Fantatsic Four - Comic Stop Style!

I am super proud to announce the newest addition to the Comic Stop Empire - Comic Stop 4 in the University District!

More details to come but the gist is this; we decided that it was time to bring the crazy world of the Comic Stop to the U District. With that goal in mind, George, Jim, Brian, and myself sharpened our battle axes and got ready for battle! Zanadu Comics was the prize we had in mind and we knew it would be a vicious battle. Much blood was spilled, (go ahead, I dare you to ask me to show you my battle scars!), but in the end we hoisted a flagon of mead over the lifeless body of the Zanadu employees and raised the Comic Stop flag! Huzzah! Victory is ours!!!!

Actually, Perry (the owner of Zanadu) called us and asked if we would be interested in purchasing the U District store and we are extremely happy to work with him and the Zanadu crew to make the transition of Zanadu to Comic Stop a smooth one. We will be keeping the current staff of John and Sean, so stop by and welcome them into the Comic Stop family.

We are going to have some amazing celebration news coming so stay tuned. Better yet, follow the Comic Stop on Twitter @comicstop!

And, just because I know this is what most of you thought when I said FF Comic Stop style! Your welcome!

It's been a while

Yes, it has been a while since I last wrote but I make no excuses. Life happens and sometimes other things take priority. I won't say that I'm going to turn over a new leaf in the coming year but I plan on trying to be a more active blogger in 2011.

Bacon Love Fest '09 comes to The Comic Stop!

I put this on The Comic Stop blog but figured I would do so here as well.

Last week I was speaking to Kristina, of Geeked fame, and the subject of bacon came up. (Don't ask) I mentioned to her that I had seen a news report about a "Bacon Festival" that was happening in Seattle that weekend. However, try as we might, we could find no info regarding the Super Secret Double Classified Bacon Festival.

And thus, sadness became the order of the day. (At least until the subject of Star Trek at the IMAX came up. Then the day was, once again, glorious!)

Now, like many of you, my love of bacon is boundless. I love it all. The smell. The taste. The sometimes crunchy and the sometimes chewy. The applewood smoked to the uncured. Simply put, I love the pure awesomeness that is all things BACON! I'm not ashamed (much) to admit that the thought of Diet Coke with Bacon isn't completely nauseating.

However, it also occurs to me that, like many of you, I tend to preform my "bacon love" in private. Many times having to awaken earlier than usual so that I might bake a rack of bacon and eat it all before the family wakes up and demandses to share my preciousssss. Nasty, nasty hobitses!! The baconses is mine! MINE!!!

*Ahem* Sorry.

I think it's time to come out of the bacon closet (wouldn't that actually be a hardwood smoker?) and embrace our fellow bacon lovers! To that end, I propose that The Comic Stop host Bacon Love Fest '09!

We'll keep things simple. Let's pick a Saturday and gather at the Lynnwood Comic Stop. Sometime in the next few weeks? Say, the 23rd? Around 6pm? Sounds good.

Everyone should bring a bacon dish or two (or three or four). Post here what you will be bringing so we don't get a bunch of the exact same dish. Not that duplicate dishes are a bad thing but I think we should strive for diversity in out Bacon Love Fest.

Not a cook you say? No problem! Just bring some strips of cooked bacon and we'll let you partake of the meaty goodness that others bring.

I will start by volunteering to bring some Bacon Candy, Cornflake Bacon Cookies, Caribbean Beef and Bacon Stuffed Plantains and the amazing Porkgasm! ---->

See you at Bacon Love Fest '09!

Watchmen - The Elseworlds Versions

I'll write a review of Watchmen later this weekend but in the meantime, check out the Watchmen funnies.

Elseworlds Watchmen

And this would TOTALLY be the opening credits to the Quentin Tarintino version!

Saturday Morning Watchmen

(Thanks to Awesomed By Comics for finding it first)

7 Things About Me That You Probably Don't Know

I figure that since I read her post on the subject, I have been tagged. So here we go:

The rules are as follows:

• Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know that they have been tagged.

1. I once ran interference on a jealous boyfriend while James Robinson, the guy who was sleeping with the boyfriend's girlfriend, made a quick escape. (I don't think James likes me telling that story anymore) :-)

2. I've spent several days in jail. (No, I won't tell you about it.)

3. I once pretended to be British for an entire summer just so I could get a girl to sleep with me and then after she did, I told her I really was not. (Yeah, I was a dick in college)

4. I own over 150 karaoke discs.

5. I've acted with both Cuba Gooding Jr and Sean Patrick Flanery as well as Sharon Case. (In fact, I'm pretty sure I can say I've seen them all nekid before!)

6. While I've never seen a live donkey show before, I have seen a piso show while in the Philippines. A piso is about the size of an American half dollar. At a piso show, the "performer" takes all the piso coins that have been thrown at her, stacks them up and then proceeds to become a human bank machine. Cha-ching! (I still breakout into a sweat when I have to roll coin at the shop)

7. My first wife, Kelly, is responsible for setting me up with my current wife, Nina. (Actually, she set me up with Nina's best friend who brought Nina along on the date but that's a whole other story. One that does NOT have anything to do with this inspirational poster.)

