Flash Friday: PVC Flash

Happy Flash Friday everyone! Real life is extremely busy right now, so I almost skipped Flash Friday this week. Instead I’ll just make a super quick update. Check the preorders at your favorite comic shop or online retailer; we’ve got a new piece of Flash merchandise coming out next month.

Monogram has a new line of 2.75 inch PVC figures and Flash is part of their DC lineup. The chinstrap lets us know that this figure is based on the current Flash costume, but it isn’t clear enough to show if all of the extra lines are still on the suit. For five bucks I wouldn’t expect too much out of the sculpt or the paint job.

Hangover Thursday: Sanders Chocolate Stout

It’s Hangover Thursday, how’s your head? Have you recovered from the first round of Holiday madness yet? We are in one of my favorite times of year. I’m not a giant Christmas person, but when it starts getting cold all of those seasonal stouts and porters start coming out. So even if I haven’t been able to make it out to my local bar in a while, I’m happy to know some of my favorite beers are there waiting for me.

I was born outside Detroit. Regardless of the city’s reputation, it is something I’ve always been proud of. There are a lot of things up there that I miss and some food items that I don’t just miss, but my soul is incomplete without them. Real Coney Island Hotdogs, I could talk for days about them. Kowalski hotdogs and sausage are amazing. I demand Vernors Ginger Ale every time I’m sick. Then there is the reason I’m even bring all of this up, Sanders Hot Fudge. Sanders makes all sorts of wonderful things like creampuffs and cakes, but their ice cream toppings are king.

So know that you know of this Motor City love deep in my heart you can understand my excitement when I stumbled upon Detroit Brewing Company’s Sanders Chocolate Stout. It was a must buy and because I found it while I was going to spend time with my family on Thanksgiving, I was hoping they’d appreciate it too. I know, you’re thinking Ken this is a lot of buildup just to talk about a beer. How was it? It was okay.

I almost ended the post there. Seriously, there is a good chocolate smell. There are hints of coffee in there too, almost making this a mocha stout. It hides its alcohol taste pretty well. I think it would be a good beer to give someone who was just branching out to stouts. The flavor was a little more subdued than I was looking for. I’d certainly drink it again but I wouldn’t seek it out unless I knew I was going to be seeing other refugees from Hockeytown.

The Ballad of Kid Largo: S1, E9

And now That F’ing Monkey proudly presents, The Ballad of Kid Largo.

And we’re back with a face full of plot! When we first started with the Ballad of Kid Largo I said it would be an experiment and would run for two months. According to that, today’s strip would be the last one that I had posted. Kid Largo is not ending here, there are a number of finished strips sitting in a folder and I still want to show them off. At this point in time, the Ballad Kid Largo will run at least until the 14th strip.  I have the entire first story plotted out, so if the interest is there we'll go far beyond number 14.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

So I’ve been watching Firaxis’ game XCOM: Enemy Unknown closely since it was released. After playing three massive RPGs back to back to back, I needed a change of pace. While I had never played the games it was based on, a tactical turn based strategy game sounded perfect. I have to manage base construction, research projects, and global panic levels? I was already sold on it. I just didn’t want to pay full price. Luckily during all the Black Friday craziness, I was able to pick it up for 25 bucks. Please don’t think I was camping out or anything. I went to the Walmart at 7pm on Friday after I got off work myself.

I’m not really reviewing the game today; there was something else about it I wanted to talk about. What I will say is an excellent game that will swallow all of your free time without you noticing. Playing one mission and then walking away is almost impossible, you want to play just one more. The game introduces some elements that are chosen randomly. Things like mission names, which map you’re on, and just about everything involving your soldiers.

I expected I’d like the game, I had even watched a few people playing it on Youtube. What I didn’t expect is how invested I’d get in my soldiers. Let me explain a little how it works. You have 12 soldiers to start with; all of them are new recruits to XCOM. You can edit the first and last name of each of these soldiers, but they are already named for you. You can edit their appearances but the sex and home country can’t be edited. Once a soldier gets their first promotion they are get a specialty; assault, support, heavy, or sniper. You have no choice in which they move into. Two more promotions and the soldier is given a nickname, you can edit this too, but one is provided if you don’t want to change it.

