ROH! ROH! ROH!

Spoiler Warning! If you're a Ring of Honor Wrestling fan, don't read this blog cause I'm giving away all the details on the matches of the 8/27 show in Chicago Ridge. Let's Roll.

Davey Richards vs. Sugarfoot- Squash City. I got to see Davey in action for the first time, and my initial impression was that he was like Low Ki with a few extra moves (he kicks a lot, and he kicks very hard). Poor Sugarfoot stood no chance.

BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Jacobs (w Lacey)-Pretty much a straight up brawl, with Jacobs eventually winning with some shady tactics. Then Jacobs viciously attacked Whitmer's knee with a set of steel chairs. For a while now, Jacobs has been stuck in a rut as a goofy heel who never wins. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a more serious, and vicious Jimmy.

Jimmy Rave, Sal Rinaro, and Nigel McGuiness vs. Irish Airborne and Delirious- Despite the fact that this match contained a virtual laundry list of top notch competitors, there was something awkward about it. Mostly, it was the fact that Jimmy Rave and Rinaro are Ultra-Heels, while the fans were cheering for Nigel. Apparently, Nigel's string of World Title matches with Bryan Danielson have made him something of a face. Still, a good solid match, nonetheless.

Davey Richards and Homicide vs. The Briscoe Bros- AWESOME! Davey proved he was more than a Low Ki clone, really unleashing a versitile arsenal of moves. Homicide rocked the house, like always. And the Briscoes continued to prove why the only tag team that can hold a candle to Aries and Strong. Fast paced, hard hitting, high flying killer match. The Briscoes pinned Davey after a killer Springboard Doomsday Device.

Samoa Joe vs. Cladio Castignolli- Welp, this was pretty much what we thought it would be. Claudio got a little offence in, but this match was pretty much all Joe. Joe pummeled Claudio half to death, then Muscle Bustered him for good measure.

Austin Aries and Roderick Strong vs. Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydell- I could go on and on and on about how cool this match was, but I'm running out of time this morning. Match ruled, and Aries pinned Daniels after a 450 to booot.

Bryan Danielson vs. Colt Cabana- 2 out of 3 Falls Match- One Hour. Best Ending to a Match Ever. I need more time to talk about this one in depth. I'll try it tomorrow.

Random Notes Before Nacho Party Nite

It's funny. When I had a little bitty sporty car (which I only bought cause it had a six CD changer in it...) that could barely fit four people in it, I was constantly chauffering around four or more people all the time. We'd be crammed in like sardines, and people would always kick the back of my seat on accident. So, after the little sporty car got deer massacred, I decided to buy a big, fat ass station wagon. That way I could drive everyone around and pile seven or eight people in fairly easy. Yet, after buying the car, I can count on one hand the number of times I've had over three people in the car.

Similiarly, when I lived with my parents, we constantly had people running around the house. We had all sorts of get togethers, gatherings, and whatnots in my parent's basement. Yet, since I've got my own place, I only host three get togethers all year long: The Watchdogs Christmas Party (recently renamed A Very Cactus Christmas), My Birthday Shindig, and Trick or Treat Night. I've decided, in the spirit of You Only Live Once, that this will not stand. So, I invited Nacho Party Nite. I've cleaned the house up (well, almost) and I've invited the crew over tonight so we can maw on nachos and watch "Brick". Viva!

In other news, I reread "V for Vendetta" over the last few nights. As suspected, the Wachowski Bros. film can't even hold a candle to the book. In fact, I can see why Alan Moore got so pissed off after reading the script. I'd be pissed too if someone was making a movie out of my work and totally missed the whole damn point of it. I knew that they botched the ending up pretty badly, but I couldn't remember how badly until I reread the book. Yeeesh. So, here's my advice, if you dug "V for Vendetta", then head out to your local comics shop and buy a copy of the original trade. It's a bazillion times better.

The weather has been quite bearable lately. Of course, gotta have something annoying the piss outa everybody, and right now that something is mosquitos. Swarms of the damn things. I've got so many skeeter bites I've turned into a giant red bump with a bit of skin attached. If the news is to be believed, me and the rest of Clay County should be coming down with West Nile any time now...

Speaking of movie adaptations, it looks like Frank Miller's "300" may actually make it to the big screen. It's funny, both Miller and Moore have a very Cinematic approach to writing. And yet, Moore's work is virtually impossible to adapt to the screen, while Miller's work can be adapted fairly easily. Why? Well, to put it simply, despite the cinematic approach of Moore's work, his SCOPE is much larger than cinema can handle. Take Watchmen for example. Y'wanna know why the Watchmen movie is 100% guaranteed to suck? Because there is not a SINGLE THING that can be removed from Watchmen without ruining it. And since you can't possible adapt Watchmen successfully in a 2 to 3 hour film, then guess what, stuff will have to be cut. And the movie will lose something because of it.

