Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk - First Impressions
February 28, 2006 | 6 Comments
I’m now two issue into the six issue limited series, Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk. Damon Lindelof, co-creator of the hit TV series Lost is writing this. I haven’t been watching Lost, but
Initially I picked this up because it takes place in the Ultimate Universe, which hasn’t let me down yet. It was the opening sequence of the first issue that really grabbed me. On page 3, Hulk rips Wolverine in half! Yes, Logan has an adamantium skeleton, but that says nothing about the joints in that skeleton. Hulk then throws Wolverine’s legs up on top the nearest mountaintop.
The story then jumps back and gives the back story Wolverine gets himself in this situation. Apparently after a failed state sanctioned death penalty using a nuclear bomb on Hulk. Somehow he survived this and now Logan has been sent to finish him off.
Issue #2 gives similar back story on how Hulk survived and what Banner has been doing in the meantime. This issue moves a lot slower and doesn’t actually step the story forward at all. However, it is important to understand both Hulk and Wolverine’s motivations going into this massive battle.
After these two, the next four are setup for the battle royal first implied in the opening sequences of the first issue. I personally can’t wait. Let’s hope Lindelof doesn’t treat this like Lost and continue dragging it out. Bring on the battle!
Tags: "comics books", "Damon Lindelof", "hulk vs wolverine", "ultimate universe", adamantium, bruce banner, comic, comics, hulk, logan, lost, marvel, ultimates, Wolverine
Imperial Porphyry
February 27, 2006 | 1 Comment
Originally I became intrigued by porphyry by my friend Dee. On a number of occasions Dee has regaled us with tales from her trips to Europe. Recently she was talking about a stone they use throughout Rome called porphyry. She couldn’t understand why Rome had so much of it and the rest of the world was pretty much devoid of this. My interests were piqued.
First of all, I needed to know how to pronounce porphyry. After reading the brief description on Answers.Com, it was clear to me that there were multiple types of this igneous rock, not all of it particularly rare. So what makes the stuff they have in Rome so special?
The specific porphyry of note in Rome is called “imperial porphyry”. It is a deep reddish purple color with white crystals and is very fine grained. It is excellent for carving. It was “discovered” in Egypt in the year 18 by a Roman legionnaire. The Romans began mining the porphyry using slave labor in AD29 for around 300 years.
From Via Porphyrites in Saudi Aramco World:
What makes imperial porphyry so precious and rare is that it is found at only one place on earth, atop a 1600-meter (mile-high) mountain in the eastern province of Egypt. The Romans named the site Mons Porphyrites, or Porphyry Mountain, and the Arabs today call it Jabal Abu Dukhan, or Smoky Mountain.
Thrust to the earth’s surface in the same volcanic action that once formed the Red Sea, the porphyry found at Mons Porphyrites is, as far as specialists know, geologically unique. But the site is so barren and so remote that only slave labor could ever have extracted the stone, and even then only for the relatively brief historical moment when Roman power was at its zenith.
On top of this, the rough cut blocks needed to be dragged by oxcarts 100 miles to the Nile River where they could be loaded on barges and taken to Rome. To add to this difficulty, temperature’s can hit 114 degrees F in the summertime.
Rome was not the only city fascinated by this rare and beautiful stone. Constantine the Great celebrated the founding of Constantinople by erecting a 30 meter pillar built from seven porphyry drums. This pillar still stands today in the modern city of Istanbul. There are also columns of porphyry in the beautiful Hagia Sophia. In later history, porphyry remnants found their way to Germany and later England.
After AD 335, the mine was lost. Napoleon searched for it and failed. Later, in 1823, it was rediscovered by British pioneers. It was unsuccessfully mined off and on including the last full scale attempt by Egypt’s Prince Farouk in the 1930’s. He too failed, learning how hard this work was.
In ancient times, porphyry became the symbol of rulership and was used for the finest things crafted in Rome. Of the thousands of tons mined and fashioned primarily into columns, 134 columns remain standing in Italy today.
According to the BBC:
Two colours predominated, the purple or deep red of porphyry, a much prized marble quarried in the Egyptian desert and generally reserved for statues of Roman emperors and their families
Not only was porphyry used for palaces and decoration, on notable occasions it was used for coffins and sarcophagi. Nero was first to be buried in porphyry. Following him were: Constantine and his wife(?) Constantia, Holy Roman Emperors Frederick II, Henry IV and William I, and that of the Empress Constance.
A modern story of interest is that of Lady Cowdray, wife of a Scottish oil magnate. Before he died, she promised to bury him in a porphyry sarcophagus. She mined the porphyry herself, and made good on the promise.
Tags: "constantine the great", "empress constance", "frederick II", "hagia sophia", "henry IV", "imperial porphyry", "lady cowdray", "mons porphyrites", "roman emperors", "william I", columns, constantia, constantinople, egypt, europe, history, igneous, istanbul, napoleon, nero, porphyry, purple, rome
Digital Comics Unleashed (CBR/CBZ)
February 26, 2006 | 20 Comments
Over the years tons of people have made Flash based digital comics. Most notable to me is Marvel’s dotComics, now re-branded as digital comics. These formats are terrible. I always assumed this meant all digital comics therefore were bad.