These random factors come together to make pretty developed characters in my head. Major Esmeralda “Brick” Ramirez is a heavy weapons operator from Mexico. She’s been on every XCOM op I’ve commanded except for the two she missed while recovering in the hospital. I know “The Brick”, she’s a tough talking, cigar smoking, badass. Deep down she probably gets emotionally hurt a little too easy, which is why she surrounds herself with such bravado. Major Kellen “Rogue” Kennedy is our most highly trained combat medic. How does a medic get the nickname Rogue? He’s a Kennedy and from Ireland, his story is right in the details.

That’s just two of the characters on my team. I probably think too much about it, but it has heightened my playing experience. I’m not sending a faceless minion to check that alleyway; I’m sending my assault specialist "Twitch". I’m relieved when the alien blasters beams go harmlessly past her, because I want her to survive the mission. I mean Major Kennedy would be devastated if we lost her, I’m pretty sure they’re sleeping together.

Delays!!!

I was called into work early this morning so my normal post will be delayed. Come back next week and read about adventures in trivia.

Also our Podcast is now avalible on ITunes, just search for F'ing Monkey in the store.

Work has made a lier out of me once again. So this post has been delayed until next Monday.

That F’ing Monkey Podcast 0

I figure we’ve threatened you with it enough, now we’ve finally gone and done it. That F’ing Monkey now has its own Podcast. It’s just like the website only it’s for your ears instead of your eyes!! And you can download it HERE. We’re also adding a Podcast button at the top of the webpage, so as we release more shows they’ll be easy to find.

This recording was made as a test, to make sure we had everything to record, edit, host, and post podcasts. After all that work we figured we might as well put it out on the internet. Look at it as a beta test, a precursor to the great things that are coming. Again, you can download it by clicking HERE or by visiting http://fingmonkey.libsyn.com/webpage.

Flash Friday: Black Friday Sales

Happy Flash Friday everyone! Hopefully everyone had a good Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving is an odd thing. Some people have it off, some people have to work it like a normal day, some people shop like crazy, and poor retail workers have to put up with the craziness. I’ve always been more of an online shopper anyway, so having to come into work today didn’t really hurt me. Because I do shop online I saw that Stylin Online has some crazy deals going on this weekend.

Just in their Flash section they have a huge selection of items at huge mark downs. The Flash Track jacket is down to 15 dollars. There are a number of different Flash shirts under 10 dollars. Some of them are under 5. It appears they are burning through their back stock, so if you see something you like it’s probably a good idea to order it quick. Also I wanted to point out, That F’ing Monkey is affiliated with Stylin Online and we aren’t getting anything for this post today. I just say some great deals and wanted to make sure everyone else got to see them

Hangover Thursday: Whisky Advent Calendar

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I’m sure it’s going to be Hangover Friday for a lot of people tomorrow. There is no escaping the holidays now. It’s going to be December before you know it and then people will be counting the days to Christmas. As a kid we used to count the days with an Advent Calendar, getting a cheap piece of chocolate every day. If only there were Advent Calendars for grown up; with good things inside them like booze and hookers. Okay, so maybe not hookers, but certainly we can booze it up a little can’t we?

Master of Malt sure thinks so. They are making a Whisky Advent Calendar. Master of Malt already something they calls Drinks by the Dram, but this time they’ve really outdone themselves. 24 little doors reveal 24 different bottles with 3cl of whisky. It isn’t cheap; it’s going to run you around 240 dollars. Just think though, for 24 days you’ll be able to wake up and know that an exciting new whisky is waiting for you.