Fun with Quick Reviews

Ultimate Avengers 2: The Animated Movie- Ugh. Cut rate, stiff animation, decent voice talent (I do like what they do with Iron Man's voice), slow boring story. They can't decide whether this is the Avengers or the Ultimates. All the characters bitch about stuff through the whole movie. Whine, whine, bitch, bitch. Except for the chicks. Black Widow and the Wasp have their crap together, now. And Betty Ross saves the freakin' day at one point. Biggest gripe: The Black Panther's redesigned costume makes him look like a Japanese wrestler. Hey, Animation Guys! If it ain't broke don't fix it. The only thing I would recommend about this crummy flick is the little bonus interviews where Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch talk about the Ultimates comic. Course, even then you have to sit through several minutes of the animation team talking about how wonderful their crappy animated movie is. Bah.

The Libertine: I thought this movie would be all dangerous and stuff. Instead it's boring as hell. Bummer. Johny Depp does a great job throughout, but, c'mon, it's Johny Depp. He doesn't know how to suck. This movie, on the other hand, took a Master's Course in Sucking. It's just not an interesting movie.

V for Vendetta: The good news is that this is a fairly accurate translation of the classic by Alan Moore. The further good news is that this is an unflinching assault on Bush America (agree or disagree with the current administration, you gotta admit it's always nice when people use that First Amendment for all it's worth). The further further good news is that the Acting is excellent throughout. Great cast, great jobs by everyone. The bad news is that despite all of this, the whole still felt hollow. Here's the thing, there was always a gritty realism to the book. The movie on the other hand feels so...fake. Like a political cartoon. The original was incindiary. The movie is almost emotionless. I can't even fully explain why the movie doesn't work, even though it should have worked. Well, I could, but it would take all morning, and I gotta go to work in another 45 minutes or so. Nice try.

Brick: Dear Lord this is a good film. I mean seriously. I had heard good things about it, and the previews looked good, but even then I was surprised at how good this film was. Especially after sitting through so many mediocre movies. Here's the deal: It's a noir film, set in high school, starring the kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun, and everyone mumbles dialouge that's heavily stylized, and no one curses. Sounds like crap, right? Wrong! The story is a freakin' killer. The characters are unique and brilliant. The dialouge is pretty cool when you can hear it. And the kid from 3rd Rock Rocks the House as a teeny bopper PI who won't stay down, even when he can't stay conscious. It's just such a unique film, again, I could go on and on about how much this movie rules, but it would take all day, and I gotta go to work in 30 minutes. Highest Possible Recommendation.

Death Nouvea!!!

I have typed this so many times today. Oh well, people ain't gonna know about it unless I yammer it up, right?

"Death Nouvea, Episode 1: Strange Noir" is now available for sale. This 24 page B&W comic with an accompanying 25 track CD is an exciting new collaboration between TORC Press and the Dr. Orphyus Project. The CD is designed to be played in conjunction with reading the book; every track matches a page in the book. The story is a classic noir story that's been visually dumped on its brains, while the CD is part Jazz, part Metal, and part Chaos. It truly is a unique and interesting experience. If you're interested, then you can order it online at www.torcpress.com/comicshop.html or through snail mail by sending $6.50 ($5 plus $1.50 S&H) to:

TORC Press
c/o Joseph Morris
330 S 5th St SW
Clay City, IL 62824

Whew.

Fun Facts

TORC Press is short for Truth OR Consequences Press. It's based on a town in New Mexico that was supposed the home of my favorite wrestler of all time, Cactus Jack. Mick "Cactus Jack" Foley actually hailed from New York. Obviously, Cactus Joe is a blatant homage to Cactus Jack as well. I think Truth or Consequences was also the name of a gameshow hosted by Groucho Marx. I think.

My last Xerox comic before I went to Pro Press Comics was called "Super Duper Fun Comix". I shortened the name to create "SDF".

All of the stories in SDF, unless otherwise noted, occur on Earth, in the same dimension (I call it TORCverse Prime Earth), during the same general time period. In fact, most of the stories in SDF, again unless otherwise noted, occur somewhere in Illinois. Those of you who are asking yourself, how is it possible for strips like El Gorio, Queelix & Quagmire, and Mosquito Island can occur in the same time period, in Illinois no less (a place that's not exactly known for its Deserts and Tropical Islands), well, let's just say you're injecting too much logic into it. Big run on sentence.

Cactus Joe has no hair anywhere on his body. He doesn't have fingernails or toenails either.

Pengy Penguin is not wearing really big shoes. He just has really big feet.

The Broken Tea Cup that appears in SDF is actually the third version of that character. The original appeared for one page in "Truth or Consequences Monthly" #6, and the second appeared throughout "Super Duper Fun Comix".

