Videogame Night

Tonight the gang's going to converge in The Sanctum for some retro-gaming fun. It's something that Dean and Vin planned a couple of weeks ago, and now we're pushing through. Of course, we won't be playing any of the new stuff- lined up will be classic games like Bushido Blade, Samurai Shodown, Super Street Fighter II and games from the Sega Genesis like Toejam and Earl. I don't exactly know how things will work out, but we'll have chips and softdrinks and hang out till the gang gets a hankering for some singing in the wee hours of the morning. Heh.

Found


Forty castaways. An island. A monster. Whoa.

Finally watched LOST last night. I've been hearing of this popular hit series from Dean for a long time now, but it was only last night that it debuted on AXN.

From J.J. Abrams, the director of Alias, comes this series which seems to be a cross between Survivor, Alive, Gilligan's Island and Jurassic Park. A plane mysteriously crashes on an island somewhere in the middle of nowhere. As the forty or so survivors pick themselves out of the wreckage, they soon have to contend with various issues, and not just mundane stuff like getting food and surviving the elements... they have to contend with the possibility of a murderer in their midst, discover the truth about the crash and the growing fear that they may never get rescued.
All this and there seems to be a MONSTER on the frickin' island. A big, hulking, growling, flesh-rending monster... that seems to be invisible as well, since no one seems to have ever seen it... at least, not seen it and lived.

It's an intriguing premise, and the cast looks likeable and interesting to watch. They even have Dominic Monaghan (Merry from LOTR) in it... I wonder if he lasts long though...

Anyway, LOST is showing every Thursday on AXN. Find it if you can.

Triple X

There has been quite a lot of hubbub around the future of the X-men movie franchise, especially after director Bryan Singer defected to the DC movie Superman, taking with him several actors (notably James "Cyclops" Marsden). Anyway, a new director for X3 has been named- never heard of him though- and there will be new characters joining the X-crew for the third film.
Joining Professor X, Wolverine and the rest will be the furry Beast, Cajun card-flinger Gambit and... get this... a FEMALE Angel. OOOH! Seeing as how a winged femme fatale was so cool in Constantine (a bitchy Gabriel, care of Tilda Swinton), I'm actually excited to see the girl-version of Warren Worthington. Heh.

Well, no word on the story, though judging from movie 2 the Dark Pheonix saga may be the thing that's in for the next one. As long as they still have Rebecca Romjin-Stamos as Mystique, I'm still in for it. Heheh.

Darna

As if in response to my recent interest in the upcoming Darna TV series, I got a reminder of how stinky the franchise can get via probably THE worst movie with the Darna title, the Anjanette Abayari-starrer, Darna: Ang Pagbabalik (I say probably since I am not sure if the one starring Nanette Medved was worse).

This movie just hits everything wrong. Everyone, I mean EVERYONE- from a campy Cherie Gil as Dr. Valentine (original villainess Valentina's daughter) who just goes hammy in her scenes as a demagogue/preacher complete with green-caped dancers and henchmen- to pretty much everyone from guards and passersby or crowds of extras who are just supposed to look up and gawk. The only one who doesn't overact is lead actress Anjanette herself- who UNDERacts. Plus, the portrayal of Darna herself is pretty stupid. She poses, she acts arrogantly and never seems to have any personality aside from smiling and looking sweet when she's being cheered by the masses. In one particular scene, she faces off with a gun-toting pretty boy named Magnum, who pretty much has shot over a dozen people (well, all of his gang). Instead of collaring this killer, Darna just exchanges some banter, then drops the guy in a garbage truck and laughs. Never mind that he gets away. How stupid is that?
Anyway, I've given up on director Peque Gallaga long ago, after crappers like his Magic Temple/Kingdom series, and all of his later Shake, Rattle and Roll films. And well, Anjanette was most probably selected for her ability to fill a bikini, not act (or speak tagalog, I think). Oh well.

Heh. Rant over. For now.

Poisonous Repast

What IS it with the cases of Food Poisoning these days??? First there was that horrible poisoning and death of over 28 students from cassava, and NOW there's this thing about a HUNDRED more people getting downed by party food in Tarlac. What is this... Deadly Food month? I honestly have never seen stuff like this before. Filipinos eat all sorts of crap each day- so why's this fad suddenly up and about?
Darn, just when you thought it was safe to eat some fishballs again...

Fruition

Tonight, I went to Comic Quest to pick up not only the week's new reads, but some page and cover samples of K.I.A. left by my one-man-band print production manager, El. I was kinda worried about how the art- much of it being heavy on black and tones- would look on the paper. Seems like my worries were for naught since the pages look simply excellent. That's what you get with quality printers and production people.
Based on how the pages and the printed covers (on the actual paper stock to be used this time) looked with the samples, the final books should look pretty slick. I just can't stop staring at them. Heh.