In case you’re more of a gin drinker, there is also a Ginvent Calendar. It’s the same concept, 24 little doors and 24 little bottles. The gin calendar is quite a bit cheaper; it’s just under 130 dollars. I’ve never been a big gin drinker, but you know Milk and Cheese always said it makes a man mean. Anyway, check out www.masterofmalt.com for yourself.

The Ballad of Kid Largo: S1, E8

And now That F’ing Monkey proudly presents, The Ballad of Kid Largo.

I have to confess today’s strip might be my favorite one. I even kept a version of it with all of the dialogue except for the sound effects removed.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. We should have a Hangover Thursday update, but just in case I don’t get to it, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

Work Overload!!

Sorry everyone, there isn’t an update today.  Work is a madhouse as everyone is trying to hit deadlines before the holiday.  Tomorrow should be better.  I’m hoping to have something ready before Thursday so it will auto-update.  Friday and Saturday should be back to what we call normal around here.

Prepare To Be Judged

As of late I have been on a bit of a Judge Dredd kick. I blame the flick Dredd for this. For it was quite awesome (super short review with no context: a bunch of rookie vs. veteran and cop movie cliches, but working together in a great way). To that end I decided to pick up volume one of "Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files". 

Having only read a story or two here and there through out my comics reading career I have but a passing knowledge of the Dredd mythos. He is a lawman in the late 21st century where most of America is a irradiated wasteland and the population has been combined into Megacities. Dredd started (and still resides) in the pages of British comic magazine 2000 AD in the late '70s and continues to this day. 

The stories that I have read so far are firmly ensconced in the '70s comics feel. They are fun and have a...lets say odd sense of humor. An interesting thing about the Dredd books is that time actually passes and the characters get older. Dredd starts as a young Street Judge and progresses and ages as real time passes. At some point the titular character will die and the story will be complete. 

If the only exposure to Judge Dredd was the god awful 1995 Stallone flick and you enjoy British action set in America's future mixed with a dark sense of humor and voice activated weapons, I would recommend checking out the Judge. 

Current full on Nerd project.

 

 

Also we have recorded episode 0 of That F'ing Monkey's podcast and I am currently editing it. Expect it to be available no later than Friday if all goes according to plan. We will let you know on all of our outlets, including Twitter, Facebook and of course F'ing Monkey.com.

Tome of Fire

Both Brandon and I have talked a lot about Warhammer 40k. It isn’t just the game itself, or the models, we’re pretty taken with the setting itself. Luckily Games Workshop’s publishing arm is a machine that produces new material at a pretty astonishing rate. I’ve been pretty adamant in my love for the Salamander Space Marine chapter, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that I thrilled to pick up Nick Kyme’s newest Salamander novel, Tome of Fire.

Tome of Fire is interesting because it really is an anthology that supports the Tome of Fire trilogy. The trilogy completed last November when Nocturne was released. During the time Nick was writing the trilogy he was also writing other short stories about the Salamanders. They were for fliers, other anthologies, and Black Library events. Tome of Fire collects all of those short stories and arranges them chronologically. The index at the front of the book points out exactly where the three novels fit into the reading order.

I’ve already read a handful of the stories published in Tome of Fire. The longest of the stories was a free pdf download on Black Library’s website for years. I’m excited to get to the stories that I haven’t read yet. I may just have to use the anthology as a guide and reread the entire series.

Maximus Thor

Happy Friday everyone! Flash is taking a break this week, because I have a new hero. His name is Maximus Thor. The first video quietly wandered onto Youtube two months ago. It was just a kid, a playground, some videogame sound effects, and a bit of vulgarity. It was one of those things that didn’t make sense, made me laugh, but I didn’t put much more thought into it. Now there are six different videos and although there is some consistency in them, they keep getting stranger.

These videos have a lot of cussing and a very young boy. Since they are dubbed, I can’t tell you for sure if the kid is really cussing or is saying things that would look similar. For my own sanity I’m going to believe that he isn’t actually swearing and that the creator of these videos is laughing at all of the comments his videos are getting.

