Well, someone had to knock that last post from the top of the page.

I’m off with J. to France in a few days for the longest break from work I’ve had in over two years. I’m most looking forward to checking out the original sets from the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, picking up a Corto Maltese ashtray and visiting the location of the original Grand Guignol. Other than that, my schedule is wide open. Any recommendations for strange or wonderful sights would be appreciated.

My posting will be understandably light for the next few weeks, so expect to see Gary take up the slack with all sorts of disturbing images.

This past week I’ve been hit with a multitude of setbacks from losing my job (yikes!) to having my computer getting completely fucked (d’oh). It’s time for a special kind of therapy that only seeing a man’s head engulfed in an elephants rank ass can do. :)

I’m off to beautiful Montreal this weekend with my MMR compadres for our first ever outdoor metal festival, Heavy Mtl (Warning: Link may contain too much metal for one hand).

Attending a metal fest has been a dream of ours since we were children. I’m at least as excited by the notion of being surrounded by tens of thousands of metalheads on Metal Island as I am for the bands themselves.

My favourite item from yesterday’s skim through various comic sites was Tom Spurgeon contrasting The Incredible Hulk and Sammo Hung. I can only imagine The Incredible Hulk would have benefited by having Sammo play the lead.

I’ve been on a big Sammo kick these past few days, watching his earlier work like Enter The Fat Dragon and My Lucky Stars. Up until recently I only knew Sammo through his association with fellow China Drama Academy students Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao. It was S.P.L. that prompted me to look deeper and discover his talents not only as an actor, but behind the camera as a stunt choreographer and director, as well. This inadvertently lead me to the discovery that there was a Martial Law/Walker, Texas Ranger crossover, a portion of which you can watch above, if the very thought of such a thing simply existing hasn’t made you lose your shit already.

Just in time for Father’s Day, the latest Macho Movie Review podcast is up, and this time we revel in the barrel-chested machismo of Hero of Rome. All three panelists were in agreement that of the fifteen movies we’ve seen so far, Hero of Rome was the greatest. Hero of Rome is in the public domain, and is available in all its shield strangulation glory as a torrent here. It comes with my highest recommendation. The remainder of the Macho Movie Review podcasts can be found via the links below.

Hercules and the Masked Rider
Spartacus and the Ten Gladiators
Conquerer of the Orient
Last of the Vikings
Two Gladiators
Ursus in the Land of Fire
Cleopatra’s Daughter
David and Goliath
Hercules Against the Moon Men
Ali Baba and the Seven Saracens
The Giant of Marathon
Giants of Thessaly
Colossus and the Amazon Queen
Duel of Champions

I was just checking out this weeks installment of Brian Cronin’s incredible Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed feature at Comic Book Resources just now when I got a crazy deja vu vibe as I laid my orbs on this cover in his story about Peter David’s Star Trek comics (still reading atm).

Being a barely adequate student of Andrew Loomis’ excellent art books, that girl on the cover really rang a bell.

Now I try my best not to care one way or the other over such things, especially here on the lovable I Was Ben, so I’ll let you be the judge. I find these things pretty interesting as more of an easter egg factor, but that’s just me ;).

Regardless, do check out Brian’s weekly gig for wicked rad Comic Book Urban Legends!

There’s just something about this new Hulk that doesn’t sit well with me…

JohnKricfalusi’s work was something that I really, really loved as a kid. Whenever I’d see his stuff it was good times indeed. I was super-jazzed to find out about his incredible blog some time ago!

I’ve been doing art stuff for a few years now (never got into animation like IWB’s second half) and  have found his site helping me tremendously with lots of things. It’s always a surprise everyday with topics from composition, colour, hack executives… really just about everything and more. Word!

Anyone into animation, illustration, painting or anything can get something outta this great nugget of internet, so do check it out if you have a minute!

After a lengthy lull I’m finally easing my way back into animating, and to loosen up I’ve pulled out my Shaw Bros. collection and immersed myself in the balletic art of violence known as Kung Fu. I found the clip above at The Slums of Shaolin, where the proprietor gives a rundown on 36th Chamber of Shaolin director Lau Kar Leung’s incredible heritage. The clip is a straightforward, no frills look at various techniques from a man who spent his entire life as an ambassador for the martial arts.

Happy kinda sorta anniversary, sweets! And thanks for the beer!