Make Mine Marvel

I apologize for the delay in updates, but with my new job I have less time for the blog and I’ve been busy moving to the east coast.

So what is my new job?

I’m now working for the House Of Ideas, best known as Marvel Comics, as Sales Coordinator– a fancy way of saying I’m doing marketing. I won’t be talking about my job here of course, as I’ve signed a confidentiality agreement, but it’s a great place to be and I get to use my EMT skills as a First Responder if an emergency arises.

I’ll be working on a way to still produce regular updates, but if the new blog entries are slow it won’t be a result of not caring– just of being super busy.

An Instant Classic– Christian Cage Uncensored

I know that many of you who visit are wrestling fans and there’s a good chance you like Christian Cage, the best man on the mic in wrestling and one of the top wrestlers in the biz right now. He did some “shoot” interviews last year (meaning he spoke as the man he is, Jay Reso, and not in character as Christian), which you can check out at this link. Look through all his videos and you will see the Christian videos. There’s over 100 minutes of footage, so this is a lot of fun for the die-hard fans.

That same link will also take you to Bret Hart and Ron Simmons shoot interviews, so it’s a great resource for wrestling fans.

Ode To CBR

Well, with my tenure at ComicBookResources.Com over, I figure it’s time to highlight some of the great people I worked with and share with them some thanks for their friendship. I worked for CBR from Nov 2001-March 2007, the longest I’ve been at any job, improving both as a writer and as a man. I’ve also made some good friends with professional creators such as Mike Carey (the class act in comics), Rich Bernatovech and Chuck Austen, another dear friend. But today we’re spotlight the co-workers who’ve made an impact on me:

• Jonah Weiland: The Alpha. The Omega. The God King of CBR. Jonah and I never do things in a conventional manner. We’d met once at Comic-Con International and then decided to travel to England together, which would seem risky since we didn’t know if we’d piss off each other and we ended up having a great time together (Jonah…the pringles…ha!). I’m not sure how we became such good friends, confiding a lot in each other, but it happened and Jonah’s been a good mentor in forcing me to get outside of my comfort zone. He’s the man behind my best birthday ever, which saw me go to LA, my first strip clubs, my first Dodgers playoff game and get my first tattoo (I blame you W!). It’d be a disservice to Jonah to merely mention the things we’ve done, as the man he is explains just why I value and respect him so much. Jonah’s a man of integrity, honesty, humility, humor, kindness and general coolness. His leadership at CBR showed me what a good boss is and made me a better writer, leading to my current job in New York (more on that in the next week). His character made me a better person and in the end, it’s that integrity through our ups and downs that will enable me to reach higher, achieving more than would be possible had we never met.

  Plus, dude, we got to see the Queen of England together. That’s bonding, yo.

• Dave Richards: I don’t there’s any friend with whom I so rarely agree on our comic and television choices, but when we do agree…watch out. I think we once spent three hours on the phone extolling the virtues of Iron Fist. Dave’s a deep, intelligent and passionate guy, the kind of guy who is going to make it big with his creativity. He’s also been one of the most supportive people during my recent health troubles and I hate to have his entry follow the much longer one of Jonah, because it might seem like I have less to say about Dave, but that’s not the case: Dave is pure class. He’s the kind of friend we all need because I never doubt that he’d have my back no matter the situation, or he’d kick me in the balls if that’s what I needed.
• Rob Worley: All hail the Wor Lord! All hail! Rob Worley is not only a kick ass writer (but Heir To Fire), but a great friend who puts up with my random outbursts of exuberance. We didn’t work together for too long, as he’s doing his own thing, but he’s always there to help and find the silver lining in life. All hail!
• Augie DeBlieck: Augie probably thinks he’s my tech support with how much I’ve called him for advice. But Augie is also a funny guy with a real interesting view on the entertainment industry and just one of the most decent people you’ll meet. Except when he tries to get a buzz from orange cola. There’s no caffeine dude! However, he helped to inspire this blog and has been great about helping me enter the wonderful world of Apple.
• Beau Yarbrough: Dude, it’s Beau. Check out his blog. How can you not admire this guy? Plus, he likes All My Children, so he’s cool in my book.
• George Tramountanas: There’s few men with a better sense of humor than George Tramountanas, who takes every opportunity he has to skewer me and does it in a way that makes me laugh (at myself I guess). We hung out in San Diego last year and he taught me how great it is to write while buzzed off some Jack Daniels. Thank you George for teaching me that alcohol and good decisions do mix. That aside, George is one of the most genuine and just plain decent people you’ll ever meet. You can’t dislike George. He’s like Superman. You never really dislike the guy, as much as wish you could be nearly as decent and goodhearted. Tramountanas is obviously Kryptonian for “yeah, I’m that cool.”
• Andy Khouri: CBR’s resident Dark Knight, who spins words the way Batman catches criminals: in style. I’ve met Andy once– as part of the aforementioned best birthday I’ve ever had– and I didn’t know what to make of him at first. Of course, once we had a few drinks in our system I learned that a) Andy is funny b) Andy is really smart and c) Andy is a far better wingman than I. Great guy who is genuinely cool, in the way those other LA poseurs wish they could be and never will, because they ain’t Khouri. Like we always says, if you ain’t Khouri, you’re nobody. Or something like that.
• Keith Giles: Last but not least, the man who introduced me to Jonah and helped me enter the CBR world after I left IGN.Com (where I wrote a weekly column about DC Comics and their superhero comics). We don’t talk much these days– people drift apart– but he’s one of the good guys.

