Battling For Metropolis…In My Backyard!

Good things come to those who wait, right? Obviously, that’s not guaranteed, but judging from what I’ve witnessed, it’s often proven true. Things I’ve only dreamed of as a kid have materialized. I’ve flexed with Hulk Hogan and I live in a world where there’s a Wonder Woman feature film. Life is good. In many respects, it keeps getting better. How’s that, you ask? Read on! Continue reading Battling For Metropolis…In My Backyard!

Nerd Lunch Podcast: Artist Des Taylor!

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Click on the picture above to start listening to Episode 69 of The Nerd Lunch Podcast!
I joined host C.T on his Nerd Lunch Podcast once again. I love being on the show because it’s a chance to geek out with my friends and talk about pop culture minutia that you won’t get to hear anywhere else. In Episode…wait for it…69 dude! we had the chance to interview one of our favorite artists, Des Taylor.

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Stop by and admire Des Taylor’s blog and Online Gallery 

If you aren’t familiar with Des’ work, he’s got a retro ’40s style that blends so well with all kinds of superheros and hot pinup girls that he loves to draw. It was extremely hard not letting it turn into The Chris Farley Show, but I think I did nervously say “That was awesome” at least twice during the show.

We talked about how he made it to where he is today as an artist, which was mighty interesting, especially in comparison to other artists who “just started drawing.” We also went back and forth on our favorite superhero costumes and also came to some solid conclusions on Star Wars and the Batman franchise. It was a fun conversation, so download it! IT’S FREE on iTunes and it will provide you with a fun diversion on your way to work. Or just click the Nerd Lunch logo and listen NOWWWW!!!

It Will Be A DARK KNIGHT In The Old Town Of Newark

PhotobucketGotham is now truly in New Jersey. Next Thursday and Friday, The Dark Knight will be filming on Broad Street in Newark. Both City Hall and the Military Park Station will be utilized. New Jersey’s largest city will receive over $40,000 for the use of City Hall. Newark residents and shop owners are being told to expect extensive delays around the city and downtown. The Dark Knight Rises has also filmed scenes in Pittsburgh and New York. The next Batman installment will hit theaters in July 2012.

Many mainstream news articles about The Dark Knight Rises filming in Newark mention that Gotham was based off New York City, and while that is probably true, there is also documented proof that Gotham was once (and sometimes still is) considered to be in New Jersey. Read the previous Sexy Armpit post about Gotham City being in New Jersey:

Bat-Fest on Asbury Park Boardwalk

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When I read that the Asbury Park Boardwalk would be holding a Bat-Fest, Egghead, Bookworm, not even Mad Hatter could stop me from getting there. On Saturday August 20th, an entire day of events dubbed “Bat-Fest” promoted Jersey born bat-producer Michael Uslan’s new memoir The Boy Who Loved Batman. If you’re male and you like Batman, then that title should sound like a familiar story.

The Batmobile is constantly maneuvering the streets of Gotham and isn’t used to cruising around down the shore, but on Saturday it made the trip from Gotham to Asbury Park on autopilot. That’s the kind of clout that Uslan has, after all, he was the man responsible for bringing all the Batman movies to the big screen. Both the 1966 and 1989 Batmobiles were on display courtesy of John Brown of Gotham City Supercars for fans and beachgoers to take pictures with. Seeing the 1966 Batmbobile has been fairly common lately since it shows up at a lot of pop culture conventions, but the ’89 car isn’t always around, so I was excited to see it. The sleek ’89 model was parked beside the boardwalk and was in mint condition and driveable, unlike the shell that sits outside Batman: The Ride at Six Flags Great Adventure.

Chicks dig the car, but they also like romantic rendezvous on the beach, and there was a little bit of that also. Going to watch movies on the beach has become a popular event in many shore towns, and Asbury Park presents many of them. Bat-fest capped off with a showing of the 1989 Batman movie introduced by Michael Uslan himself. I thought Uslan’s intro was insightful as he compared the Gotham City in the film before it’s 200th birthday to Asbury Park, a once crumbling city that has recently made quite a comeback.

Once I thumbed through Uslan’s book at The Sundry Times store on the boardwalk, I knew I wanted to read it. The first thing that struck me was the high quality pages and lots of color photos. What can I say, too many words intimidate me! I was able to speak with Michael at the end of the festivities and he took time answering my questions and signed my book as well.

Uslan isn’t just some guy who wanted to be a Hollywood movie producer. His heart has always been with comic books and superheroes. He once had a collection of nearly 30,000 comic books that he has since donated to Indiana University’s Lilly Library. You can take a look at Uslan’s IMDB profile and you’ll literally be amazed at how many comic book related projects he has produced throughout his career (Batman, Swamp Thing, and The Spirit to name a few) Uslan also created and produced one of the cartoons that I watched before leaving for school as a kid: Dinosaucers! I’ll be reading his book after I finish a couple of others and I can’t wait!

