Hangover Thursday: Brandy Alexander Day

It’s Hangover Thursday, how’s your head? I know what you’re thinking. Just yesterday I posted that I was so busy that I wasn’t going to be updating for the rest of the week. Well this morning I had this awesome Brandy Alexander info-graphic waiting for me in my email. Apparently January 31st is Brandy Alexander day. So it’s Hangover Thursday and it’s Brandy Alexander day. I pretty much had to post this.

Now this info-graphic is made by hirethebarman.co.uk. I have no affiliation with the company. If you live in London and call the number on this image you can hire a bartender to come and work your parties. If you don’t live in London, you probably shouldn’t call them. They seem like a nice company, but since I’m too far away to use them, I can’t really say for sure. What I'm really saying is, we aren't getting paid to promote them; if you are in their area, use at your own risk.

Overloaded

That F'ing Monkey is taking the rest of the week off.  Mandatory overtime in my real job has stretched me kind of thin.  We'll be back next week with our normal mixture of Comics, Games, and Booze.

Los Straightjackets

I was very happy to see the most famous luchador surf band was on Conan O’Brien last night. Jet Set, their latest album, actually came out back in August of 2012. Still it’s not like Los Straightjackets are getting radio play, so unless you follow the band you probably didn’t even know they had a new album. The video below is not from Jet Set, it’s from a few years ago when Kaiser George was signing with them.

If you haven’t heard of Los Straightjackets before I really recommend you give them a try. There is a lot of instrumental stuff from them out there. I know most people want music with vocals, but take the time to listen; these guys are so good they make their instruments do the singing.

EDIT: I decided to add a second video.  This is the title track off of Jet Set.

CWE Live

I have had an on again off again love affair with wrestling ever since I can remember. When I was little I loved Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, and more than anyone else, the Rockers. I got older, wrestling became uncool. I rediscovered wrestling during the WWF’s Attitude era. I was hooked again. This was also when Acclaim created the WWF War Zone video game. The game had a huge create-a-wrestler selection for its time, I was really hooked. That game was create in 1998, there I characters that I created in that game that I’m still remaking every time I buy a new wrestling game. They’ve almost become real people to me and I could easily tell you all of their back stories.

I’m obviously not the only one who does this, because a new series debuted on Youtube this month called CWE LIVE. The CWE show is created with WWE’s latest video game, WWE 13. The producers of the show have made an entire stable of created wrestlers, their own commentators, and their own arena. Each week they are putting out an hour plus wrestling show. The game’s story maker lets the producers fill the spaces in between matches with backstage interviews and all the other sorts of strangeness that you’d normally see on wrestling.

What you’re watching is all created with the WWE 13 game, but all the commentating and the wrestler’s voice work is done by the CWE producers. I won’t lie, the show is a little rough at times but it is incredibly entertaining. It has to be a huge amount of work to put together and they seriously impressed me. Watching someone else play video games can be incredibly boring, but I look forward to each week’s CWE show. Check out their channel at www.youtube.com/user/CWELIVE and see it for yourself.

Who You Gonna Call?

The Ghost Busters are now on your phone in a freemium game by Beeline games. The game just came out yesterday and since it is free to play it was pretty much an instant download for me. I’ve gotten through the tutorial and sent my ghost busting team out on a handful of missions; now it’s time to share that information with you.

The game consists of 4 different areas. The Firehouse is where you do all your item research, buying equipment, putting your team together, etc. The game’s store announces that furniture is coming soon, so it looks like you’ll be able to decorate your firehouse also. From there you have a city map. This is where you can see the available jobs, the firehouse, and the main dungeon of the game, a towering building with a vortex over it. That main building will have slime barriers at the end of each floor. Collecting enough slime on other calls will let you move to the next floor and advance the story.

The attention to detail is fantastic. When you capture a new type of ghost you’ll see it randomly floating through the containment unit. You’re calling the shots for a group of new recruits. The original Ghost Busters are recruitable, but get ready to drop some real money if you want one. That is of course how they make money on these games, you will have an energy bar and you can only do so much before having to let it recharge.

Your Ghost Busters are divided into three groups. You pretty much have a Medic, a Tank, and a Striker. Each of these carry different equipment and gain power up abilities that help them do their job. Sadly for me the combat is where the game starts to fall apart for me. Tap and drag to move your character. Tap and drag to the ghost for that character to shoot the ghost. Most of the time I do this the character walks up to the ghost and shoots it instead of staying at a distance. Most the ghosts rush into hand to hand combat anyway. This may be different on a bigger screen, but I’m on an iPhone and not an iPad.

