Tagged: YouTube

MoCCA Catches Fire!

MoCCA Catches Fire!

Smoke in the sub-basement, fire in the sky…  As if this weekend’s MoCCA Art Festival weren’t already the hottest ticket in town during the hottest couple of days so far this year, there was a fire condition around 3 PM on Sunday that wound up causing an evacuation of the building.

An earlier video of the event was taken down from YouTube for some reason, but Brian Heater of The Daily Cross Hatch posted one of his own. Have a look:

According to MoCCA founder Lawrence Klein, there was apparently a "smoke condition" in the building’s sub-basement, nowhere near either of the convention floors or window-based air conditioning units. Attending professionals and fans were probably not all that thrilled to be ushered out into the 90-degree heat, but better safe than sorry!

The Ghost of Wertham, by Mike Gold

The Ghost of Wertham, by Mike Gold

As comics fans, we should always be on the frontlines of the war to protect freedom of expression.

After all, it was our medium that was forced into a severe case of arrested development for a decade. Beginning in late 1940s and led by mascot psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, the Saturday Evening Post and the Readers Digest, comic book creators became seen as nothing less than child molesters and the medium was pressured into “Comics Code Authority” censorship and became trapped in its “childish claptrap” image for a generation. Hundreds of cartoonists, publishers, editors, and engravers lost their jobs; those that were among the fortunate few who remained gainfully employed told their neighbors they were “commercial artists” or some such lest they be chased out of suburbia by an angry mob.

For the past 20 years we’ve had a dangerous clown in the Senate who, when he’s not trying to get our armed forces to blast every Moslem in the middle east into smithereens (yep; it’s Memorial Day, so let’s honor our brave men and women by bringing them home from Iraq) is busy trying to raise our nation’s children on behalf of their evidently incompetent parents. Sadly, I’m talking about one of my own senators,

“independent” Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, a man no more independent than Karl Rove or Dick Cheney.

Senator Joe has actually threatened artistic creators with government censorship if they do not bow to his whims. Yeah, I know, I already compared him to Rove and Cheney so telling you he wipes his ass with the Bill of Rights is kind of redundant. Joe’s spent the past two decades – and our tax money – intimidating the forces that produce video games, movies and music he doesn’t appreciate, all the time hiding under the Great Flag of Cowards, the one that reads “save the children!” Now, he’s turned his attention to YouTube.

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Video: Iron Man and Batman in ‘Hi, I’m a Marvel… and I’m a DC’

Video: Iron Man and Batman in ‘Hi, I’m a Marvel… and I’m a DC’

A little while ago, we told you about the "ItsJustSomeRandomGuy" panel at New York Comic Con featuring the popular YouTube filmmaker and his series of action-figure films based on Marvel and DC characters.

Late last week, his latest film hit the InterWebs — just in time for the debut of Iron Man in theaters (you can read the ComicMix reviews of the film here and here). While RandomGuy’s series has been sort of hit-or-miss for me up to this point, this one’s a keeper.

This time around, Iron Man and Batman address some of the similarities between their origins and their upcoming films.

 

 

On a side note, here’s hoping ItsJustSomeRandomGuy can finally replace that weird "Thorbuster" Iron Man figure now that Ol’ Shellhead has line of movie-based figures hitting shelves.

New ‘Incredible Hulk’ Trailer

New ‘Incredible Hulk’ Trailer

The second trailer for this summer’s The Incredible Hulk is up at Apple’s trailer site. We get to see a lot more of the story, which looks to be lots of Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) running around the world, fleeing the military, then a string of battles.

Most notably, this trailer also shows a lot of Tim Roth as the Abomination, and how he gets to that point. Still a ton of question marks on this one that the trailer doesn’t dispel, most notably whether the CGI is up to par on the big monsters, which is what everyone wants to see out of a Hulk movie anyway.

The trailer’s also up at YouTube, which you can see right here.

Random (Leaked) Video: Doctor Who in Monmouth… and Cybermen!

Random (Leaked) Video: Doctor Who in Monmouth… and Cybermen!

Earlier today, YouTube user AFRAIDOFSUNLIGHT1 posted video from the set of an upcoming episode of Doctor Who — possibly the next Christmas Special for the hit BBC science-fiction series.

The video features a pair of actors in and out of uniform as Cybermen, as well as some shots of David Tennant (The Tenth Doctor) rehearsing lines on the set and then filming (and re-filming) the corresponding scene with an unfamiliar partner. The video looks to be have been shot by an extra or bystander of some sort, as the video concludes with Tennant chatting up the people around the cameraman and signing autographs.

The YouTube user has disabled embedding of the video, so you’ll need to click here to check it out. Remember: video clips play automatically when you view them on the YouTube site — check your volume before heading over there.

ItsJustSomeRandomGuy and ‘Hi, I’m a Marvel… and I’m a DC’ at NYCC

ItsJustSomeRandomGuy and ‘Hi, I’m a Marvel… and I’m a DC’ at NYCC

It started out so innocently. Michael Agrusso made a silly video for his girlfriend. He thought it was too funny not to share, so he created a YouTube account with the username ItsJustSomeRandomGuy — just in case someone decided to sue. So began the Internet sensation "Hi, I’m a Marvel… And I’m a DC."

