I Ain't Afraid Of No Ghost... Or Am I?

There's a new game being developed for the Nintendo DSi that might just creep me out. Especially if I were to play it late at night... all alone... by myself... in the dark, if that's even possible.

The game is called Ghostwire. It's being developed by A Different Game based out of Sweden. It's kind of like a ghost hunting/research game... Think Ghost Hunters on your DSi. The game takes advantage of all the capabilities of the new DSi system by incorporating the camera, microphone and touch controls. Use the camera to search the area for spirits that will appear on the top half of the screen. Bottom half seems to use ghost hunting equipment, like a frequency modulator for tuning in the spirits. Once you have found the spirits, you can document them and find out why they are there. The ghosts can also give you riddles to solve that will help them find peace.

Not sure how far in production this game is in, but it did win 1st prize in Nokia's N-Gage Mobile Games Innovation Challenge 2008 earlier this year. That version of the game was for your cell phone or other mobile device. I'm hoping it will be at E3 next week. I'd like to see how this looks.

SDCC Sold Out - All Days

It's official... SDCC for 2009 is completely SOLD OUT! Sunday passes finally went earlier today. So if you planning to get your tickets and go... you're a little too late. I've been checking out the Spring Issue of the SDCC Update, I recently got in the mail, and checking to see what exhibtor booths are in there. I should have my "get" list for the exclusives set by the end of June. Once that's done I can tell how many things I can "mule" for people.

Here's something that I came across in a posting on the KR website. Pretty good tips for attending SDCC. There are a few that are quite humourous, but true. Check out the link!
http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/comic_con_by_the_numbers_200_tips_insights_and_cogent_observations_regardin/

Strikeforce

As I mentioned in a previous post, here is an old sketch I found cleaning out an old portfolio. I had to photocopy it to reduce it down so that it would fit on the scanner. Can't remember how old it is... maybe 15 years old or more. It's in regular pencil, on 11" x 17" paper and in an unfinished state. This was an early idea for the characters there and a few have changed since then.

I've come to notice something going through some of my sketches... I seem to have quite a few of them. Some in a rough state, others in a completed state. To top it off, I never do anything with the ideas either.

Unfortunately that's not the problem with this one. I drew this on the beach at a huge family outing. See the blotchy spot toward the top center? That's where a bird decided to add it's own handiwork to my drawing and that was the end of that. I did wipe it off, but that's the stain it left.

Power Rangers (re)Unite!

Announced in April, members of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers are heading to the 2009 Anime Expo for the largest Power Rangers reunion to date. Rangers in attendance to include:

• Karan Ashley - Aisha (Mighty Morphin’ Yellow Power Ranger)
• Steve Cardenas - Rocky (Mighty Morphin’ Red Power Ranger)
• Walter Jones - Zack (Mighty Morphin’ Black Power Ranger)
• Catherine Sutherland - Kat (Mighty Morphin’ Pink Power Ranger)
• Johnny Yong Bosch - Adam (Mighty Morphin’ Black Power Ranger)
• Robert Axelrod - Lord Zedd

Just last week even more Rangers from the franchise were announced:
(Check the Anime Expo website for scheduling since some of the actors will only be there for one or two days)

• Barbara Goodson - Empress Rita Repulsa (Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers)
• Nakia Burrise - Yellow Power Ranger (Turbo)
• Blake Foster - Blue Power Ranger (Turbo)
• Patricia Ja Lee - Pink Power Ranger (Turbo and In Space)
• Dan Southworth - Quantum Power Ranger- (Time Force)
• Cerina Vincent - Yellow Power Ranger (Lost Galaxy)
• Reggie Rolle - Green Power Ranger (Lost Galaxy)
• Amy Rolle - Trakeena (Lost Galaxy)
• Brandon Jay McLaren - Red Power Ranger (SPD)
• Monica May - Yellow Power Ranger (SPD)
• Chris Violette - Blue and Red Power Ranger (SPD)

I haven't really seen any of the shows after Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. So I'm not too sure who some of the other actors are. I only caught the repeats on Jetix of SPD, Mystic Force, Overdrive and Jungle Fury just last year. Most likely I will be checking this out when I go there.

