The G+ Virus gives humans superpowers! Writer Monty Nero and artist Mike Dowling deliver an off-beat mature-audience superhero book in “Death Sentence.” In this world, the G+ Virus is like the AIDS virus that has spread across the globe affecting the general population. The G+ Virus is transmitted through unprotected sex, but the virus gives humans superhuman powers. There is a catch though, once you get it, you will ONLY have 6 months to live. Now what will you do with 6 months on the planet? What kind of superhuman power(s) will you get? And what will you do with your superpowers?
Sex, Drugs and Superpowers is Death Sentence
July 9, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Travel Gear with Pilot & Captain
July 8, 2014 by Leave a Comment
If you find yourself traveling the country this summer by bus, car, plane or train and in need of getting gifts for family and friends, or just yourself, then make sure you check out this Philly outfit Pilot & Captain. From the award-winning design house The Heads of State, the founders Dustin Summers and Jason Kernevich stamp their own design touch to Pilot & Captain. Just dropping into Pilot & Captain are new molded souvenir magnets, postcards, mugs and notebooks.
Pilot & Captain Magnet – MSRP: $4.99USD each
Pilot & Captain Postcard Pack – MSRP: $15.00USD
Chicago Mobsters meet Lord of the Rings: Hot Lead, Cold Iron
July 1, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The “Underworld” of trench coats and Tommy guns meets the “Otherworld” of magic and the supernatural. This is 1930s Chicago, where the mobsters run the town and Mick Oberon ain’t no ordinary dick, this P.I. got special powers. Instead of a revolver to pump hot lead, he uses a magic wand, really, I’m not joking. His wand of choice is the Luchtaine & Goodfellow Model 1592. Worlds collide in Hot Lead, Cold Iron by author Ari Marmell.
Kidrobot – The Art of War Dunny Series
June 30, 2014 by 2 Comments
This past weekend Kidrobot released The Art of War dunny series. The toy design theme for each of the 14 artists involved was to design a dunny figure based on Sun Tzu’s warmongering strategy novel – The Art of War. Our Ramen & a Half hosts of Eddie Ballar and Ramon Angel stopped by Kidrobot SF for the artist signing and release event with Frank Kozik, DrilOne and Huck Gee. We grab a quick interview with each about their dunny figure in the series and their upcoming projects. We also go unboxing a case with fellow dunny collector/artist Big C.
Dwell on Design LA 2014
June 25, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Our special guest host Anett Mende takes on the biggest modern home/office living event Dwell on Design LA 2014. The 3-day design showcased over 2,000 products and our Spotlight crew highlight products that caught our attention.
23 Short Stories from the Wild West: Dead Man’s Hand
June 23, 2014 by Leave a Comment
All we get now in the multiplexes and the TV screens are superheroes, zombies and vampires! Hey, Hollywood, about some good old-fashion cowboy flicks? That Johnny Depp “Lone Ranger” fail of a film did not count! How about dropping some John Woo/Tarantino-style old west cowboy stories? I can envision a pair of Colt .45’s blasting in slo-mo during a stage coach robbery scene. Enough with the World War II movies, but I digress. If you want your fill of the old wild west with a mix of weird and the wonderful, try “Dead Man’s Hand” an anthology of short stories collected and edited by John Joseph Adams.
The Best Street Fighter Gamer: MMG Julio @ FanimeCon 2014
June 16, 2014 by Leave a Comment
FanimeCon 2014 had their own mini-Street Fighter Tournament over at Stage Zero. Ramen & a Half host Eddie Ballar grab Julio Fuentes aka MMG Julio for a quick interview on plans and prepartion for EVO Championship Series in Las Vegas, July 2014.
Fan Film: Dragon Ball Z actor Anton Bex
June 16, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Our Ramen & a Half host Eddie Ballar does a mini jam session with the talented Anton Bex. We sit down and talk about his latest project, the fan film Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope. Anton plays “Future Gohan” in this YouTube web series.
Borderline by Lawrence Block
June 10, 2014 by 1 Comment
The sizzling pulp novel “Borderline” by prolific American crime author Lawrence Block sees the printed pages once again after 50 years of being out of print. Four lives intersect on the border towns of El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico.
Marty is a smart professional gambler always looking for a good card game in Juarez. After a couple of years spent in a failed marriage, Meg is looking for some fun and action. The beautiful blonde Lily is looking to make money and get out of the border towns. The insane killer running from the law, Weaver is looking for his next bloody victim. These 4 characters ultimately cross each others’ lives in “Borderline.” The book also includes 3 Lawrence Block short stories: 1) The Burning Fury (1959); 2) A Fire At Night (1958); and 3) Stag Party Girl (1963).