I was happy to see a new video when I woke up this morning. I need more. I crave more. I’m over the initial shock of the language used; now I want to devour the setting. Is Banjo one of the characters we’ve already seen? Is the man his lawyer or just a personal assistant? Where did the vampire come from? I realize the appeal for me could be the unknown, once more of it is revealed it may collapse on itself. Regardless of that, right now I’m fascinated by it.

Hangover Thursday: Lagunitas Speaks Out

It’s Hangover Thursday, how’s your head? I haven’t had the chance to sit on a bar stool in a couple weeks and I can’t say I’m happy about that. There has been some very interesting beer news lately, most of it coming from Lagunitas founder and owner Tony Magee. Tony was invited to speak at a global beer event with the other speakers being from companies like InBev and Molson Coors.

Even before the event Tony had some pretty amazing tweets going out. He joked about needing to shave with so many important people there. Then he sent out a tweet that read, “We are not even of the larger world. We belong to u. They believe u belong to them. U conjured us & nurtured us. U’re a demographic to them.” You could tell that his speech was going to be a good one.

After the event Marc tweeted more. Again, these are direct quotes from his Twitter account, which you can read for yourself HERE. “So @ the seminar I told them all what I said in the last twit. But d guy from MillerBlueMoon left just as I started. He bragged about his craft credentials & how much his research has told him how to get to you. You’re all a demographic to him, nuttin more. But he didn’t wanna hear from a a craft brewer directly about it. The imperial demeanor was disturbing. He has plans to harvest you all… Freaky…”

Look, every company wants to be successful. We know Lagunitas want to be successful so they can make more beer and get their beer to more people. The big companies are trying to crash the craft market; they want that beer cooler in your local store all to themselves. Help the little guy this weekend, find something made locally.

The Ballad of Kid Largo: S1, E7

And now That F’ing Monkey proudly presents, The Ballad of Kid Largo.

Tess’ father is a Professor Eric Richards. His full name is never used in the actual strips; usually he is just referred to as Father or Professor. Obviously, he is very smart. I mean they don’t let just anyone go around with “PROF” on their chest

The Black Beetle: No Way Out

Way back in January I was excited because Dark Horse had solicited a Dark Horse Presents with a story staring Francesco Francavilla’s character The Black Beetle. Not content with sharing a book with anyone, the Black Beetle is getting his own mini-series in January. The series is called No Way Out and will run four issues. There is also a zero issue that will collect all of the Black Beetle Dark Horse Presents issues.

If you’re not familiar with the Black Beetle he is a pulp hero that watches over Colt City. Expect two fisted justice, crazy villains, and lots of bullets. Black Beetle was created on Francesco’s Pulp Sunday blog and was eventually moved over to his own blog. Both of these sites are great places to go if you are still unsure about picking up the Black Beetle comic. If you look far enough back you can even see Francesco’s first teases of the Black Beetle as he worked on the concept.

No Way Out isn’t on the shelves right now, but it is available for pre-order. If you have a local comic shop, please tell them to pre-order the comic for you. Black Beetle isn’t another generic character spun out of some spandex filled mega-event. He is a creator owned character in a genre that we don’t see enough of. Every pre-order is going help show Dark Horse that we want to see more of the Black Beetle; that we want to see more original ideas and characters. If the current reboots at DC and Marvel have you disillusioned with comics, please pre-order the Black Beetle and give it a try.

Blog, Blog, Bloggity Blog

We really haven’t had a Blog update in a while. Last month I made some pretty big changes to the layout. If you haven’t noticed we now have new buttons at the top of the blog. I wanted to make it easy to find information about Brandon and I, make it easy to contact us, and easy to buy are awesome T-Shirts. The new layout also lets us post larger pictures and videos at their full size. It took me a little bit to get used to, but I’m pretty happy with it.


There is also a button for our web comic The Ballad of Kid Largo. Outside of Brandon, I’ve gotten very little feedback on it, so I hope people are enjoying it. We’ll be running it at least until the end of November. Pushing the site in new directions is a big part of my current vision. I don’t expect for everything to work out, but I want to try. So on top of comic strip we’re going to be releasing a podcast either at the end of November or the start of December.