Marathon Weekend

This Memorial Day Weekend was more like a marathon weekend for me... well at least Sunday and Monday.

Saturday I decided to trim the hedge at the studio and stop at the comic shop to check out the sale they were having over the weekend. It was a pretty good sale too. Picked up a nice $10 stack of comics at .25¢ each and 5 regular sized Uglydolls at 25% off, $15 each (Trunko, Winkolina, Blue Fea Bea, Orange Ox, Plunko).

On Sunday and Monday, Cartoon Network had a Total Drama Island marathon. They split the series between between both days, so it ran half-and-half. Monday they had a 6teen marathon which only consisted of only 6 episodes, not much of a marathon there. Then Boomerang ran a Teen Titans marathon. On that very same day SciFi aired their Land of the Lost marathon from 8am-4am... totally forgot how campy that show was and how I used to like it. That same morning was the L.A. Marathon too.

Needless to say that I hardly got anything done on Monday. No way was I about to go out in the morning/afternoon to deal with street closures and detours from the L.A. Marathon. Decided to just watch TV instead. I did try to organize some sketches that I found. May put a few up later.

SDCC Sunday Only Now

The Thursday passes finally sold out yesterday or the day before. That now only leaves Sunday passes left. Here are more exclusives that have been announced recently. See older posts for previously announced exclusives:

Uglydolls:
• GID Ice-Bat Blind Box Figures (6 per case = 1 full set per case)
Colors are Blue, Orange, Purple, Green, Yellow, Clear

AFX:
• Marvel Minimates - Thunderbolts boxed set (Norman Osborn, Penance, Radioactive Man, Venom)
• Friday the 13th Jason Voorhees Mini-Bust with Removable Mask
• Gothtropolis Blue Feline Action Figure (250 pieces)
All the Minimate sets are $20 (2000 pieces ea.), Gothtropolis is $20 and the busts are $60 (Jetfire 600 pieces)

Dark Horse Comics:
• Translucent Domo Qee (Yellow Variant)

Mr. Toast:
• Ninja Joe the Egg (1000 pieces - only 800 at SDCC) $10 - 2 per person limit

ToyQube
• Mini Sharky - Kieth Poon x ToyQube Box Set (Pearl Black, Pearl White, GID, Clear)

Kozik:
• Happy Beaver - Kozik Evil Beaver Variant (tentative SDCC release and booth TBD)

Kotobukiya:
• Black Widow (blonde) Marvel x Bishoujo (500 pieces)

NECA:
• Street Fighter 4 Guile Figure (Charlie's Classic Costume)
• Dead Space Issac Clarke Figure (Unitology Suit
• Gears of War Locust Grenadier Figure (Lambent)
• TMNT April O' Neil with Mousers Figure
• Special Edition Coraline Bendable Figure in Star Spangled Sweater

Diamond Exclusives:
• Dark X-Men: Beginning #1-Sketch Variant (7500 copies)
• Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia-Sketch Variant (7500 copies)
• Red Skirt Dawn PVC 7" Statue (1000 pieces)
• Transformers G1 Animated Megatraon Bust (600 pieces)
• Marvel Minimates - Dark Avengers boxed set #2 (Ares, Sentry, Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye)(2000 pieces)
• Ghostbusters Minimates - Venkman & Stay Puft Marshmallow Man 2-Pack (2000 pieces)
• Ghostbusters - Angry Stay Puft Marshmallo Man Bank (1000 pieces)

Star Wars:
• Force Unleashed Stormtrooper

Sideshow Collectibles:
• Gunmetal Grey Iron Man Mark III 12" Figure
• 1/6 Luke and Han in Stormtroop Disguise 12" Figure Set
• Subject 16566: The Butcher 12" Figure
• Mount Doom Frodo and Sam Diorama
• Crimson Cobra Commander 12" Figure
• Runaway Brain Mickey Mouse Vinyl Figure by Medicom Toy x Disney
• Mort - Black and White Edition Vinyl Figure

Shocker Toys:
• Black and White Dick Tracy Standard Action Figure
• Black and White Dick Tracy Variant Action Figure (Available at SDCC only)

Terminated

I guess it's now official... Sarah Conner Chronicles is over. Fox announced their line up for the 2009-2010 season and this is not on their schedule at all. What a bummer... Think it was a bit premature of them to cancel a show with so much potential. Especially when they have a big summer blockbuster of a movie coming out this week.

