I  was lucky enough to have Red Lamp our venerable creator and leader to sit down and take some time to allow me to practice my interview skills, creating a list of questions that are both for him and just for fun! 

 MR        HA no you put BREAD in the toaster and TOAST comes out 

2.        What are you wearing? (Be clean please this is a family site)
RL        Puma sneakers ( always! ).  Jeans and plain T-Shirt.  Camouflage boxer briefs for when it gets real.

3.        What made you want to start ComicVine?
RL       I grew up thinking that I wanted to be a magazine publisher.  After college I found out how easy it was to turn that dream into something better through the power of                   the internets.  

4.        When you looked in the mirror this morning, what was your first thought?
RL        Should I brush my teeth before or after breakfast?

5.        Does working on ComicVine give you more or less time with your family?
RL        It's not a 9-5 job that's for sure.  Probably less :(

6.        The obvious one now, but I am sure readers will want to know… What superpower would you have? And yes you can only choose one.
RL         My super power is super farts.  I can fly through the sky with them... by the seat of my pants!  

  MR       Now I know the real person with the worst habit in the CV office   

7.        Do you still wear the original Red_Lamp costume or have you updated it at all?
RL       I have never updated.  It smells terrible.  The entire thing was bought in the children's section of Target, so it's very tight, and I have to diet before I wear it.   

MR      o__O

8.        Who has the worst habit in the ComicVine office?
RL       G-Man.  He cannot stop talking about comic books.  That's why he's perfect for the job!

9.        Who would win in a fight between Storm and Wonderwoman?
RL       Storm.  She beat cyclops in the danger room without her powers.  It's the Batman VS Superman question. I say ultimately Batman/Storm.

MR      Agreed

10.    What did you want to be when you were a child?
RL     I wanted to own my own company in architecture or magazines.  I wanted an empire!  I wanted to be Lex Luthor but not bald or mean!

11.    Did you steal the last cookie?
RL      I'm on a low carb diet, so no, it wasn't me.  Unless its a beef cookie?

MR    No it was choc chip, I bet Babs stole it.
   

 12.    What would you do with a time machine?
RL      Dirty stuff.  I cannot elaborate at this time.

13.    How many hats do you own?
RL      At Comicvine?  Hundreds.

14.    We are almost half way now, are you sad it’s nearly over?
RL      F*ck Yeah! oops.

MR    I had to edit that!

15.    What would be your “gold” interview for ComicVine or AnimeVice?
RL     Take that timemachine back to around 1985 and interview Wendy Pini about Elf Quest.  But I'd want her to be naked on a bear skin rug in front of a pack of wolves.

MR    O_o I don’t think I will give you that time machine after all… unless you’re happy for me to join you but disappear to see Judd Nelson on the set of  Breakfast Club… we will talk later.
    

16.    What would be the title of a movie about you?
RL     The Naked Wolf: A story of a man and his beast.


17.    I am starting to run out of question ideas, can you tell?
RL     I'm shocked you thought of this many for a moron like me.

MR    I don’t interview morons ;)


18.    Do you have one favourite comic artist and writer?
RL     I'm old, so my favorite was always John Byrne. But nowadays I would say, Mark Millar for writing.  Love Steve McNiven's art.
 
MR    Aren’t you the same age as me? So what I am old…   

19.    If I gave you an elephant, where would you hide it?
RL     I do have an elephant.  I won't tell you what I mean by that.


20.    What superheroes/Villains would you like to go partying with?
RL      Colleen Wing she's wicked hot.

21.    Coke or Pepsi?
RL       Diet Pepsi.

22.    What’s the speed of dark?
RL     That one is easy.  It's the direct inverse property of the speed of light divided by Pi and quantified by Z. Or, D = C*M+m/Pi * Z.  Simply math really.  If you have a flux     capacitor I could show you.  

MR  I sold it on ebay, sorry

23.    Best moment in Whiskey Media history
RL     Paintball war games on my co-workers farm last December!  I got pretty aggressive by the end. They should have cast me in Platoon or at least Tropic Thunder.

24.    Who would you shout “off with their head” too?
RL     Angry, mean people.


25.    Who would you turn gay for?
RL    Me, if I could clone myself.  Will the timemachine clone too?

MR   Hell yeah why not.

26.    What do you prefer, Comics or Manga?
RL     Comics

27.    Favourite story arc of this last year?
RL    Old Man Logan probably because it's an homage to the movie Unforgiven with Clint Eastwood.

28.    Have you ever tried Vegemite? Want too? (if you don’t know what it is, it is a famous Australian spread)
RL     I know what Vegimite is, I grew up listening to Men At Work.  I've have marmite while living in England, not so great. 