Anyway, I've been told that the books may be finished just before the Holy Week proper starts, but of course the first twenty copies I get will be earmarked for the members of Team K.I.A. who made this project possible. I should get down to producing the posters and any other display items I'll need for when we actually get the book on the comic racks in early April or so.

Just a little bit more. Wait for it.

Why are you eyeballing me???

I was just checking out the Angel Ace website, and then the K.I.A. cover art, and then the material for the K.I.A. webpage.
In the Angel Ace site, Kai's eyes are brown. In K.I.A., Agent K's eyes are GREEN.

GYAAAH!!!

Kai has always been an oriental/Asian character, and brown is always the base color. But then, I've always thought of her having green eyes... I love green. It's my favorite color and it's always been the color of Kai's outfits in all her incarnations and designs. I guess deep inside I've always thought that her eyes should be jade or emerald of hue.

Well, this inconsistency can easily be explained. After she was liquidated and sent to the place where she was to be 'changed', her identity was totally erased. Her fingerprints are removed and her eye color changed as well. We could also theorize that perhaps the change in eye color was caused by the process that gave Kai her heightened physical abilities and powers of regeneration. Perhaps... she's now actually part plant! Heh... Hmm. That's actually not a bad idea...

Whatever. Anyway, her peepers are green now. Moving on...

Brutal Fantasy


Rau and Tati are set to bloody your PS2 this April.

I've so far been very happy with my recent gaming acquisitions. Yeah, Champions: Return to Arms was really just more of the same, but Tekken 5 is simply awesome and Street Fighter Anniversary gives me my favorite Streetfighter III: Third Strike on the PS2. The next game I'm looking to own and enjoy is the sharp-looking Rise of the Kasai.
A sequel to The Mark of Kri, ROTK continues the story of Rau, the great Raku warrior-hero who bashed in skulls and impaled enemies with brutal efficiency. Well, he's back... sort of. ROTK is both prequel and sequel to MOK, taking place both ten years before and after the events in the first game. Apparenlty, in the present time, Rau has been mysteriously slain, so now his younger sister Tati, one of several new playable characters, takes up the quest to find out the circumstances around his death- and get some bloody payback while she's at it. Tati was a ten-year old in the first game, but in ROTK she's a hot 20-year old thong-wearing assassin chick who could give my own Agent K a lesson or two in looking mean. Anyway, the story revolves around Tati and the fact that she has been tattooed with a Mark of Kri- an evil spell that gives her great power at the cost of her soul.
Aside from the intriguing story of a whodunit-howdidit murder mystery and the internal/external struggles of the heroes, Rise of the Kasai will impress with it's odd combination of Disney-esque character designs and Conan the Barbarian-class death-dealing. Add to that stealth mechanics and a buddy-system (your character teams up with a CPU-AI controlled ally) and you get a game that mixes action and strategy in one sexy mix.

Rise of the Kasai is set for an early April release on the PS2. I can't wait to cut me some throats. Ooh, crispy!

Overtime

It's the third day of the week, and the third day we're doing overtime at The Salt Mines. It's not really that bad, but you do get positively pooped. I've had the case of the sniffles since Monday, and thankfully regular doses of vitamin C and rest have kept my nose from running completely wild. Anyway, it's great that we're able to accomplish stuff, and hopefully all this work will bear fruit later.
Still, I am DAMN glad that the Holy Week is just around the corner. Looking forward to just turning off my brain and pursuing some of my base desires... Darn, that sounds dirty. And during the Semana Santa too. Heh. Just gonna read comics, watch TV (gotta love cable) and dvds, play games, think about comics and marketing K.I.A. and all that jazz. Oh, and I'm gonna sleep. Sleep as much as I want. Mmm.

Lipad, Darna, LIPAD!


Angel Locsin dons the red bikini for the Darna TV series.

It's been revealed recently that the much-awaited Darna TV series will star actress Angel Locsin in the title role. Alessandra de Rossi as Darna's nemesis, Valentina. The series, to be shown on GMA7, will be directed by Dominic Zapanta. I had the opportunity to interview Direk Dom several months ago, and he seems to have lots of cool ideas... hopefully this will show in this ambitious series.
Darna TV will take on recent shows like the popular Mulawin (a saga of good vs evil birdmen) and perhaps Darna's most direct competition, the superhero series Krystala with Judy Ann Santos. There will be CG effects, flying, and fantastic foes from classic Darna characters to all-new enemies created just for the series.

