Mike Mignola: X-Men Classic #58 Cover (1991)

Posted on Saturday, February 4, 2012 by Craig Lotter

Always eager to make some money off their huge back issue archive, Marvel at one stage had a dig through their old X-Men archives, pulled a couple of great story arcs from the vault and commissioned some new cover art to wrap it in before making a further $1.25 off old material. Certainly not the worst business plan ever, and actually something I quite appreciated because it meant access to classic story lines I would otherwise never be exposed to!

For issue 58 which was a reprint of 1982′s Uncanny X-Men #154 featuring the X-Men and Corsair taking on a horde of Sidrian Hunters, Hellboy superstar creator Mike Mignola got assigned the job of producing a new cover for the reprint, and so he whipped up this particularly dynamic piece in his classic heavily shadowed style, depicting a stressed group of Storm, Cyclops and Corsair, as they huddle together against a seemingly endless barrage of insidious Sidrian Hunters!

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Joke Factory: That’s One Way to Secure the Votes

Posted on Friday, February 3, 2012 by Craig Lotter

An elderly couple was having dinner one evening when the husband reached across the table, took his wife’s hand in his and said, “Emma, soon we will be married 50 years, and there’s something I have to know. In all of these 50 years, have you ever been unfaithful to me?”

Emma replied, “Well Herman, I have to be honest with you too dear. Yes, I’ve been unfaithful to you three times during these 50 years, but always for a good reason.”

Hurt by his wife’s sudden and unexpected confession, Herman managed to stay composed and said, “I never suspected a thing. Could you perhaps please tell me just what you mean by ‘good reason’?”

Emma said, “The first time was shortly after we were married, and we were about to lose our little house because we couldn’t pay the mortgage. Do you remember that one evening I went to see the banker and the next day he notified you that the loan would be extended?”

Herman recalled the visit to the banker and said, “Oh. But I can forgive you for that my dear, after all, you saved our home. And the second time?”

Emma asked, “Do you remember when you were so sick and we didn’t have the money to pay for the heart surgery you needed? Well, I went to see your doctor one night and, if you recall, he did the surgery at no charge.”

“I recall that,” replied Herman tearfully, “And again you did it to save my life, so of course I can forgive you for that. Now tell me about the third time.”

“All right,” Emma said. “So do you remember when you ran for president of the synagogue, and you needed 73 more votes to win?”

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My Toes are Singing the Praises of Medaspor

Posted on Thursday, February 2, 2012 by Craig Lotter

It’s not often that I sing the praises of creams, mainly because I never use them (I’m not metrosexual like that), but this isn’t your normal skin cream I’m going to be talking about now, oh no, I’m talking about medicinal creams (which coincidentally I also almost never use).

Anyway, thanks to a nasty infection (looks like Athlete’s Foot to me) that I most likely caught from the gym’s shower area, the last three toes on my left foot have been looking (and smelling if truth be told) fairly “mingy” for quite a while now, with the skin being dry, flaky and blistered in places, making it prone to crack open at the joints of my toes, which as you can imagine, is not particularly pleasant when you, like me, tend to walk barefoot on grass quite a lot.

Normally I treat this sort of thing with Bactroban, though that is out of sheer ignorance and only because Chantelle once passed me a tube for a similar problem on the other foot. Unfortunately for me though, my (probably expired) little tube was pretty empty be the time I started treating my toes, and anyway, after the first application it didn’t really seem to be achieving much at all. So off I went to our local Gordon’s Bay pharmacist where I was informed that they didn’t have Bactroban currently in stock, but instead had a little tube of something called Supiroban, which they assured me would work just as well.

Which of course, if you picked up on my earlier observation regarding Bactroban, would be nothing.

I applied the Supiroban for about two weeks and apart from masking the damaged skin right after application, but only for a short period of time until it was fully absorbed, it didn’t seem to be actually working, leaving a slightly frustrated Craig with mingy toes in its wake.

Enter Chantelle, who suggested I give her little tube of Medaspor a shot, something she is currently using to control the rash that her wedding ring gives her after wearing it for lengthy periods of time.

Because wives are usually NOT to be argued with, I accepted the little tube of Medaspor, noted the description on the side of the tube reading “Topical Cream. Broad spectrum Antimycotic with Fungicidal Properties”, and applied it to my wriggling toes.

And then went to bed.

Waking up the next morning, I was amazed by the difference the cream has made after just a handful of hours of being on my toes – and the remarkable and noticed improvement continued over the next couple of days, meaning that I’m quite happy to stick with this one and am looking forward to the outcome after the recommended course length.

Medaspor.

Heh, nice.

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Guess the Cosplay by Kipi

Posted on Thursday, February 2, 2012 by Craig Lotter

Can you guess which character, and from which gaming franchise, Japanese cosplayer Kipi is cosplaying?

