Author Archives: Andrew Hales

I am a Supervillain, AMA: Pt. 3

…Let’s take a moment to recap. I built a masterpiece; a total jerkmunch punched me in the face; I pushed a button and now the world is going to end. Alright… now that we’re all up to speed, let’s proceed.

To be perfectly clear, I had no intention of ever destroying the world. I mean, if I destroy the world, I can’t very well rule it now, right? Yes, the button said “END OF WORLD,” but I was just trading on the threat. People will take you very seriously if you say you’re gonna end the world. They listen less when you say that you’re just gonna conjure up a big storm. Honestly, that’s about all my “END OF WORLD” setting should have done. At worst, it should have been a Category 5 hurricane. While that is a dangerous storm, especially in the middle of a land locked state, they’re also naturally occurring. The world doesn’t end when a really bad hurricane hits.

There was one thing that I had apparently forgotten to work into all of my equations: global warming. I know you’re thinking that global warming is a complete hoax. I totally agree! I mean, I’m a registered Republican; we’re not allowed to believe in global warming. It also doesn’t help that the text books I used as references were warning of global cooling. (That might have also been a contributing factor to the… situation, now that I look back on things. I might have over compensated just a little.) In the end it doesn’t really seem to matter because, as we’re speaking, there is a storm brewing that is currently about the size of Texas and about two steps off the high end of the hurricane category scale. Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under Andrew Hales, Short Story

Editorial | Adventures on the Camino de Santiago (or, Tracy Learns to Take a Selfie)

My travels in Europe were designed to include a six day version of the Camino de Santiago, walking from Ferrol, Spain to Santiago de Compostela, a traditional pilgrimage that ends at the Cathedral of St. James.  My walk just happened to be at the same time as a bunch of other awesome people’s walk (just kidding, we planned it that way).  The views were more breathtaking than any photo could possibly do justice.

DSCN0461  Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Editorial, Geek Life, Tracy Gronewold

Guest Review: Jurassic World

 jurassic-world-poster
By Joseph De Paul

 

Welcome to Jurassic World

The magic is gone so let’s eat some people!

It’s been 22 years since, as a boy, I watched animals that up until that point, I had only seen as bones or cartoons damn well near come alive and at the same time bewilder scare the crap out of me. Steven Spielberg’s 1993 Jurassic Park could be seen as the perfect Blockbuster. It still holds up over 20 years later. After The Lost World (underrated I think) and Jurassic Park 3 (let’s not talk about it) the public’s cultural conciseness had basically put the franchise to bed, really only to living on in comic books and video games. But, it’s the 21st century, and we’ll try anything….four times.

So we get Jurassic World, a movie I’m sure no one was really asking for, but it’s here so let’s make the most of it. Once I heard that this was actually going to happen I instantly went in to self preservation mode and prepared myself for a total suck fest. As trailers for the movie started to come out I knew the only way I was going to like this film was if a ton of people got eaten by passable CGI Dinosaurs. That’s all I wanted and Jurassic World pretty much delivers. Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under Joseph De Paul, Movie Reviews, Movies

Saturday Review: The Mighty Thor by Walter Simonson, Vol. 1

thorThe Might Thor (Marvel)
Written and Art by Walter Simonson

 

Over the last eight years there have been a small handful of comics that have peaked my interests so much that I had to read as much as I could as quickly as possible. Books like Saga, Transmetropolitan, and The Dark Knight Returns rank among the top of that elite group. Lately however, a new run of comics has been added to that list in the shape of The Mighty Thor Vol. 1 by Walt Simonson.

It’s no secret that Simonson’s run on Thor is one of the most highly regarded run on any superhero comic, and potentially the best run on Thor period. Having said that I hadn’t gotten around to reading it yet. I’d read the first few issues of the J. Michael Straczynski run, which brought Thor back from the dead, but was unimpressed past about issue #3. It wasn’t until Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic’s run on Thor: God of Thunder that I really developed an interest in the characters. The more I began to talk about Aaron’s run, the more people kept asking if I had read Simonson’s work. A couple weeks ago I finally broke down and bought the first trade. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Comic Reviews, Comics, Saturday Reviews