According to Budjette, Valentina now looks like a female Omega Red, as she has but one snake on her head (instead of a nest of snakes, Medusa-style) and uses two snakes as whips. Another villain is Molekula, a shape-shifting character whom Budj describes as similar to the movie version of X-men's Mystique (is she naked, too? Heh).

I have to admit, I want to see this show, at least at the start. I wanna see if the story, effects and fights are any good.

We'll see if it flies. Heh.

The Darna TV series is set for release next month on GMA 7.

The Best Medicine

Last night I came home tired and feeling positively sick. My nose was all clogged up, My eyes ached and even my lips hurt. After having a shot of Vitamin C, I flopped into bed to get some rest since I couldn't NOT go to work the next day. Just before I nodded off, I turned on the TV and saw America's Funniest Videos on the Disney Channel. Of all the clips of people tripping, falling, slipping and sliding, the one video that had me laughing my eyes out was a really cute and funny clip entitled 'The Quad Squad'. The clip is from the home videos of Steve Mathias of his identical quadruplet baby girls, and has the doting father making faces to make his kids laugh, which they do- with identical laughs in unison. The sight of three identical babies laughing together was so infectious that I was literally laughing myself to tears (the cold helped).

Anyway, apparently the Quad Squad video won the grand prize for that season of America's Funniest Videos, something I am not surprised at. It was a nice image to see going to sleep, and perhaps it helped me recover from my stupor. Laughter really does help. Heh.

Revenge of the Trailer

Just saw the full-length trailer to Revenge of the Sith. FINALLY, the saga will be complete. The circle will be closed on this controversial trilogy. Yeah, it's a paradox. We all know it's got as much lousy acting, boring sequences and ungainly storytelling as it does cool CG effects and lightsaber duels, but we're still ALL going to watch it.
Anyway, the finale to the prequel trilogy looks to be the best, or the least worst, in that we will at last see the answers to the many questions that have been flitting since the fracas began. What will eventually push Anakin (Hayden Christensen) to the Dark Side? How did Palpatine/Sidious/The Emperor hide his presence from the Jedi even though audiences have known since Episode One? What will happen to the long-suffering Amidala (Natalie Portman) before she vanishes into the mists of obscurity into Episode VI and beyond?

ROTS promises lots of carnage- battles aplenty and a reckoning between the Jedi and the Separatist leaders Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) and the new enemy, General Grievous. Jedi being hunted down like dogs by their former allies, the Clones. And the evil Sith in action. For the action alone, I'm looking forward to this. Acting? Story? We'll see. Maybe we'll be surprised. Or maybe not.

The Sith take their revenge on May 19 in the US, with the rest of the world following (hopefully) soon after. We'll see then.

Fickle

Last night, some bug seemed to hit my little gadgets, particularly my laptop, memory cards and PC. I usually ferry files between my PC and my Mac using a combination of my communicator (O2 XDA II) and a card reader, with either a Memory Stick or my 1 Gigabyte SD Card. Well, for some reason last night my Mac suddenly started refusing particular kinds of files, and things were hanging here and there. My card reader wouldn't register on the Mac. I had to restart and reboot my computers again and again, and it was infuriating.
Perhaps it was a all caused by the heat- it was damn hot and the laptop was steaming like a toaster. I had wanted to save a bit of electricity and do without the climate control, but you really can't do that when you have computers working.
Well, today everything seems to be working fine again... perhaps, like me, the technology just had a bit of the flu. Nothing a couple of vitamins and a good night's sleep can't handle. I hope.

Mock Up


K.I.A. in my hands... not.

No, the printers aren't finished yet. The K.I.A. issue in my hand is just a mock-up made with a sample print of the cover and the paper stock being used. Anyway, I know what's inside, so having this dummy is almost as good as having the real thing! Heheh... Right. It's just my way of coping with the wait. Gah.

Anticipated Flicks

Here are some of the upcoming movies I'm pretty excited to see...

Sin City
This film adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novels about a gritty, crime and corruption-riddled burg and the colorful characters that reside in it looks like it was ripped straight from the page. A unique visual presentation, a cast of big-name actors and lots of sexy ladies makes this a must-see. I actually haven't read the comic yet, but I may soon enough.

Cool Stuff: Seeing Elijah Wood take an evil turn as a twisted psychopath Kevin. Watching deadly ninja babe Miho (Devon Aoki) in action. Seeing a comic book come to life in what director Robert Rodriguez touts as the most faithful adaptation ever. We'll see.