They could have given it a 13 episode run. Dollhouse got picked up for a 13 episode 2nd season. Even Heroes and Chuck got renewed by NBC for the same number of episodes.

Kraken

Occasionally I will sketch/doodle things on pieces of scratch paper, while I'm on a phone call or taking a break from the computer, at work. A lot of them are on small pieces and usually with work notes on them. Not too often do they turn out as detailed as this one.

Kinda had an idea for a character like this for a while now, but really wasn't sure about the look. May be one day I'll get the rest of him done. For now it's just a head sketch for a starting point.

Terminator Salvation - Hollywood Premiere

Went to the Hollywood premiere of Terminator Salvation on Thursday night. The part that sucks about going to a premiere is that you have to line up around the corner across the street from the theater. So you can't see any of the stars walking the carpet and you're far away. Also, you get a ticket with an assigned seat that is way in front or way in front and off to the sides. I remember getting some really bad seats for the premiere of Batman and got decent seats for the Watchmen premiere. The good thing is that you are in the theater and are able to see the stars, if you can recognize them. They even had a few of the terminator robots outside the entrance of the theater and the after party. The after party had a rebellion outpost/military look and feel to it, with camouflage netting, scrap metal and wreckage.

This movie is going to rock the house! The action is great from beginning to end!
3 great action movies to start off the summer.

Hello Kitty

So about 2 weeks ago my dog starts barking near the corner of the garage and retaining wall in the evening. I go to check it out and find out that a cat has decided to hang out in the space between there. Not only that, but it brought 2 kittens along with it. One beige the other black and white, mother was calico colored. Since it was already dark and late in the evening, I thought it best to not do anything until morning. Also hoped that the mother cat would move them now that it knows my dog is there.

The next morning I go to check and they are gone, or so I thought. That afternoon both kittens were hiding nearby with no sign of the mother. So I went to try and catch them before they went back into the crevice between the garage and the wall. Unfortunately the black and white one took off and somehow squeezed through a neighbor's chain link fence. The other one wasn't as active but still would not budge from the crevice. I finally had to maneuver it into a fishing net from there, then put it into a box with a bowl of water. It seemed a bit scared and I really didn't want to stress it out anymore than it was, so I left it alone for a bit in the box out back. I think I left it for about 10 minutes and when I went to go check the box it was empty. I started looking all over the backyard for a couple of minutes and found it in a corner of the yard hiding in a yellow patch of grass. Picked it up with gardening gloves and put it back into the box. This time I covered it with a mesh. This kitten felt really thin when I picked it up, so I gave it some soft doggie treats and dog food. It was pretty hungry. In the meantime, I am also texting my editor to see if she wants the kitten. I had heard that her sister's cat recently passed, so I thought she might want it. Only problem was that her sister lives in New Mexico and they would have to figure that out, but she did want the kitten.

Later that evening, about 2am, the kitten is crying and a lot more active than this afternoon. I decide to get up because now my dog is barking and neither one of them seems to be stopping. So I block off the door leading out of the pantry area and let the kitten out in there. I give it a bit more food and seems to be getting used to me, but it still does not want to keep quiet. By now it's about 3:30am and I need to get up around 6am. I decide to turn out the light in the room and just sit there and sleep to keep the kitten company. Finally by 4am it has found an area to hide in and falls asleep and I go back to my bed.

The next morning I get ready to take the kitten into the office, but find out that the other one came back and is hiding in the space again. Not sure how it got back in there since I blocked both ends off. This time I used the fishing net again to catch it and put into a really tall box, since this one is way more active. Unfortunately I had to take the black and white kitten into the animal shelter, since I could not find anyone to take it in right away.

