Year in Review: TORC Press

So, how'd we do this year?

I published three issues of SDF, namely "Lost Jigsaw Pieces", "The Great Race", and "Drifter's Rhapsody". I have a certain amount of pride about all three issues, and when I did get feedback, all three issues seemed to be fairly well recieved. I completed a fourth issue, "Foul Business", but it's still at the printers. I also did a couple of promo mini-comics which were kinda fun (Sped vs. a pair of Racoons is a comedy gold mine in my opinion). Bro and I had our first collaboration on a large scale, producing the awesome Comic Book CD (CBCD), "Death Nouveau Episode 1: Strange Noir". So, all in all it was a fairly productive year.

I attended four conventions this year: SPACE in Columbus, OH, Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC, Wizard World Chicago, and the Nashville Comic and Horror Festival. I did fairly well at all four shows, and made a little scratch to help fuel the business (which of course I immediately burnt through paying printing costs).

I discontinued the webcomic this year. Still haven't decided whether that was a bad idea or not. Still debating on whether or not to revive it next year. If you're reading this and you want the webcomic back, send me an e-mail. The website itself mostly became a repository for the online store and this blog. Also, started my own myspace account (www.myspace.com/torcpress), which ultimately was just another place for me to get inundated with Spam.

I put on my first one man Art Gallery Show. Admittedly, it was in my house, and the only people that came were close friends and family, but hey, it's one more Art Show than most people will ever host. Plus it let get some ideas out of my brain and onto paper, so that's good.

Other than that, everything else was about the same. Made some scratch, but never got out of the Red (never really expect to). Met some cool people. Had some ups and some downs. All in all 06 was a good year for TORC Press, and I'm looking forward to 2007.

Happy Holidays & YiR: Comics

I type this between meals on Christmas Day. I'm currently stuffed full of Blueberry Pancakes. I'm hoping that my stomach will clear up enough so I can re-stuff it with Shrimp and Bread. More Carbs! And Cheesecake! Anyway, before I go into shock from all of the food I will eat today, allow me to wish everyone a Happy Holidays. Regardless of which holiday you're celebrating, I hope you both live it up, and still take a few moments to ponder what is truly important in life. Like cheesecake.

Year in Review: Comics

So, you would think my Year in Review for Comics would be a lengthy dissertation on all of the great books that came out this year. Well, I would, but when you read comics all year long it's really hard to remember what came out this year and what came out last year. Here's the stuff that I think happened this year that interested me.

1. Sinking Ship Comics in Olney, IL closed. Also, The Fantasy Shop in Fairview Heights, IL closed. The world got a little suckier.

2. Ultimate Extinction was the worst comic of the New Millenium. Warren Ellis butchered the Silver Surfer and Galactus. I had to resist the urge to kick the limey jerk in the nutsack at Heroes Con.

3. Seven Soldiers was really, really awesome. Except the final issue didn't come out. Then the final issue finally did come out. And it kinda sucked. Then I reread the entire series and suddenly it was really awesome again.

4. Love and Rockets continued to rule. Gilbert Hernandez's solo book, "The Sloth" was excellent.

5. Annihalation was really cool. It was really nostalgic for me to see all of my favorite characters from my childhood embroiled in an epic Cosmic War. Can't wait to see how it all ends.

6. There's lots and lots of great Indy stuff out there. If you're at a Con, make sure to go out to the Artist's Alley section and take the time to flip through some books. I guarantee you'll find some great stuff.

I'm sure there were other things worth mentioning, but I'm still full of pancake, so I'll leave it at this. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanakuaha (spell?), Happy Kwanza (people need to make their holidays easier to spell), Happy Festivus, and Happy Unwrap Presents Day to one and all!

Year in Review: Movies

Okay, for starters this YiR is a little incomplete. There's lots of movies I wanted to watch this year, but I couldn't for one reason or another. So, I haven't seen "Babel", "For Your Consideration", "Pan's Labrynth", and about a half dozen others. Frankly, I haven't watched that many movies this year. Also, the movie I'm most excited about, "David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE" still hasn't come to a theatre near me. Still, here's my YiR in movies that I've (mostly) seen.

Best Movie of the Year: Brick- It sounds like a horrible idea. A pulp/noir Bogartesque film set in a modern day high school starring a cast of teeny boppers. Yet, ironically, no movie intrigued, riveted, excited, and flat out rocked my world like Brick. Brilliant script, excellent directing, and a pitch perfect cast. I nearly fell out of my chair at least twice during the flick. For me, this was the best film of the year without a doubt (and, ironically, it may have actually come out last year...)