Is the game for you? The game is free, download it for yourself and give it a try. I’ll probably keep it installed to see what kind of updates are coming but I doubt I’ll spend too much time with it.

Hangover Thursday: Stupid

It’s Hangover Thursday, how’s your head? I did all of my drinking earlier in the week so my head is pretty clear right now. Today I have two items to share. One of them is named stupid and the other looks like stupid fun.

The first item today is Coronado Brewing Company’s Stupid Stout. Part of their Crown Series Stupid Stout is an Imperial stout with a 10% ABV. I found it in one of the 22oz bottles but you may be lucky enough to find in on draft. It’s a really nice Stout too; it pours dark, there are hints of chocolate and coffee, and it hides its higher ABV well. At one point it was called Stoopid Stout, but there was a bit of a bit of a trademark brouhaha between three breweries where beers with names like Idiot and Stoopid all got changed.

The other item I wanted to talk about today is the Cap Zappa. You know that guy who likes to flick beer caps at the speed of light with precision accuracy? Yeah, I’ve never been that guy. I’m guessing the inventor of the Cap Zappa has never been able to do that either. The Cap Zappa is a bottle opener that lets you turn your bottle cap into a projectile. Surely shooting bottle caps at your drunken friends won’t end in more violence.

The Ballad of Kid Largo: The Lincolns

Welcome to another look at the Outland, the world of Kid Largo. In January we’ve been taking a break from actually strips and instead are taking a closer look at some of the background information. Today we are taking a closer look at the street gang known as the Lincolns.

Gibson City is a very unforgiving place to live. The majority of wealth and power are held by the three power companies unofficially known as the Trinity. Those who work in the upper levels of those companies never leave the safety of their company’s secure areas. Those who do the physical labor do not have that luxury. Outside the walled areas Gibson becomes a sprawling slum filled with street vendors, abandoned buildings, and gangs.

The exact date of the Lincoln’s founding was not recorded, but they’ve been around for at least the past 50 years. The way the gang tells their history, is that they’ve been around as long as Gibson has been a city. Their initial Lincoln territory was along Harden Avenue. All members of the Lincolns take Lincoln as their last name. Only their leader uses Abe as a first name.

Because there is little pre-disaster information remaining it is unknown where the Lincoln founder even found out about Abraham Lincoln. Current gang members know very little about the actual man that they impersonate; they believe he was powerful warrior king who carried an axe. Like most gangs in Gibson City the Lincolns are extremely violent and are responsible from all sorts of crimes. While they don’t deal in drugs like many of the other gangs, they are heavily involved in protection rackets.

Missile Madness

I’ve written numerous times about how I have the urge to buy every Lego set I see. I keep myself in check and usually end up only buying one new set every year. The problem is I also have this same addiction when it comes to Nerf guns. I want all of them. I’ve gone a couple of years since the last time I gave into my foam dart cravings, but I really don’t know how much longer I can hold out. Two of the newest Nerf guns are showing up on store shelves now and they look fantastic.

The Vortex Diatron was the first one that caught my eye. I haven’t bought any of the disc blasters so I’m always looking for an excuse. The thing that set this one apart is that it is able to fire two discs at once. The mechanism that separates the discs inside the gun make it impossible to only fire one disc at a time, but really why would you want to shoot one when you can shoot two? The strangest thing about the Diatron is it has the capacity for 10 darts and only comes with 8.
 

I had managed to resist the Diatron’s siren call when I turned to the endcap and saw the Rough Cut 2X4. The crazy shotgun-like appearance is a big factor in Rough Cut’s appeal. It’s a cool looking gun. It comes with 8 darts and can fire single darts or two at a time. Sadly there isn’t an option to launch all 8 darts at once. The Rough Cut has what Nerf is calling slam fire, hold the trigger down and every time you pump the blaster two darts will fire.

Both the Diatron and Rough Cut 2X4 are roughly twenty dollars.

Big Trouble at Tee Fury

I almost never do this for two reasons. The first reason is mentioning anything on a TeeFury or Woot instantly becomes obsolete the next day when they change what they are selling. The second reason is that I constantly struggle with people making a profit off the characters that they don’t own. Today’s shirt on Tee Fury is just amazing though.

Even if you don’t buy it, which I’m still considering, you still have to appreciate the fantastic art of Tony Bui. Go to www.tonybuifanclub.com and check out more of his art work. He has a line of greeting cards that I think I’ll be ordering from.

