Greg Giraldo, 1965-2010

Long live the Roast King.

From Huffpost:

Comedian Greg Giraldo tragically passed away this morning, shocking the entire comedy community and prompting an outpour of sadness online. A genuinely hilarious and intelligent stand-up comedian, Giraldo had a degree from Harvard law, was a longtime member of the Comedy Central family and is leaving behind a wife and four children.

Two rights would indeed make an even better right

In a perfect world, Community's Donald Glover would at this moment be swinging around the New York skyline, cracking jokes and bad guys' skulls, dodging angry editors and making out with pert redheads.

But alas, it just wasn't meant to be.  After a frantic fan campaign, some decent media coverage, and even a quasi-endorsement by Stan 'The Man' Lee himself, it looks like Glover didn't even get the chance to audition for the role of Peter Parker in the next reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. 

Sadly, it appears as though the closest Glover will get to the Webhead's mantle will be that quick shot of his character Troy decked out in Spidey jams during the season opener of his show.  Pity.

This is kind of a non-issue for Glover.  It's not like he's upset about not being cast as Peter Parker.  He's not been going on any tirades or anything. 

But it does raise an interesting issue; could Spider-Man be black?  Would it be a detriment to the legacy of the character if his ethnicity were altered?  I don't think so.

Comic book characters that have been around for decades are constantly having details tweeked and updated both on the page and in film.  Why not race?  Let's see Jimmy Smits take a stab at Superman.  Let's see Chow Yun Fat play Bruce Wayne.  Aisha Tyler as Wonder Woman.  Gael Garcia Bernal as Green Arrow.  Denzel Washington as Captain America.  Let's break the mold a little on the stereotypical white male super hero.  We have the technology.  We have the ethnicity.

"They tell me you're a man with... true grit."

The first teaser trailer for the Coen brothers' remake of True Grit has come out.  And it looks glorious.  Matt Damon's playing LaBoeuf!?  How did I miss that?

I really can not wait for this to hit theaters.



Also, via Bleeding Cool, it looks like Darren Aronofsky's being seriously considered as the next Superman director.  This is on top of rumors that he'll be directing the next Wolverine movie, too.  Gloriouser and gloriouser.

My Influence Map

Behold.  The freshly-minted internet meme-slash-visual roadmap to my soul.  Once I managed to kind of get a grasp as to what the hell I was doing on Photoshop, this was actually pretty fun.  I think I could have easily filled out a few more squares.  Maybe one of these days I'll do another, now that Photoshop is my bitch (or at least my respected peer).

I'm actually pretty proud of this sucker.

Thanks to Tim Callahan over at GeniusboyFiremelon for the idea.  Download a template to create your own influence chart here.

Chess but with Tanks

Indie developers Urban Squall came out with the first of the Battalion java games several years ago.  Since then, each new addition to this turn-based military strategy game has been an improvement over the last.  There's even the Battalion: Arena, where players can challenge the AI, one another, or conduct team battles on custom maps.  All of the Battalion chapters are hosted and available for free play at Kongregate.com. 

I'd recommend starting with Nemesis and working your way up.  But listen; don't start playing these damn games unless you have at least a week of obsessive gaming time to devote to them.  Because that's what'll happen.

All I Want for Christmas

...Actually, I could probably think of a few more things.  But this'll be a great start, for those of you keeping track:

In stores October 25

I've been eagerly awaiting this DVD's release since watching  the trailers when they were first posted over a year ago.  Grant Morrison is easily my favorite writer.  There are barely a handful of other guys in the comic industry that can even hold a candle to Morrison, and even then only Alan Moore can really be a fair comparison.  He's written the best Superman story.  He's on track to write the best Batman story.  Best event story.  Best Dada stories.  Best fourth-wall-crushing, anarchic-existential-pilgrimage-and-chaos-magic-practicing, unified-theory-of-everything story.  And best story about a guy who talks to animals.

Someone once said that Morrison is this generation's Bill Burroughs.  After reading most of his work it's pretty easy to see why.

Here are a couple of trailers to Talking with Gods:

All Star Superman Gets Animated

Via Bleeding Cool (via MTV) here's a trailer for the upcoming animated version of All Star Superman.  I agree with BC's Brendon; it's cool that they're making an animated version, but what I'm seeing in the trailer is a long, long way away from the greatest Superman story ever told.  Because that's what All Star Superman is. 

Origin story in four panels.  Yeah.

I'm not being hyperbolic.  It is. 

I guess the animators didn't even want to attempt to replicate Frank Quitely's gorgeous artwork from the book, so instead they're going with the same blocky, big-chinned WWII era animation style that Warner Brothers uses for every stinking DC animation project.  So that kind of sucks.  Also, the scenes from the trailer look like they're mostly from the last few issues of the comic.  Which, to me, implies that they're probably not going to touch on much of the middle issue-stories that made All Star Superman the greatest Superman story ever told.  So that sucks too.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

But still.  It's an animated version of All Star Superman.  It could be a two-hour movie staring this guy and I'd still be stoked.