusiasm for their subjects, they don't let it numb their critical faculties. Tossing away the shield of journalistic objectivity and refusing the shovel of fannish boosterism, they write in the hopes of starting honest and intelligent discussions about these oft-enjoyed but rarely examined artforms. Contact us here.


Recent Features


The Biography of Ebony White

Ebony White 80.jpg"People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book."

--Malcolm X / Malik El-Shabazz, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (As Told To Alex Haley)

Running from 1940-1952, Will Eisner's The Spirit was a newspaper insert back when publishers could afford to do such awesome things. It features Denny Colt, a detective who comes back to life to fight crime from his secret hide-out in Wildwood Cemetery. The Spirit is indeed everything good anyone has ever written about it—all the joyful adventure, groundbreaking art and genre play. But then there's Ebony White, the Spirit's African-American sidekick and driver, all eyes and lips and minstrel show dialect. And I can barely look at him, even though I know I should.

Continue reading...


Small Press Combo Attack

comeau-small.jpgTime to check in with a few small-press books. This is where where a lot of people get their start, and it’s also where the books can live quite happily apart from the concerns of multinational conglomerates.

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Good Things Gro-o-ow in To-ron-to

bittytrw.JPGRight. So you’ve joined the RWA, and are enjoying the information and advocacy your membership entitles you to. But National’s a long way off, and RWA headquarters is in Texas, and you’re starting to get a little lonely. So what do you do? You join your local chapter. Where I live, that means the Toronto Romance Writers.

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Notes Archives

More from Champion Mojo Storyteller, Joe R. Lansdale

Mojo Champion Storyteller talks about his pulp classic, The Drive-In, including its influences, low-budget 1980s horror movies, East Texas tall tales, television and American politics.

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Two Geeks Enter, One Geek Leaves

John Hodgman and Patton Oswalt face off in an epic geek-off for WFMU. Bester'ed, Bova'ed-- two geeks enter, one geek leaves.

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Camera Obscura

A young woman releases demons and then has to trap them up again with her grandfather's camera in the webseries, Camera Obscura. The trailer looks promising.

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Symbol

Symbol. It's a metaphysical, lucha-loving film by Hitoshi Matsumoto. It's especially funny if you've seen art films with a someone sitting in a plain white room.

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Kathryn Bigelow Retrospective

Kathryn Bigelow won a best directing Oscar for The Hurt Locker. Time for a retrospective. Here's the trailer for Near Dark and some clips. Point Break (i.e. Keeanu Reeves best movie). Jamie Lee Curtis in the cop thriller, Blue Steel. The premillennial tension of Strange Days. The Pirelli ad, Mission Zero. And her sub movie, possible the manliest of genres, K-19: The Widowmaker. She also wrote an episode of The Equalizer.

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Milestone!

So much Milestone going on! Milestone creator Dwayne McDuffie talks with The Atlantic about "reinventing personal mythologies, pop-cultural representations of race and an investigation of what shapes our moral frameworks" and how much he likes writing romance.  Meanwhile, Evan Narcisse shares his memories of Milestone Comics--with pictures.

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The Muppets Present: The Wicker Man

The Muppets' The Wicker Man. It's way better than Muppets from Space. (thanks, weed!)

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Baba O'Geeky (LOL)

The Who's "Baba O'Reilly" performed with Think Geek gadgets. Yeah, it's marketing but it's also neat.(via Wil Wheaton)

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Guild'd

What happens when a young woman named Felicia Day decides to make a webseries about online gamers and their socially maladjusted SoCal hijinx? Log on and get Guild'd. (and occasionally, Wil Wheaton'd). Here's season 3.

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Hollow Victory

The Artful Gamer writes about the hollow victory of playing a good character in many roleplaying videogames: "Yet, days later, I feel like Conan the Barbarian, sitting on his throne at the end of the first film like a king who has done it all yet feels ultimately unfulfilled. This is when the spiritual hollowness of traditional RPGs grates at me."

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Science Determines the Best and Worst Genres

Science analyzes the best and worst types of genre movies. Results listed here.

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Predator: Down Time

Ever wonder what predators do on their own time?  Here ya go.

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Roofed!

Jim Munroe's been working on a new movie, Ghosts with Shit Jobs. It's not even out and he has  a spin-off game--"Roofed!"

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"You Asked For It--Cried For It--Demanded It!"

"You asked for it--Cried for it--Demanded it!"  Yes, dear reader, Sequential Crush, a blog dedicated to romance comics from the 1960s and 1970s. Check out "Black + White = Heartbreak," a story about interracial romance in the early 1970s and scans of the first three issues of Night Nurse.  (via The Groovy Age of Horror)

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Comics Misunderstanding, Well, Argument Really

The comics misunderstanding (i.e. respectful critical discussion) continues at The Groovy Age of Horror as Scott McCloud responds, a commenter gets in a dig and Curt Purcell writes more about homeostasis and how human brains process information. Geek fight! C'mon, fight! Fight?

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The Return of the Sea King

Aquaman's alive. He was dead, if you hadn't heard. Glen Weldon writes about the Sea King's re-ascening his throne and how hard it is to be an Aqua-fan.

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Just Say, "No" to Black Magic

The upcoming Malaysian film, Niyang Rapik warns of the dangers of picking up stuff that doesn't belong to you and black magic. But if the kids weren't scared straight by Indonesia's Léak / Mystics of Bali, I don't what would. (Trailer available under video).

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Black History Mumf

It's Black History Mumf at Big Media Vandalism and the Odienator provides a recap of his film reviews here.

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It's Free, and It Will Change Your Life

The Necronomicon, brought to you by the Esoteric Order of the Old Ones and Cthulhu Cultists: "If knowing the unknowable is crazy, I don't wanna be sane." (thanks, victoria!)

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A Social Theory of Burn Notice

Grant McCracken posits an "enmeshed male" theory of Burn Notice and a few of the other entertaining shows on the USA Network.

