Stan Lee

At The White House!

Stan Lee was among the select few that were at the White House on Monday, November 17th, when he and a few others were awarded the National Medal of Arts.

The award  is billed as the highest bestowed by the U.S. government.

President Bush presented the awards to Stan Lee (comic book writer, producer), Olivia de Havilland (actress), Hank Jones (jazz pianist), and Robert B and Richard M Sherman (songwriters). 

The National Medal of Arts was established by the US Congress in 1984.

It is awarded by the President and managed by the National Endowment for the Arts, (NEA).

Award recipients are selected based on their contributions to the creation, growth, and support of the arts in the United States.

I am personally pleased that this award was presented to Stan Lee, who at the age of 85 has finally been seeing several of his co-creations from the 1960's finally hit the big screen after all these years.

Congrats Stan!

For those of you that are new to our blog, we have an ongoing 'Comic Con and Pop Culture Show' here at "Make It So Marketing Inc.", what with our daily blog posts and new listings of items for sale in our online store!

Thanks for reading this blog post today and please join us again for more!

~  Michael

Note: If you work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email us press releases, news items, and updates that you feel would be of interest to our blog readers!

The Breakout Show Of The New Season....

For Me Is

"Life On Mars"!

Thursday night's episode was the 6th episode in the USA version of the popular British TV Series.

Although this episode was not as riveting as the previous five episodes for me, (probably due to the lack of several 1970's tunes this time), it is still the ONE show that I have to view each week!

Last week's airing was the 6th episode, entitled "Tuesday's Dead".

Tina has also added this show to her Top 20 Current TV Shows! For Tina's first review of the series, please click Jason O'Mara's photo below:

For me, some TV Shows like "Heroes" have lost their way... 

It could be because of the WGA Strike from last season, but after seeing the fantastic Season Premiere episode at the San Diego Comic Con International, that show has once again 'Lost' its' way IMHO....

This show, 'Life On Mars', is fresh, doesn't have as much baggage, has a great cast, has 1970's tunes that I can relate to PLUS the tunes fit each scene in the episodes,  and makes me want to come back for more each week...

If that isn't a sign of a good TV Series, then I don't know what is!!!

The four tunes that were featured this episode were:

'Sweet Lucy', 'We're An American Band' - (great scene tie-in for this one, had to replay it!), 'Going To Make A Time Machine', and 'Tuesday's Dead'.

So with great music, a great time period for the show to be in (1973), great casting, and a wierd sci-fi twist, I gotta recommend this one again!

For those of you that haven't seen it... it's on ABC's web site, with all six episodes there for you to catch up on!

For those of you that are new to our blog, we have an ongoing 'Comic Con and Pop Culture Show' ourselves here at "Make It So Marketing Inc.", what with our daily blog posts and new listings of items for sale in our online store!

Thanks for reading this blog post today and please join us again for more!

~  Michael

Bond is Back in Quantum of Solace!

SPOILER WARNING

(Don't Read the Below If You Don't Want to Know!)

My second favorite Bond, (Daniel Craig), hit theaters with a vengeance this weekend - just in time for my birthday! 

So Michael and I celebrated by taking in the 22nd Bond  movie. 

I've seen them all - except the George Lazenby 'Her Majesty's Secret Service'. (Just could never bring myself to watch it.) 

I've suffered through the Roger Moore years. (Michael loves him as Bond!)  I enjoyed Pierce Brosnan. But when I first saw Daniel Craig I thought -- finally a Bond who looks like he can actually do what he does so well; We haven't seen that since the ultimate Bond, Sean Connery!

Craig handles the physical work well, and there's a lot of it.  What's surprising is how well he does with the more emotional elements of the story. 

The movie opens on the heals of the previous film.  Bond is bent on revenging the death of his love, Vesper.  So we have a Bond who's not sleeping, drinking heavily (out of martini glasses, of course!) and relentlessly pursuing (even killing) any lead to the dismay of his boss, M (The marvelous Judi Dench).  We get more insight into this Bond than in all the other films combined. 

The movie grabs you immediately with a harrowing car chase which practically destroys the fabled Bond car.

Then, alas, no more car, indeed, we have no gadgets, no bag of "Q" tricks in this movie - no "Q" of course, and unfortunately no John Cleese either.

The movie peaks early.  From the opening car sequence to the surprise interrogation to the rooftop chase in beautiful Sienna - this is classic Bond.  The studio knows it; most of the shots you see in the movie's ad campaign are from the beginning of the movie.  Unfortunately, the story doesn't keep pace. 

The story is a sequel which has its upside (more emotion and depth to the character).  The downside is it's tough to follow despite the references to Vesper most viewers aren't going to remember the betrayal in the previous film, so the storyline is confusing.  And the whole eco-global monopoly villian isn't very villanous. 

The other downside to the sequel storyline is that Bond is out of his normal routine.  We're used to his gearing up with his new gadgets, toys and car, instead he's cut off by M - she even terminates his credit cards!  It's a sign of the times: Bond needs a financial bailout!  The pacing of the movie is very different than other Bond films and it suffers.  You never see Bond plotting and planning, just relentlessly pursuing.

That said, I still enjoyed it, it just wasn't as satisfying as the previous film.  I'll give it an 8 out of 10.

A final note:  Michael was very disappointed by the opening credits montage.  The little homage that began the closing credits didn't cut it for him.  (I liked the signature song.)

Jesse's Story....

A Work In Progress...

For those of you new to our Blog, I usually blog about comics or graphic novels that are already in print, or about to be released.

This blog post is about a graphic novel that is in progress right now....

Geoff Brenneman is one of my new Facebook Friends, and he is in the process of developing a graphic novel called "Jesse's Story".

It is  based on a true story and thus far there have been 16 pages completed in the telling of this story.  

The artists on the project are doing it pro bono because the graphic novel is being published to benefit 'Emmaus Ministries', which is the only ministry of its kind in the USA, with offices in Chicago and Houston.

The Emmaus Ministries organization reaches out to men involved in prostitution. The graphic novel contains a story that tells of one such young man, and hopefully this graphic novel project can make others aware of what goes on, and how such men can be helped.

Of the artists contributing art pages to this graphic novel are several artists, mostly amateurs, plus pros like Fran Matera.

JS Earls did the script; he is a semi-pro in the small comics business.

Readers of this blog who want to contribute their time or treasure can reach Geoff at geofffl@yahoo.com for more info on the graphic novel.

For those of you already on Facebook, just search for the group 'Adonai Comics', where you'll see Part 1 of the script, and the pages in process illustrating Part 1.

Part 2 is in script form, and funds are being raised to finish this project.

Adonai Comics' tag line is 'Christian Comics For A 21st Century World'.

When this graphic novel is ready for release, I'll blog about it again before pre-publication.

Thanks for reading this blog post today, and please join us again!

~  Michael