New Blut Aus Nord

Via Brooklyn Vegan, who has all the pertinent information on this split BaN is doing with another French group, P.H.O.B.O.S. And I will say it right now, as big a fan of Nord as I have become in the last three years or so I ended up not really loving their last effort What Once Was... Liber III. Perhaps I did not give this record a fair enough shake but despite my anticipation, when I really had the time to sit down and listen to it I just didn't feel as though it was very much more than re-hashing some of their other material around that time. Granted, Vindsval and company had just done something like five releases in a year and a half, so it seemed only natural that not all of it would clear the high water mark - when a band as prolific as Nord releases something I consider a misstep I certainly do not hold it against my opinion of them. These guys consistently delivery amazing and ground-breaking music, and at a fairly rapid-fire rate. So if I don't personally care for something they do, I can basically just wait for the next release and bam, there's the genius moment again.

Drinking w/ Comics Issue #6

Wherein A Voice in the Dark creator Larime Taylor sits in with Mike and I for the entire episode! We talk about Larime's fantastic book, horror movies and music's role in his creative process. We interview local comic creator Cassidy James about his Kickstarter for his new book Gun Up Paintball and a trip to The Comic Bug for FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2014!

Twin Peaks Missing Pieces

Oh man. Now I'm going to have to buy a blu ray player and a tv from after 1995.

It's worth it.

Rob Zombie's New Horror Movie?

via Bloody Disgusting. I have NO idea what this will be but despite my dislike of H2 (beautifully shot, and that's the only good thing I can say about it) and subsequent relative disappointment in the Lords of Salem - which looks amazing but I was unable to make it all the way through due to what I perceived at the time to be an amazingly sluggish pace* and next to no plot advancement from the inciting incident into almost the end of the second act, I am excited for this. Mr. Zombie's much touted, "I'm done with horror" scared me. Whether he balks or slams one out of the park, I like Zombie on the Horror hound side. I don't want to applaud what may be a diminutive situation for him - being stuck inside a genre he wants out of - but what can I say? House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects are, in my mind, modern classics of the genre (even if they do wear their influences on their sleeve. So what? It makes it so you can watch them and go, "Oh! Zombie loves House by the Cemetery too! Awesome!) and aspects of the Theatrical cut of Halloween turn what is essentially an over-explained and unneeded remake into a beautifully rendered piece of cinema.

...........

* I intend to give Lords of Salem another chance as a lot of folks whose opinions I respect loved it and in the film's defense, I tried watching it after I'd been up for almost 24 hours, so what I perceived as a 'sluggish pace' may have actually been me nodding off.

First. Constantine. Trailer.

At the VERY least they cast this right. Whew.

Seriously though, this first trailer for the upcoming Constantine trailer opens on a nice bit of continuity from the Vertigo book - Ravenscar. It also eludes to Astra, which really seals the deal for me. Also, the trailer appears to go out of its way to assure us that all of the elements the *ahem* movie eschewed (American instead of English, dark hair) this has fixed. Have they fixed Chas from being a little kid? Hopefully. And yet for all of these checks in the plus column the trailer does go on a bit long and at times reminds me maybe a bit too much of that ill-fated film from 2004, what with the CG and ancient evil rising bit. Still, how often do we get to see Occult symbols on nbc?

I'm in.

Drinking with Comics Issue 5 (includes David Lapham interview)

It just occurred to me that I never posted the newest issue of Drinking with Comics here, despite it having gone up early last week. This was another 'landmark' for us in a series of landmarks - landmarks not because they're incredible but because we are still refining the formula and this particular issue adds a new and at the time somewhat unexpected ingredient - a live studio audience!

A few weeks before we filmed issue five - which was back at the beginning of April - a great guy named Ivan contacted us via our Facebook page and asked if we allowed a studio audience. Honestly I'd thought about maybe one day trying that as I'm a HUGE fan of Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman's Hollywood Babble On podcast, which has an audience that really adds to the show, so you know, emulation is the most sincerest form of flattery, or whatever. But the real reason why the idea of having an audience appealed to me is the entire impetus behind Drinking w/ Comics is those wonderful late-night, beer-complimented conversations my friends and I have when gathered together and the feeling that gives me. I'm not a very social guy, but when it comes to comics I can and will talk to anyone about them. So yeah, we told Ivan we'd definitely be up for an audience and now, going forward, it looks as though that will be a regular feature. It's taken some re-thinking of our production set-up but we're still honing that regardless. You'll notice in this issue the Science Officers - Sara and Erin - have their own mic and it ended up mixed waaay louder than we'd meant to mix it. However, the process for editing is a fun but lengthy one, and the process of actually uploading the finished product to youtube is gruelingly long - hours - so we probably won't go back and change it. It's not that big a deal anyway, and it's another note to jot down to make the next issue that much better.

Speaking of the next issue, we filmed issue 6 the day 5 'hit the stands'. Look for that in about a week - hopefully - and expect another guest, as we were thrilled to welcome A Voice in the Dark creator Larime Taylor for the entire episode! The final issue of the current arc "Killing Game" - yes named after a great Skinny Puppy song from my favorite Skinny Puppy record Last Rites.

Interview w/ Gun Up Paintball Creator Cassidy James

Art by Marco Roblin, image courtesy of the Gun Up Paintball kickstarter page

Is what's on tap at Thee Comic Column over on Joup this week. Hear what he has to say about his book, the Kickstarter and the process of creating the book!