Make sure to check out my list of blog links on the right side of the page, as many of the mentioned dudes have their own awesome blogs.

Arune.Com’s Weekly YouTube Fix

Time to show some videos, eh? The first one features WWE wrestler Edge (pictured above) in a hilarious Mad TV sketch parodying Canadians, Korean soap operas and wrestling in general. Just great stuff and another reason why Edge is so damn charismatic.

Edge is awesome. “I am such a sexy and strapping young man! How could it be that I am overpowered by a mere pork dumpling?”

Next we have…more wrestling, with an edition of TNA Today, featuring an interview with AJ Styles and some other stuff of interest to TNA fans.

Here’s a good one from the band “The Shins” for their song “Phantom Limb.” Great little tune you’ve probably heard somewhere that made you wonder “who is that band?” Their whole disc is great, though “Australia” is easily my favorite song and the one I like to listen to on repeat.

And we’ll end with a clip from season six of my favorite television show ever– The Shield. I don’t write about it more often because, frankly, it would take forever to write something discussing this show in the depth it requires. But if I could only watch one television show, it’d be this one.

Wrestling In The News, For Bad Reasons, Again

There’s a saddening new report from SportsIllustrated.Com implicating some of my favorite wrestlers in an illegal steroid ring:

In total, there were 11 professional wrestlers listed in the documents that we saw. Some of these wrestlers are working as independents; some are out of the business entirely; others are first-tier stars. Consider Randy Orton, who allegedly received eight prescriptions for six different drugs — stanozolol, nandrolone, anastrozole, Clomiphene citrate, oxandrolone and testosterone — between March 2004 and August 2004. (Through the WWE, Orton declined comment.) Interestingly, according to the documents, Orton’s prescriptions came from the same two doctors whose names appeared on the prescriptions in major league outfielder Gary Matthews Jr.’s file.

Not only Orton, but Edge and Gregory Helms have been implicated. I can only imagine how much pain these people go through, so I can understand the painkillers, but I don’t understand the steroids and hormones. Maybe I’m not understanding something, but I just find it disappointing.

Pwned By A Canuck

Every so often, I get schooled in the art of karma and today it was due to my friend Kurt Ingram. When we chat online, I like to pretend to be an extreme right wing nutjob to counter his moderate views. There’s nothing wrong with being right wing or left wing, but the extremes are always funny, so I have a fun time driving Kurt a bit nuts. Today he decided to pwn me.

What is pwning? Wikipedia defines it as, “to soundly defeat an opponent.”

Kurt began to go on a rant about how Ty Pennington from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was pandering to the masses, helping only conservatives and reinforced the status quo. I stupidly began to argue the point and then Kurt launched into a rant about the narrow minded views of religious, god-fearing folk. At this point I should have realized that Kurt is a level headed, reasonable guy not prone to stupidity…but it was too late. I kept arguing until he let me, “Arune, I’m kidding you.”

By that point in the conversation I was livid. I couldn’t understand how one of my best friends had become such a raving partisan nutjob. But when he admitted the truth, the lightbulb weny off in my had and I started laughing. He’d done to me what I did to him with my rants about Canada emboldening the enemy, where I took the right wing extreme views to an even further extreme. All those times I thought it was funny to annoy him, I was right– it was damn funny.

I mention this because while I celebrate my successes, I need to also remember my failures and today I was pwned by a Canuck. Woe is me.

Final Weekend @ CBR

As many of you know, tomorrow marks my last day at the venerable ComicBookResources.Com, as I’ll be moving to the east coast to pursue another comic book related job. I don’t want to get too much in details as I haven’t started the job, but I’ve got a great boss, great co-workers and it’s an exciting place to be.

Anyway, here are some of my last few stories I wrote for CBR, arising from this weekend’s Wizard World LA, and while I have a few more stories for you all to enjoy, these are some of my favorites I’ve ever done. It was just a lot of fun doing an admin role this weekend, editing stories, HTML’ing them up, editing images and posting the whole story online (which I’ve been doing for some time, this was just a busy weekend). As always, thanks to Jonah Weiland for all the opportunities to grow as both as a writer and a person through your leadership at CBR. Onward!

• Joshua Jabcuga Rises To Power In “Scarface: Devil In Disguise”– Before Tony Montana was Scarface, he was a “Devil In Disguise.” We spoke with writer Joshua Jabcuga about IDW’s new “Scarface” prequel.
• Brian Lynch Talks “Spike: Shadow Puppets”– Yes, the blond vampire with a soul is a “bloody puppet” in IDW’s “Spike: Shadow Puppets.” We spoke with writer Brian Lynch about this latest “Angel” spin-off mini-series.
• Mike Carey Talks “Endangered Species” & The X-Men– We went in-depth with Mike Carey to talk about this year’s big X-Men event and to learn just what it means for the mutants. Also, don’t miss the scribe’s answers to some classic X-debates!
• Simon Furman Talks “Transformers Spotlight: Galvatron”– Time to transform & roll out or be destroyed, as Galvatron makes his debut in “Transformers Spotlight.” We spoke with writer Simon Furman to learn more about the re-imagining of this major villain.

