Flash Friday: Grodd

Happy Flash Friday everyone! Writing about the Flash every Friday can be a strange experience. Sometimes I’ll have two or three weeks planned in advance, while other times I’m scrambling to come up with a topic at the last minute. Today’s Flash Friday has been planned since last Saturday. I went to an anniversary sale at my local comic shop and came home with today’s topic, Gorilla Grodd.

More specifically it is the Eaglemoss Gorilla Grodd lead figurine. I’ve talked about how much I like the Eaglemoss figures in the past when I talked about their Wally, Jay, and Captain Cold figures. Although Grodd is new to me, he has been available for a long time. So what took me so long to pick him up? The standard figures from Eaglemoss usually only run about 15 dollars, Grodd is a deluxe figure and costs double that amount.

So the price had kept me away from the figure, but that is only because I’ve only seen it in pictures. The first time I picked Grodd up my opinion had changed. Eaglemoss figures are made of lead and Grodd uses up a lot of lead. He has some heft to him, I believe he weighs in around 3 pounds. There is no reason why something being heavier makes it seem like a better deal, but in my mind it did.

Like the other Eaglemoss figures, Grodd comes with a magazine detailing his history. The quality of these always surprises me. Grodd’s magazine talks about his origins and summarizes the big stories he’s been in. In addition to highlighting the big Grodd story arcs they also devote a couple pages to the other famous primates in the DC Universe. Anytime Sam Simeon shows up I’m a happy monkey.

So even though I was able to pick up Grodd at a discount, I do believe he is worth his full price tag. If you collect the Eaglemoss figures but have been holding off on the big ones, I say go for it. And just because I haven’t done it in awhile….KAPOW!

Hangover Thursday: Beercandy

It’s Hangover Thursday, how’s your head? My new, even earlier, work shift has made if difficult to drink too much on Wednesdays, so I’m more tired than anything right now. I did get out to the bar last night to have a few beers though. Which is good because today we’re going to talk about beer, actually we’re going to talk about Beercandy.

The creator of Beercandy, Steve Casselman, has been involved in homebrewing beer since 1985. The story goes like this. In 1991 while trying a few beers with friends someone commented that “You can’t do anything with that beer.” Steve took it as a challenge and made lollipops out of the sour brew. Beer and hard candy are difficult to combine though and Steve started experimenting with other kinds of candy.

Steve found that beer did make really great soft caramel. Since the caramel was so soft he used a dip in chocolate to help them keep shape. And that is how we have Beercandy. There are four flavors of caramel; India pale ale covered in white chocolate, lager covered in milk chocolate, raspberry lambic in dark chocolate, and a stout in a dark chocolate. They are sold out of the stout right now, but you can get it in their sampler pack.

If caramel isn’t your thing there are taffies made with IPA and Stout. Although they are currently out of stock, Beercandy also has made something called Hopdrops. Called a marriage of bitter and sweet they are flavored with real hop oil. The bag has two flavors, American Cascade and British Fuggles. So if you’re looking for another way to enjoy a beer, check out Beercandy.

Tales from the Brain Jar, #16

Just when you were distracted with holiday weekends and court trials, Tales of the Brain Jar is back!  We are taking another look back into my brain jar filled sketchbook. Today’s sketch was done by Jeremy Haun at the FX convention back in 08.

Jeremy did this sketch of Mid-Nite Hour for me, a character from the Image mini-series Battle Hymn. The series was B. Clay Moore with Jeremy doing the pencils. If you haven’t read Battle Hymn, it’s a story mixing superheroes, the government, and World War II. Every review of it I’ve read brings up parallels to Watchman, The Golden Age, and Ultimates; and I see that to a point. It is a darker more realistic look at politics and superheroes; everything is colored in shades of grey. That being said I think Battle Hymn stands on its own and is worth tracking down.  In fact I just read it again last night and am still impressed with the story.

Mid-Nite Hour looks a little bit like the Hellboy pulp hero Lobster Johnson. The trade paperback that collects the story actually mentions this. Mid-Nite Hour existed for a long time before the Battle Hymn book and went through a few different costumes.  I can only imagine the horror of having designed a character only to see his spitting image show up in another comic book. Regardless of that, Mid-Nite Hour was my favorite character from Battle Hymn so I was thrilled to have Jeremy do a sketch of him. 

 

If you read the Heroes Con interviews you’ll remember that we talked to Jeremy. He is working with Top Cow doing art duties on Artifacts and will be working on the Darkness. We should be seeing his Pilot Season project announced around SDCC. Jeremy is also a writer. I’d highly recommend his book Narcoleptic Sunday.  I really can't say what it is about without giving it away, it is one of those kinds of stories.