The Boy Who Loved Batman is available through Chronicle Books, Amazon, and book stores:
http://www.chroniclebooks.com/theboywholovedbatman

The Official Site of The Asbury Park Boardwalk:
http://apboardwalk.com/

New York Comic Con 2010

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My video montage of The 2010 New York Comic Con
Music by Kevin MacLeod

I say screw all the people having a blast in San Diego right now! I’m content waiting a few months for the 2011 New York Comic Con! Originally, I had plans to publish my review of The 2010 New York Comic Con shortly after it happened in October, but for several reasons I held out. The Internet is blitzed with all kinds of content and updates about both the New York Comic Con and it’s big brother on the west coast so I figured I’d wait it out a bit. Then before I knew it, months began to pass. I had my review on the back burner to drop it when no one was expecting a review of an event that they’ve already heard about months prior. My theory was that geeks, fanboys, and even your typical everyday Joe Schmo ALWAYS want to read about Comic Con. If you continue reading this, then you have proven my theory correct.

Comics from 2010 New York Comic Con
Trick, Treat or Comics?!?!

MORE? That’s what last year’s New York Comic Con offered. Demos, Artists, Dealers; there was more of everything. Even though I’ve never been to the San Diego Comic Con, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that the New York show’s reputation pales in comparison. I’m actually glad that the New York show hasn’t gotten as out of hand and ridiculous as SD because I would start to fear going to the Con rather than wait in baited breath all year for it. Ultimately I just want to walk around the floor all by myself.

What’s the allure of the con? Is it the crazed fans dressing up in their favorite characters costume? Or maybe the stars that come out to promote the blockbuster movies that will be hitting theaters and DVD in the near future? In the midst of all the glitz and glam of the Con, we cannot forget the comic book artists. The main reason why the real hardcore comic fans go to this is to meet, interact with, and perhaps even have a custom piece signed by their favorite artist. To me, that’s the biggest thrill. Most of my time at Comic Con is spent in Artist’s Alley drooling over their portfolio albums.

Mimobot by Julio E. Carrillo
“Mictlantecuhtli”
A cool looking limited edition 4GB drive created by Julio E. Carrillo
Thanks to the jovial Jessica Smiley from Mimobot – maker of designer USB flash drives. 
While I was tempted to grab a Batman or Star Wars drive, I opted to support original art!

While some of the costumed characters walking around the Con were employed by exhibitors, others are simply fans who seem like they just want to get some attention and their photos plastered all over the Internet. To the attendees who are just looking for attention, you’re really just clogging up the Con floor! And to the cosplayers who are loyal to the art of cosplay or just obsessed with a certain character – you are definitely worthy of making the local tri-state TV news broadcast. I commend their creativity and the time and effort they put into it!

Archie and Friends at the Riverdale Shore
Archie’s Jersey Shore parody 
The folks at the Archie Comics table saw me eyeing their last issue of this 
and gave it to me after they found out what The Sexy Armpit was all about!

Ultimate Comics NJ
I was stopped by a few guys at the Ultimate Comics Group table. They are an indy comic publisher out of Egg Harbor, NJ. I picked up a few of their books. Lots of comic book boobies.

New Jersey’s Great Pop Culture Moments Vol.36: Superhero League of Hoboken

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More info on Superhero League of Hoboken at Moby Games

If it’s got adventure, New Jersey, and a sexy blonde bimbo who clearly cares more about posing for the camera than she does saving the Tri-State area, then I’m all about it! OK, so the dude on the cover looks like Thor’s mentally challenged younger step brother, but that doesn’t keep me from being utterly intrigued by the 1994 video game Superhero League of Hoboken, which I discovered while perusing the Moby Games website. The game was released in CD-Rom format and on an archaic 3.5 Diskette! Compared to PS3 and XBox games, this one is laughable, but as I found out, that’s exactly how it was intended.

This satirical RPG is set in a “post apocalyptic wasteland,” aka the Tri-State Area. The game features several New Jersey locales in addition to other points of interest in New York and Pennsylvania. The game map depicts The NJ Turnpike, Newark, Edison’s Laboratory, a Radioactive Wasteland, The East Orange Marketplace, Newark Airport, and Atlantic City. 

The heroes in Superhero League of Hoboken sound more like The Mystery Men rather than The Super Friends. Check out some of these character descriptions listed at Moby GamesCaptain Excitement “his aura of lethargy and dullness can put opponents to sleep instantly,” Iron Tummy “capable of eating spicy foods without any distress,” and Mademoiselle Pepperoni “capable of seeing inside a pizza box without even opening it.” If anyone decides to dress up as this valiant crew at Comic Con or for Halloween, then you have no choice but to forward me some pics. One thing is for sure, NOBODY will have the same costume as you! Your welcome. Leave a comment if you’ve played this game! Is it a Troma Production in the making? Should I get on the horn with Lloyd Kaufman? If Walt Disney can transform Prince of Persia into a movie than why not let Troma have a crack at Superhero Leauge of Hoboken?