300 Lives Up To The Hype

By now you’ve all heard about the latest comic book to film success story, Frank Miller’s 300, the epic Spartan film chronicling a very real battle (though hardly a literal historical representation). I’m a fan of the graphic novel and waited for the weekend to end before I viewed the film, simply because I wanted to see the film without a large crowd tainting my point of view. What did I think of the film? Check out my friend Andy Khouri’s review of the film over at CBR, which I pretty much agree for word for word and eloquently puts to rest questions of the film being racist or homophobic, as he says:

But despite the parallels that we can draw to the scenarios depicted in “300,” it’s important to remember that the story is (largely) true. This battle really happened. It’s not a metaphor for anything , and the connections I or any other viewer draws to the world of today are just coincidental. That the United States is currently experiencing a conflict with modern-day Persia has nothing to do with “300.” Yet meaning and symbolism will by some viewers be inferred, even where this is none. To be fair, it’s likely because riding shotgun with Leonidas and his 300 is so much fun.

If you read one 300 film review, read Andy’s review– he examines it objectively and intelligently, measuring his words instead of succumbing to hyperbole. This isn’t a film that will change your life, nor is it the hatred feuled action flick that some would have you believe. It’s a very thought provoking film about triumphing over an insurmountable enemy and retaining one’s honor, one’s integrity of spirit when tempted with the easier path. While we surely have protagonists, those Spartans are hardly heroes or good people, a point driven home by the very first scene in the film. It’s not a film about good or bad. It’s not a film that attempts to answer that question or wash the Spartans’ hands of their sins by using the Persians in some argument of “being better than them.: It’s about a single man, King Leonidas, embracing the very meaning of his life, the fire burning inside his soul and protecting those he loves with both his brains & brawns.

This is a film that needs to be seen on the big screen. These men look larger than life because of how they’re filmed; the battles look glorious because of the detail on these large screens; and dude…you can see it in IMAX! It’s not a perfect film– an early sex scene seems wholly unnecessary– but this one will leave you feeling inspired.

Drink To This

Sometimes in life we have real epiphanies, those moments we realize truths that were always self-evident but that we perhaps denied or simply failed to recognize. I had one of those this weekend when I partied with some freiends, had a great time and realized…I no longer enjoy alcohol. I don’t really want to drink– I’ve grown out of it. That’s not some kind of moral statement or commentary on drinking being immature. It’s simply that I’ve realized it’s not for me anymore. There’s no point– if I need to be buzzed in order get loose, it means that I’m letting myself be inhibited by fears or lack of confidence. There’s an essential paradigm shift that needs to occur. If I need to be drunk to forget about my problems, then I probably should be confronting those problems and not letting them haunt me. There’s no point to me drinking. This doesn’t mean that it’s the same for everyone else, nor am I trying to say what’s right for anyone else– this is just why I made the decision for me.

One very big reason is that ever since surgery, my taste buds haven’t been working right and most food/drink doesn’t taste too great, which includes old favorites like vodka and whiskey. So I’m already biased because I don’t want to consume anything that I don’t enjoy.

More importantly, I’ve found that I hate the feeling of being “buzzed” and I can’t bear the idea of being drunk. It just clouds my mind and I don’t like the feeling of not being in control of all my faculties. Some will argue this indicates maturity, but I’m not sure there’s anything immature about liking being drunk– as long as you’re cognizant of how much you drink and accept the consequences, it doesn’t seem inherently immature to me. While I’m not going to abstain from all alcoholic beverages, as light stuff like Magners is still tasty, I’m going to keep the drinks down to no more than one per sitting. It just seems silly to consume more because I’m focused on my health and it’s just useless calories for me.

So why am I sharing this? I’ve found that being sidelined post surgery (I’ll have to post a picture of the tumor removed for y’all sometime) has forced me to really think about what I enjoy in life and what I do out of habit– it’s amazing how much I’ve found my eating habits have changed now that I’ve had to adjust to suit my relaxed workout schedule (re: none). I’m constantly amazed how much one learns about themselves when they take themself out of the rat race for a short time and just take time to examine their lives, admitting their mistakes (some of my dietary habits) and then learning how to change for the better.

New Catchphrases

So I’ve officially developed my own stupid, cocky, WWE-esque catchphrase to describe something I like.

“____ is the greatest thing since me.”

I’m sure that’ll endear me to lots of people.

Ah yes, thanks to Kurt for the inspiration. It is now property of Arune.Com and Arune Industries. It slightly edged out “I’ve got more game than Captain Kirk on shore leave.”

Update: Kurt and I have now coined, “Baby, I’ve got more moves than a Wii” as our newest declaration of nerd bravado.