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Wars, Etc.

"A pretty harrowing movie, realistic in an emotional way that most war movies don't catch" - Joe Haldeman, on The Hurt Locker.

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Great Videogame or Greatest Videogame?

System Shock, a great videogame from 1994, gets a mod to make it easier to play for modern videogamers (with lots of tips in the comments on how to get the game running).

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Black Panther Animated Series

Marvel's animating my childhood with their upcoming Black Panther series for BET. (No, I wasn't T'Challa, the King of Wakanda. I just loved Black Panther). Animated Superheroes has the theme song as well as screen shots of characters and the voice-acting credits. (via Black SuperHero Blog).

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Passive-Aggressive Man

Passive-Aggressive Man, a superhero powered by his self-hatred over his inability to confront assholes.

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A HK Poster A Day

Colin at Kung Fu Fridays is posting a Hong Kong movie poster/day. Wild Search (starring Chow Yun-Fat and Cherie Chung Cho-Hung) is gorgeous.

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Monks with Guns

There are no bulletproof monks in Nak Prok/Shadow of the Naga. In fact there are some remarkably violent novices who've hidden stolen money in a monastery and have to get it out again. Wise Kwai has the trailer and a discussion of Nak Prok and the new Thai ratings system.

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Chinese Ghost Story: The Animation

"Nothing is easy when a man loves a ghost woman." Not even for animated men in Tsui Harks Chinese Ghost Story: The Animation. (Keith's piece also has a pretty thorough retrospective of Tsui Hark's career).

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I Can See Forever

It's like the 1980s are a black hole and the event horizon reaches forever: The A-Team, The Karate Kid, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Tron, Ghostbusters, Conan The Barbarian, Red Dawn, Short Circuit and Wall Street.

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Smiting the Wicked in The Book of Eli

In the Hughes Brothers' fourth film, The Book of Eli, Nick Pinkerton writes, "Our hero is mostly an Old Testament smiter of the wicked, finally—unless I forget when Christ said, 'You lay that hand on me again and you will not get it back" at the Garden of Gethsemane.'"

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RIP Zelda Rubinstein

Actress Zelda Rubinstein has died after being taken off life support in L.A. last month. Most Gutter readers probably know her best as the psychic in Poltergeist, but she also starred in movies like Anguish, Sixteen Candles and Southland Tales. She was a human rights activist and also a lab tech, so pour 1L for a righteous sister.

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Investigating Lois

Kelly Thompson never much liked reporters or Lois Lane, now she's giving Lois a second chance with a review of Mindy Newell's Lois Lane miniseries. (The discussion in the comments is excellent, too).

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LEGO MMO

LEGO still clicking with their new "LEGO Universe" MMO game. The trailer's here. Meanwhile, Unreality tries to understand the appeal.

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More Bohemian Rhapsody

A while ago, we posted "Bohemian Rhapsody" performed by old computer parts. Now the meme continues with "Bohemian Rhapsody" performed by puppets and a Japanese comedian.

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The Windrow-Ravenswood Deck

Play unimaginable games staked on innocent souls or divine the unholy, maddening fate that awaits you (and perhaps how to save yourself) with the recently rediscovered Windrow-Ravenswood Deck.

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Making the Case for Trades and Single Issues

"Whether to read a book month-to-month or to wait for the trades is a personal decision, of course,...but make no mistake: It's a decision of vital interest to the future of the comics industry." Glen Weldon discusses both at NPR's Monkey See Blog.

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Wander over Yonder for Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls

Wander over to Cartoon Brew to see Craig McCracken's character sketches for Wander Over Yonder and Lauren Faust's Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls.

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Jizztastic!

You read about it here (and here) and now you can have it all to yourself, former Gutter movie editor Robin Bougie's XXX movie, The Cumming of Jizzus. Check out Robin's blog for more info.

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Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

Bloody Disgusting also has a trailer for and clips from another horror comedy, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. Tucker and Dale are just trying to fix up their cabin in the woods and college kids are offing themselves all over the place. (Interview with writer/director Eli Craig here).

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The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu

It's beginning to look a lot like fishmen in The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu. Bloody Disgusting has the trailer.

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Pretty Puppet Poe

Lo tech makes hi tech better! Puppets illustrate this ebook version of Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven. (Also, check out the link to Two-Fisted Poe).

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Shape of--An Unpayable Mortgage with My Face on It!

"What the Wonder Twins Would Take the Form and Shape of  if They were Sent to Correct the Subprime Mortgage Crisis" is a McSweeney's article that is most likely not providing cover for a heist.

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Even chavs like it

Amazing British series Misfits features a work crew of juvenile delinquents who get zapped by the ol' superpower-endowing lightning. Despite the well-worn premise, excellent snappy dialogue, cultural specificity and fresh twists makes this the first SF dramedy I've been excited about in ages.

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What Will They Say about the Books of 2010?

The librarians who run the blog Awful Library Books were recently on Jimmy Kimmel. Their blog has some disturbing material on it!

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The Dungeon Masters

The gamers profiled in Keven McAlester's documentary The Dungeon Masters roll d20 against Mundanity. Twitch has a trailer.

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Wolverine: Look Sharp

Wolverine shines up his snikt-stickers and sharpens his up-do for the fancy new costumes designed for him at Project Rooftop.

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Kick-Ass Trailer

Kick-Ass has some, well,... pretty good trailers. (thanks, Tera and Rebecca)

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Cruel Gun Stories from Unusual Suspects

This month Teleport City shakes down Nikkatsu Studios from Cruel Gun Story to Detective Bureau 2-3: Go To Hell Bastards! (aka, "The Best Named Film Ever").

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Best and Worst Movies of 2009

More lists, baby! Dread Central runs down the best and worst horror movies in 2009.  Io9 covers science fiction/fantasy.

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End of Year at the Comics Alliance

The Comics Alliance displays the full might of its geekery listing its best of 2009, its superlatives of 2009, its worst of the decade, its trends the Alliance wants dead and its top ten lists of 2009 list.

