9/27 show

Tonight (Live!) on "The Comic book Novice" Hassan, Peter Palmiotti, Belkis, and yours truly talk about the new Resident Evil movie. Just with all of our movie shows, this will be a free flowing discussion so spoilers may be mentioned. Seen the movie? Give us a call 631 888 8811 9pm EST www.am1240wgbb.com

it's all about money

So, i just returned from staples copy center. I had planned to stop by Wizard after that but it seems that this staples (which is in "Dumpwater, Floridia") doesn't work like those in the great city that is New York. See, I needed some copies made and a hi-res image of a full page ad that will be appearing in the December issue of samesaid magazine (which, I have found out will not be out in December). Anyway, it won't be ready till tomorrow (which is a good thing that I went today...). But that is not what this blog os about.....

What it is about is the fact that I am able to get an ad in Wizard in the first place. Now yes, normally I wouldn't be able to afford it, but my connections have made that possible. However the (once again) samesaid connections have been giving me financial troubles. So they save me money in some instances and in others, they cost me. At the end of the day, all hat matters is that the bills get paid and you have enough (or have the ability to generate) enough money to pay the bills tomorrow. When I incorporated, I budgeted myself for two (well, one at first, but then I recrunched the numbers and now we are at two) years. I'm at the end of the first year and (as i mentioned, do to the new finincial constraints) i think i will still be able to (barley) squeek out another year. This ad is one of tose chances that I jhave to take in order to keep this going beyond the next year. The book is coming out, we are going to the San Diego convention, but after that. who knows?

9/20 show

Tonight (LIVE) on "The Comic Book Novice" radio show, Hassan, Peter Palmiotti, Belkis, and yours truly as we discuss continuity in comics. If you have an opinion on this subject, give us a call 631 888 8811. 9pm EST www.am1240wgbb.com
afterwards, leave your comments here.

THE most awesome-est worst moive EVER!

D-Wars, or Dragon Wars (as some of you may be more familiar with) is just that movie. Now the rule is that it HAS to be a movie you see in theaters AND that it is so bad that it goes all the way around back to good. Transformers was just a BAD movie. With a little thought and care put into that movie it could have been actually good. D-Wars, if any effort were made to make it better (casting, acting special effects, plot, editing), it would have been just as bad as Transformers (although that is a very hard thing to do)! And yes, there is a reason why I make comparisons to Transformers (but I'll get to that in a minute).

So, (SPOILER ALERT, well, if not for the spoilers, you may just not see the movie, but anyways...) we start off With a bad Tom Cruise wanna-be (who looks as old as he is, but is supposed to be 20) reporting on an "incident" that happened in the L.A. area. From here, I started thinking that this is gonna be a bad movie, but before I can even finish that thought, we flash back to when he's 5 (or so) and (with his father) in an antique shop. Naturally, the boy wanders off and gets hit with a blue light. The shop dealer feigns a heart attack so that the father can leave (long enough) for him to make tea and tell the boy a story which leads us to a flashback within a flashback! Now I am able to finish my earlier thought.

While contemplating exactly how bad this movie is going to be, I am treated to ancient China with tons of hard to follow (but honestly, by this time I wasn't really paying attention) back story about a girl who must die to give a dragon (or whoever stumbles along) the power to ascend into heaven. Then, it gets really bad. Rejects from Episode I (complete with cannons on their backs) show up and attack...(well, carpet bomb) the city where this girl lives in order to find her, then run in there looking for her. That's when the Kung-Fu guy comes along and starts kicking butt. Even though he takes them all on, (as soon as he gets hurt) he decides to lead them right to the girl (and her "protector"). Now the "evil" dragon shows up. I say "evil" because (now that I think about it) both dragons wanted the same thing, except the good dragon was to receive the power willingly, and the evil one wanted to take it. Anyway....The protector and the girl kill themselves, which (I guess) stopped the power from leaving her (but the power was only to leave her when she died) and that takes us back to the present.

*Whew* So now I'm in full awe of this "epic" and more stuff keeps happening. The main girl (who looks like she's pushing 25, but is supposed to be 19) gets hit on by some "oh-too-friendly" guys outside a bar and the shopkeeper (who is a descendant of the Kung-Fu guy) just walks on screen kicks the crap out of them and (without saying a word) walks off camera. The Bad guy (dressed in his conspicuous bad guy outfit) just lurks around for no reason while the evil dragon chases the girl all over town. When the evil guy and the two leads meet up, the sidekick (who is a black guy who doesn't get killed) first tries to shoot him with a revolver (that only has two bullets in it) then (after that doesn't work) tries to hit him (to no avail). Turns out the the evil guy can handle everything except getting hit with a car (which happens twice in the movie).