Fast-forward a bit and not only has he not been sued, but some of the companies he’s lampooned have featured him on their official sites. Next thing you know, he’s got his own panel at the New York Comic Con.

Agrusso began the Saturday panel with a confession: He forgot to buy his girlfriend and co-producer of the videos, ItsJustSomeRandomGal, an airline ticket. His girlfriend was kind enough to send her regards via YouTube, however.

The video side of Agrusso’s presentation continued with a DC-centric promotional film the New York Comic Con had commissioned that was created but not released on the Internet at the request of DC. Let’s just say Wonder Woman got hit on at the convention a lot.

The filmmaker then he announced that the series that grew out of his initial efforts, Marvel/DC Happy Hour, wll be launching its second season — with actual sets, special effects and bigger storylines. Same silly jokes, though. The first two-part episode of Season Two is posted after the jump:

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Free ‘Incredible Hulk’ and ’30 Days of Night’ TV Goes Online

Free ‘Incredible Hulk’ and ’30 Days of Night’ TV Goes Online

The Incredible Hulk. Hulu.

Now that you have a silly Hawaiian image stuck in your head, here’s the scoop: We’re talking about Hulu.com, the online streaming service that lets online viewers watch entire television episodes legally and, most importantly, without cost. Hulu is the product of a cooperative effort by several movie and TV studios in the wake of YouTube and other services where users frequently uploaded copyrighted content. The service was in private beta form until now, but recently went public.

For comic book fans, the top program offered on the site will likely be the entire first season of the classic 1970s series The Incredible Hulk. The show followed Dr. David Banner (the late Bill Bixby) in his search for a cure to his rampaging alter-ego, the Hulk (played by Lou Ferrigno). The show is considered one of the best comic book adaptations in mainstream media because it was faithful to the spirit of the character and treated its subject matter seriously. Lou Ferrigno, looking as impressive as ever, is a popular fixture at comic book conventions to this day.

But the Hulk isn’t the only comic-book monster on the site. 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails, the web-based miniseries based on the popular vampire comic by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith created as a prequel to the recent film adaptation, will also be available.

Other notable shows for comic book fans inculde Battlestar Galactica (both versions), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, Family Guy, Firefly, Heroes, and Spider-Man (the CGI-animated series).

Hulu.com programs are free with limited commercial interruption, requiring only that users register.

‘X-Men: Origins’ Recasts Young Logan

‘X-Men: Origins’ Recasts Young Logan

There’s a new actor playing the childhood version of Logan in the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine and his name is Troye Mellet. If that name’s unfamiliar to you, perhaps you should pay more attention to YouTube.

Mellet first attracted the interest of the film’s producers in YouTube clips such as this one, which feature his singing voice. Mellet is no stranger to acting and has received some acclaim for playing the lead in Oliver in Sydney, Australia. If there’s any need for young Logan to break into a rendition of "Hard Knock Life," Mellet has the pipes to pull it off.

The actor originally cast for the role, Kodi Smit-McPhee, has had to bow out of the project due to prior commitments and a change in shooting dates for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. McPhee is attached to the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, which stars Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron.

(via SHH)

Random Video: Evolution of Optimus Prime Dance

Random Video: Evolution of Optimus Prime Dance

 

If you spend any significant time on the InterWebs, you’ve already seen the ridiculously viral "Evolution of Dance" video featuring comedian Judson Laipply twisting, shaking and jumping his way through several generations of dance trends. (If you haven’t, it’s available here on YouTube.)

Sure, Laipply can do a mean Twist, and he even pulls off a decent Robot — but can he transform into a tractor trailer rig and fight Decepticons? I’m guessing that’s a big ol’ negatory, good buddy.

 

 

Foo Fighters Sue Marvel For Copyright Infringement

Today, Rolling Stone is reporting that the Foo Fighters are suing Marvel Entertainment, First Serve International, Toonz Animation in India and First Serve Toonz for copyright infringement. According to the article:

The band alleges that Marvel used “substantial excerpts” of their songs “Best of You” and “Free Me” as the music for the trailer of the new animated series Wolverine and the X-Men.

The trailer, which showed up online back at the beginning of February, has since been taken down from YouTube. However, as in most cases like this, that doesn’t really help much because you can still get a look at it over at Movieweb. Well, at least you could have up until a few minutes ago. But now, "at the request of the studio", it’s gone.

If you were able to watch the trailer, which I was able to do before it went bye-bye, its pretty obvious that the Foo Fighters songs were used — a lot. Seeing this kind of thing makes me wonder how the people responsible thought they could get away with something like this?

Don’t they realize that once something hits the Internet, this kind of thing can’t stay a secret? Someone is going to get a strongly-worded letter in his or her permanent file over this, just you wait and see.