Watch Dogs Review
June 8, 2014 by Leave a Comment
I picked up this game a few days ago and I was a bit excited to see how this game was going to be. Played the game for a whole day and came to the conclusion that this game is exactly like another popular game – Infamous. Now I’m not saying that that’s a bad thing. I love the three Infamous games and they’re a ton of fun to play, I just didn’t expect Watch Dogs to play like them.
The two main differences between the games are 1) you traded in your superpower abilities for some awesome hacking abilities and 2) that you can drive a car in this game which is, oh boy, let’s just say the driving feels awkward. For instance, the first time I hit the gas I crashed into a wall. I thought I’d get better as time went on, but even as I got near the end of the game, I still can’t drive from point A to point B without crashing into a minimum of five things. You will be driving to a lot of places since there are a total of 39 missions in the game split into five Acts. Frankly, this is probably one of the longest games I have played so far this year, which is a good thing since most games you play nowadays can be beaten in a little over ten hours.
The Art of John Harris: Beyond The Horizon
June 7, 2014 by Leave a Comment
If you read lots of science-fiction books from authors like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Ben Nova, Orson Scott Card and John Scalzi, there is usually a beautifully painted cover book art of the galaxy, outer space world or spaceship and that artist is John Harris. The Art of John Harris: Beyond The Horizon is a collection of his many works since the 1970s.
The Art of Watch Dogs
June 6, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The video game media went bonkers when Ubisoft unveiled Watch Dogs at E3 2012. The much anticipated and delayed game is now finally out and does it live up to the hype? I don’t know yet, but will get on my hands on a copy for my Xbox 360 soon. Just a quick note, you can also look for our review of Watch Dogs by our Retrenders video game guru Ramon Angel soon. But for now, I’m reviewing the release of The Art of Watch Dogs published by Titan Books.
In Watch Dogs, the GTA-type game, you play hacker anti-hero Aiden Pearce. Now on the path of revenge he uses Chicago’s Central Operating System (ctOS) to hack into security cameras, lock doors, control traffic lights, locate targets of interest and grab information on his enemies. The city of Chicago is now your playground.
The Paleoart of Julius Csotonyi
June 4, 2014 by 2 Comments
“Fossils are evidence of prehistoric life written in stone.” Dr. David C. Evans
Dinosaurs and extinct animals have always captured my imagination as a child. I’ve played with dinosaur toys, pretended to be a dinosaur, drew dinosaurs and read lots of dinosaur books. Plus I’ve spent many hours watching dinosaur specials on National Geographic and Animal Planet. The kid in me always wondered how an artist can draw extinct animals so realistically and prehistoric landscapes? This is where Paleontology comes in, the merging of art and science to paint an ancient environment. “The Paleoart of Julius Csotonyi” collects the top works of Paleoartisan Julius Csotonyi.
A Mike Hammer Novel – King of the Weeds
June 4, 2014 by 1 Comment
I enjoy reading Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins crime/pulp fiction books. Just like Dirty Harry, shoot first and ask questions later, that’s the Mike Hammer way.
In “King of the Weeds,” Mike Hammer and long-time partner Velda Sterling look to ride off into the sunset with marriage and retirement, but an decades old murder case looks stir things up with his old buddies Captain Pat Chambers and Army pal Marcus Dooley.
Dragons: Dragon Down
June 4, 2014 by 1 Comment
Dragons, like vampires, werewolves and zombies are all the rage in movies, TV shows, books, comics and video games these days. Besides the dragons in HBO’s Games of Thrones, Dreamworks animated How to Train Your Dragon (2010) is also very popular. I was pleasantly surprised how good the first one was and now I’m just excited for the sequel – How to Train Your Dragon 2 being released on June 13, 2014. Titan Comics will be releasing graphic novels of all-new adventures based on the How to Train Your Dragon franchise.
Hellboy creator Mike Mignola @ Big Wow! Comicfest 2014
June 2, 2014 by Leave a Comment
I know I was just the camera operator at the scene, but after Ramen and a Half’s host Eddie Ballar interviewed Mike Mignola, I started to pick up on some very correlating personality traits between Hellboy and it’s Creator, Mike Mignola. Here, we find out what’s in store for Hellboy after it’s 20th year anniversary and if there will be another upcoming film on the comic superhero?
Los LINKS: Art of Mike Mignola facebook/MikeMignola twitter/MikeMignola
X-Men: Evolution Steven E. Gordon @ Big Wow! ComicFest 2014
May 30, 2014 by Leave a Comment
One of the most popular Marvel cartoons was X-Men: Evolution which lasted 4 seasons (52 episodes) on Kids’ WB from 2000-2003. Our Ramen host Eddie Ballar interviews well-known artist Steven E. Gordon who was the Character Designer of Evolution. The show that gave birth to X-23, Steven talks about his role and what it was like working on X-Men: Evolution.