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2009's Sticky Comics

Glen Weldon writes about the comics that stuck to his "teflon-coated brain"in 2009. Blair Butler shares her best of stand alone and stand outs as well as her best ongoing series. Meanwhile, Brian Cronin completes his year of cool comic book moments and begins his year of cool comics.

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Unthawing Action Heroes

Dolph Lundgren and Jean Claude Van Damme have been unthawed for the upcoming Universal Soldier: Regeneration. (Well, JCVD's only been in the crisper drawer since JCVD).

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Wil Wheaton Loves You

"It doesn't mean that Wil Wheaton doesn't love you": Jonathan Coulton explains a few things about Wil Wheaton to Wil Wheaton and the fans at PAX 2009--to the tune of "Code Monkey."

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"Why Anti-Telepathy Helmets Do Not Work"

Lady, That's My Skull has fragments from a manifesto written by a disgruntled smoking scientist at a secret base in Nevada: "Why Anti-Telepathy Helmets Do Not Work."

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In Space No One Can Hear You Explode

On the physics of space battles looks at the balance between realism in space battles (at least what we can estimate that would be) and fun stories.

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Market Forces Unleashed in Iron Man 2

It's the invisible hand of the market-- Tony Stark privatizes world peace and runs into a little competition from Mickey Rourke's Ivan Vanko / Whiplash in the trailer for Iron Man 2.

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Holiday Link Round Up

2 holiday classics suitable for Xmas or the Solstice (here, here and wth here) and a couple of advent calendars sans the stale chocolate (here and here).

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The Comics Journal, Online

The Comics Journal goes fully online, and give you a brief history of comics criticism 

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Kaiju vs Ultramen

Sometimes it seems like the world is an empty, awesomeless place. And then there is another clip from a Japanese variety/game show.  This one involves kaiju and Ultramen.

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Cartographic Curiosities

Step right up for your glimpse of Slate Magazine's slideshow collection of cartographic curiosities!

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Universal's Years of Terror and Longing!

Beware the stalking half-human half beast!  Cursed with the thirst for human blood, unconscionable hubris,  and demanding a mate, the Monster Legacy site comes to life and walks among us! (as part of promotion for The Wolf Man remake). Thrills! Shock! Suspense!

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Talking More Twilight

Gabe Lezra hits a nerve when he writes about the white man's burden in Twilight and New Moon and wonders why there's no Team Bella and the comments at The Wesleyan Argus are all kerfuffled.

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Paa! My Brain!

The poster for Paa calls it "A Very Rare Father-Son, Son-Father story." It's a rare father and son story where Abhisheck Bachchan plays the father of a 13-year-old boy with progeria. And who plays his prematurely aging son? His real life father, Amitabh Bachchan. Todd at 4DK has more. The Economic Times interviews Abhishek Bachchan here.

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Time Your Pee Break

Need to know when it's safe to go at the movies? RunPee.com does the calculating so you don't have to. (Thanks, Ian!)

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Are Video Games Moral?

Are video games moral? Yes, but what does "moral" mean, writes Oliver Saenz in "Killing Grannies, Slaughtering Monsters and Leveling the Fuck Up."

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Confucius

Chow Yun-Fat displays filial piety in nearly every role, now he plays Confucius in the eponymous movie directed by Hu Mei. Twitch has behind the scenes footage (in Chinese) and a trailer.

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RIP, Paul Naschy

Spanish icon Paul Naschy has died. He was best known for his character, the werewolf Waldemar Daninsky, but he worked in every aspect of filmmaking from the 1960s till his death. Cinebeats and FEARnet have tributes. (thanks, Colin)

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Rin-ne Online

Miss Takahashi Rumiko?  Sad that InuYasha is complete?  Well, you could go over to Viz' website, where they're publishing her new manga, Rin-ne, online as its serialized in Japan...

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The End of the Zombie Plague

Jim Rossignol shotguns him some zombies, really the zombie infestation of gaming, writing, "My issue with the zombie archetype is that it is largely without a villain, and we need specific villains" in games.

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The Necessary Elements for UFO to be a Hit

Purple wigs, gull-wing doors and lack of affect--Todd from 4DK provides "a list of some elements from the [1960s British] TV series [UFO] that, if they were to be
included in the movie, would lead me to forgive a multitude of sins."

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Sketching the LittleBigPlanet

Boing Boing has sketches and art from Little Big Planet as well as a little meditation on its wonder, joy and charm. Very little, mostly art.

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A Magician in the C.I.A.

"In 1953, [John] Mulholland was hired by the C.I.A. to adapt his craft for its agents. The documents he produced...were discovered in 2007 by two C.I.A. historians, who have recently published The Official C.I.A. Manual of Trickery and Deception. What could a magician teach spies? Much sleight of hand... used for dosing drinks, passing pills and exchanging messages." (Make sure to click through to the slideshow of adapted magic tricks).

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Do You Like Pie?

Do you like the use of office presentation materials for fun?  How about some pie...  (Thanks, Room3!)

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HK Heist

It's a heist worthy of Johnnie To and Simon Yam: "On Monday night, robbers stole 228 bottles of vintage Chateau Lafite Rothschild, France’s prized Bordeaux - a haul valued at 6.8 million Hong Kong dollars ($877,000), Hong Kong police confirmed." (via SuperPunch)

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Werner TKO's Chuck Every Time

5 reasons Werner Herzog is more badass than Chuck Norris (even with his action jeans).

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Interview with John Woo

Andrew O'Herir interviews John Woo, harbinger of "Chinawood," and reviews the international version of The Battle of Red Cliff ("Doves, lots of doves!")

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RIP Edward Woodward

RIP Edward Woodward. Respectable critics will righly remember you for Breaker Morant, but here in the Gutter we'll remember you for The Wicker Man, The Equalizer and EastEnders. Obituaries here and here.