I came up with the concept for "aliceislost" by meditating.

There have been two King Smooth stories published to date. Neither of these are the original King Smooth story.

When he first appears in SDF: Perfect/Ugly, El Gorio has a tail. This is the only time he has a tail. I don't know why I drew him with a tail, and I don't know why I stopped drawing him with a tail.

In the first few stories featuring the Cosmic Fool, the Giant Space Manta that the Fool rides around on had these little horn things on the front of his face. In later stories he does not. That's cause I wanted to simplify the design cause I'm lazy.

Doom Harvest can only say two words, which are Doom and Harvest. Also, he doesn't have an actual human personality. His personality is modeled after a dog.

That's all I can think of at 6:50am. I might have a few more tomorrow.

Loose Ends

When I did my big ole batch of Chicago comic reviews the other day, I missed a couple of items. So, here we go.

If you're in the Chicagoland area, then make sure to check out the Culture Pop Art Gallery. Info can be found at www.culturepopartgallery.com. These guys were my neighbors, and seemed like a real nice group of guys. They had some really cool merch, what I saw of the their artwork looked pretty exciting, and their gallery sells mini-comics and zines as well. Like I said, if you're in the area, check em out.

Deep Fried- Jason Yungbluth- www.whatisdeepfried.com. A B&W anthology style book that focuses primarily on offencive humor. Or is it offensive? Anyway, there's funny stuff throughout, with three basic set ups: There's a pot smoking rockabilly clown and his psychotic heroin addicted cat, there's a little girl who has very bad things happen to her, and (my personal favorite of the bunch) a post apocalyptic Mad Maxesque story that uses the old Peanuts strips as its framework. Watching a buff, gun toting Charlie Brown and a rabid Snoopy do battle with a monstrous, Kite eating tree is quite entertaining indeed.

After a string of mediocre PPVs (which again, can mostly be blamed on poor matchmaking), TNA redeemed itself quite admirably with its Hard Justice PPV. There were some hang ups of course, a fire in the rafters during the first match cause the show to be delayed for a good 15 minutes or so, and as a result, a potentially interesting four team tag match got cut. Also, the main event (Jeff Jarrett aka Old and Lame vs. Sting aka Older and Lame) was a snoozer, which was only redeemed by Christian Cage turning heel (this is good, cause Cage was floundering as a face, especially with TNA giving Sting the limelight here lately). Other than that, though, the rest of the show was great. Eric Young not only wrestled through a match where fire extinguishers were going off, but he also stepped up his game and put on a hell of a match. Spike Dudley (oh wait, I mean Brother Runt. Oops) and Abyss had what was probably the sleeper match of the night, with poor Runt getting driven face first into a bed of thumbtacks. Repeatedly. Rhyno vs. Monty Brown vs. Samoa Joe was a hard hitting brawl that went all over the place and kept a quick pace. Joe was ultra aggressive all match, which was a nice improvement from the previous PPV, where Joe was restrained due to having to wrestle Suck Steiner. Senshi vs. Jay Lethal vs. Petey Williams was excellent, and displayed the talents of all three men admirably. Same goes for the Sabin vs. Alex Shelley match, which was further bolstered by a hilarious bit involving Kevin Nash in a wheelchair. Gail Kim, who I'm rapidly developing more respect for as a wrestler, and viewing her less as just eye candy, tried her best against that Amazon Chick, but unfortunately, the Amazon is a lump in the ring. Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles vs. LAX (Homicide and Hernandez) was, for the most part, a barn burner, with the only sticking points being that the teams were a bit unfamiliar with each other, and that Hernandez is slow as snail snot. Still, Daniels and Styles never bring less than 100%, and Homicide finally got to show off some of his in-ring ability. All in all, a much better card than last months. Thumbs up.

Chicago Reviews

Alright, we got some comics to review. Here's the drill, I'm only putting up Title, Creator, and website info. I don't feel it's right to broadcast mail and e-mail addresses without permission. If you want your mail/e-mail info up on this site, then drop a comment on the blog or drop me a line. Onward!

Rocket Girl #2- Pickle Press- Nik Havert & Jesus Antonio Hernandez Rodriguez- www.picklepress.net. Rocket Girl is the story of a normal gal who falls in love with a superhero, and decides to become a superhero herself to attract his attention. This issue, RocketGirl gets to test out her new Rocket Suit with Hi-larious, and moderately disasterous results. Plus, she ends up getting herself an Archvillian purely by accident. Clean, detailed art complements an incredibly entertaining story. Another winner from the crew at Pickle Press.