Honorable Mention: The Science of Sleep- Beautiful, surreal, dream-like, funny, and unconventional, "Science" was so close to being my pick for best film of the year. Unfortunately, the almost confectionary approach of "Science" just didn't resonate like the hard boiled brutality of "Brick".

Funniest Movie of the Year: Little Miss Sunshine- Again, it sounds like a horrible idea. A road trip movie about a dysfunctional family shepherding their young daughter to a kiddie beauty pageant sounds like something out of a National Lampoon film. Not so. Kinda dark, kinda strange, and wildly offbeat, yet still possessing a heart underneath it all, "Sunshine" was everything the critics said it would be and more.

Honorable Mention: Clerks 2- Not as funny as the original (big surprise), but WAY funnier than I expected. Definately funnier than just about everything else I watched this year.

Worst Movie of the Year that I Actually Watched: X-Men the Last Stand- Groan. This is a bad movie. This is a bad X-Men story. This is just bad. When even Ian McKellan can't make your film not suck you know you've got problems.

Worst Movie of the Year I Didn't Bother to Watch: The DaVinci Code- Joseph Hate Tom Hanks. Also, this was probably the worst reveiwed movie of the entire year.

Biggest Disapointment: An Inconvient Truth- After all the hype about Al Gore's Global Warming Flick, I was pretty excited to finally watch it. Too bad it was so boring I fell asleep halfway through. Also, still not convinced about this whole globabl warming thing. Cue comment from Shafe.

Year in Review: TeeVee

Joseph's Bestest Programs on the Teleevishun:

Fox:
House- The only thing left to watch on Fox nowadays is House. Normally I'm not a big fan of doctor shows, but House is worth watching just for the cranky, wise cranking, overtly cynical main character. The medical mysteries are just a nice bonus.

CBS:
How I Met Your Mother- Stupid name, stupid premise, great show. My brother's favorite show, HIMYM is really well written, has a great cast, and is consistantly funny as hell. This show has no real business being as good as it is.

NBC:
My Name is Earl- Earl can be (and often is) a very funny show. But the real draw of the program is the incredibly complex plots that run throughout the show, as well as the various life lessons (that thankfully don't come off like something on a Hallmark card) that our heroes learn each week.

The Office- Funniest show on TV right now. Period.

Nickelodeon:
Spongebob Squarepants- Yes. Naughtical Nonsense be something I wish. Shut up.

Avatar the Last Airbender- Who knew that the best action show on television right now would be an Epic faux Anime series on Nickelodeon? The adventures of Ang and his crew are beautifully animated, exciting, and well written. Again, it's a total surprise that this show is as good as it is.

Cartoon Network:
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends- Dunno why I love this show so much, but I do.

Ben 10- Another great action cartoon, most noteable for its wide array of kickin' monster designs. A lot of fun, and fairly well animated as well.

Metalopalypse (spell?)- It's funny, which is nice. It's violent, which is better. But what really makes Metapocalypse so awesome is the killer music (how is the music on this show so good?) and the bad ass music videos (if MTV had videos on even half this good, the channel would almost not completely suck). Love this show.

Squidbillies- Why dost I love yon Squidbillies? 'Cause they're like me, they're stupid, ugly, and crazy as hell! Whoo yeah! Now I'm go jump in my Truckboattruck an kick some ass!

Joseph Worstest Shows on TeeVee

Reality TV- I really do not like reality TV. I've tried to watch it, and it is kinda like a train wreck, once you start it's hard to look away, but I always feel dirty afterwards. The only thing I learned from Dog the Bounty Hunter is that all you need to be a bounty hunter is a killer mullet. Dr. 90210 is a testament to all that is wrong with modern society, plus watching a chick get a boob job was pretty disgusting even by my standards. The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader show was interesting in a I like watching women in virtually no clothes dance around kinda way, but other than that it was boring, and a little ridiculous. The Girls Next Door is great eye candy, but the Hef's gals are so freaking stupid that just by listening to them talk I get a little stupider. (Side note: Anyone noticing a trend with the last handful of shows I've mentioned? Anyone?) And lastly, the one episode of Little People Big World I watched bored me stupid.

The Year in Review '06: The World

I know nobody's reading this thing, but I'm gonna start putting up my Year in Review columns starting, well, today, and continue putting them up throughout the rest of this year. So, tune in here once or twice a week to see what I thought of life and pop culture throughout this year of our Lord 2006. And we start it all off with a quick overview of the World at Large.