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No More Uncertain Endings

College Humor fixes ambiguous endings from The Graduate to The Sopranos to No Country for Old Men. I'd be happier if Anton Chigurh were taken out by Llewellyn Moss' ninjitsu, though.

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"Yow," Being the Operative Word Here

Adi Tantimedh doesn't like AMC's remake of The Prisoner. Not at all: "Let’s get this out of the way: The Prisoner remake is shit. Pointless, generic shit." "Shit," being the operative word here. (via PWBeat, who have more discussion in their comments).

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Good Morning, Lil' Cthulhu

It's a brand new day and the stars are right for Lil' Cthulhu! Now if only Nickelodeon would pick it up. (Thanks, Steven)

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"Make Steam Not War"

England's own clockwork soldier has the temerity to protest conscription, reported in The London Bell, May 12, 1887.

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Machinarium

Machinarium is a gorgeous game illustrated with colored pencil. Read a review and see the trailer here. (thanks, alex!)

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Taking Back Horror

Hey, Freddy and Jason, Fewdio want to take horror back:

"All the members of Fewdio felt that the term “horror” had been hijacked by gore hounds and slasher fanatics. There’s nothing wrong with those two subgenres, not by a longshot, but they are subgenres. People hear horror nowadays and they automatically think slasher. We wanted to take the name horror back. We want our work to encompass all things eerie, creepy, macabre, gothic, evil and spooky… not just bloody."

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Secret Eating Habits of Sperm Whales, Revealed!

National Geographic reveals the secret eating habits of sperm whales in a series of 5 photos by Tony Wu. Okay, it's no secret they eat giant squid, but National Geographic has pictures!

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"A Common Nomenclature for LEGO Pieces"

Giles Turnball charts the names 4 children, British and American, use for various Lego pieces. (He also includes the Lego company's names for them). (via Neatorama).

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Supernatural Collective Nouns

Everybody knows what you call a group of crows (hint: a murder) and other species of wildlife, but what about supernatural entities?

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O.C.D.

Itchy for your Fewdio fix? The horror film collective has just released, "O.C.D.":  "Obsession. Compulsion. Internet Dating."

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Halloween Valu-Pak

Dread Central has pulled together a bunch of Halloween fun from "Attack of the Show" including an interview with Robert Englund and the animated Slasher School series, written by Fresh Ink's Blair Butler.

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The Eternal Game Backlog

Tales of the Rampant Coyote extols the virtues of waiting to buy a game: "Them's that wait long enough years get the 'Platinum Pack' with all the expansions fully integrated in and patched to the latest level for a big discount."

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Rob Liefield, Scene By Scene

Chris Sims watches The Comic Book Greats: Rob Liefield, in which a 23-year-old Rob Liefield is interviewed by the ever-lovin' Stan Lee.  "[W]hether you think of Liefeld as the dynamic heir to Jack Kirby or the much-deserved punching-bag of the Comics Internet, it makes for a fascinating snapshot of one of the strangest times in the history of the industry." (via ISB)

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Ghostly Voices from the Past

Old Time Radio has a collection of old horror shows just in time for Halloween.  You can find the Mercury Theater of the Air's "War of the Worlds" and "Dracula," a collection of Australian Frankenstein shows and some Dark Fantasy, too. Aren't you glad they aren't "spooktacular" or "fangtastic?"

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A Short from Studio 4C

"Kigeki/ Comedy": 10 minutes of Studio 4C.

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The Details that Make Life Real and Beautiful

"My inspiration comes from the details that make life real and beautiful to me." Illustrator, printmaker and zinester, Aijung Kim is interviewed by Pikaland. Check out the lovely art they include.

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"Carnage? Perhaps, But A Wonderful Triumph For Love."

This gore-soaked wedding proposal is enough to re-animate even my dead, zombie-fatigued heart. (via Boing-Boing and thanks, VoodooRabbit!)

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"That Cthulhu That You Do..."

October is HP Lovecraft month at Teleport City. Read reviews of mindless, gibbering movies that destroy all ability to reason (some in a good way)!

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Gory, Gory Indonesian Horror

Rumah Dara (aka, Macabre) is some cinematographically exquisite gory, gory Indonesian horror. Here's the trailer, but watch out: gore.

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Gothtober 2009

It's Gothtober Time, check out the screenings at this year's Gothtober Drive-In!

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Secret Identity

Ian's girlfriend discovers he has a secret in his pants in this animated film by Guillaume Chartier. (thanks, Dr. O!)

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Smash Cut

Hey everybody, Gutter screen editor, Ian Driscoll, has a new movie out, Smash Cut, starring David Hess and Sasha Grey!  The official site's here.

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"My First Book of Noir"

People in the 1950s knew what was important, getting their children reading noir young: "'Mom was right!' Sweat Weasel thought. 'I am the world's worst blackmailer ever!'"

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The Mysterious Specimen Cases of Alex CF

A severed dragon head, a monkey's paw, a vampire pharaoh and an interdimensional cat are all specimens collected and mounted by artist Alex CF. Cryptids, oddities and mythical monsters presented with retro-Victorian naturalism. (thanks, Ariel!)

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Left Themselves Wide Open...

Wow, they left themselves wide open on this one: a devastating montage called Previously On Lost... 

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"Good Dog"

Is there anything sadder than Laika? (Art by Nick Abadzis, music by Luca Tozzi).

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Sexploitation that's not Sexist?

The makers of Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys have made a sexploitation lesbian heist movie in homage to Russ Meyer: Bitch Slap. It's no Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! but it's the movie Quentin Tarantino wishes he could make with Zoe Bell doing the stunt choreography. 

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Handy Tips

Want to know "How to REALLY Help an Author Out"? Among others: "Mow my lawn.  (I know it’s a long shot, but I thought I’d throw it out there.  I despise lawn mowing, and it’s going to be a few years before my kids are old enough to take over.)"