Vault of Cthulhu #0- Scott Beem, Nick Beery, Zac Atkinson- www.beerymethod.com or
www.9-v.org. This Zero issue introduces the world of Vault of Cthulhu, an intriguing mystery involving a sailing expedition gone horribly wrong. An interesting start, with solid art and really good production values (the entire issue's in color). There's character designs and sketches in the back.

Pop Art Funnies #7- MPH Comics- Martin Hirchack and Various- The lead story features the adventures of SuperCow. It's a fun little cartoon romp that feels very old school (and I mean that in a complimentary way). There's a number of back up strips by Hirchack and others that are quick and fun. A nice, relaxing read overall.

The Experts Guide: How to Kill Things that Go Bump in the Night #1 & 2- DernWerks- Darren Gendron, Robert Zailo, John Brolle- The Experts are a group of Occult Hunters who chase down and destroy monsters. Both issues are fast paced and do a good job of introducing the fairly sizable cast of characters. The art is solid. The book gets bonus points for having an Application to Join the Experts and a diagram of the Expert's Mobile HQ in the back.

Marled Up #1- Epic Press- Matthew Kapolczynski- A collection of various short strips with a variety of themes. There's some funny stuff, some creepy stuff, and some slice of life stuff. It all has a very underground feel to it. The art's really good.

Boomtown Scabs #1 & 2- Boomtown Press- John Styrk & Brett Pinson- www.boomtownpress.com. When the world's greatest superheroes become lost in space, their mascot (who bears a striking resemblance to a roadie for Metallica) rounds up a pack of second stringers to replace them. Hilarity ensues. This is a real fun book complemented by cartoony artwork that fits perfectly with the material.

Myriad #1-4- Approbation Comics- www.approbationcomics.com. Myriad is an anthology which features a variety of different stories.

Chi Sai- Bart A. Thompson and Various- A revenge epic about Sai wielding female vigilante who launches vicious attacks on a Corporation that's wronged her. A couple of interesting twists keep the story interesting.

The Adventures of the Molly Be Damned- Richard Nelson, Eli Ivory, and Brian Lafromboise- A pirate adventure. The story takes a little while to get going, but the later chapters are incredibly good. Gotta love fish monsters.

Lineage- Jay Jacobs & Chris Tsuda- A technological utopia is suddenly (and accidentally) invaded by a world of nature and magic. Chaos ensues. The story grounds itself nicely by focusing on two central characters, one from the sci-fi world, the other from the fantasy world.

Discount Stories- John Ward & Steve Doty- A series of stories set inside a Wal-Martesque store, told from the POV of various employees. Really good, really clever slice of life stories.

Frail- Chris O'Bryant, James Sandman, & Brain Laframboise- At first I thought this was some sort of romance comic. Then it spirals off into a sorta horror/revenge type of story. It's actually quite good, but I'm afraid to say too much for fear of spoiling the story.

We Be Back!

All of us here at TORC Press would like to take this moment to thank everyone that came out and supported us at the 2006 Wizard World Chicago Comicon. Whether you bought something off us or not, just taking the time to try out a comic from an unknown publisher from the back end of nowhere means a lot. And for those of you who did buy something, I hope you enjoy your books, and if you do enjoy them, make sure to check back here or over at www.myspace.com/torcpress for all of the latest news and info on new books coming out.

So, how was the show, you ask? Well, for starters, it's Wizard World. My first show was at WW three years ago, and it's always my best show. This year, attendance seemed to be lighter than usual. That meant that foot traffic was lighter than usual as well, which, in turn, meant it was harder to find people that would be interested in checking out the book. Having said that, Bro and I waded in and attacked the show with everything we had. And we did pretty well. It was exhausting, but fun. We met lots of cool people, and we had great neighbors throughout Artists Alley. Best of all, we had a surprisingly large number of people who were return customers from 2005, and even one or two from 2004! Knowing that there's a few people out there that enjoy my book and want to score new issues really helps make this whole thing seem worthwhile.

Other than that, we ate some good food (Giadannos!!!!!!), I scored a TON of 70s Kirby comics (I've almost got the entire original Eternals series!), picked up *coughLostGirlscough*, and bought/traded for a handful of Indy books (which I will probably mention here on the blog in the next day or two). I didn't score any bootleg or import DVDs this year, but I wasn't really looking for anything either. (Not that I've EVER bought a bootleg DVD. After all, it would be wrong, even if it would be the only way I could ever watch Battle Royal. Great flick, by the by.) All in all, another great year.

TORC Press goes to Chicago

Alright, we're only a few hours away from leaving for Chicago. Once again, we will (barring some unforseen occurance) be in Artist's Alley at Table 3235B. We're going to have lots of great stuff, including comics, mini-comics, and other whatnots, not to mention lots of Convention Exclusive Specials. If you're reading this and you're going to be at the show, make to swing by, say hi, and maybe throw a little scratch our way.

Wish us luck!