Why the Late Night Crew are no longer Super Friends....

What's Missing from this Super Friends Picture?

So, you see Batman, Superman, Aquaman...hell even the Wonder Twins and that damn dirty ape have spots in the Super Friends, so where's our boys? This is footage from within the Hall of Justice, it shows what phone call Pigamortis and Dimension messed up on...unfortunately, Cannon was guilty by association.

When asked for comments, these are the printable quotes we received:

• Pigamortis - "I made a simple error, geez kill a guy, why don't ya. They made it out....relax people"
• Rob Dimension - " I still am not sure what is going on...all I know is they took my cape back."
• John Cannon - "Can I just have the right to remain silent? I apologize to all who were affected by this.....but, you can see my tragedy now."

DC Universe Halloween Special 2010 review - Better than last year??

COMIC REVIEW 

DC UNIVERSE HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2010 (One-Shot) 

STORY: “Trick for The Scarecrow” (Batman), by Billy Tucci. “Robin the Vampire Slayer” (Batman & Robin), by Joe Harris. “Time or Your Life” (Flash), by Alex Segura. “A Night to Remember” (Wonder Woman & Deadman), by Vinton Heuck. “Medusa Non Grata” (Miss Martian & Blue Beetle), by Bryan Q. Miller. “Fears of Steel” (Superman & The Demon), by Brian Keene.

ART: Billy Tucci, Lee Garbett, Kenneth Loh, Dean Zachary, Trevor McCarthy, Stephen Thompson.

PUBLISHER: DC

AVAILABLE: Now, at your local comic shop! 

REVIEW: Mark Mackner

Greetings once again, ghouls and ghosts! Tis I, resident Spider-Man scholar, MARK MACKNER with a review of the brand-new DC UNIVERSE HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2010!!!! 

Last year, we were given a whopping 13 Halloween tales. This time, it’s just 6. But quality rules over quantity, right? So, do slightly longer stories make for an overall better book? The answer is (In this case, anyway), no, not really. 2010’s Special isn’t any better than 2009’s. But it’s just as good! Anthologies such as this are always a mixed bag, with some stories shining, others tanking, and some just not really making any sort of an impression at all. Some of them pass by so quickly that you don’t even have time to formulate an opinion on them, one way or the other. But, if you’re like me, and you eat these things up, then there’s plenty to enjoy here, though. And, if you’re also like me in that you have kids that you love sharing the joy of comics with, I’ll let you know which are kid-appropriate, and which are questionable. To wit, a rundown of what you’ll find in this year’s collection… 

BATMAN in “TRICK FOR THE SCARECROW”, by Billy Tucci. Scarecrow breaks into a home on Devil’s Night (aka Mischief Night, for those of us who don’t live in THE CROW’s universe), accidentally sprays himself with his fear agent, and is terrorized by two little kids in Batman costumes with a grudge. You see, Scarecrow stole their candy in the 2009 Special, and now it’s payback time. I liked the bit with the Mom, and seeing Dick’s more lighthearted Batman get a chuckle out of the whole ordeal. Breezy Halloween fun, suitable for all ages. Grade: B. 

BATMAN & ROBIN, with I… “VAMPIRE in “ROBIN THE VAMPIRE SLAYER”, by Joe Harris and Lee Garbett. Andrew Bennett (I… Vampire) leads Batman and Robin into a nest of some especially nasty vampires known as “The Cult of the Blood Red Moon”. But can Bennett be trusted? What’s his gripe with these vamps? Or is he setting a trap for the Dynamic Duo? A decent enough supernatural action yarn, spun in just 7 pages! Some action, but not bloody, so you could share with the kids. Which is good, because my kids will definitely be down for some Dynamic Duo vs. vampire action. Grade: B. 

THE FLASH in “TIME OR YOUR LIFE”, by Alex Segura and Kenneth Loh. Monsters stalk the streets while a Halloween festival is going on in the city. Frankenstein’s Monster shows up, and people fear him because he’s stitched together from parts of multiple corpses and also he’s freaking HUGE. But is he the true threat? Or is he there hunting something far WORSE? The other monster in this looks like something out of a Sam Raimi film. WAY “Army of Darkness” or “Drag Me To Hell”. A text message brings Barry Allen, THE FLASH, to the rescue! There’s a decent scrap between The Flash and Frankenstein’s Monster, which I guess is cool in and of itself, but there’s not much else to hang your hat on here. The boobs on the other monster and some blood might make you wanna skip this one if reading with your little ones. Grade: C.