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Neat Anatomy Prints

Check out this anatomy diagram of a Gummi Bear (does that even make sense?), along with quite a few other imaginary creatures explained in diagram form.

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Anti-Kindle

"Jeff Bezos Eats Kittens"? C'mon, Stross, tell us what you really think of the Kindle!

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Old Becomes New

The Vintage Game Club starts Thief: The Dark Project soon.

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"If Not For Brent Spiner, I'd Be Illiterate

LeVar Burton isn' t the only bridge between Star Trek and the reading rainbow. Dan at Faust's Fantastically Fantasmagoric Forum explains how a media tie-in novel, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Metamorphosis transformed him into a reader.

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"Total Nowhere Emotion Expansion"

What is "Total Nowhere Emotion Expansion?" It's a digital art exhibit on the back of a trailer in Australia. "Eight artists from five countries have mashed together snippets of online culture - chatrooms, Second Life, online dream journals, first person shooters and more - to make some interesting observations about what cyberspace has become."  See it here. (via Articulate)

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Inside a Haunted Mansion

FXGuy7 has video of a Haunted Mansion on the assembly floor. Here are two birdseye views (one, two) and a walkthrough

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Lord Byron joins us in the Gutter

Lord Byron talks trash about his literary rivals: "Southey and Turdsworth such renegado rascals." (Thanks, Jen!)

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"Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!"

You are interested in the future, because that is where you will live and you must decide what you will do to survive Plan 9. (Thanks, Eric, for the Plan 9 from Outer Space title quote).

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The Clash Trailer

Twitch has the trailer for The Clash / Bâỹ Rông, the new film from The Rebel stars Johnny Tri Nguyen and Veronica Ngo. This time, they have guns and sharp clothes. (via Kung Fu Cinema)

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Manga Hulk!

Manga Hulk smash and cry! Colin from Kung Fu Fridays has posted scans of a 1970s Hulk manga drawn by Kazuo Koike.

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No Fatties, No Hamsters, No Crazies

Back off bitches, Fred the Viking is mine.  Love and 1980s technology combine for a new world of romance in this collage of dating videos. (Thanks, Jen!).

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Big Game Hunting: Space Invaders

Where would the internet be without Photoshop? Some surprisingly realistic "photos" about hunting a famous video game enemy that comes out of the sky...

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Solomon Kane: Puritan Swordsman

Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane buckles his swash, fights the Devil's Reaper and becomes a puritan swordsman in, well, Solomon Kane--a much better action movie with Christian themes in which the hero is crucified than The Passion of the Christ.

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Clashing with Star Wars

Two items where Star Wars runs up against participatory culture: the completely awesome Animals with Lightsabers and the completely logical one-off joke The Hook

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The Right Social Circles

Bill Harris on Play: "When I meet a grown-up who does not know how to play, I'm not interested in talking to them. I would much rather talk to children, who always understand play and always know how to laugh."

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The Gamer Generation's Parenting Style

In Properly Molding the Gamer Child:

"I strongly encourage both girls' fascination with Pokemon. Pokemon provide fulfillment to every human being's basic desire to have an army of monsters. Also, Pokemon spend all their time fighting each other, which is good. For what other reason would one want to have an army of monsters?"

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A Cast of Thousands and Still Token Females

Marie Brennan over at SF Novelists looks at epic fantasy and the Bechdel test: "Two hundred pages into the book, and there’s been three named female characters. One is evil. The second existed only for a brief scene, for the purpose of highlighting how attractive the third one is."

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More Ninjas!

Ninjas throwing swords and flipping in the forest and Ken'ichi Matsuyama from Death Note and Detroit Metal City plays another manga hero in Kamui Gaiden.

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Spectacularly... Bad!

Presenting a flashback to Tattoo Assassin, a rather startlingly awful Mortal Kombat clone.

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Spying on the Universe

The Hubble's been busy spying on the universe. It has images of nebulae and the "spectacular outflow of Markarian 817" for your perusal.

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A Town Called Panic

A stop-motion plastic cowboy, Indian and horse all live together. In Belgium. And they're adapted by Aardman Animations. And they have a movie, too. Here's part of an episode of, A Town Called Panic.

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13: Game of Death

A down on his luck salesman gets a mysterious phone call promising him 100 million baht if he undertakes 13 tasks that go increasingly bad. No fun to live, but really good as a film.

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A Graph about a Book

Writer Hines examines his writing process and comes up with The Stages of Book Love - I like where the level where the process ends (Hines returns to the joke and vows to actually read Twilight later).

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Whoa, Inflammatory Rhetoric on the Internet about Nerdy Topics...

Animator Mark Mayerson takes a stab at the recent big business deal: "Disney and Marvel: Two Creative Failures."

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Grr, Argh, Trailer Round-up

Grr, argh! Here's a little undead creatures trailer round-up from the Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight Madness program:  DaybreakersSurvival of the Dead and [Rec]2.  Grr, argh!

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RIP, Shing Fui-On

Hong Kong star Shing Fui-On has died of cancer. Most Gutter readers likely remember him as the psychotic Triad head in John Woo's The Killer. Here's a clip from his leading role in The Blue Jean Monster. (And speaking Hakka with Chow Yun-Fat).

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Confessions of the B-Masters Cabal

The B-masters confess movies they haven't seen. "My viewing of Zombie Lake was one of those events that lead you to question everything in your life that has lead up to it. I wouldn’t necessarily say that it was a “where did I go wrong” moment, because many of the choices that brought me to it couldn’t in themselves be considered mistakes. Nonetheless, when you get to the point where you see watching Zombie Lake as some kind of solemn obligation, it’s a circumstance that bares some investigation." (More shame here)

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8 Bit Batman and Beyond

Laura Hudson looks at 8 Bit Batman and beyond through 23 years of Batman in videogames. (via the ISB)

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Charlie Brown at 19, 35 and 65

"If the Peanuts characters aged like real people." Scans!