Please remember that we are on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ThatFingMonkey and I’m on Twitter at https://twitter.com/FingMonkeyKenO. Thanks to everyone who visits That F’ing Monkey. We are trying to make the site better and add new things to keep you entertained, so please make sure to mention us to your friends.

Flash Friday: Young Justice Skates

Happy Flash Friday everyone! At some point earlier this week I was watching TV with my wife and a McDonald’s commercial came on. I wasn’t really paying attention to it until I noticed the toy it was advertising was Young Justice themed. After the commercial confirmed that there was a Kid Flash in the lineup I knew I was going to have to have one. I only had to wait a day or two before my wife had tracked one down for me.

I have to confess I’ve never really understood the fingerboard thing. I think the only one I’ve ever owned before now was a cheap generic one that I got in a grocery store when I was around 8. There is a whole industry built around these things though. They usually take up a good chunk of space in the toy isles, right next to the toy car section. There are miniature grind rails, half pipes, and all sorts of other things to move your tiny skateboard through. I’m not making fun of it, I just never got the appeal.

There isn’t a whole lot you can say about a toy skateboard either. It seems sturdy. It has Young Justice printed on the grip taped top surface. The bottom of the skateboard has a great Kid Flash image. Umm…it has four wheels that roll. That’s about all I got on this one. You can pretend it’s a skateboard for the other Kid Flash Happy Meal toy that came out last year.

I did want to mention that I think the timing of this release is interesting. Why push Young Justice when DC Nation isn’t even on Cartoon Network right now? I think it speaks to just how quickly and unexpected the decision to pull everything was.

The Man with No Name

We’re skipping Hangover Thursday today because I wanted to give you some heads up on what is happening on Turner Classic Movies tomorrow night. Starting at 8pm Friday night TCM is showing A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Sergio Leone’s Man with No Name trilogy reenergized the Western genre in American cinemas and made Clint Eastwood a superstar.

Although two Westerns were filmed in Italy before them, these are the movies most people think of when you mention Spaghetti Westerns. Ennio Morricone’s score is every bit as famous as the movies that featured them. Leone’s films are filled with tight close ups, barren landscapes, and violence. So much violence that a lot of critics were put off by the movies.

Fistful of Dollars is also one of those movies that reworks a classic Kurosawa tale by turning all the samurais into cowboys. Yojimbo, the film Fistful of Dollars is based on, is actually influenced by Dashiell Hammett’s novel Red Harvest. Eastwood’s iconic cigars were actually something he brought with him when he started filming the first movie. He didn’t want to smoke them in the others, but Leone insisted they were too important to the character.

For a character that is famous for not having a name, the Man with No Name seems to pick up nicknames easily. In Fistful of Dollars he’s Joe, in For a Few Dollars More he’s Manco, and in the final film he's Blondie. Friday night grab yourself a big bowl of popcorn or spaghetti and settle in for a night of squinting and shooting.

The Ballad of Kid Largo: S1, E6

And now That F’ing Monkey proudly presents, The Ballad of Kid Largo.

And with strip number six we finally leave the alley! We’ll see inside Tess’ home next week and be introduced to a couple new faces.

Middle Earth Air

Okay, this is actually a safety video for Air New Zealand. It reminds me of the loading video from Star Tours, except that this one is actually being used on planes. If you’re fluent in Elvish you might be able to win yourself a nice vacation too. The video has a pretty obvious cameo in it, but it still made me smile.

For the record, my favorite version of the pre-flight safety speech is still the one from Snakes on a Plane. It was something about the mimed gestures for the no smoking part, I laugh every time.

Warhammer Weekend

Hey everyone. It’s going to be a short update today. I got the invite to spend this weekend playing plastic army men and I jumped at the chance.

