'THE DARK KNIGHT RISES' Promotional Materials: Too Much Too Soon?

by Alex Hajna

About five weeks ago, the world was bombarded with the "super-marketing" campaign for Marvel's 'The Avengers'. Poster after poster, image after image, TV spot after TV spot, interview after interview, clip after clip, commercial after commercial... you get the idea. Now --- nearly two months before its release --- Warner Bros. seems to be doing the same thing with 'The Dark Knight Rises'.

Hit the jump for more...

THE DARK KNIGHT Trailer [in the Style of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES]

by Alex Hajna

I have a lot of spare time on my hands. A lot. Of spare time. And with that spare time, I do stupid, senseless, completely useless things. But once in a while, something cool can come out of that senselessness.  This is a trailer I edited for 2008's "The Dark Knight", in the style of the sequel's newest trailer, which comes out July 20th of this year.

The picture quality is awful, and the sound isn't mixed perfectly, but considering the resources I had to make this (iMovie and some YouTube videos), I'm pretty proud of how it turned out.

Hit the jump for the video

The Deliciously Despicable Debauchery That Is Duck Dynasty 

by Scott Speegle

      These days if you can force something even resembling an alliteration, you've got yourself a show. Granted it's more than likely going to air in the dark and bile drenched recesses of modern TV, but hey, it's still TV. If you've got your shoehorned alliteration in hand there's really only one other ingredient that is an absolute must for a clearance on mindless dreck: crazy/stupid people existing in front of cameras (if you can manage both, E! should be kicking your door down within minutes). 

I'm so sorry for the automatic soul drain caused by viewing this image.

        Alliterations, for all their truly great qualities (see every notable super hero), have taken on an odd enabling capability and recently become a crushingly relentless trend. Now I'm not going to get into the myriad of shows that utilize this trend because I want to devote the lion's share of this column to one particular little gem, also if you're currently a living human you should know exactly what I'm talking about.

        

"Blake Lively is so talented!" Exclaimed no one, ever.

hit the jump to read about ducks!

Geddy's Thoughts on The Avengers' Post-Credits Sequence

Hey everybody, NWC's Geddy Cahoon here! Rather than do a THIRD straight-up review of The Avengers, which I will say was pretty fucking good as far as comic book movies go, I figured I would share my thoughts on what was, for me, and probably a lot of comic fans, the film's high point: The post-credits sequence. I want to talk about some of the pros and cons, and what the appearance of a certain character could mean for the future of comic book movies.


Hit the jump to hear Geddy's thoughts on the post-credits sequence of Marvel's cinematic achievement, The Avengers! SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY ABOUND, DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM!

My Two Cents on Marvel's $200.3 million (and counting) Cash Draw

by Scott Speegle

      Let me preface this review by saying that I love comics. Comics are the first thing  that I actually decided to love entirely of my own volition. So any of the points of contention (and there'll probably be a few that will put bunches in panties) that I offer towards Marvel's huge summer outing The Avengers, come from a place of deep love for the medium. I'll also be working on the assumption that you are at least vaguely familiar with the characters and themes in this review. If not, there's the door.

    Ok, now the film opens with a painful cliche and its first ten minutes are a pretty rocky start. Right out of the gate Avengers has a massive problem: It needs to set itself up, and that takes time, a lot of time as it turns out. "But Scott, all of the previous Marvel blockbusters have been leading up to this epic and exciting culmination of super awesomeness." Some of you are probably saying from whatever delusional realm you reside in. In reality every "piece" that has been primed to fit into the puzzle that is Avengers actually exists within it's own separate bubble, all bookended by Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury doing a bit of fan service in post credit sequences. Iron Man is really the only character that feels organically integrated into the established continuity of the Avengers film, this is largely due to the fact that the aforementioned Nick Fury has spent the most time with Mr. Stark. Everyone else is kind of just thrown into the mix and the awkwardness of that is visible throughout.
     So Avengers has that problem, tricking you into watching the prelude to the prelude while making you think you've just opened the puzzle box and have all the pieces laid out before you, waiting to be dare I say it.... assembled.

Hit the jump to read on.

THE AVENGERS Movie Review

by Alex Hajna

Making an Avengers movie is, no doubt, a tough gig. Nothing like it has ever been attempted in the history of Hollywood: gathering characters from five different movies, and putting them all together in one film. Many questioned the practicality of such a project, and rightfully so. How can you properly develop each character, give them each their rightful time to shine, and not make any of them seem like the chief advocate of the film? Well, my friends... Joss Whedon made it work. And he made it work well.

TCJ's "The Johnny Ryan Interview": Deconstructing the Funniest Man in Comics Today

Hey everybody, Geddy Cahoon here with an interesting little thing for you. My favorite comic book writer/artist today is probably the relatively unknown Johnny Ryan. Ryan crafts comics in the vain of guys like Underground Comix movement notable R. Crumb. Ryan's comics are crass, lewd, violent, overly sexual, disturbing, and absolutely hilarious. He doesn't push the envelope; he obliterates it. His comic strips are dark humor personified, often not even containing any "humor" in the straightforward sense. It's funny because it's offensive.

I feel as though Johnny's comics personify the way I feel all sensible people should view comedy: Everything is funny, or nothing is.

I don't know about you, but I like to have a little bit of biographical info on my favorite authors and artists. This interview with Johnny from tcj.com has it all. It delves into his somewhat tragic upbringing, how he got involved in comics, and much more. It also gets into the infinitely interesting (To me) list of other comic book legends/notables that Johnny has pissed off or just don't like him. It's lengthy and at times disturbing, but it's worth a read if you're into Indie Comics in any capacity, or just a hardcore comic book fan in general.

Here's the interview: The Johnny Ryan Interview

Look out for some features to be updated in upcoming weeks. The Ink Spill seems to have made its triumphant return, and as soon as my camera issues are rectified, Figure Fraction will come back in full swing. We're also implementing some sort of regular Movie-Reviewing column, so stay tuned.

Give this interview a read, and Welcome to Your Doom!

-Geddy