MR   I will send the office some and you can all try it.

29.    Favourite and least favourite characters in comics.
RL     I'm not such a superhero fan in comics as I am a good story fan.  So the stuff that I love are books like "Y: The Last Man" and "The Walking Dead".  I guess I would    not say I'm a fan of the characters exactly, so much as a fan of the story.  But for superheros my favourite is Puck, just kidding.   

30.    Do you think we could all be a part of the Matrix?
RL     Dude, I think about that once a week!  I'm pretty sure we are actually.  Reading about quantum physics, M theory and what not, makes me question if anything is real.  

MR    OMG me too!

Many of your probably do not know but recently thanks to the help of the lovely Cellywyn have had my character returned to health and out of the wheelchair, she is still running the VP is a member of Veritas and LOVE and is now back to being a bad ass fighting machine... 
 
my question is, with the climate of the vine at the moment should I stay grey or go blue? The great thing about this is I have the chance to build up an awesome Batgirl type character to suit in with other key characters on the vine!
 
I need help with this! advise me peeps, blue or grey? 
 
and do not be smart and come in going RED RED

Considering how much we have recently been looking at comic fan boys I thought I would give you all a take on Movie Fan boys and Girls... yes this area is equally spread out over the sexes. 
 
So this week we look at  
 

Cult Movie Fans

•   Cult movie fans wear when not at work some form of movie t-shirt, combined with a hoodie, jeans and converse shoes. This is your uniform, you can not leave the house without at least one of these items on your person. The movie T-shirt has to be something completely obscure as well,  something that you can smugly walk around knowing those that grin and nod at you are one of your own where as those who look at you. These T-shirts include slogans such as "Kahuna Burger", "Camp Crystal Lake", "Nostrmo crew member" etc and so forth. (points to anyone who can name each of those films) also if not a T-shirt you will perhaps have a replica of Wolverines jacket, a long Matrix coat or even a Mad Max police jacket. 

•  Usually they have a boy/girl friend. Cult fan's consider themselves a fairly "cool" lot and are usually able to get some action, though it is mostly because the opposite sex you have attracted simply managed to decode your T-shirt thus forcing you to believe they are your soul mate.

• Toy collection, this is a MUST for any cult fan boy, your collection to be truly complete must include figures from the following movie's Hellraiser, Aliens, Bladerunner, TheMatrix, Evil Dead, Pulp fiction or Resovior Dogs and of course Donnie Darko. Posters will include anything by Quentin Tarantino and an obscure one that you found at a Garage Sale of a foreign film that you make sure to look up so that if people ask you can sound knowledgeable and wise on the subject

• Internet, they will not be found much on the Internet as they are far to busy having a life but every now and then they will post some witty comment disparaging THE MAN or perhaps putting up review of the latest comic film to hit cinemas. Your facebook will be full of friends in the same boat and comment expediently on your disparaging comment with their own disparaging comment so you can all feel wonderful about your awesome knowledge of all things movies of which no one else will know as they are pleebs.

• They despise Twilight and think Stephanie Meyer is destroying Vampire mythology of which you know everything of and have seen every Vampire film WORTH seeing.

• Rob Zombie is god. Horror tends to be a big favourite with this lot, you will hear them b*tching and moaning about how the special effects industry has ruined film, but how Rob brought it back, they will of course own his albums.

• They firmly believe that their part time job at Blockbuster will eventually help them get work after they finish film school, after all its what Quentin did.

• You firmly discuss how Zombieland was a brilliant paradox on life...it;s not really about zombies, its about how we view possessions and society. This is a common subject at Cult geek outings, sitting usually at the pub with a cigarette and cheap beer, dissecting just how they get real looking blood, or the finer points of Bladrunner. 

• They only download films you would not pay for at the cinemas, and only if they are big budget as that is just THE MAN having his cake, so by downloading you get to stick it too them.

• You will own a copy of How to survive a Zombie Apocalypse, Tarantino's book of scripts, Catcher in the Rye and Dune. 

• Bruce Campbell is there cult leader and icon.

What has got me mad this week?

Comics

Storm 

Archie Comics

Stephanie Brown 

 Sherlock Holmes Reviewed    

 I’ll admit it, I’m not a Guy Ritchie fan. I understand that a lot of people adore Lock Stock and Snatch, they were simply not my cup of tea, so when I heard he was doing Sherlock Holmes, it brought about the same kind of vomit inducing reaction as hearing that Russell Crowe is doing Robin Hood. Then the hateful gods of film piled Jude Law in there as well, HORROR, BLASPHEMY, BASTARDS and many other vile expressions were produced in my mind.  While not a hard core, I have read every book Conan Doyle wrote I am a solid Holmes fan and was sitting in my highest state of judgement about the casting of this film. 