My editor did take the beige one into the vet before taking it to New Mexico over the weekend. I found out from her that it was a boy, when I thought it might be a girl, and it had some fleas, but didn't seem sick or have any other problems. If I were a cat person I probably would have kept him, especially since he had a nice disposition and very cute.

Terminator Salvation Screening

I just got back from seeing a screening of the new Terminator movie, Terminator Salvation tonight. This movie is great! Way better than Rise of the Machines. It is non-stop action from start to finish. Effects are just amazing! ILM has been really working overtime... considering they worked on this, Star Trek and the upcoming release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. So far this is starting to be a great summer movie year.

I do have to say something about how the screening was handled though. I got to the screening a little before 3pm and was the first person there (screening was at 7pm). They were letting VIP and media go in before us, after checking in, and there were quite a few of them going into the theater. By 6:45pm, which was the time they were letting us in, there had to be over 200 people in line. When they started to let us in, we were told to sit in the first 3 rows only (about 25 seats per row). About 85-90% of the seating was reserved for VIP and media and we got the first 3 rows? WTF?! It looked like about 35-40 of us were let into the screening before some of us noticed that the very first row was empty and some of the seats around us were not getting filled. In fact there were quite a few unoccupied seats scattered around. We later noticed that people with the screening passes had not come through the door since all of us first came in. Then a few minutes later the curtains went up, lights went out and the movie started. All the seats were never filled and 150-200+ people still waiting in line to get in never did. That really sucked for them cause another 75-100 could have bit fit in easily. If they only knew of all the unoccupied seats...

Star Trek Screening - IMAX Version

Got to see another screening of Star Trek this past Thursday. But this time it was on the IMAX screen. Seeing it on the IMAX screen made was way cooler than the previous screening I attended. Effects were just outrageous! Most of the seating in the back were taken and middle was reserved. But the ones we got weren't too far forward that made it awkward while viewing. They even played previews of Harry Potter - Half Blood Prince, Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen and Night at the Museum - Battle at the Smithsonian.

If you are going to see this movie, then see it on the IMAX screen. You won't be disappointed. I even saw the Tribble this time around.

SNIKT!

Given the fact that the work print to this movie got leaked onto the internet and downloaded by millions of people way before its release, it still made quite a bit of money. Eventhough I had heard things about it, I still went to see it over the weekend.

There were some slow areas in the film and I would liked to have seen more of his team in the beginning... Deadpool was just great there. I know that this is a Wolverine movie but I would have liked to see a little more action with Gambit and Deadpool (before the alterations). At least they changed the end from what the work print showed to reflect a possible spin-off. But from what I have been hearing the film is being shown with both endings, depends on which ending the theater got. Noticed a few little things were edited out that were in the work print.

It wasn't a great movie, but it wasn't a bad one either. Being a big Marvel/X-Men fan it was cool to see some of the other characters in this movie. I guess a sequel is being thrown around with the story reflecting his life Japan... which would mean the villians might be Silver Samurai and The Hand. Plus a Deadpool spin-off too.

Goodbye Foster's and Friends.

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is coming to an end. The last 5 episodes air later today, right after the Foster's marathon. Just like many other popular cartoon series that have aired on Cartoon Network that have ended while they were still popular, like... Teen Titans, JLU, Dexter's Lab, Power Puff Girls, Samurai Jack, Kids Next Door. I missed the past few season's episodes, so I hope they put seasons 3-6 on DVD.

I'm going to miss seeing Foster's, but I can't wait for Total Drama Action and Stoked to air. Hoping that there will be a 4th season of 6teen too, but as far as I know that ended after the 3rd season in 2008 on Canadian TV.

Free Comics This Saturday

This Saturday, May 2, is Free Comic Book Day at many local comic book stores across the country. All you have to do is just go down to your local comic shop for your free comic book or books. It will all depend on what they limit their giveaways to. Some places let you have only one, others my let you have 3 or more than that. Store will even have artist signings and other types of giveaways. I know that William Shatner will be at the Golden Apple on Melrose signing his comic Tek War from 1-3pm that day, in addition to other artists.