Batman Begins
Shedding off the gaudy silliness that marred the last film in this franchise, this latest caped crusader flick brings the story back to the beginning, focusing on the origin of Batman (Christian Bale) and his development from traumatized billionaire heir to masked, caped vigilante. New cast members fill in old roles- Michael Caine is Alfred, while Gary Oldman is James Gordon. Last Samurai's Ken Watanabe plays the devilish Ra's Al Ghul. Where's Talia though? Oh, and is Liam Neesonacting as a Jedi Master AGAIN?

Cool Stuff: Batman's new ride is more battle-ready than something chicks would dig. And what could be cooler than Batman versus ninja?

Mr. and Mrs. Smith
It's Spy Vs Spy in a domestic setting, but substitute gender for the sides of the struggle. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are a happy but bored couple who are in actuality each high-level assassins but unaware of each other's identities. When they are hired to off their spouse, fireworks ensue.

Cool Stuff: Seeing Achilles take on Lara Croft. It's intriguing to see how they actually handle this story- will it be comedic or dead-serious? And will we actually see either Pitt or Jolie (or both) bite the bullet? Probably not, but it'll be fun to see.

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Yeah, I admit it. I want to see this. However, it's more to see whether George Lucas saved the worst or the least worst for last.

Cool Stuff: Seeing Sith in action and kicking those namby-pamby goody-two shoes stoopid Jedis butts. HAH!


On the Other Hand, I'm not too hot about these...

Robots
Boooorrrrriinng. From the makers of Ice Age comes this yarn about a country botkin going to try his luck in the big city. Yawn. Yeah, the animation and design should be interesting... if you're a robot enthusiast. I don't even like robot anime, so this really isn't for me.

Fantastic Four
"Five go into space. One will become BAD. Four will become... FANTASTIC!" Geh.

Madagascar
I don't like robots, and I don't like animals either...

All in all, the future looks good for MAD movies in the next few months. Hopefully I'll have time to visit the theaters when the good ones hit.

Killer Inevitable Anticipation

It never fails. I can tell when I'm close to releasing a comic. I've done it a lot of times and it's always the same thing. Last night, I just stayed in The Sanctum, pacing back and forth, alternating between staring at a mock-up of the final comic, and reading issues of past local indies that I've collected.
Maybe I should bring out the ol' comics more often, and read through them more. It's fun- like going back in time, when enthusiasm for making comics was at an all-time high, when stories and art didn't seem to need to be technically sound, when everything seemed to have to stop at a cliffhanger.
I took a ton of them out from the shelf- oldies like the pioneer comics- Flashpoint, Shadow/Scions, P-Noise/Indigo Valley, TKS: The Killstalker/Age of the Valkyrie, Alamat 101, Memento Mori, Exodus. Then there are the later books- Myth Class, Wasted, Dhampyr, Pantheon, Horus, K2K... all the way to the more recent Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah, Trip to Tagaytay, After Eden, Siglo: Freedom, Darna, Lastikman and the latest releases of Ignition Comix, Chips and the latest indies. Looking back at where local indies started from is always important for me, prior to releasing anything new. It's a way for me of gauging I guess how far I have come, how much I have learned or changed, and what I have to do to improve even further.
Gosh. Those were the days.

Anyway, things are so different now. Artists and creators are so much better, with a better command of art and technique. Competition is not as intense as before, since there are fewer releases, but it will always be there. Every release is a challenge to others to do better. And I relish this... I love getting better at what I do. And I love doing comics.

Darn, next week can't come soon enough.

When Worlds Collide


No, it's not a fantasy. It is truth.

First it was Marvel VS Capcom. Then, the unthinkable happened with SNK VS Capcom. And now, we have Namco VS Capcom, putting the two makers of arguably the two most popular fighting game franchises (Street Fighter and Tekken) together in one game.
But unlike previous Capcom Versus games, Namco X Capcom (tentative title) is not a fighting game, but an RPG. We don't know the story yet, but the game will bring together characters from the various titles and franchises of each company's stable. So, expect characters from Streetfighter, Resident Evil, Megaman and more to interact with personages from Tekken, Xenosaga, Tales of Destiny and other Namco games.
No word yet if or when the game will hit a US release, but the popularity of both companies should make this a no-brain release for the world.

Another Crossover Collision coming in the near future- Nemesis, which brings characters from Marvel Comics up against a new wave of characters created by Electronic Arts entertainment. This will result in not just a game but actual comics. Interesting stuff... we'll see if any of them are worth squat when they all come out later this year.


From Right to Left: Ryu from Streetfighter, Jin Kazama from Tekken and Hideo from Rival Schools. And some robot dude.