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Spider Man on Broadway: Just Turn It Off Already

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Almost 8 months ago I was super excited when I first read about Spider Man slinging his web over to star in his own show on Broadway. There are times when the word impulsive just can’t begin to describe how over excited I get upon hearing news like this. Momentarily I become a little kid again without even thinking of previous disasters like the 1966 musical, It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman. I wasn’t even on Krypton let alone Earth when some genius let that outrage make it to Broadway. How could Spider Man be as bad as that? We’ve come so far since then, haven’t we? With 3 blockbuster films, an animated series, comics, and toy web slingers, could there possibly be another way of running this Marvel property into the ground? Why yes, as a matter of fact, Spidey on Broadway! Looking back, I have no idea how I didn’t see this disaster of epic proportions looming on the New York City skyline.

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Why the f-ck did I even want to get tickets to this piece of trash anyway? First of all, no offense to the Marvel maniacs out there, but I’m a DC loyalist and have been since 1982. I still enjoy many Marvel characters and their films, but I have always enjoyed the DCU more. I would never EVER want to see any of the DC characters in a musical on Broadway, so hopefully if some marketing guru from DC Entertainment tosses that idea around…GET IT OUT OF YOUR HEAD IMMEDIATELY and then someone give that m-therfucker a swirlie.

So, yeah, I’m coming clean. I did something stupid. I bought tickets the moment they went on sale. Originally my excitement was high for no good reason other than sheer boredom and a lust for fanboy stimulation. There also seemed to be a bit of mystery involved since no details were available yet. Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark (dumb title) was set to premiere on January 16th, 2010. With no info available, I incessantly called Ticketmaster since the transaction wasn’t even appearing in my account history. There was no record of me even purchasing tickets to this crapshow. After several calls, I gave up. (I loathe Ticketmaster by the way.) A few months later, the Internet was buzzing with bad press about the budgetary issues, production problems, and set design perils that the Spider Man musical had run into. This almost sounded as bad as the time those mynocks latched onto the Falcon and started chowing down on those power cables.

The premiere date was pushed to the end of February. I hoped that the new date might give the producers enough time to get their shit together, but truthfully, I started to get fed up when I received an e-mail from terrible Ticketmaster. They wanted me to call them to EXCHANGE the tickets for the new date?!?!?! WTF? Shouldn’t they have just sent me tickets for the new date? I purchased the tickets and now I would risk losing the seats that I bought? That is pure bullshit, but like a shmuck, I called and exchanged the tickets like they asked. The employee who answered had no idea about anything I was referring to. She even snickered when I told her for the second time that I was calling about the Spider Man Musical. Clearly none of the Ticketmaster employees are made aware of postponements or cancellations. When she asked for an order number, I couldn’t even give her one because the transaction didn’t even exist and I was never given an order number, nor did it show up in my account. I was super pissed now. Finally, she figured it out, but the same seats I purchased were no longer available! They gave me seats at the end of the same row, which I settled for.

Today, more articles were published all over the Internet about Spider Man being postponed until Fall of 2010. Many of the news pieces reported that Ticketmaster would be offering refunds at this point. Earlier today I received an automated message on my phone from Ticketmaster stating that I was able to call them for a refund if I desired. If not, I would have to wait for a new sale date to exchange the tickets yet again. As soon as I got home, I called Ticketmaster and asked for a refund. Wouldn’t you know that the jackass who answered the phone had absolutely no clue about anything I was referring to. I told him that I received an automated call and that I was requesting a refund since the show would be postponed for a third time. I’d say it took a good 3 minutes of holding and listening to the same stupid music until he came back and asked more questions. By the end of the near 14 minute conversation full of needless back and forth, I got my refund. Now all I have to do is make sure it actually goes into my account or I’m suing Tickemaster for $200 bucks!

If you’ve been following the continuing debacle of the snowballing Spider Man Musical budget, you probably have a pretty good idea how I arrived at my decision. As of today, the budget is apparently in the realm of $50 million dollars and growing. Maybe I was sucked in by the thought of Edge working on the musical score for the show, or the idea that Mary Jane would be played by Evan Rachel Wood. Why don’t they just take those ideas, and before they shove them up their asses, put them to good use in either another feature film or an animated DVD movie? Considering that ticket sales for plays and musicals have been slumping for the past few years, the question here is…how many of you would be eager to go and shell out $100 bucks per ticket to see a Spider Man musical?

atom-bomb Bikini, the lurid art of Robert Ullman

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Sure, reading is fundamental, but it makes me doze off, so finishing an entire book is usually a challenge, unless it’s a book of full color art by Robert Ullman. Atom-Bomb Bikini, The Lurid Art of Robert Ullman compiles Ullman’s fun, retro styled eye candy into a nice, compact hardcover that may as well be a Little Golden Book for the adult admirer of humorous, and occasionally perverse “cute girl” art.