WONDER WOMAN and DEADMAN in “A NIGHT TO REMEMBER”, by Vinton Heuck and Dean Zachary. Deadman tails a lowlife to a cult ceremony led by FELIX FAUST, who’s had CHEETAH steal something from the museum in order to complete the ritual. Wonder Woman shows up and cleans house, and Deadman gets the brief pleasure of a woman’s touch, when Wonder Woman rewards him with a kiss on the cheek for his heroics. This was a nice story. I liked Deadman’s voiceover, and Wonder Woman vs. Cheetah is always fun. Grade: B. 

MISS MARTIAN and THE BLUE BEETLE in “MEDUSA NON GRATA”, by Bryan Q. Miller and Trevor McCarthy. KLARION THE WITCHBOY (And his cat TEEKL) go out trick or treating, and wind up being laughed at by a couple who answer their door, expecting to see kids there. Klarion doesn’t appreciate the reaction he gets, so he turns the couple to stone. He then starts turning EVERYONE to stone! Meanwhile, Blue Beetle is teaching Miss Martian about Halloween, and accompanying her on a walk through the neighborhood, stopping for treats of their own. Klarion’s antics grab their attention, and a quick conflict ensues. I rather enjoyed this one. The flirtation between the heroes is endearing and cute, and Teekl the Cat totally steals the show as Klarion’s familiar. “I can haz ur soul?” is the best line in the whole book. No gore, a talking cat, and art that looks to be pulled directly from a TV cartoon show means the kids will probably dig it, and I think most comic readers can relate to both the Blue Beetle AND Klarion in this story. “I detect an inflated sense of self worth. From the cat.” Nicely played. Grade: B. 

SUPERMAN and THE DEMON in “FEARS OF STEEL”, by Brian Keene and Stephen Thompson. Some kids out for Halloween fun in Metropolis stumble upon a very distressed Superman. They’re not sure what to make of it, but we the readers can see that he’s got an invisible parasitic demon on his back, attempting to take over the Man of Steel’s mind. The fiend has him seeing all the things that rattle him most: Lois dying, his Earth and Kryptonian fathers seeing him as a disappointment, etc. THE DEMON shows up and talks Supes out of it, makes him see that people care about him and that he has nothing to fear. If all this sounds kinda hokey, that’s because it IS. Blah. Grade: C-. 

Overall, I’ll give the book a B-. SOLOMON GRUNDY’s presence is sorely missed here, as he’s featured prominently on the cover, and he’s a natural fit for a Halloween story, yet he’s nowhere to be found inside the book. I would’ve liked to have seen more season-appropriate villains, like TOYMAN maybe, in some creepy kinda stories, but the only villains included are Klarion, Felix Faust, Scarecrow, and Cheetah. Still, if you’re just in the mood for some spooky fun, and don’t feel like being bogged down

with crazy continuity issues, you’ll find many iconic heroes here, in stories that are instantly accessible to all. But if you only have money for ONE Halloween special from the Big Two, Marvel’s TOMB OF TERROR is a bit better. Though, that one’s certainly NOT for children!

Add me on Facebook!!!! 

When not hanging out at The Horror Hotel, Mark Mackner can be found creating such local indie horror gems as DAISY DERKINS: DOGSITTER OF THE DAMNED!, EVIL BREW, THE HALF-LIFE HORROR FROM HELL or: IRRADIATED SATAN ROCKS THE WORLD!, and EMBALMO!  He’s also the resident Spider-Man scholar over at geek site POPTARDS where he writes SPIDEY’S WEEKLY WEB-UP.  In 2011, he’ll be directing his latest original script PROM NIGHT ABORTION! 