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Indonesian James Bond

James Bond, 007 contra Komplotan Pistol Emas. That's right, scans of a 1967 Indonesian comic version of The Man with the Golden Gun by Ganes TH. You might like it more than Roger Moore.

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Komik Indonesia

Devil Dog de la Rosa! The Blind Man from the Ghost Cave! Gundala, Son of Thunder and the Mahabharata's own Bisma! Komik Indonesia has a huge gallery of cover art!  Glaaar! (onomatopeia for thunder in Indonesian).

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Phobia 2 Trailer

Hey, Phobia 2, what's with the "scare quotes?"

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"Alien 0 or Alien 5?"

Continuity's at risk in the new Alien prequel.  Faced with "the space jockey," xenomorph eggs in the cargo hold and what the corporation knew and when they knew it, Martin Anderson foresees "some nasty acts of canon-hacking."

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Bubba Nosferatu Is Still Rising From The Grave

Bubba Nosferatu continues rising from the grave. Ron Perlman says so on Fangoria Radio.

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Comic Critics Comic

The narrative frames and meta possibilities of "Comic Critics" webcomic could crack my head open, but they don't. Instead it's a neat, deeply geeky take on comics, criticism and the industry with a storyline. Special neatness includes this interview with Brian Cronin and this dramatization of Dwayne McDuffie's time as JLA editor. (via Comics Should Be Good)

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Missing Duncan

"Maybe it's too bad that a game with such a strong visual imagination is entirely about kicking people in the face.  But violence is your compass. You'd be lost without it." It's only been a few weeks since Duncan has stopped writing his fine, thoughtful pieces on games, but I miss them. Go read Hit Self Destruct whether you like games or not. (The piece I quoted is here).

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Choosing the Moon

Apollo 11 lands on the moon again in real time at We Choose the Moon. (via farlane.blog)

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More Real Fight: Raging Phoenix starring Jija Yanin

Jija kicks organ-stealing gangster ass with hip  hop and drunken Muay Thai. It's Raging Phoenix with Jija Yanin, B-Boys Thai, Kazu and champion bodybuilder Roongtawan. (via Wise Kwai)

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Gail Simone Interviews John Ostrander

"When I first wrote Villains United, I was eager to
have my chance to write one of the coolest characters in the DCU,
Deadshot.   I knew full well, like a lot of writers before me, that
John [Ostrander] was THE Deadshot writer, and I knew if I had the chance, I would
do whatever I could to see him write the character again, even if it
makes my version look horrid in comparison." Gail Simone interviews John Ostrander.

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RIP John Hughes

Stepanie Zacharek looks over John Hughes' complicated, heartfelt and well-targeted movie legacy.

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Pets or Meat?

"Any time a scary movie apparently involves a decent-sized cast of people placed in a closed environment, it's a good time to play a game I like to call Pets or Meat."

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Matter Eater Lad Before the Retcon

Again With The Comics misses Matter Eater Lad's solo adventures eating matter already, now that the Legion of Super-Heroes has been retconned in Final Crisis. There are scans

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Top Score

Only you can decide if you want to look at the Accidental Video Game Porn Archive. (via Super Punch)

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WWII Reaches Aldebaran

Strange Maps charts tv signals as they reach Alpha Centauri, Chi Draconis, Arcturus and Aldebaran. See the map here.

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Man not Superman

Post-it Note Stories features an illustrated adaptation of Jonathan Goldstein's story "Man not Superman". Because, who hasn't had a crush on Lois Lane?

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Here Comes the Madness

Midnght Madness starts soon. Start planning your schedule...

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Ditko's Anxious Hands

The Thought Balloonists try to grasp Steve Ditko's hands.

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Vampire, Or Maybe, Werewolf

When's a vampire really more of a werewolf? When it's Toppei from Osamu Tezuka's Vampire. Todd from 4DK writes about the mostly live-action television adaptation, starring Tezuka as himself, beret and all, and they remind him of both Kurosawa's High and Low and Fukasaku's Black Lizard.

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Tentacles! Jane Austen!

Jane Austen, co-author of the popular, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, has a new novel that details more than love or manners in the Regency Era. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters reveals shocking and tentacled attacks on respectable society. (Illustrations here. And click through to the book trailer).

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Streaming Kung Fu

Stream the Fu at Crunchy Roll. (Also, stream anime and "Asian entertainment").

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Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl

Average Babycart Assassin/Lone Wolf and Cub movie not have enough arterial spray for you? Not enough mutilation in Ichi the Killer? Neither of them have enough Japanese schoolgirls? Try Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl, from the makers of Tokyo Gore Police and RoboGeisha.

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Kirk in Black and White, Kirk in Color

Fren Attic writes of growing up in a family of Scottish "proto-Trekkies": "[T]he image that burned itself on to our retinas was the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise. ...Only this time they were devoid of their dull, grey uniforms. Kirk was yellow, Spock blue, Scotty a shocking red. We had never witnessed anything like this. It was like walking in to a Jackson Pollock painting. That image lives with me to this day, in sparkling Technicolor." (via Blogs from the Mothership)

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Le Corbusier on crack

In terms of architecture, what's the #1 comic book city? Answering that question sounds like a job for The Architects' Journal!

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"The Stunning Case of the Three Gunshots"

Zhang Yimou is remaking the Coen Bros. Blood Simple, or as it will be known from now on, The Stunning Case of the Three Gunshots. (It's going to star Sun Honglei from Mongol).

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Guess who Blair Butler ran into?

Blair Butler ran into comics writer, Grant Morrison, at Meltdown Comics in L.A. Wanna look?

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Happy International Zine Month!

July is International Zine Month--make a zine in 24 hours, attend events in Glastonbury, Portland and Minneapolis, get cut'n'pastey!

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RoboGeisha: The Geisha War Begins

"Geisha is Robot." Geisha fight samurai, giant temples and lady tengu. Geisha also transform.

