Philadelphia, if you haven’t decided on being in Old City tonight for first Friday, you should definately consider the fact that Brave New Worlds is hosting the mobile Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles van.

“But Tim, I’m going to be at Cavanaugh’s River Deck for the Mashable Mixer sponsored by Independents Hall!”

Oh please, don’t give me that excuse.  I’ll be shmoozin’ with the drink specials there too, but it’s not stopping me from checking out this mobile museum of memorabilia celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first TMNT comic.

The TMNT Van will be across the street from Brave New Worlds tonight from 6-9pm @ 45 N. 2nd Street.  See you there!

PS:  Don’t forget about FREE COMIC BOOK DAY – it’s tomorrow at comic shops everywhere!

If you find well drawn mice in capes adorable yet bad ass and haven’t read David Petersen’s Mouse Guard, it is required you catch up. Comic Book Resources chatted recently with Archaia Studios Press (publisher of Mouse Guard) as well as its new parent media firm, Kunoichi about the publisher’s past, its recent rebirth, and its future plans.

Archaia Studios Press, based out of Kearny, New Jersey, was acquired by Kunoichi in 2008 and has since suspended production to rework its business model with the media gurus. Now, Archaia Studios Press feel it’s ready to resume production and distribution of its several titles including Jacamon and Matz’s The Killer (soon to become a film, go figure) and O’chua and Sheikman’s Robotika (but most importantly Mouse Guard).

Archaia Studios Press will continue releasing the (somewhat) monthly series of Mouse Guard this month with Issue 6 of the “Winter 1152″ story arc. Check your local comic store if you’re interested in some rodent warrior action!

(Via Comic Book Resources)

Ah, May 2nd. Free Comic Book Day. The single day when shops around the world give away comic books to anyone who walks into the store. And our pals over at Brave New Worlds (what’s up guys!) in Old City are happily participating.

What can you expect? Lots of Stormtroopers from the 501st Legion will be there, trooping around Old City. You can also meet Spider Man. Will they battle? My sources say yes.

If you want to RSVP you can visit their Facebook page event. You don’t have to, but hey, it’s nice to see just how many people are swinging by.

PS: Brian, please bring Supergirl to the Old City event.

PSS: No, you can’t hire Bianca. She couldn’t pull off Supergirl.

PSSS: Bianca, stop hitting me.

Brave New Worlds Comics
www.bravenewworldscomics.com

Hot damn! Zack Shackleton, you are a genius my friend. Head on over to Zack’s Flickr page to scope out his fantastic custom Mac desktops.

The desktop uses a combination of tools, including Geektools (handles the stats, clock, to do list, CPU, etc), an altered OSX taskbar thanks to Magnifique, and Yahoo widgets.

You can get all the details on how to create this outstanding Spiderman desktop page here, and he’s got several more in this Flickr set.

Enjoy!

The Spidermac Desktop via Lifehacker

A few weeks ago I interviewed the creators of  Black Cherry Bombshells who are featured on DC Comics‘ Zuda site. During the interview, they mentioned the other members of their team, one of whom was colorist John Dallaire.  Dallaire, along with Pinkraygun co-founder Lisa Fary, is also competing in the newest round of the Zuda competition with his comic Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad .  Here’s a short plot synopsis:

Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad is a science fiction police comic inspired by Barney Miller and Serpico, set in an intergalactic police station. The comic tells the story of Detective Janet Moore, the newest – and youngest – addition to a famously peaceful precinct where cops go to countdown the days until retirement. While Moore adjusts to her new assignment, she uncovers a web of corruption that threatens the entire department.

The competition began last Monday and runs until April 30th. Currently Grey Squad is ranked in 5th place, but hopefully there are folks out there who will help raise that rank. Not only are Fary and Dallaire using this opportunity to show off their work, they are also using the comic to raise money for a worthy cause. Fary and Dallaire will put forth twenty five cents for every comment their comic receives to the Fraternal Order of Police survivor’s fund with a goal of raising $1,000. Also, once you vote and leave a comment, you are eligible to win a $25 gift certificate to Geno’s or Pat’s. In their press release, Fary stated that no matter the outcome of the competition, they know they are contributing to a bigger cause.

“We’re putting a lot of effort into promoting Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad,” Fary said. “Of course we’d like to win, but regardless of Grey Squad’s performance in DC’s competition, we’d like the effort to go toward something meaningful and benefit something greater than ourselves.”

I believe we have enough Geekadelphians out there to help John and Lisa reach their goal and then some. We here at Geekadelphia wish Lisa and John good luck in the remaining weeks of the competition.

Our friend’s over at Brave New Worlds are a busy lot. Tomorrow starting at  6:30 they will host the Autumn Society of Philadelphia’s Joker’s Wild gallery. The first friday exhibit will show off  Batman‘s greatest villain as interpreted by different artists. I will be there, and I won’t look like the saddest kid in the comic book store like I did during the Watchmen party.