Hangover Thursday: New Belgium News

It’s Hangover Thursday, how’s your head? The New Belgium Brewery out of Fort Collins, CO has been one of my favorite breweries for a while now. Years ago my work had me living in a hotel far from home and I fell in love with Fat Tire beer. The company was 41% employee owned and the remaining was controlled by their co-founder and CEO. Well that’s all changed now and New Belgium is now 100% owned by their employees.

CEO Kim Jordan isn’t going anywhere; in fact the current company leaders are pretty much staying in place. New Belgium Brewing is expanding though. They are currently building a second facility in Asheville, North Carolina that is expected to start production in 2015. Now they just need to start selling it in Florida and I'll be happy.

The Ballad of Kid Largo: The Bots and the Bees

Welcome to another look at the Outland, the world of Kid Largo. In January we’ve taken a break from updating the stories and instead are sharing details about the setting. I have pages and pages of scribbled notes, while a lot of it fleshes out the plot of Kid Largo stories there is also a sizable chunk of information about the world itself. Today we’re focusing on the mechanical denizens of the Outland.

The first thing to understand is there are both robots and androids in the Outland and they are very different things. Robots don’t contain any real sentience or free will. They follow the commands or jobs they are given and will not deviate from the order. Robots can be unique one off builds or mass produced models like the Securitron MK. IV and Toast-T.

Androids can look identical to robots but are fully sentient. Not only can they think for themselves they also are capable of feeling an entire range of emotions. Androids have an innate since of what they call their Essence, this is what is believed to make androids different from robots. An android can be so damaged that their Essence fades away. Two androids can also merge their Essence if they have a mechanical vessel this combined Essence to move to. In this way two androids can actually create a family.

Many scholars theorize that an android’s glow is an actual soul, although data like that is impossible to verify. It is unclear whether or not androids existed before the great disaster or not. Androids and robots face prejudices from a large number of the non-mechanical population of the Outland. The slang term “bot” is considered derogatory by androids, robots don’t have the ability to be offended by the tern.

Superman Family Adventures Canceled

DC Comic’s new April solicitation came out yesterday. Buried under all the re-launches and crossovers is the solicit for Superman Family Adventures. No big deal, the All Ages section of these releases are always at the bottom. Unfortunately that listing contains the words, “FINAL ISSUE”. That’s right, after 12 issues Superman Family Adventures is ending. That’s sad news in and of itself. Art Baltazar and Franco brought the same charm to the Superman Family that they brought to their Eisner winning Tiny Titans. It’s a loss to an industry that needs to keep kids reading. That listing was also a shitty, cowardly thing to do.

Let’s say you’re DC. You have a writer and illustrator team that has created 60+ books for you. Popular books. Award winning books. Maybe, the sales have slipped. For whatever reason, you decided to cancel their book. Do you do it over email? That’s not the best way of course, but it works. Do you show that you’re a decent human being and call these people who’ve been working for you since 2008? Or do you not say anything and break the news to these two men through the April sales solicitations? Guess which one DC did? Fuck DC. I read somewhere last night defending DC, that is how things are sometimes done in the comic business. An industry that is hemorrhaging fans can’t afford to treat its talent like that.

If you loved Tiny Titans or Superman Family Adventures, you really need to be following Aw Yeah Comic’s twitter account @AYCPublishing. There will be new Art and Franco comics and the Twitter account has already teased some covers.

I Dream of Puppet

By now you should know that both Ken and I are big Muppet fans. The Henson Company is amazing at mixing whimsy and subversive, and I love every second of it. Henson Alternative is a division of the company that does more adult aimed entertainment. The improvised show "Puppet Up" is like watching "Who's Line is it Anyway" with dirty language, situations, and puppets. I would love to see one live at some point in time, alas I don't live in Los Angeles. Lucky for us with Youtube and The Nerdist channel we can see Neil Patrick Harris and the best puppeteers in the world make dick jokes.

Say hello to "Neil's Puppet Dreams"

 I am also waiting for everyone to turn in their homework assignment from last week. This is worth half your final grade, so don't delay. You can turn it in in the comments, our Facebook, or the Contact Us tab.

All Swines Aftermath

I talked up the F’ing Monkey’s holiday, All Swines’s Day before it actually happened but I still wanted to give one more mention now that everyone’s arteries have started moving again.

A quick recap, All Swine’s Day takes place on the first Sunday of the New Year. The above picture was one of the shots I took before I really started cooking. When making the bacon weaves I cut off about two inches from the bacon. This bacon tips are stockpiled in a bowl and used when cooking the other pork and in the potatoes.