Fatality

In a bit of tragic videogame-related news, five boys aged 13 to 16 have been arrested in Latvia for the murder of one of their friends. The boys apparently beat the 16-year old victim to death using moves and techniques emulated from Mortal Kombat. Now, the Latvian authorities aren't wholly blaming videogames, citing also violence on TV and movies, and of course the suspects probably had their reasons for the heinous act.
Anyway, I've always heard stories about little kids doing 'Hadokens' and Dragon Punches in play, sometimes getting hurt in the process. It's a parent's responsibility to keep an eye on their kids, not particularly to focus on videogames, but on their kids' behavior and upbringing in general.

Gantz


Pick your weapon.

Last night before going to bed I watched one episode of the controversial anime Gantz. This show was supposedly heavily-edited before it was shown in Japan TV because of the gory violence and stuff, so I was actually kinda pumped to see it. Unfortunately, I don't have the first two episodes, so I had to start with episode three.
Anyway, the show is about a youth named Kei Kurono who gets run over by a train with his pal. While the gory way they get run over is one of the controversial bits, I've read that the real cause for the hubbub is how this show portrays how people act as impassive voyeurs when their fellow men are in danger, treating death as a spectacle and little else. This pretty nihilistic view is questionable in my view, but whatever.
After getting killed, Kei and his friend suddenly find themselves in a small sealed apartment, with some other people (also recently deceased) and a BIG black ball. The ball, known as The Gantz, has various alien weaponry inside it (and also apparently a human body) which it distributes to the 'contestants' for the game. This game is pretty clear- they have to kill or dispatch some hidden aliens. The contestants have a limited time to complete their missions; failure means permanent death. Survival and terminating the aliens means continued play.

Well, my comments on the first episode are mixed. For a Gonzo anime, this show looks pretty BAD. The computer effects aren't too impressive, and the character animation, even little things like how they talk, is awkward and badly done, to the point that I thought this was made at best by less-skilled Korean animators, or at worst an amateur, fan-made feature. I don't know if this was intentional or what, but it just looks BAD. The voice acting is also on the annoying side; the dialogue is irritating with lots of awkward filler and your usual anime cliche speak with the whiny hero, the screechy girl and the shady, amoral practical guy. The talking went a bit like this...

Kei: WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!!!
Other Guy: I don't have to tell you.
Kei: YOU HAVE TO TELL US!!!
Other Guy: Okay, I will.
Kei: I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!!!
Other Guy: You don't have to believe me. You're all hypocrites.
Kei: I'M NOT A HYPOCRITE!!!

Bah.

Maybe it's not fair to judge the show on this one episode (and episode three at that), but really, I wasn't that impressed. However, I'm willing to watch the next couple of episodes to see if it's going anywhere, and if the quality of the visuals and audio improves. Anyway, the third episode didn't blow me away particularly to be controversial or anything... in fact, the most horrifying thing I saw was the substandard visuals and animation given that this is by Gonzo, one of my favorite anime production houses. Well, with them doing a G.I. Joe OAV, a Witchblade anime and probably tons of other stuff, maybe they're spreading themselves a bit too thin.

Cameraphones

Yesterday night, while talking over details about the K.I.A. webpage with my friend Drew, I got a text from El asking 'Aside from MMS, Phlogging and Wallpapers, what can I do with photos taken with my cellphone?'

Hmmm. Well, last night all I could think of was 'reference'. I mean, if you found something you like- a design or a certain artwork or piece of architecture, you could snap a pic and take it back with you. Thinking it through though, here are some other uses for cameraphone pics...

Identifying crooks! If you recognize someone as a shady character featured in the classifieds, snap a pic as proof and show it to the cops. You may even earn a reward!

Be an instant Paparazzi! On those rare occasions that you cross paths with a tinseltown personality, sexy screen siren or other media luminary, you can remember this momentous occasion with a click of the phone. And with the magic of Photoshop you can even show yourself getting intimate with 'em. Heh.

Call for help! If you get lost, you can take a pic of some landmark and send it to your peeps to help them send the cavalry to pick you up.

Ghost Hunting! Find yourself in a creepy building? Make the most of the situation by snapping pics and who knows... you could catch some spectral activity and have your pic featured on 'Wag Kukurap.

PORN. Even better with a videocam feature. Nuff said.

There are probably lots and lots more uses for the nice, low-res but ubiquitous photos you can take with your trusty cameraphone. I still think that iimage capture is still one of the best developments in mobiles, not the least of which is that it turned all of us into voyeurs and released the potential stalkers in all of us. YAY! Isn't technology grand?