Having convinced the man to ditch his family on Boxing Day (British public holiday after Christmas) we headed off with a tiny bit of hope that perhaps beloved return to screen star Jnr would manage to induce some joy out of this terrible adaption.  

GOOD GOD WAS I WRONG!! from the first shot I was in love with this rip roaring, gun toting, pipe smoking, tweed wearing epic. To say that Arrow and I enjoyed this is to say that we think Indiana Jones was just ok, I was at the edge of my seat from the word go. Law totally blew my mind, stepping out of his usual sleazy back door acting he stepped up to the role of Watson with verve and style, playing beautifully against Jnr’s drug addled genius Holmes, my favourite parts being where you would see how Holmes mind plots out each move during a fight. 

Mc Addams though as much as I adore her was overtaken by Jnr in any scene they were in, she in my opinion struggled to compete with him, She did her best to stand with them all and in some ways held her own but her performance was mostly watered down, I had the thought that Rachel Wiez may have done better but that could have been because of the similarities to the Mummy. Mark Strong was fabulous as the slimey villain Lord Blackwood ( a nod to the earlier novels of Conan Doyle) His manner and utter Britishness gave him such a great presence amongst the madness of Holmes. The Fan girl in me begged for more on Moriaty and the small snippets we were given were met with gasps from Arrow and I and absolutely left us with a desire to see the second film.   

Visually this film is total eye candy, from the fantastic views of the Thames to the sweeping streets of 1800s England met with the dark back alleys of the boxing houses. A glorious fan girl squeal issued forth when the camera settled on 221B   Baker st, full with the mad meanderings of Holmes, that poor dog! 

Overall I take my hat off, eat humble pie and generally grovel at Ritchies feet begging him for forgiveness, my initial fears were completely wiped out. This film bought me back to Indie and the mummy, epic films with great characters and fantastic stories. I would highly recommend this to everyone of all ages, huge fans or not it is a feast of a film and fabulous fun! 

Not so long ago a new director burst onto our screens with one of the most violent and freaky horror films ever created. Rob Zombie wowed audiences with House of 1000 Corpses and went on to create one of my personal favourites Devils Rejects. His style and capabilities have honoured him with a cult following of horror fans that worship his every move. When it was announced he was the director to take on Halloween his followers rejoiced, even reviewers praised the choice, movie goers were not disappointed. The first Halloween remake (yes I’m aware that is sort of an oxymoron) was breathtaking, the characterisation, the script, the style everything was perfect, audiences walked out with a whole new side of the rather blood hunting zombie creature that is Michael Myers.

With the announcement of part 2 we were excited, we blogged about our ideas, our joy at Robs continuing success, his career growing, then the movie came out and I began to hear rumours, “utter crapfest” one of the viners told me (emperor Gonzo) “total sh!t” a friend muttered, but I ignored them all trusting that Rob would come through, made plans with Arrow and his friend and we were off. Popcorn ready, coke poured, minds primed for a good amount of STABBY STAB STAB the trailers began and we eagerly watched new films to come (Fourth kind looks a winner) and finally the movie began.

This was the beginning of my disillusionment with Rob, I should be used to it by now, how many of my favourites have let me down, PJ with LOTR, Rodriguez with Once upon a time in Mexico, Tarantino with Inglorious Basterds, they had all done it, let the fandom go to their head and arouse that cocky stature that makes them think they sh!t gold. Sadly I wept for this has occurred with Rob  Halloween 2 was not terrible, it was simply nothing, it was average, been done before. I stopped trying to count how many other horrors he had ripped off, I stopped counting how many characters I had seen before in DR and H100 same old same old, Laurie was lovely but again same old, can we not push past the cool Goth punk chick and maybe do something different Rob?

 Sad thing is I probably could have enjoyed this film, the added bonus of my beloved Malcolm McDowell, whose storyline provided the social commentary of how we places killers in Hollywood celebrity status and revere them.  With this and some great acting from our own Deadwood Doctor and supporting cast I could enjoy the film, brush off the inconsistencies and carry on, if it wasn’t for the utter WTFness of his mum being in it. It made no sense, there was no reason for it, it provided no real development into Michael’s character as we know from the first movie that his mum was a hug influence, it was simply another Burton/Carter moment.   Rob wanted his wife in the film so instead of trying to make it kosher he went into a bizarre and idiotic world that made little sense to the story.  