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Ullman, who’s been reviewed on BoingBoing.com, maintains a blog here on Blogger. I discovered Ullman’s art through a Google search about 2 years ago. I felt I hit the jackpot when I clicked over to his blog since his art style is right up my alley. His site showcases his art as well as personal appearances and other exploits.

Robert Ullman
If any of the following appeals to you, then you’ll appreciate Ullman’s work: comic book style pinup girls, superhero chicks, girls in sports jerseys, boobies, and of course…BIKINIS!!! If you’re against nudity for some reason, don’t worry, it’s done so tastefully that it’s hard not to love it.

Robert Ullman
Ullman has an extensive body of work, much of which is collected in book form and for sale in his online store. I chose this book as the first to add to my collection because of it’s high quality. It’s hard cover and glossy pages make this book well worth the money, not to mention the content inside. Throughout the book, you’ll find everything from Star Wars characters to Batman and Robin, sandwiched in between tons of cute girls not wearing much at all. There are a few black and white pages but they’re still quite amusing so it’s not a big deal. If you can make it to the back of the book without drooling too much, you’ll be treated to several pages of truly phenomenal and sexy sketches. I was never a huge fan of sketches because I always felt, why look at a sketch if you can look at the finished product, but Ullman’s sketches obliterated that idea.
For more on Robert Ullman and to buy his books go to http://rkullman.blogspot.com/

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I figured this one was highly appropriate for The Sexy Armpit

SMASH! The Online Comic

Chris Bolton, co-creator of the SMASH online comic, regularly posts pics of fans wearing the SMASH t-shirt from around the country. In their latest post, NJ was represented!

“Our own Aunt Katie reported seeing a Smash T-Shirt on a kid in a McDonald’s in Sayreville, New Jersey! How random is that? I couldn’t find Sayreville on a map of New Jersey with “Sayreville” marked by a giant, red-neon sign (not too good with the maps and the map-finding and the finding of things on maps).”



Haven’t the guys from Smash ever heard of Jon Bon Jovi? Please forgive them and head over and check out Chris & Kyle’s SMASH, the adventures of a 10-year old costumed super hero! More importantly, Magus, his arch nemesis is on par with Darkseid’s kickassery.

I Can’t Even Doodle

My lack of artistic ability prohibited me from making those neat doodles on my text book covers and notebooks growing up. A bunch of my friends and classmates often drew dead on sketches and hilarious caricatures of our teachers in mere seconds. If it wasn’t KISS or Batman related, then it wasn’t on my 2 item long “able to draw” list. My family and friends always tried to rationalize it for me “But you’re good at other things, Jay!” Yeah right. I admire artists and I’ve always wished that I was one. Void of any artistic ability whatsoever, I continued to envy my friends who WERE excellent artists. 
In class, I’d peer over at my friend Mark’s notebook and see all of his awesome and intricate sketches that he’d drawn during a boring lecture or during a free period in school. What he created simply on a piece of lined notebook paper seemed larger than life. To me, it meant that he must’ve had big ideas going on in his head. I mentioned to Mark that I thought he was really talented and I’d like to see more of his artwork. What really grabbed me about his sketches was that he’d occasionally draw a superhero, creature, or giant transformer-type robot. Naturally, being obsessed with comics since I was able to read, I also revered comic art. Mark offered to bring in his portfolio book for me to look at if I was interested. I told him “hell yeah!” of course I wanted to see it. 
The next day at school Mark took his portfolio book out of his backpack and handed it to me. While examining the large pages of his creations, I thought to myself, “how talented is this guy?” and “Damn, I want him to draw something for me!” It was almost as if he read my mind, because when the period was over, and we were filing out of the classroom, Mark said “Hey Jay…I forgot…I drew something for you…here you go.” Mark drew this up for me in class on a piece of notebook paper:

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Mark knew I loved Kevin Smith films. At the time Clerks and Mallrats were the only Kevin Smith movies that had been released, but I was obsessed already. Now, almost 15 years later, I’m still obsessed with Kevin Smith movies, and Mark is still exercising his skills as a freelance artist. Pay a visit to Line Light Arts where Mark Constantino and other excellent artists are featured. Look for posts by “MarkJC.” 

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Street Fighter II’s Blanka by Mark Constantino
Click here to read more about my worship of comic art in the Armpit’s recap of the NY Comic Con ‘09 Part 1 and Part 2.
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