Well I’ve met to post this for a while now but it’s pretty bloody obvious that this blog is on a hiatus now.

This blog has a history that was tied to a certain comic book store in Vancouver, Canada (You know, where the 2010 Winter Olympics were) called ELFSAR COLLECTION COMICS & TOYS. Sadly Elfsar had to close down in May so in many ways, it’s closing has also put the final nail into the coffin of this blog. If I had ANY thought of returning and sparking this sucker up, it’s all gone now. Elfsar was the spark that had me start REALLY bad reviews over on Happy Harbor Comics website. That went on for a while until I thought, why not just start my own blog doing the same thing and ranting about whatever else I wanted. So I did and BtS was born. It went through many looks & feel until finding the latest incarnation. Now don’t get me wrong, I do miss it at times but overall I think running this blog took a great deal out of me in ways I haven’t still realized. I managed this blog almost as much or more than working 8 hours a day and that got to be too much in general. That and I feel my appreciation for comic books lately has been at an all time low so I have little to talk about.

I know many friends I know wished I kept the blog up and running but never truly understood it was like feeding a forever hungry zombie… and I FUCKING HATE Zombies!

So for now the blog is again on a Hiatus. If you feel the fucked up strange need to listen to my rambles, you can catch me on Twitter here:
http://twitter.com/RobertParizek

I’m not closing up shop as I like the digital footprint this leaves so feel free to browse and lick the carpet, you might find something you like. That said, I’m closing the comments now for the entire site and all older posts.

I AM GODZILLA

&

I NOW

RULE THIS

BLOG!

From this point forward there will be

no more Robert, only me on this blog.

My reviews, my rants, my raves

& other various tidbits I want to post.

No one else will…

“WHAT THE FUCK UP, BITCH!”

Oh SNAP, its Mechagodzilla!

“What’s happening, dude? Are you really doing a blog?! YOU?!”, MechaGodzilla

YES. Now shut up and let me finish up wha…

“Hey. Can I help?”, MechaGodzilla

Okay but remember who is in charge around here!

As I was saying, I Now…

“Ahem!”, MechaGodzilla

*sigh*

WE NOW RULE THIS BLOG. BEWARE!

No one is safe with Godzilla

& MechaGodzilla

now blogging on BtS!

Okay so last week Secret Invasion came to a close with issue #8 and it ends on the whole “Dark Reign” theme that will now be the new paradim for Marvel Comics for the next year or so.*yawn*

What I am about to mention next cannot really come as much as a surprise to many who read this blog but come’on people – Secret Invasion was not a great Marvel event book. Not even close. Sure it had a great deal of momentum and I was caught up in that in the early beginnings like a chump but when the spotlight hit the stage… well, I found it obvious to see where all the trap doors were and the likes. It got boring awfully fast, it went from Oh Yeah?! to hurm! in one issue and the Eight F***KING MONTHS OF AVENGERS BOOKS WITHOUT AVENGERS IN THEM >ahem< so this got me thinking that Secret Invasion is much like Britney Spears new album Circus. Why is that you ask? Well check this out, this is the cover of her new album

Okay now let us have a closer look at Britney herself with out all the pretty lights, make up and no air brushing…

You see this is how I feel about Secret Invasion, sh**t – even other comic events Final Crisis and Batman RIP rolled in together. You get this great idea pitched out there and then what you really get is such a let down, so boring, predictable (I f**ked called S.H.I.E.L.D. ending well before SI even began!!!) or unfinished that it leaves that bad taste in your mouth, wishing you never bought the books in the first place.

Now this whole Dark Reign crap that is about to begin for Marvel Comics. I just hope they manage to keep it out of the cosmic books like Nova & Guardians of the Galaxy ’cause then it won’t ruin the books that I like to read. Am I interested in where Dark Reign is going to go? Sure but you would be crazy to think that Marvel is going to stay on anything so Dark, Evil and Bad for so long so I guess what the upside to Dark Reign is that everything will be bright, fluffy and back to pre-Civil Bore Marvel Universe when the heroes come back and save the day.

As fun as that sounds, I have a hard time believing that Dark Reign will end in any way better than Civil Bore, House of Bendis, Avengers: The New Marketing Gimmick or The Secret  Skrulls.

If you need more Dark Reign fix, you can check out the preview of pages that are out this week here:
http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/6700088.html

Maybe… just maybe all this is due to my consumption of too many back pain meds. Unlikely but could be the case, maybe Secret Invasion is really a good book and I am… okay who the f**k am I kidding with that? SI wasn’t worth they hype (check out the poll on Newsarama for more thoughts on that) Marvel Marketing Machine just keeps churning it out and I am betting everyone is wacking off thinking its going to be fricken great just like they would wack off to the cover of Britney Spears Circus album when the real life shot of Britney is what they will end up with in their hands (holy sh**t that’s a long sentence!). So NO, even though BtS will end, I wouldn’t be pimping out Dark Reign even if Bendis left and it was written by Marvel Apes!

Oh and I forgot to mention that Brian Bendis even got to finally kill a member of the other gender and an Avenger to boot! Good for him, I hope he got his rocks off on that. Joy. What’s next, Norman Osborn and Loki get it on? Oh wait… Loki’s a chick now? Aw fu…!