So sadly I walked out with a dead soul dripping with the pain of yet another favourite shattering my illusions of his style and taste. I would not recommend seeing this film I would recommend saving the money and getting it on DVD so you can pause and yell at the screen, much as my irritated fiancée wanted to do during the film. Was this simply another case of allowing the director too much freedom? should he not have produced, directed and written the film? did we need someone to come in and go.. dude...wth is up with all this cut it cut it now! whatever was needed i left feeling meh about the whole thing, let down by my hero and disappointed that the best part of that film was the Ben and Jerrys chocolate sundae.

Bad form Rob Bad form….. 

When I was child I saw a film called Dumbo, a wonderful Disney film that displays the true essence of finding yourself, loving who you are and also the gift of a mother and sons bond. There was a certain scene in this film that always made me cry quite hard. A mother trapped and a son torn from her, with lyrical music and images of other mothers and their children together warm and happy.   Since this film there have been no animated movies that have made me cry quite so hard until UP. I will quite possibly be persecuted for saying this but I will never watch this film again. While I am a firm fan of Pixar in every way this time I was let down and I think it will take some time for me to forgive them. I will at this point give myself a disclaimer wherein I explain I have dealt with a lot of loss in my lifetime and being in a relationship with a man that owns my heart did not make watching this any easier. This film is about loss and pain and letting go, of moving forward and living in life, normally wonderful items for a film gifts that many of us need to deal with. This film however did not deliver the wonderful Pixar characters to balance out that pain, we will all remember that touching moment in Toy Story 2 where Jessie recalls being loved and looked after when her owner was a girl but being dumped as she grew up. A sad and devastating moment in the film but balanced out by the wonderful aftermath of meeting Woody and Buzz and the gang.

The characters in this film did not balance out the pain of the initial loss that the old man feels. The villain of the piece was too dark for me, one of the great things I love about Pixar is that they always create villains that are really more neutrals or bumbling idiots, in UP the villain is a very dark character with quite an evil streak. The talking dogs I had massive issues with the bird was again sad and upsetting, the kid was mildly amusing but overall just plain irritating. For me the only character worth watching was the old man, perhaps because what he did was something I know my boy would have done for me. I will say there are quite a few wonderful Pixar moments in this film that did make us both laugh, the ongoing squirrel joke was quite charming!

I am being awfully harsh on a Pixar kids film I know but I simply feel if you choose to create a film about loss and pain and you also choose to be a children’s film, then work harder on balancing the pain with the joy.  Then again of course, I always say that if a film touches either good or bad then it has done its job in some way. I will not in this review recommend or discourage any of you to see it, I simply warn you too take tissues and try to separate from what is going on on the screen. 

Now before you continue to read this review i want to tell you something up front. I am one of the biggest Zombie movie fans around... I love em adore em... gimme some loud groaning and moaning combined with excessive bodily fluids and just a hint of blood and guts im in seventh heaven. Now add some bad a** dude, a hot chicka a nerd and a kid i would be proud to call my own and BAM we have a winner!! 
 
This fantastic film begins in the middle of all the action, the virus is rampant and millions are dead, our hero begins by telling us about his RULES in Zombieland, how to survive in this chaotic world, we are immediately given the impression that this is his life, he has been at it for some time.   This provided the audience with an immediate in to the story, there need be no build up, no evil corporation creating Zombie virus scan clone things.. just right.. Zombies are here and we need to survive! Brilliant! This concept has of course been done before we have seen the zombie king himself ( I have to say if you do not know who I am talking about you simply should step away fro me) do some fabulous twists with Zombies. For me though what is truly wonderful about this film is how much we fall in love with the characters! Each one has a story for why they are there, none of them are weak willed or need to be saved they are all in their own way bad a** kicking zombie killa’s!  

Woody Harrelson back from the dead movie land to take up one of the im sure to be most talked about roles was fantastic, his mix of humour and don’t f*ck with me or I will destroy you ness made the character loveable but at the same time believable.

Some of my favourite parts of the film was the little details, the little throw backs to Columbus’s rules, the best Zombie kill of the week etc. My only let down and Arrow agreed with me here was that I wanted a little more of that towards the end of the film, We began to loose the balls and gained a little too much gush. Though Woodys character did balance that, as a hardcore zombie fan I wanted just a little more blood and guts at the end, especially since they are in a theme park, oh so many ways to kill a zombie!

So aside from wasted Zombie wasting opportunity’s overall this film was a real winner for us, Arrow and I laughed and wooted the whole way through! There is also a special cameo... well im not going to tell you but it was epicness embodiment!

A great romp and something for the whole family… well ok maybe not anyone under 10….