Now the final showdown happens (which is just like Transformers) 'cept here we have a full out war going on down ONE STREET in L.A. and man, they went all out with the action. Tanks and army guys (who didn't even bother to show up to acting school when they were showing them how to act like army guys) vs the (yet again) Episode I rejects. Just when the evil dragon (which, much like Transformers, nobody sees until it's too late) is about to kill our leads (on top of a skyscraper) the Blackhawk helicopters show and shoot the @#$%^ out of the dragon. Then the smaller (winged) dragons show up and there is a full on dog fight in the air while the army is (still) fighting down the one street.

With all this that I have mentioned, there is still so much more to be seen in this awesome-ly bad movie: The out of place scenes, the massive amounts of (blood-less) carnage, and even some unexpected deaths made D-Wars "The most awesome-est worst movie ever" and I loved it!

9/13 show

Tonight (LIVE!) on "The Comic Book Novice" radio show. Join Hassan, Peter Palmiotti, Belkis and yours truly as we interview Platinum Studios' (www.platinumstudios.com) creative manager Carly Wagner. 9pm EST www.am1240wgbb.com

afterwards, leave your comments here!

Timing

When I first decided to do a blog, I had two rules. Update it on a weekly basis on the same day(s) and don't get into religion and/or politics.

Today I am breaking that rule (sort of). I mean isn't the saying "rules are made to be broken."?

Anyway, seeing as how this is Sept 11, and a Tuesday, I feel that talking about anything else in this blog would be wrong somehow.

Everyone has a "this is what I was doing..." story, and here is mine...

I was living in my old house at the time and working at "Big Choice" video. I woke up late morning and went downstairs to turn on the TV. It was static. I had cable, but it was only hooked up to the TV in the basement, so I figured that my antenna had fallen down from the roof (which had happened a few years prior). So I went to the basement and turned on that TV (before going outside to see if the antenna had fallen off).

And there it was.

I don't need to get into specifics, but needless to say (so why say it?) I was shocked.

I didn't lose any one during that time, and (while I lived near the city) I really never went there, so I wasn't affected personally. So to me, it was like everyone else finally knew what I was going through (I had lost my mother 2 years ago). That I can empathize with.

So here we are X years later and what really has changed? For me I drive into Manhattan more frequently now and can say that there are more cops around. But it still "feels" the same. Turn on the news and it's all the same as it was before, 'cept now there is a war going on (and it's not like we haven't had wars before). I bet if we look X more years into the future, it will be the same, just slightly more askewed.

Will the terrorists strike again? Probably, but I doubt it will be on such a grand scale any time soon.
Will we win the war on terror? No. You can't win a war based on a concept.
Will life go on? Yes, what other choice do we have?

on a lighter note (cause I find it difficult not to find humor in life) whenever asked how this day had affected me, I used to (and sometimes still do) say that Terrorists took away my TV.



10/21/08 update: Things are still "the same". There is still a big hole at ground zero. People are still worried that we will get atacked again. Life is still going on.

9/6 show

Tonight (LIVE!) on "the Comic Book Novice" radio program, Hassan, Peter Palmiotti, Belkis, and yours truly will be reviewing Rob Zombie's remake of the movie "Halloween". As with all of our review shows, this will be a free flowuing conversation and spoliers may be discussed. Seen the movie? have an opinion on it? give us a call
(631 888 8811) 9pm EST on 1240AM (in the New York/Long Island area) and online @ www.am1240wgbb.com

You get what you pay for

You know the saying. When I first started out on this adventure (it's an adventure to me!) it was just me. Then I got a business partner. Although we have since parted ways, that time together was very helpful and educational. Soon thereafter I was back on my own. I started the radio show and kept on pressing forward on my comic. With the radio show, I got 3 other people to work with. The comic, I recruited 2 others.

now (of course) not being made of money, I have to take whatever I can find. Not that they are bad people, or not as dedicated, but they have their own lives, their own (paying) jobs. So while they do help, I just don't get the same type of results as I would get if I actually pay them (and understandably so).

So here I am (roughly) 12 years later. I have the comic fully penciled, the radio show is up and running, I have a webmaster, and I continue to meet people willing to give their free time to help better my company.

where does that leave me now? I have a (much) larger force working with me, I'm still not paying them (well, not much anyways). Yet because of the time I put into this, the people I meet (who seem to be investing as much or even more time and effort into their own things) are willing and more able to give me what I need to succeed and that kind of help, money can't buy.

08/21/07 update: ah, another pay for play post. I think it was here when the differences really started to show through. I was putting in more and felt that I still wasn't getting to the places I wanted to be as fast as I probabaly would have if I was paying out a salary. But I know I wouldn't have gotten this far withoth them...

ComicSpace Page

So I totally created a comicspace page and been having a blast with it. Been meeting some interesting people on it and love looking at the art that is out there. Not just in the US but other countries as well. So come visit my page at www.comicspace.com/belkis.

-Belkis