Continue reading →

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First Impressions… Spectacular Spider-Man (2008)

Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2012 by Craig Lotter

I’m thoroughly, thoroughly enjoying this animated version of Spider-Man it must be said, even though it is telling all the stories we’ve heard before, just this time with more of a youthful, upbeat twist to them! :)

We all know the story, puny Peter Parker gets bitten by a radioactive spider, inherits a whole heap of spider-related abilities, which together with a little technical ingenuity from the genius himself, results in a youthful new masked hero flipping and swinging around New York City!

What the writers have cleverly done is taken the original Spider-Man story-arcs, condensed them and then reconfigured such that all the important classic and current characters appear together in the same timeline, but in such away that they are still in the process of evolving into the roles we’re accustomed to seeing them in, meaning that everything still feels very new.

This has resulted in a very accessible show that both kids and adults can enjoy together, with enough familiarity to please all the closet fanboys, and enough freshness to make you want to watch these well tread stories again, even if it is technically for the umpteenth time!

Matching this upbeat and more youthful approach is a fantastic simplified animation style which believe it or not, actually works for the show, and ends up being another contributing factor to the freshness of this new incarnation. Sure the show has its serious moments and commentary to make, but thanks to the animation style you are never have to be completely bogged down by all of this, and instead can just simply sit back and enjoy with a smile on your face.

The voice cast have been well picked, and the great mix of background and theme music round off the show well, and in a nutshell, if you have kids, make them watch this, and if you are a spider-man/comic book fan yourself, then sit down and watch it them.

The cutesy visuals are misleading – this really is an enjoyable outing! :)

(Incomplete Viewing)

Related Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectacular_Spider-Man_%28TV_series%29

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Ryan’s Kirstenbosch Birthday Picnic

Posted on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 by Craig Lotter

Despite Friday being a bit of a write off thanks to a horrible stomach bug that saw me throw up at work, go home early, and then crash into bed and sleep for pretty much the whole evening, Saturday was 300 hundred times better thanks to having woken feeling 100%, having enough time to faff around the house and get Jessica ready, before Chantelle, Jess and I took a drive in traffic to the mall, to pick up a last minute addition to my brother Ryan’s birthday present as well as hand in Chantelle’s broken Samsung Windows phone for repairs.

Amazingly enough, despite having lost time thanks to us having left a little later than planned and then the increased traffic on our way to the mall, Chantelle managed to get us in her little green Getz all the way through to Kirstenbosch with two minutes to spare, just in time to meet up with Mom, Dad and Ryan, who were busy pulling their car into a new parking space, having arrived a little earlier to suss out the perfect picnic spot.

Unlike Gordon’s Bay where the wind had been pumping non-stop throughout the night and into the morning (so much so that we dissuaded Evan and Natasha from coming through to take Evalynne to the beach here in our part of the world), Kirstenbosch was absolutely, breathtakingly picture perfect – not a breath of wind, radiant sunlight, and of course that spectacular, leafy view.

It’s been a very long time since I’ve last visited Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, so I have to admit to having been quite pleased when the Facebook event notice came through inviting us out to Kirstenbosch for a family picnic in celebration of Ryan’s big 29th birthday.

Claire had been tasked with saving the earlier selected spot, the perfect shady area under a bushy thorn tree, on top of luscious green grass and next to the stunning “cheetah attacking a springbok” statue, and most important of all, close enough to the entrance of the Botanical Gardens that Mom would be able to comfortably make it with her still recovering knee.

And of course, the first thing everyone did on arrival was dump the gear and remove the shoes, with Jessica being plucked from her pram and being thrust straight in as the centre of attention (or entertainment if you must).

After a bit of lazing around and taking in the splendour around us, Ryan began to break out the food from his dazzling array of cooler boxes and shopping bags, revealing a huge spread that catered to everyone’s taste buds. At this stage Riley had also joined us after finishing up at his Kung Fu practice, and so we all dug in, filling the afternoon air with the sounds of chomping, chatter and of course loads of laughter!

We spent a good couple of hours in the Gardens before eventually packing up and hitting the road, but everyone was quick to agree that this had been a fantastic family day out and a great way to celebrate Ryan’s birthday, so much so that Chantelle is now pretty sure what we’re going to be doing in December to celebrate her 32nd! ;)

(Oh, and a reminder to myself – taking Baden Powell because it should be a nice scenic drive home and not too roundabout a route, doesn’t really work when a) the road is busy and b) the cars are driving rather slowly along it! Oh well, at least we did get home in the end!)

P.S. Check out the Kirstenbosch Picnic photos here.

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Jessica going for the Camera and playing with a Ball

Posted on Monday, January 30, 2012 by Craig Lotter

I wanted to film Jessica’s excited reaction that she usually gives when given this little plastic toy ball with chocolate beans rattling inside, but instead she turned the tables on me and went straight for the camera, intrigued by the lens.

Needles to say, it turned into a mad scramble to keep it safely out of her hands! :)

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