Check out what else is in store this month after the break. (more…)

As someone that read the graphic novel, I was really looking forward to seeing how the animated story-within-a-story titled “Tales of The Black Freighter” would play out in the movie.  Unfortunately early reports indicated that it wasn’t part of the final cut of the film…so even as I silently visibly reacted at Jackie Earle Haley’s frighteningly awesome representation of Rorschach, I felt a tinge of disappointment knowing an important piece was missing.

But you know what?  It’s ok.  I got over it.  Here’s why:  “Tales of The Black Freighter” has just been released today on Blu-Ray, DVD, and On Demand, and features stunning animation voiced by the most badass Spartan of them all: Gerard Butler.  If that’s not enough to pique your interest, the release also comes with Hollis Mason’s “Under The Hood” which features Nite-Owl’s firsthand account of his generation of masked crime-fighters.

It’s settled, I definately think I could leave work a bit early to pick this up today.  Between watching this, and my new Netflix arrivals (Sunshine & Quantum of Solace) I think I’ll easily have enough excellent material to veg out to for the rest of the week.

Details @ theWorldofWatchmen.com

This weekend I spoke with the Philly-based creators of Black Cherry Bombshells, Tony Trov and Johnny Zito. During the interview we discussed how the story came about, their influences, as well as the rights of tigers who fight while wearing jetpacks. Before we get to that, here’s a brief description of Black Cherry Bombshells:

BCB is about a world in which all the men have been turned into flesh eating zombies and women band together in ultra violent gangs to survive in post-apocalyptic Las Vegas. The Black Cherry Bombshells are an up-and-coming gang of bootleggers. Regina is their leader. Megan, the ex-magician, is their newest recruit. There’s lots of twists and turns along the way.

Hit the jump for the interview. (more…)

I went to the midnight opening of Watchmen with some friends last night, so I do have a few things to say about the movie.  My mind is still reeling, however, and until I can compose a set of coherent thoughts into a post, this gallery will surely bring a chuckle or two.

Gizmodo decided to run a Photoshop contest last week to see what their readers could do to ruin the movie (sort of) by changing certain things in a single frame from the movie.

Check them out, whether you’re a fan or not, because some of them are surprisingly done well (not including the one I included above.  The Snuggie is just hilarious on it’s own.)

Gizmodo’s 104 Ways to Ruin the Watchmen Movie

As geeks prepare to stand in line out in the cold, we here at Geekadelphia will probably be celebrating the release with our friends at Brave New Worlds in Old City.

It will be tomorrow, Thursday, March 5th.  The event starts at 4pm and will last through 6pm.  Tons of give-aways, including free tickets to see Watchmen that night, are just some of the things to look forward to.

After the event, come out with us for some drinks before venturing out for the midnight showing!

Brave New Worlds Comics
45 N. 2nd Street
Philadelphia, Pa.
Directions

For more details, call 215.925.6525

With less than a week until the release of Watchmen, geeks are foaming at the mouth in anticipation…and as if we all didn’t need any more promotional imagery to convince us of how ridiculously awesome this movie will be, here’s a Flickr collection by a user named thenewfrontiersman.

If you’re a fan, the name will ring a bell, and if you click through to check out his gallery you’d see it has the potential to be one helluva scrapbook.  Vintage photograph of the Vietcong surrendering to Dr. Manhattan?  Yes, please.

via Iwatchstuff

Toronto based artist Cameron Stewart’s Sin Titulo, is an interesting webcomic I’ve come across.  Stewart’s combination of great artwork and writing creates a very suspenseful and dramatic read.  Each page ends on the type of cliffhanger that has been a staple of the television show Lost. It always leaves more questions to be answered, and I do find myself waiting in anticipation for the next page.

The story so far is of Alex Mackay, who goes to visit his grandfather at an elderly home, only to discover he has been dead for a month. If that isn’t enough to handle, while going through his late grandfather’s belongings, he finds a photo of his grandfather with a young, attractive woman. His questions regarding this woman leads to a whole mess of problems that only lead to more problems.

The artwork reminds me of a great combination of Alex Toth and Darwyn Cooke.  Very clean lines, expressive characters, and great visual storytelling. In some cases, the images read and feel more like storyboards. We’re given just enough information to understand the situation. While the characters and environments may look simple, I know that making something look that simple and clean does take tons of practice.

The comic panels never change in size or shape, which keeps the same rhythm. The strip has a  cinematic feel without resorting to a widescreen format, giving each panel a claustrophobic effect.  We’re always close in on the action, a conversation, a dream, or a memory. Sometimes it feels uncomfortable because Alex may see or experience something unsettling. For example an assault of an elderly person by an extremely creepy orderly, or when Alex recounts a childhood memory of a violent confrontation with his father. This gives the feeling that there’s nowhere Alex or the reader can go at this point, either in his dreams or the present, and not have drama follow him. In case you haven’t realized by now, this comic is not for the younger readers.

I think I’ve said as much as I can without spoiling the experience of this comic for the rest of you. Needless to say I am a fan of Sin Titulo and I wait in anticipation for what the next page reveals.  Hopefully a printed form of this story will become available. It’s one of the few comics around that I’d most certainly pay for.

[via Cameron Stewart and Sintitulocomic.com]