Mass Effect 3 Update

Last month we talked about all the extras that the Collector’s Edition of Mass Effect 3 is going to include. The information said we’d be getting alternate appearances for Ashley Williams, Kaiden Alenko, James Vega, and Liara T’Soni. The image for the Collector’s Edition even showed off a tiny picture of James and Liara.

Thanks to the power of the internet, we now have a full picture of what appears to be all four alternate appearances. While it is possible that the Ashley and Kaiden pictures aren’t the alternate appearances, the James and Liara are the exact same image used in the earlier picture.  So while I can be 100% certain, this certainly looks like all 4 alternate appearances.

Thankfully Ashley doesn’t looks cross-eyed like she did back in ME2. In other ME3 news Casey Hudson has confirmed that players can change their Shepard’s appearance. He also stated that they have been able to improve existing hair options and have added new ones. On top of that, you can set your helmet to on, off, or on except for conversations. Also a new novel titled Deception will be coming out in the fall. Bioware apparently is going to have a big presence at SDCC, so we should see more ME3 news after that.

Happy 4th

Happy 4th of July to all of you that don't have to work today from That F'ing Monkey!



The answer to the question of when Itchy and Scratchy make it to the fabled fireworks factory.

'Merica!!! Fuck Yeah!!

Versatile Blog

Writing on the internet can be a very strange process.  Not having face to face contact with your audience can make it seem like you are throwing your ideas out into an abyss where no one will ever see them.  Because of that, I really want to thank everyone who has commented on an article or liked something that has been put up on the F’ing Monkey Facebook.  Along those lines, Michael May, who I’ve talked about before, was recently awarded the Versatile Blogger award for his Adventure Blog.  Not only did he get it, he passed it on to five other blogs including That F’ing Monkey.

Needless to say I’m very happy that the site got any kind of award.  Specifically being called out for writing about all the things you like instead of just one is even better.  Per the rules of the award I have to tell you all 7 random facts about myself. 

1. I prefer the original Mighty Joe Young over King Kong.
2. My wife was dressed as Lady Jaye from GI Joe the first time I met her.
3.  The song 99 Redballons (Nina or 7 Seconds versions) always puts me in a better mood.
4.  Hammerheads are the best sharks.
5.  My first game system was an Atari 2600 that I won in a McDonald’s scratch off ticket.
6.  I really want to write a Wild Dog mini-series for DC.
7.  I have a picture of John Wayne hanging above my desk because it was my Grandfather’s.

I’m also supposed to pass this on to other blogs.  Sadly, I don’t read many other versatile blogs and Mike’s was the one that started this off in the first place.  I do read a lot of blogs, but they are really focused on one subject like Speedforce, Joel Caroll’s art blog, or web comics like Raising Crazy. 

Everyone have a good weekend.  Play safe with the firecrackers.

Flash Friday: Warner Brothers Stores

Happy Flash Friday! Today we’re going to be talking about some items from the beloved Warner Brothers store, but let me explain how I got to that subject. Last night I was wandering the isles of my local Target when a four pack of DC glasses caught my eye. I saw the packaging from the side so I quickly moved to the end-cap where the themed glasses where. Sadly the glasses were of Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman.

When I got home, I did have a Flash glass waiting for me. As I stated last week, I had tracked down the Warner Brothers Flash glass after the first article I posted about glasses. The paint has some minor wear on it, but that is really only noticeable when help up to the light. So in the month of June my drinking glass collection went from zero items up to three.

The thing I found most amusing about the glass though, is that it still had its original price tag on the bottom. The price confirmed I got a pretty good deal on eBay, but it really made me miss the Warner Brothers stores. So I figured I’d show off two more items I had gotten from them before they were closed down.

The Flash lithograph is on of the larger pieces I own. The viewable part of the image is just about 2 feet by 2 feet. I had it framed myself, but if I remember correctly the WB stores had an option to frame it for you. Obviously, their framing was a lot more expensive then the other places around me. With those blue eyes, I had always considered this the biggest Barry piece in my collection. Of course back then you didn’t see many items that were supposed to be Barry.

The last item I’m going to talk about today is a sericell. I bought this one unframed too, but the matting did actually come from the Warner Brothers store. It was advertised as a sericell from the Superman episode Speed Demons, so that’s why Flash design looks a little different from the one used in the Justice League cartoon. One day I’d love to get a cell actually used in a cartoon but until then this will do just fine.

That’s it for this edition of Flash Friday. I had a few other Flash related items from the Warner Brothers store, but things like the keychain finally fell apart from use and I’d already talked about the lighted display. Anyone else have something good from the WB?