The World in 2006 was pretty much the same as the World has been ever since us two legged freaks have been walking it. Buncha people died. Buncha people were born. Some people did good things, but no one paid any attention cause good deeds go unnoticed. Lots of people did bad things, and everyone paid attention cause doing bad is far more interesting. Technology advanced, nature receeded (spell?), and no one really learned anything. There were some disasters, and a lotta people ran around saying it was the end of the world, but here I am typing this little rundown about the World, so I suppose it's still here.

In other words, same old same old.

Final ROH in Chicago for '06

Alrighty. Last Ring of Honor Show in Chicago for '06. I've been to every ROH wrestling show that was held in Chicago this year, and if anyone from ROH happens to stumble across this blog via Google or whatnot, I'd just like to thank you folks for putting on the best wrestling shows I've ever had the opportunity to watch live. ROH will return to Chicago in Feb of '07, but they'll be at a new venue that's farther North. As a result I'm not sure our pack of southern boys will be able to make the drive. Anyway, here's what I can remember of the card:

Ace Steel vs. Tank Tolland- Ugh. Tank Tolland is not a good enough wrestler to be performing in ROH. He's a sloppy, steroid laden lunk with no real in ring talent. Give credit to Ace Steel for trying to drag a decent match out of this worthless chunk of crap, but still, this match was very poor. Afterwards, Brooks said to me, "I bet they cut that one from the DVD." I just nodded.

Six Man Mayhem: CJ Otis vs. Pelle Primeau vs. Trik Davis vs. Jake & Dave Crist (Irish Airborne) vs. Kikutaro- Very fast, very entertaining match, and a welcome respite from the previous match. Kikutaro is funny as hell. The young wrestlers that made up the bulk of this match all made fine showings of themselves. Irish Airborne used their tandem finish, the Irish Air Raid, to score the win, seemingly forgetting that this was an Every Man for Himself match.

Homicide vs. Shane Hagadorn- This was mostly a squash match. Homicide pummeled Hagadorn and finished him with the Cop Killa. After the match Homicide challenged Adam Pierce to a Steel Cage Match. I will freely admit that I started screaming like a little girl at that point.

Samoa Joe vs. Mark Briscoe- A solid, albeit fairly quick, hard hitting matchup. Joe hit Mark with the Muscle Buster, then hit him with a flurry of slaps and a killer Lariet to end it. Then there was this whole thing about Joe challenging anyone from Pro Wrestling NOAH, and Nigel McGunnies answering the call and blahblahblah. Moving on.

Christopher Daniels and Matt Cross vs. Austin Aries and Roderick Strong- Matt Sydell was injured, so he got replaced by rookie ROH wrestler Matt Cross. Surprisingly, Cross put on a hell of a showing, and the match ending being a killer anyway. Lots of great action from all four combatants. It came as no real surprise when Strong and Aries finished Cross with the Half Nelson Backbreaker/450 Splash Combo.

STEEL CAGE MATCH!-Homicide vs. Adam Pierce- Welp, I've seen a Steel Cage Match. That's one less thing I gotta do before I die. This was a hard hitting fight. There was blood. There were bodies getting smashed into the cage. There was Homicide gouging away at Peirce with a fork. There was me happy. Ultimately Homicide murdered Pierce with a Lariet and pinned him. Woo-Hoo!

Jay Briscoe vs. Davey Richards- Match of the Night! This was just a stellar, hard hitting, high flying, fast paced match up between two wrestlers that brought out the absolute best in each other. Surprisingly, Jay beat Davey with the Jaydriller.

Main Event 8 Man Tag Team Elimination Match: Delirious, Colt Cabana, BJ Whitmer, and Nigel McGuiness vs. Bryan Danielson, Jimmy Rave, Jimmy Jacobs, and Shingo. Great Match! Lots of action, and ROH is finally starting to give the painfully underrated Jimmy Rave a push. Here's the rundown on the Eliminations: Jimmy Jacobs was Eliminated by DQ after attacking BJ Whitmer with a Chair. BJ was eliminated by tap out to Rave's new hold. Nigel was eliminated by tap out to Rave's new hold. Shingo was eliminated by pinfall after a Colt Powerbomb. Colt Cabana was eliminated by pinfall after being kicked in the nutsack by Danielson and rolled up by Rave. Jimmy Rave was eliminated by pinfall by Delirious who used some crazy ass move I've never seen before. And in the Shock of the Night, ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson Tapped Out to Delirious's Cobra Stretch.

Helluva show.