Comic Book Vocabulary - A Beginners Guide to Comic Book terms and more

Comic Book Vocabulary - A Beginners Guide to Comic Book terms and more
Video Included!!!

by : John Cannon

Comic books have been around for a multitude of years even starting as early as 1934 when the reprinted regular newspaper comics at first. Now if you have gone through your life and have never read a comic I can understand as they don’t appeal to some people. However if you have gone through your life and never even seen a comic book then I would have to call you a liar. Comics have become apart of the main stream fabric in which we live. Today they are making them into movies and TV shows, mainly because Hollywood has apparently run out of ideas and their effort to appeal to another target audience, but I digress. Ok before I digress, some of these movies are absolutely horrible and don’t follow the established path the comic or even cartoons had taken, I make my point with the X-Men movies, ok now I am done…for now. 

Suffice it to say comic books have been read time and time again and generated their own world. I know this as Rob and I went to Wizard World in Philadelphia and felt completely out of my element. Rob was like a kid in a candy store as he went through comics, DVD, Toy, T-shirt & artists booths. He was like a kid in a candy store until we saw the Jedi’s fighting, then it was just plain depressing, at least to me it was. Yet in a way it was a side of Rob I had never seen before, it was pretty cool. To see him in his universe, as I called it, with such a love and passion for everything comic related was pretty cool and I was glad to be apart of it. However I couldn’t help feel a bit out of my league as I looked around at the people and heard the conversations in a language not entirely familiar to me. It was English, with maybe a little bit of Klingon mixed in, but it was the phrases that they used.

I asked Rob a ton of questions about what was this, what does that mean and why are fat storm troopers so funny to look at. I knew then that I could not be the only person in the world who would be completely lost in this bizzaro world of comics and its terminology. I used to read some comics back when I was in middle school and high school and if you ask Rob he will tell you the only comics I ever really remember reading were any Lobo comics and the graphic novel Batman vs Judge Dredd, which I will find and own someday. Again, I knew I could not be the only one in the world to have such limited knowledge of comics so I pitched the idea to both him and James from Cyborg 1 about doing a segment that could be related to the more novice/beginner comic book reader. Whenever Rob & James get together to go over comics or Rob talks to me about comics I usually stand there with a blank look on my face because I have no clue of the terminology being used. I figured this would be the starting point for me and all those like me, I would research and write down some comic terms and have Rob & James explain them in a way that they were understandable for the average beginner comic book reader.

Listed below are some of the terms I brought to them and you can see the 2 part video of a more in-depth definition of the words on latenighthorrorhotel.com we filmed.

Comix	This is associated more with Alternative and Underground comics
Comics	This is associated more with more mainstream comic companies such as DC & Marvel
Graphic Novel / Trade Paperback	A series of individual comics compressed into one big book.
Motion Comic	A hybrid of comic books & animation
Prestige & Bookshelf Format	Is based upon the number of pages within the “book” usually being 48 to 64 pages in length
Alternative Comics	Is non-mainstream and delivers on a wide range of subject matter
The Marvel Method	A way a comic is written; mainly being the artist would draw the comic first based upon an outline then the words would be added.
Continuity	The way in which a comic flows and little things are observed or happen within a comic series
Canon	Refers to the stories which are, at any one point, part of the "official", "accepted" history and story of particular characters/universes.
Retcon	A retcon affects the past history of characters and/or the whole shared universe, and says that the "new" changed events have always been that way.
Crossover	A guest appearance by one superhero into another superheroes world. Usually one companies heroes into another’s.
Shared Universe	A multitude of different characters co-exist and/or interact
Direct Market	The comics that are sent directly to the comic store rather than to places like Borders or Barnes & Nobles
Variante	Same exact comic, but with 2-3 different covers
Sleeper	A lesser known comic with great potential
Grade	The condition of a comic
Mini-Series	Usually a series of 6 comics to tell a story over time
Maxi-Series	Usually a series of 8 or more comics to tell a story over time
Manga	Japanese comics
Bleed	The art touches the edge of the pages without the traditional white frames
Splash Page	Full page drawing in a comic book
Gutter	The space between borders
Previews	A monthly book that shows the up and coming comics for early purchase.