I didn’t take a picture of the scrambled eggs or all of the burrito fixings (cheese, sour creme, etc). The closest pan is potatoes and bacon. The other pan is a mixture of diced ham, bacon, and sausage. The recommend way for eating the All Swine’ Day breakfast burrito is starting with a flour tortilla, then the bacon weave, then adding everything else.

Flash Friday: New 52 Shirt

Happy Flash Friday everyone! Today we’re talking about a new shirt pre-order that I can’t believe has taken so long to happen. I remember the big press releases when DC launched the new 52 that part of the reason was to make it more accessible to the non comic reading public. Because of that I was amazed at how long it took for branded items to update to the new looks. I realize that there is a long turnaround time for most merchandise, but it still surprised me.

Take for example a shirt made to look like the new Flash costume. I just saw this shirt up for pre-order for the first time. There have been at least three Flash shirts released that show him wearing the new costume but we’re just getting around to the most basic of superhero shirts, the one with the new symbol. You’d think this would have been available the same day issue 1 came out. I remember the Flashpoint shirts were out a whole month before the mini-series even started.

If you’re interested in one, I found the shirt listed on urban-collector.com. I’m going to pass on this version. Although all the extra lines and the belt make the shirt more accurate, all I really want is the symbol.

Hangover Thusday: Well, Did You Evah!

It’s Hangover Thursday, how’s your head? I just got poured a healthy glass of mandatory overtime at work, so today is going to be a little short. Because I need an extra reason to smile (again, mandatory overtime) I’m sharing a clip that always makes me smile.

The scene/song is from the 1956 musical High Society. The movie has Cole Porter music with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Louis Armstrong and his band. The movie may not be as good as the non-musical it was based on (The Philadelphia story), but I really enjoy it. The song above, “Well, Did you Evah!” always makes me smile.

The Ballad of Kid Largo: The Outland

We’ve run 15 Ballad of Kid Largo strips and I’ve asked the readers to blindly accept a lot of things. What’s with the robots, what’s with the Lincolns, why are there talking animal people? This month I’ll be sharing some of the world building details that I’ve come up with since I started writing the strips.

The map above is the Outland. Outside of the cities, the landscape gets pretty bleak. So while I’m calling the whole setting the Outland, its inhabitants call the areas outside the cities the Outlands. The current Kid Largo strips are taking place in Gibson City. While I haven’t added it to the map, Gibson is located roughly where Atlanta is. There are many other government borders, cities, and kingdoms to be added to this map, but since those are still being formed I’m still keeping that version secret.

The map itself has some research behind it. I mixed a number of different maps until I got the results I wanted. Volcanoes, flooding, earthquakes, nuclear strikes, and a few other things were all taken into consideration. I’m not saying any of those things are why map looks like this. I honestly do have a reason for the “great disaster” but I like it better as a mystery. Anyway, I hope you liked the first small look at the Outland. There will be more to come.

Drop That Puck

It finally happened, the Hockey Strike is ending. Everything is still tentative but it looks like January 19th will be the start of a 48 game season. I’ve been complaining since the start of the lockout but now that it is over I’m feeling…nothing. I want to see great hockey, I want to see my favorite team make another run for the cup, but something about the strike has killed my excitement.

I’ve called myself a hypocrite before, so it is very possible that as we move into the playoffs I’ll be a rabid hockey fan again. It could still be an exciting season. We’ve already lost the All-Star game and the Winter Classic though. At this point I rather spend 3 hours on Xbox then to even bother watching a game right now. Prove me wrong NHL. Win us fans back. Please.

Nerd Resolutions

It's my first post of the new year, therefor I am going to let you in on this years Nerd Resolutions. What's that I hear you say? Most resolutions don't even last a month? That sounds about right, however Nerd Resolutions are things that are supposed to be fun so one is more likely to stick to it. "How are we to know that they are supposed to be fun? You just made the term Nerd Resolutions up!" Damn you are quite vocal this post, invisible reader. Settle down.

Rambling conversations with my head voices aside I present thee with what I am going to try to do this year.

1) Get my Eldar army fully painted. 
      If you don't know I play Eldar in Warhammer 40k. I am also very lazy when it comes to painting. So I want to have my entire army painted by the end of the year.

2) Catch up with The Walking Dead.
     This includes both the comic (I have only read the first two trades) and the show (first few eps of season one). This almost feels like nerd blasphemy at this point, so I should get with the program.