Unfortunately, I believe most everyone who I know that blogs has already been tagged so I can only tag Krista and Jeremy.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Nightmare Revisited

A couple of years ago, Disney released a new soundtrack to The Nightmare Before Christmas. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed in the 2006 Nightmare Before Christmas re-release. At the time, I felt the key selling point to that cd was the five songs that Marilyn Manson, Fall Out Boy, Fiona Apple, She Wants Revenge and Panic! At The Disco covered. Of those, the She Wants Revenge track was almost unlistenable and the Panic! At The Disco track as merely ok. What I really wished they had done was a whole album of remakes. The five songs was pretty cool and the Danny Elfman demo tracks were nice but really, only a die hard fan was going to find those interesting.

Which brings us to the just released Nightmare Revisited. Billed as "performances inspired by Danny Elfman's music from The Nightmare Before Christmas", the disc consists of 20 total tracks, two of which are the original opening and closing monologues to the film as done by Elfman and one duplicate song from the 2006 release, (Manson's This Is Halloween). For those of you with bad math skill's, that amounts to 17 new tracks.
I'll cut right to the chase. If you are a Nightmare fan, this collection is awesome and I highly recommend it. Even if you aren't a Nightmare fan, I still recommend it.Some really good music is here and a few real gems!

The Good: Marilyn Manson doing This Is Halloween, Korn's version of Kidnap The Sandy Claws and Shiny Toy Guns doing the Finale/Reprise are a few of my favorites. Like a good remake should, these and most of the new versions on this album retain the feeling of the original but add a little something new to the mix as well. Many times a remake will either push to far, sounding so different from the source material that it becomes un-listenable. Either that or it stays so close to the original that you think, "Why did you even bother. I'll just listen to the original."

Much like the 2006 release, Sally's Song is the standout on this disc. Amy Lee, of the band Evanescence, pours so much emotion into the song that it's almost heartbreaking. The music arrangement is outstanding, again, adding so much to the song without making it unrecognizable.

Danny Elfman reciting the original Closing monologue gives us a glimpse into what the future might have held for Jack and Sally along with a friendship between Jack and Santa.

Finally, the packaging. It's simple but very well done. The case features pictures of Jack, Sally, Zero and Lock, Shock and Barrel. The artwork isn't credited but I believe they are all production sketches by Tim Burton. If they aren't, they are at least done in the Tim Burton style.

The Bad: While I enjoyed the disc overall, there are a few tunes that took a while before I could appreciate them. Among those were the Overture by DeVotchKa, (something about polka and Nightmare Before Christmas doesn't seem to want to fit in my brain and yet upon repeated listens, it totally works for me now.) and Jack's Obsession done by Sparkelhorse, (It's a bit too whiny).

I really love the Marilyn Manson This is Halloween but I also really hate that this was a re-release from the 2006 album. I wish they would have given somebody else a crack at the song. Thankfully, this is the only song repeated from 2006 and you won't have to endure repeated listenings of She Wants Revenge doing a horrible version of Kidnap The Sandy Claws.

If you are an iTunes person, there is a bonus song by Tiger Army when you download the album. They do Oogie Boogie's Song. How is it? I wish I could tell you. I didn't find out about the bonus song till after I bought the cd. Grrrrr!
(Update. You can now download the song on it's own but it still peeves me that even if I downloaded the song I will always feel like my cd is incomplete. Damn my collectors sensibilities! DAMN YOU TO HELL!!!)

The song that upsets me most is Flyleaf doing What's This?. It isn't that they do a horrible version of the song. It's actually ok. My problem is the tone of the song. What should be the most joyous song on the album is reduced to a somewhat mournful sounding song. I appreciate the artistic choice the band made in trying to do something different but I just don't think it works. Part of the problem is the original is SO perfect in it's enthusiasm that any deviation from that energy it is going to come up lacking. Fall Out Boy did the 2006 version of the song and while I don't think that version is spectacular, it at least tried to capture the wonder and awe of discovering Christmas for the first time. Lacey Mosley, Flyleaf's lead singer, almost sounds bored in Flyleaf's rendition. "What's this? Oh. Christmas. *yawn*"

The Ugly: Rjd2's Christmas Eve Montage and Datarock doing To The Rescue. Remember Meco's Star Wars from the 70's? That's what these electronica version's remind me of.
*shudder*
(Don't even try and convince me that Meco Star Wars was good in a kitchy kind of way. It's a perfect example of why disco has a bad name)

The Bottom Line: It's good stuff. I recommend buying it from Amazon or downloading from iTunes.

Yikes! Still more Halloween at Disney pictures!

I was chastised for not actually putting any of the Disney Halloween Party photos up, so here they are.

The whole clan on Paradise Pier


Jenna and the Princesses


A cool pumpkin Mickey light


The kids show no fear of what happens to candy pirates!


Cinderella's evil step mother and step sisters


Not actually a picture from the party but a favorite.