I found this glossary link on the DC Wiki website, check it out for some more definitions: http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Glossary_Entries

Hopefully these terms and definitions help you understand the comic world just a little bit more and if you have any other you would like explained please contact us at latenighthorrorhotel@hotmail.com

At the end of all this I realized there was a whole other word out there that I was not aware of. I have heard Rob discuss things like Magic, Pokemon & Starwars RPG Games just to name a few. Now I have “heard” of these things before I just don’t know what the draw is to them, I don’t know anything about them and again I know there are a lot of people out there just like me who have the same confusion. So again I have put it to Rob and we will look at filming some segments that will help to uncover and understand the underground geek world out there. And believe me they are out there and some of them are really scary…did I mention the fat storm troopers?

Be safe and don’t forget your 13 sided die,

John Cannon

Part 1
 

Watch LNHH Comic Definitions Part 1 in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Part 2

 

Comic Reviews for June 19th - plus Shadowland news

Dimension and James are back with Comic Reviews

 By Rob Dimension

Hey gang, James from Cyborg One Comics in Doylestown, PA (www.cyborg1.com) was able to join Me as we looked at the hottest and best titles to currently in stores.

I wanted to spotlight some Indie titles in the beginning, notice that they are Horror, then get to the mainstream stuff. I really enjoyed Raven Gregory's The Waking, released through Zenescope. The series just wrapped and was a mystical, yet well grounded, fresh story. I would recommend checking that one out. There are only 4 issues and should be still easy to get your grubby little hands on. Others to look for: Crossed - Family Values, Hack/Slash: My 1st Maniac..I love Cassie Hack. We were both exhausted, but wanted to get the review done..please watch!!


Here is Part 1 of the reviews..we tried to cover a lot of titles:

Watch LNHH Comic Review 06172010 Part 1 in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Here is Part 2 of the reviews - Tons of stuff to read

Later this week we will be releasing a Beginner's guide to Comic Lingo...learn to speak amongst the nerds without feeling left out. John Cannon, edited these videos and was also very tired (being a Horror Host is more tiring then you can believe). Huge thanks goes out to him.

Late Night Comic Review for May 29th, 2010

Late Night at the Horror Hotel reveals comics that you MUST read!

By - Rob Dimension

After some great feedback for the past reviews, Late Night at the Horror Hotel has sent out our resident nerd, Rob Dimension to go visit James Frazier at Cyborg One (www.cyborg1.com)  Comics in Doylestown, PA. They discuss comics that are setting the shelves on fire plus look at some that are not worth the paper they are printed on. Below is what Rob Dimension had to say:

"I read all the time, always trying new comics just for the sake of being a fanboy. Here are some of my favorites plus within the video review, we mention plenty to get you started regardless if you read currently or not. Hope you enjoy and we are working on improving all the time. Huge thanks goes out to my homeboy and co-host John Cannon - he edits everything and does great."

Marvel's Secret Avengers against DC's Legion of Super Heroes - "Pitting both lower level teams against each other for the sake of the readers, I figured I would read both and see who prevails - This was extremely easy for me to choose - Secret Avengers all the way. While James does mention his dislike for the art, no one can dispute how great of a start this issue is presenting. Not much of a secondary squad with Beast, Black Widow, War Machine, Moon Knight and more lead by Steve Rogers...they wreck the lameness of the Legion of Super Heroes. This is my pick of this week as best break out comic."

Brightest Day #2 - "I have to put on my Lantern ring collection as I write this - As we progress into the aftermath of Blackest Night, Brightest Day is full of surprises. With a combination of 12 villains and heroes dead, each given a Lantern ring, who will become the White Lantern? In a plot similar to the Sword and the Stone, this is shaping up to be the comic series to follow. Aquaman is B.A. simply for the ability to raise zombie creatures from the deep...yes, I said Aquaman. While they're are plenty of cross story comics, reading this just solely will give you enough info to follow."

War of the Supermen -  "I didn't get a chance to get into this comic in the reviews because we are slaves to YouTube's 10 minute video, but for a short mini series, this is worth grabbing. Issue #0 was offered during Free Comic Book Day and begins with the story of General Zod as the leader Krypton Army, waging war against Earth. With the Yellow Sun leveling out the playing field, Superman must save the day. This is a 4 part series and is really good. I grow tired of a lot of the Superman stuff, but this grabbed my attention and made me a fanboy of good ole' Clark Kent again"