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Karl Malden, RIP

Mladen Sekulovich, aka Karl Malden, has died at 96. He was in many, many entertainments, including Meteor, the legendary 1970s cop show The Streets of San Francisco, some very respectable films and many, many Westerns like How The West Was Won, Nevada Smith and One-Eyed Jacks. Obituaries here, here and here.

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Posterati

In support of my latest Screen article, there's nothing disappointing about these re-imagined posters by Olly Moss. Or x-factor-e's De Niro stream. Or the endlessly entertaining Film the blanks (Sudoku for film geeks).

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Interview with Joe Lansdale

Champion Mojo storyteller Joe Lansdale talks about what makes him a champion: a crazy number of upcoming stories, a Jonah Hex animated short and his mighty understanding of the publishing industry.(Thanks, Chuck!)

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"Asian movies are dead in America and no one cares."

"If the post-"Crouching Tiger" boom in Asian cinema was an irrational, Dutch-tulip-style bubble, then the virtual disappearance of Asian films from American screens is an equally irrational overcorrection." Andrew O'Herir interviews Grady Hendrix (NYAFF and formerly Kaiju Shakedown), Keith Allison (Teleport City) and Todd Stadtman (4DK) about corrections, industry incompetence and piracy.

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ComicKaze in Cambodia!

One page, one artist, one hour--2 countries. See some of the Cambodian comics here.

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Talking Shit about Grant Morrison and Alan Moore

Savage Critics Jeff Lester and Graeme McMillan talk some shit about Grant Morrison and Alan Moore, smart shit. And if that's not enough, the talk a lot about other comics. But hearing them talk about Grant Morrison and Alan Moore is enough if that's all you have time for.

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Lathed vs. Laved

The Smart Bitches beg us all, "FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS TURGID, STOP USING THE WORD LATHE" because it's "NOT SOMETHING ANY MAN WANTS DONE TO HIS MANJUNK." They have woodworking videos, too.

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NYAFF 2009 Video

Sad you couldn't make the New York Asian Film Festival this year with all its pink films, Minoru Kawasaki and Wai Ka-Fai? It's time to do something about it. Something sedentary, like watch the Q&A and festival fun from the comfort of your sofa or at your desk.

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NYAFF 2009 and Hypnotic Escapism

The New York Asian Film Festival wants to help you escape joblessness, global pandemics and despair. Why don't you let it? (Info here).

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45 Ways of Looking at the Mario Bros.

The Design Inspiration collects 45 portraits of the Mushroom Kingdom's favorite heroes, Mario and Luigi.

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Yuen Woo-Ping's True Legend

Beggar So is back, laying out some drunken style justice. And this time he's Chiu Man-Chuk (aka, Vincent Zhao Wen-Zhou) in Yuen Woo-Ping's True Legend.  Wanna look?

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Self-Defence for Gentlemen (and Suffragettes)

Scare off impudent ruffians and defeat any self-styled Goliath with only your cane or umbrella! Learn Bartitsu, the martial art favored by many Victorian (and some Edwardian) ladies and gentlemen! View a short documentary here. (via Kung Fu Cinema)

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"There was a time when photoshop disasters didn't exist."

Guns. Swords. Paint. Old time Japanese movie posters at Wild Grounds "because there was a time when photoshop disasters didn't exist."

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Tragedy Systems in Grand Theft Auto IV

"Death is permanent and, in all works of fiction, predetermined. Except in video games, where most of the time it is neither." At Hit Self-Destruct, Duncan writes about agency, time travel and death.

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RIP, Ho Meng-Hua

It's a sad time for fan of martial arts and Shaw Bros. Filmmaker Ho Meng-Hua has died. Ho started in the 1950s at Cathay studios, but his wuxia and kaiju work at Shaw Bros. Studios is probably more familiar to most fans. He directed Cheng Pei-Pei and Lo Lieh in The Lady Hermit and Danny Lee in The Mighty Peking Man. Read Frederic Ambroisine's tribute here and Kung Fu Cinema's here.

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RIP, Shih Kien

Shih Kien has died at 96. He was 61 when he played the villainous Mr. Han opposite Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon.  By then he'd played Villain Kin opposite Kwan Tak-Hing's Wong Fei-Hung and various villains threatening Connie Chan Po-Chu and Josephine Siao Fong-Fong for decades. Make sure to follow the link to tributes from the HK film community and Jean Lukitsch's article about him.

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The Union Forever

It's card-carrying union members vs. scabs in Crane Wars: "You make your towers, as quickly as you can, topping them off with a top part to finish them. Alternatively, lob buildings or trucks at the scabs at work across the street. Or both."

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Suzuki Seijun's Japanese Noir

Todd at 4DK has decided to "throw some verbiage" in Suzuki Seijun's direction with reviews of and stills from Underworld Beauty and the best titled film ever, Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards!  I love it when Todd throws words around.

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Re-Taking Pelham 1 2 3

Linda Holmes and Andrew O'Hehir see some things in John Travolta's The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 villain: "the lamentably noisy bad guy" replacing a more chilling, bureaucratic evil and a far more awesome possible movie:  "Freddie Mercury .... starring in some cracked Tony Scott movie where he gets awesome wireless reception in a subway tunnel and shoots a bunch of people in between verses of 'Bohemian Rhapsody[.]'" 

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No. 6, Laid Out

Number Six will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered, but in the 1970s, he was roughed, laid out, sketched, penciled, inked, scanned and collected.  Scans of Jack Kirby's The Prisoner at the Madness. (TwoMorrows has some analysis).

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Klingon vs. Esperanto--Sindarin Wins!

Andrew O'Hehir reads a book about artificial language and decides: "Tolkien's languages, one might say, form the missing link between Esperanto and Klingon." 

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Smart Bitches, Trashy Radio

Smart Bitches Candy Tan and Sarah Wendell talk man-titty vs. man-boobs, Romance masculinity and their favorite bad euphemisms, but don't too much into the heroine's "magic hoo-hoo" with Australian comedian and radio host, Alan Brough. Hilarity ensues!  (We can't recommend the Smart Bitches, Trashy Novels site enough, whether you read romance or not).