Inker Matt Banning aka BATT @ Big Wow! ComicFest 2014
May 29, 2014 by Leave a Comment
When I started out with comics all I cared about was the artist drawing the issue like the Jim Lee’s and Marc Silvestri’s of the world, and I could care less about the writers, inkers or colorists. But as I developed my comic book knowledge, I began to learn about writers, inkers and colorists I liked too. Our Ramen host Ramon Angel got back into comics not just because the art, but the inking by Matt Banning aka BATT on his Green Lantern runs.
Godzilla – The Official Movie Novelization by Greg Cox
May 28, 2014 by 1 Comment
The iconic Japanese monster Godzilla created by the Toho Company is back with a vengeance (let’s forget that Roland Emmerich directed Godzilla film in 1998!). The new flick by Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures looks to bring back the classsic Godzilla with an all-star cast starring Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen and Juliette Binoche. Titan Books sent me the “official” novelization of Godzilla a few weeks back and I’m now able to have time to read the book by author Greg Cox.
Power Rangers @ Big Wow! ComicFest 2014
May 26, 2014 by Leave a Comment
“Who hasn’t grown up with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers – and what parent hasn’t dealt with their kids mimicking an acrobatic Power Ranger?”
At Big Wow! Comicfest – “The Eddie” interviews two of the most down to earth Power Rangers, Alison MacInnis – Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue and Steven Skyler – Power Rangers Samurai. We wanted to know what they loved best about being a Power Ranger… and of course, if they knew anything about Lionsgate‘s upcoming production of the reboot Power Rangers movie?
Spider-Man Kid Artist Ethan Castillo @ Big Wow! ComicFest 2014
May 23, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The first time we spotted this amazing kid artist Ethan Castillo was at last year’s Big Wow! ComicFest, now he’s back for the second year in a row. Our Ramen host Eddie Ballar picks up the interview and learns what’s Ethan been up to this past year.
Young Avengers Jim Cheung @ Big Wow! ComicFest 2014
May 22, 2014 by Leave a Comment
We get the 411 for Young Avengers artist Jim Cheung at Big Wow! ComicFest 2014. Jim talks about his upcoming Marvel projects and of course his Young Avengers work.
The 2014 Big Wow! ComicFest Recap
May 21, 2014 by 3 Comments
This past weekend at the San Jose Convention Center, Big Wow! ComicFest took place for comic book fans and cosplayers. The Ramen & a Half team of Eddie and Ramon recall their highlights of this 2-day comic book festival.
Big Wow! ComicFest 2014
May 19, 2014 by Leave a Comment
I’m still recovering from this past weekend’s Big Wow! ComicFest convention at the San Jose Convention Center. The Ramen and a Half guys went hunting for autographs, but also grab interviews with artists, cosplayers and fans.
Choose Your Own Adventure: Life’s Lottery
May 15, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Bram Stroker Award winner Kim Newman is known for his witty vampire series Anno Dracula has another book you might want to take a look at. Kim Newman ponders one of life’s questions in “Life’s Lottery”: Is our human life “predetermined or can we really choose our own path in life?” If your were a kid growing in the 1980s, you might remember those Find Your Fate: Transformers and G.I. Joe books that I made my mom buy for me. Those kiddie books had you making the decisions, like if you think Optimus Prime should do this go to page 6, or if you think Optimus Prime should do that go to page 25. Now instead of playing a Hasbro toy character, you play a real-world fictional character and help him make decisions that will alter his life from the ordinary or to the extra-ordinary.
In “Life’s Lottery” you are born into the world as Keith Oliver Marion, a British Caucasian male, and you’ve luck out, you come from a middle-class background. You are stuck in the middle with an older sister Laraine and younger brother James. As I approached page 20 where I would make the first life’s decision for Keith as a 6-year-old boy in school, I really had to reflect how I would come to these decisions and choices for Keith. Do I make the same choices as I did as a kid in my own personal life growing up, which was the kid that got picked on and then bullied others? Do I then make choices from my Christian-American cultural upbringing? Do I just make the common sense decisions as the adult I am now? Do you I use rationalization or just go with it? How about I make the decisions like George Costanza in that episode of Seinfeld where he picked the opposite of everything he would do? Man, this book had me using my brainwaves.
Johnny Moreno
Edward Ballar
GuestContributor
Ramon Angel
Al Woo
Stephen Jang
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