Until I discovered the CBR and CBZ formats. These are simply zip or rar files that contain sequentially named JPG files, then are renamed either .cbr or .cbz with the last character indicating the originating format. Creation of this format is therefore trivial. Readers can also be created quite readily. I also love that there is no built-in DRM, but I’m sure the comics industry feels the opposite on that one. I gave my opinion on why they shouldn’t care back when I first started talking about the comic industry needing to go digital.
Anyway, there are some great free readers that have been created for both platforms. On OS X, use FF View. On Windows, use CDisplay. I’ve tried both these programs and they are amazingly well suited to reading comics digitally. The no-frills approach and the surprisingly good quality has me up late reading some independent comics I otherwise would not on my laptop.
Just to prove I’m not the only nut who wants this, I read this on loony blog:
Why would I consider this to be a viable alternative, while the official CD comics that are out there are mostly just a mildly amusing distraction? Because this is just the comic itself. There’s no animation, no music, no cheesy sound effects, just the comic itself, presented in a straightforward manner.
My main reason for wanting this is that I’d love to get all my back issues cheaply in this format so I could go back and read them at my leisure, without reducing the value of the originals through handling. It would also be nice to be able to afford experimenting with series I would not normally read on a whim. $1 an issue would really allow for that.
Similarly, in another comic reader’s article “The comic book industry is ignoring a multi-million dollar revenue stream”, he states:
[…] for the purpose of archiving stuff I physically own, so I can put the paper copies in storage. No small thing!
Here are some examples to try:
- Zone-H Comics - scroll to the bottom for the one linked in CBR format.
- Liberality for All (2.1MB CBZ) - a crazy right wing comic (only to be enjoyed by those with massive head injuries)
Tags: "digital comics", cbr, cbz, comic books, comics, dotcomics, flash, jpg, marvel, marvel comics
Wufoo - Form Builder
February 26, 2006 | Comments Off
Matt has been using this interactive form builder as an example for our form builder he is writing as part of a prospective student portal we are writing for Plymouth State.
Today, I found an even cooler one called Wufoo (not Hufu) over on a sweet Chinese blog that previously linked to me. Wufoo uses a heavy union of Ajax and Flash techniques. It may be a little heavier on the Flash than I would have gone, but it is still really cool.
Tags: "form builder", "prospective student portal", AJAX, form, hufu, web 2.0, web development
Spider-Man 3 - The Black Suit!
February 24, 2006 | 48 Comments
Super Hero Hype had the first image of Spider-Man in his black suit for the next movie due out in 2006.
To me the image looks a lot like a black and white photo rendition of the red suit. I wish there had been something of color in the photo to make it clear this was not just a trick.
For the moment I’m unimpressed. Hopefully seeing it in motion will win me over.
However, Comic Book Movie had the following quote from Sony:
You may think you’re looking at a black and white photo. Look closely, Spider-Man wears a black suit in Spider-Man 3. Tobey Maguire returns in the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Spider-Man 3 coming May 2007.
For those who are not familiar, Spider-Man switched to the black suit in the standard continuity after Secret Wars. This was short lived, leading to one of the most successful Marvel villains of all time, Venom. I assume this introduction of the black suit sets up Spider-Man 4 to be centered around Venom as the primary villain.
It’s highly entertaining that first images of the black costume premiering in Spider-Man 3 comes the same month as the printed comic reveals a new costume.
Tags: "black suit", "Spider-Man 3", "Tobey Maguire", comic, comic books, comics, costume, marvel, movie, movies, sony, spider-man, spiderman
Apollo Pony
February 23, 2006 | 2 Comments
Amanda Congdon of Rocketboom fame has another great site called Apollo Pony that highlights entertaining videos. Here are some of my favorites:
Where the Hell is Amanda? (Part 1)
Where the Hell is Amanda? Part 2
Tags: "apollo pony", amanda congdon, Fun Whatnot, rocketboom, video
Ultimate Avengers - The Movie
February 21, 2006 | Comments Off
Marvel released the straight to DVD movie Ultimate Avengers today. This PG-13 rated animated action/adventure film is the first in a series of at least four animated feature length films and two tv series Marvel has in the works, including: Ultimate Avengers 2, an Iron Man movie, a Dr. Strange movie, a Fantastic Four series, and a “Wolverine and the X-Men” series.
The movie centers around Captain America, Nick Fury, and Bruce Banner almost equally. The story told here stays true to the basic characters and universe defined in The Ultimates. Mostly this movie stands as a setup for further Ultimate Avengers movies, but it succeeds admirably at this.
I have to say, if all of them are as good as this film, Marvel is crazy not to run them through the theater first… Go rent or buy this, Marvel needs encouragement to continue pumping out a couple of these each year!
Tags: "dr. strange", "ultimate avengers", animated, avengers, black widow, bruce banner, captain america, cartoon, comic books, comics, dvd, fantastic four, hulk, iron man, marvel, nick fury, shield, steve rogers, thor, tony stark, tv, ultimates