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Super Wizard Stardust and Fantomah, On the Air!

Just can't get enough of disturbing Golden Age comics auteur Fletcher Hanks? Stardust the Super Wizard and Fantomah go on the air on WFMU. Or at least Paul Karasik discusses Hanks, which is a much better situation.

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Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose and the Haunted Hoo-Ha

At Chris's Invincible Super-Blog read this heartfelt paean to Jim Balent's fan-service-tastic,  Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose and what could be the worst piece of dialogue in comics history… or the best: 'You have to get out of here. Your vagina is haunted.'" Chris has lots more to say about Tarot. (And personally, if my ghostly vagina were constantly bleeding, I wouldn't only be wearing a ghostly thong. Just sayin'). (thanks, 'col!)

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Josh Brolin is Jonah Hex

Here's some pictures of Josh Brolin looking kinda pretty as everybody's favorite Weird Western bounty hunter, Jonah Hex.  (See comics covers for less pretty). Cinematical is worried they'll be pulled down.

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RIP, David Carradine

Cinematical remembers David Carradine: "Even as his resume became filled with more and more television work and direct to video movies during the late 80s and into the 90s, he maintained an edge to the characters he played and, where appropriate, a spirited air of bemusement."

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Protecting Dr. Sun Yat-Sen

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen must be protected and Donnie Yen's gonna do it. Kung Fu Cinema has footage from Bodyguards and Assassins storyboards and all.

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The Black Dragon's Revenge

Ron Van Clief. the Black Dragon, remembers Bruce Lee, Carter Wong, Jimi Hendrix, racism and underground fighting in the 1950s and working with Blaxploitation auteur, Berry Gordy:

"What made The Last Dragon so special is that it was shot in New York City and it starred an African American. No drugs, no prostitution. Just a clean Disney-like story. I consider it a martial arts fantasy. They used my Chinese Goju virtues in the film. It was excellent that over 30 of my students worked on the film."

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Sample the Awesomeness at Book View Cafe

Primates love samplers. It's not something out of speculative fiction. It's a fact and Book View Cafe knows it, so they're offering a free sampler of their premium content.

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"Able Baker perfect. No injuries or other difficulties."

The title alone makes this story about the first primates in space worthwhile: "After 50 Years, Space Monkeys Not Forgotten."

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Speaking with the Sensei

Miss the Toronto Comic Arts Festival? That's okay. Deb Aoki has a really nice long interview between Adrian Tomine and Yoshihiro Tatsumi. And some questions she asked Tatsumi-sensei herself.

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Clean, White and Saved

"Wonderfully retro and absurdly ethnocentric art depicting an idealized American empire on Earth and in Heaven from Bible Readings for the Home (Pacific Press Publishing Associates, 1963)," scans at Lady, That's My Skull.

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Slog Scans

Scans of Dave McKean's artwork for The Slog (written by David Almond) look a little slicker than his work for Neil Gaiman on Punch and Judy and The Sandman.

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The Brain-Twitter Interface

The Brain-Twitter Interface lets your brain send tweets. 

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A latter day Windsor McKay?

A latter day Windsor McKay? Maybe not quite, but Peter Blegvad's strip Leviathan certainly captures the eerie dream-logic quality of Little Nemo in Slumberland, while injecting it with a healthy dose of post-Achewood world that knows "poet is  a four-letter word for not a mogul".

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Play Some Games!

Check out Crayon Physics. Then check out the rest of the games. Jim sez, "a third are pretty good, a third are real good, and a third are frickin brilliant." (thanks, Jim!)

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Love Letter to the Invisible Woman

A letter from Girl-Wonder's letter's column I missed in 2007: "25 years after her transformation from girl to woman, the new creative team of J. Michael Straczyinski and Mike McKone have advanced the Invisible Woman yet again with a story moment that can be viewed as one of the few feminist outcries in comics, a wake-up call to fan boys.... 'Do I look like I need protecting, Reed? Do I?'”

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8 Bit Resignation

Farbs resigns in 8-bit style to pursue developing indie games. Watch it here.

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The Cultural Gutter Has Updated Its Profile

Hey everybody, the Gutter's nearly living in the year 2004. That's right we've gotten a Facebook page. It's still a little wonky, but it's there.

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60 Views of Mount Wudan

60 views of Mount Wudan, "famed Taoist sanctuary and cradle of the Wudang school of Chinese martial arts" (via Kung Fu Cinema).

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Cat T'ai Chi

"Reaching the inaccessible"--Book View Cafe has Ursula Le Guin's Cat T'ai Chi cartoons.

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Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus

Giant animals square off in Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. You might think Minoru Kawasaki is behind it. But you'd be wrong--Deborah "Debbie" Gibson's behind it all. (Thanks, Steven!)

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TCAF 2009

Miss the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this year? That's okay, Vepo Studios made a video. And while you're there, check out the profiles of artists like Evan Munday.

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So Many Fukasaku Kinji Soundtracks!

Don't have enough soundtracks by Japanese composers? Wild Grounds will help you out with "The 5 Japanese Film Composers You Must Know" and a whole section of downloadable soundtracks and excerpts from Yojimbo to Battle Without Honor or Humanity.

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New Zelazny Book

Deceased author Roger Zelazny has a new book out, reaching us all the way from the year 1971. (via SF Signal)

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3 Trailers from Twitch

It's Twitch round-up time. Supporting martial artists Mike B. and Russell Wong take the lead kneeing and kicking people in the chest in Thanapon Maliwan's The Sanctuary. Lee Byung-Hun, Kimura Takeya and Josh Hartnett go to Hong Kong and walk the line between the police and organized crime in Tran Anh Hung's I Come with the Rain. Matsuyama Kenichi show his ninjitsu in Sai Yoichi's live-action adaptation of Kamui. (What the hell, here's another trailer for Johnnie To's Vengeance).

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