3) Finish this damn stack of Video Games.
      I have a few games that I started and just have not picked up again. Included in this stack are - Space Marine, Crackdown, Assassin's Creed, and Mass Effect.

4) Try to find an I.P.A. that I can at least tolerate.
     I don't like Indian Pale Ales. Lots of people do. So I want to find one that does not make me want to throw across the room after the first sip. This may be impossible. 

I will update these from time to time so I stay honest and motivated. So you have that to look forward to for the rest of the year. "We don't care!". Why are you so negitive?
So what are some of your Nerd Resolutions for the year? Let us know in the comments, our Facebook page, or the Contact Us button and we will do our best to keep ya motivated.

Also we are looking to drop a Podcast on you ya ever two weeks or so. If you have a topic you want to hear us go on about let us know. Plus the booze Podcast needs rules for the drinking game we will be playing. Put on your thinking cap and shoot us some of those as well.

You Can Help Peter David

This has been posted on most of the larger comic book sites, but it’s important so it is getting posted here too. Writer Peter David recently suffered a stroke while on vacation down in Florida. All of the details and the most recent information can be found at peterdavid.net. Obviously it is an extremely stressful time for his family and the biggest question from his friends and fans are what can we do to help.


That information can be found right HERE. This short version is that this is the time to buy his books. I know a lot of people know Peter’s work for things like the Hulk and X-Factor but he has a number of novels too. Every one of his books that is purchased right now is going to be a big help to his family. You get to help someone in need and you get an excellent new book to read. Again, please click HERE and check out the recommended books.

Flash Friday: Domo Flash

Happy Flash Friday everyone! Before we get started,, I want to talk about the status of Flash Friday. There hasn’t been a whole lot to talk about in the world of Flash and Flash merchandise. Because of this, I wouldn’t expect a Flash Friday every Friday. This way I don’t feel bad about writing about other subjects on Friday when there isn’t anything Flash related that needs to be discussed.

Today’s update comes from Funko. We’ve been talking about them a lot lately since their pop culture figures are everywhere right now. This time they’ve decided to take the little Japanese monster Domo and dress him up as different DC super heroes. The full sized Domo figures will be available wearing Batman in blue and grey, Batman in black and grey, Superman, Green Lantern, and the Flash. It looks like he has articulation at the arms and waste, but I can’t be certain if those are just mold lines or not. The full sized figures sell for around 11 dollars.

There will also be a box of blind packed mini-figures. The mini-domos are 2.5” tall. In that set there are 3 different types of Batman, 2 types of Robin, 3 types of Superman (including Clark Kent), Flash, Green Lantern, Shazam, Aquaman, Two-Face, and the Riddler. There are blind packed, but it looks like the Clark Kent and the Blue and Grey Batman are the only rare figures. Still if all you want is the Flash, you’re better off ordering the large one and saving yourself some money.

Hangover Thursday: All Swine’s Day Explained

It’s Hangover Thursday, how’s your head? It’s been a few days since New Year ’s Eve so hopefully everyone has fully recovered by now. Today I want to talk about what is quickly becoming my favorite holiday, All Swine’s Day. All Swine’s Day was created three years ago on this very site. So what is it? When is it? What do you do to celebrate it?


All Swine’s Day takes place on the first Sunday of the New Year, so this year we’ll be celebrating on the 6th. The day is important, because it is after all the other holiday shenanigans. As I got older, I found myself obligated to more and more family functions during the holidays. It was great to see that much of my family, but I was missing out on celebrating with my friends. That’s why All Swines is so important to me. I know I’m going to get to spend the day with those friends that are so close that I think of them as family.

I think the Swine came about because I was thinking that the day could be one last pig out before everyone returned to their post-holiday diets, etc. That somehow led to me making bacon taco shells for breakfast tacos. In addition to the taco shells we cook up scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, and a mixture of ham, sausage, and bacon. Everyone eats too much, we drink a bit, and we play offensive card games. I honestly can’t think of many better ways to spend the day.

Really I encourage everyone to celebrate it. You don’t need fancy bacon weaves, just surround yourself with some of your favorite people and enjoy yourself. And if you can make something awesome out of bacon, it just makes the day better.

The Ballad of Kid Largo: S1, E14

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

First I wanted to apologize to everyone; we’ve been pretty bad about getting updates put up during the holidays. Things should have settled down now and we’ll be back to our full updates again. Today’s Kid Largo strip is the only one that is going to run in January. I’ve got some other Kid Largo related articles that are going to run in place of the normal strips. I think they’ll be pretty interesting to that’s been reading.