I also wanted to share some pictures I took recently. I picked up the Strenguard Weapon upgrade pack for an upcoming addition to my army. The upgrade kit is fairly new and I didn’t see many pictures of it before ordering it. One of the big concerns was they pictures of the kit on Games Workshop’s own website didn’t do the pieces any favors.

The kit is resin, or Finecast as GW calls it. Finecast doesn’t have a great reputation among a lot of gamers. This is actually the first Finecast piece that I’ve picked up for my own use. I can happily say that all the weapons are defect free. One of the lightning claws doesn’t look straight, but that will be an easy fix should I ever try to fix it.

Anyway, I should be commanding my Salamander army by the time you read this. So wish me luck, I think I’m going to be the most inexperienced person playing this weekend.

Flash Friday: Oddities

Happy Flash Friday everyone! While I’ve been talking about my feelings on the current Flash run a number of products have snuck onto the market that we need to talk about. Some of them are a little strange so I’ve decided to name this week’s group the Oddities. They aren’t that strange compared to other things on this site, but compared to the normal Flash merchandise I thought these were a little different.

First up is this Flash apron. I had seen aprons with Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman on them before. It was one of those situations where I had mentally noted that there were aprons only for the big three, even though I didn’t actually want a Flash apron. So this is one of those be careful for what you wish for, because now there is a Flash apron. I’m going to pass on this one. I actually do a lot of cooking but I don’t tend to wear a lot of aprons. Besides I find just having a lower body printed on a shirt or apron is kind of creepy.

Next up is a shirt I found on Superhero Stuff. I’m listing this Flash shirt with the oddity group because I don’t think I’ve ever seen the “winged F” logo anywhere else. It’s interesting and it immediately says “Flash” to comic fans. I love that there is a little tiny Flash running at the bottom of the logo, I don’t know why but it makes me laugh. I actually like the design and I wonder if we’ll see it pop up somewhere else.

The above figure is a Trexi. Trexi are a series of toys that pretty much have the same body and head shape across the line. IT’s one of those designer toy lines that have suddenly found themselves with a bunch of licensed brands. A quick web search will give you tons of pictures of these little guys with things like Sponge Bob’s face printed onto them. For the Justice League line the company instead went with clear colored plastic and then slapped the superhero’s symbol on their chest. I really like that decision, seeing a Barry Allen face stretched across that globe of a head would be strange. I’ll probably be picking one of these up.

Our final item is another shirt. Like the other one, the design itself isn’t strange; I just don’t recall ever seeing another Gorilla Grodd T-Shirt. Others could certainly exist; I just haven’t run across them yet. The art is stunning. Grodd looks pissed. Super pissed. The yellow paper with his name on it ruins that for me but if you didn’t have that you wouldn’t know it was supposed to be a Grodd shirt. Everyone would be like, “hey, cool gorilla.” I guess you could pretend that every piece of gorilla merchandise you see is actually Grodd in disguise. Anyway, Grodd wraps up this week’s Flash Friday. Have a great weekend everyone.

Hangover Thursday: The Bastards are Back

It’s Hangover Thursday, how’s your head? Maybe you’re nursing a headache from too much sugar, maybe you spent last night downtown with the other ghouls and goblins; either way Halloween is over. The best way to mourn the passing of our second favorite holiday is to bravely head back to your favorite liquor store and pick up a big bottle of beer with demons all over it. Stone Brewing apparently thought the same thing because two of its limited run beers are back.

Right now you can now pick up Lukcy Basartd and Double Bastard ale. Double Bastard is exactly what you’d think it would be. A bigger, meaner, version of Arrogant Bastard ale. Lukcy Basartd was created to celebrate Stone’s 13th anniversary and is a mixture of all the Bastard beers. Want to try Arrogant Bastard, Double Bastard and OAKED Arrogant Basstard? One sip of Lukcy Basartd and you’ve tried them all. Think of it like the suicide’s you used to make at the drink machine, just better.

It you’re a fan of Stone Brewing keep an eye out for these two.