[flash http://www.youtube.com/v/I2JH2YBGGmY&hl=en&fs=1 w=400 h=324]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2JH2YBGGmY

This is just for William S today. Crank up the tunes and sing along. I love the shot of the guys dressed up as Skrulls, looks like that was from Emerald Con Mondo Marvel panel I went to (or it looks like the guys from Emerald Con) which is kinda kewl.

Snagged off Twitter from EmbraceChange’s latest Tweet
http://twitter.com/EmbraceChange

Too much going on for me of late with the Vancouver Giants, BC Lions, Canucks playing this weekend threw me for a loop. Add to that I get a cold when someone slightly coughs, my wife sick and the Canucks naming Roberto Louongo as their new captain, well, the Best Bang took a bit of a back seat. All that said, here we go with a great issue of Avengers: The Initiative, New Avengers: The Continuing Skrull chronicles came out, Nova came along and kicked some butt with Darkhawk and Captain America wrapped up its major storyline all this week to name a few.

This weeks comics came from the great Hourglass Comics & Toys in Port Moody, B.C., Canada. Lets get right to it.

Read the rest of this entry »

To please our new Lords and Masters, the Skrulls, Between the Staples.com has made an Embrace the Change theme. Enjoy!

http://betweenthestaples.com/index.php?wptheme=Embrace+Change

Long live the Dark Reign!

Okay so funny story about getting my comics last night. William and I arrived to Elfsar Comics & Toys and we saw all these camera people in discussion with Elfsar owner Ethan Peacock over the building of a media blockade in front of his store. William and I quickly bought our comics and then watched as the media scrum was building and building up. You see, Jack Layton – NDP (New Democrats Party) Leader was going to speak in front of the big van with his NDP promotional photo. This big van was parked right out front of Elfsar Comics and Toys so we got a chance to see, watch, listen and snicker at the media whores around Mr. Layton as he lashed out at the current Canadian government and whatever political agenda he had planned.  I have this one thing to say – Jack Layton is a short f***ker! I don’t know if I want a short Canadian Prime Minister at all!

As you can see it was quite a large mass of media people, some of which were very nice and talked to us afterwards. Did you know that often the local media get pushed outta the spotlights from the national media in Canada? I really didn’t think it was that cut throat but it is.

Oh and when I was saying “Take the shot!” a few times from inside the doorway of Elfsar Comics & Toys, while Mr. Layton was being filmed, raised the eyebrows and a head shake from the retired RCMP officer / CSEC agent. William kept telling me to “Stop it!” while snickering but I really couldn’t help myself. I needed to see what happened if I kept it up but alas nothing did happen. Lame. Ultra-Super-Sucky Polly-ticks Lame!

So that was the adventure for William and myself. Good on Ethan and Omar from Elfsar to get interviewed by someone from CKNW. I hope it went on air and they got a chance to talk about what happened and how the media whores blocked the front of the store for a while last night.

More on Jack Layton’s little press conference on Yaletown here:
http://www.cknw.com/Channels/Reg/NewsLocal/Story.aspx?ID=1027385

Personally, after using a gun from Reed Richards and Nick Fury, I think this explains it all…
SKRULLY JACK! Embrace Change is happening. Here and now! Just look at this photo! Evidence! Proof! No bigfoot in a fridge, see…

JACK LAYTON is a SKRULL! Holy f***k!

Okay so I have seen the Embrace Change tweaks for a bit now on Twitter but last night the Skrulls had a commercial broadcast on ESPN2 in the USA. Now they have launched their own website (which redirects to a sub-site on the wonderful Marvel website). It makes me think that there is no way that the Skrulls loose this war after Secret Invasion. I cannot see all the Marvel marketing machine going to such hype just for the entire story to end / change drastically in a few months if the Skrulls lose! Nah, I think this is just going to lead into Dark Reign even more than we think. Check out the site:

http://www.embracechange.org

And if you are in the USA, you can see the commericals here:
http://splashpage.mtv.com/2008/09/17/exclusive-check-out-marvels-mutant-friendly-tv-spots-for-embrace-change-and-the-stand/

Oh and the Skrulls have a press release (cute!)
(snagged from a CBR article here: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18088)

To all of Earth, we are the alien race you know as Skrulls. We wish to offer a few words to you about recent events. You have so much potential. You have so much to offer. Your future can be bright and without war, poverty, and fear. All you have to do is let us help. We come not as an alien armada. We are not invading your lands as conquerors. We are here to help you. We can cure all that is wasting this world. We bring with us a message, one that can be easily translated into any language. Please share this with your brothers and sisters, for it is a simple message that can help us all in the days to come: EMBRACE CHANGE.

Check out the video…

[flash http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated/1794976991?playerId=1794976991&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://console.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&domain=embed&autoStart=false& w=400 h=323]

http://www.marvel.com/embracechange/main.html

This is my absolute favorite “Embrace Change” desktop image and advertisement…

Only books remaining are from the big two – Marvel and DC Comics like Teen Titans, Ambush Bug, Final Crisis: Rouges Revenge and Reign in Hell. Alright lets just keep things rolling here…

Read the rest of this entry »

Snagged this from Scans Daily from the great site:
http://www.derangedcomics.com/

I l♥ve the DOOM action figure with his fist raised in the air! L♥ve it!