Van Dammage: Grudges

 

Remember when Jean-Claude Van Damme was in Menlo Park visiting Facebook Headquarters? It may be a coincidence but now you're seeing Brainfail's JCVD Quiz pop up to see what character you are. After answering 10 quick questions, I ended up with Kickboxer's Kurt Sloane as I'm driven by Pride and Revenge! I'll also stop at nothing for loved ones! Sounds about right. "I want you to teach me Muy Thai"...cut to yoked and tan Van Damme kicking a tree and drunk dancing! What a coincidence as JCVD is shooting or about to start on his part in the Kickboxer reboot. He's been looking in great shape recently, feeling alive and hitting the gym in pajama pants, trying to lift buildings and says mentor/instructor Claude Goetz is joining him on set.

If you'll recall, Kickboxer: Vengeance started shooting last year in New Orleans with a cast that includes Georges St. Pierre, Dave Bautista, Gina Carano, Darren Shahlavi (Train in Peace) and martial artist Alain Moussi. The John Stockwell directed, Dimitri Logothetis and Jim McGrath scripted flick ran into financial issues that saw the crew not being paid for their last several weeks of work. That's not exactly unheard of in the independently financed world but it was interesting to see Van Damme's name used to bolster the headlines even though he's not a producer and hadn't even worked on the picture yet. One of the producers strangely took to social media to tell the crew not to talk about it as if he was threatening them for being upset over not being paid...The Thailand portion of shooting looks to be ramping up and IMDb is reporting a $17 million dollar budget.

The trailer for Pound of Flesh, Van Damme's latest headlining actioner hit recently promising a gory and shady mix of organ theft, revenge and salvation set to high kicks, car chases, shootouts and Bibles to the throat on the streets of Hong Kong. Aki Aleong, who played Muy Thai trainer Khao in Van Damme's 1996 directorial debut The Quest, plays an ally. Darren Shahlavi looks like he's playing the main henchman here so be prepared for some high kicking meets rough and tumble MMA style fight scenes. The action and mood of the flick looks solid with Van Damme playing a mercenary type scheduled to donate his kidney to his niece. But after a crazy night out he wakes up in a bath tub full of ice and missing his organ. Teaming up with his peaceful bro, the duo set out to get the kidney back and save the young girl. Even in the short trailer, Van Damme looks pissed, mean and truthful, talking about damning souls to rescue the girl. 6 Bullets and Assassination Games director Ernie Barbarash helms a script from Joshua James. Hong Kong based Dammaged Goods supporter Mike Leeder produced this bad boy and the release can't come soon enough. Big Mike is on a tear as the Mark Dacascos and Matthias Hues (I Come In Peace) lead Ultimate Justice recently finished shooting in Germany.

Speaking of Germany and Van Damme connections, frequent collaborator and Lionheart writer/director Sheldon Lettich along with co-star Harrison Page attended a special event in Kassel to commemorate the release of the Cult Platinum Edition Blu-Ray. A European print was found, cleaned up and screened theatrically with a Q&A with Lettich and Page after. The duo will also be hitting a local comic convention this week.

Chrono Trigger Wednesday

Oh man, apparently SNES classic action RPG video game Chrono Trigger was released on this day in 1995. Takes me back to sitting on the floor in my room in the late 90's and early 2000's, listening to Oasis' Be Here Now on my sweet 3-Disk CD Changer. Starting off as spiky haired Chrono and getting mixed up with a bratty princess, a cute nerd, a hot cave chick, a loyal robot and a tragic stricken frog jumping across time and space, Chrono Trigger was just the shit. It had an awesomely grand soundtrack and took you from quaint villages to dank caves and lush jungles fighting monsters, dinosaurs and other crazy creatures with swords, ray guns and magic spells. It didn't seem as daunting as Final Fantasy as it wasn't part 27 but shared the same Active Time Battle system where you'd square off and select your attacks. This was a step up for me as Square's previously released and played a ton at my house, The Secret of Mana was more of an action RPG where you just walked up and slashed the shit out of your enemy or charged up and super slashed the shit out of them.

Creators from Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Dragon Ball joined to develop the game in 1992. It was released in 1995 to rave reviews and sold over 3 million copies across several platforms. Pseudo-sequel Chrono Cross was released in 1999 but seems to be in name and theme only without our red spiky haired young hero and his friends included. In 2008, Nintendo released an updated version on the DS. You can now play it on your mobile phone as well. True sequel Chrono Break was discussed back in the early 2000's but never came to fruition. Recently, Chrono has come back into my life as 8-bit magnets at various conventions.


Phew, 12 endings, not sure I got to many of these...

What the Chuck?! Hero and the Terror

Did you miss it? I sure did. Tuesday, March 10th was the 75th birthday of one Carlos Ray aka Chuck Norris! The Air Force veteran turned martial arts expert and champion turned movie and TV star turned internet sensation spends his days living in rural Texas, working out on his Total Gym and speaking at conservative events. We know and love him for his awesome 70's and 80's action flicks so let's dive into 1988's Hero and the Terror. This puts us on the tail end of his go-go years with Cannon Films following hits like Missing In Action, Invasion U.S.A. and The Delta Force.

Hero is a weird one, more of a thriller than an action flick as we meet Danny O'Brien (Norris) as he's tracked down the man-brute-child Simon Moon aka The Terror (Jack O'Halloran) and fighting for his life under a pier. Moon nearly chokes and drowns O'Brien to death but trips and dazes himself, which makes arriving back up think The Chuck managed to put the big man down. Thus becoming a hero and a trauma survivor at the same time. Cut to three years later, O'Brien is slowly getting his confidence back and moving in with his pregnant lady Kay (Brynn Thayer). There's an awesomely ludicrous workout scene where Chuck is bench pressing while having flashbacks of Moon's hands wrapped around his throat, intense! American Ninja's Steve James shows up as one of his cop buddies and with another friend scream at O'Brien to complete his reps and joke he's prepping for the Olympics. I should mention that Norris is really pumped up in this one with a smooth hairless chest and a 80's style spaghetti strapped tank top. Competing with Stallone and Arnold perhaps? He rocks sweet sweaters and blazers while tooling around in his Corvette.

Thought dead for the last three years, Moon returns, killing women with his bare hands. His once abandoned lair has been remodeled and scheduled to open as The Wiltern Theatre. Hiding in unmapped cubbies, Moon eludes O'Brien and the police until they figure out there's more to the joint than thought. Alone, O'Brien finds the secret compartment Moon has been bringing his victims back to and faces off against The Terror one last time. Like I said, this was kind of a weird one but very watchable, Chuck doesn't have a ton of fight scenes, just one against some thugs on a bust and the final confrontation with Moon. His usual odd charm and humor is put on display in his scenes with Kay and one where he burns toast, etc. It was nice to see Steve James pop up for a few scenes even if he spoke with a kind of strange nasally, hero voice in this. There's one scene where James is on a stakeout in the theater and decides to get a work out in by running laps listening to Mozart!

After making his name in martial arts and action fare to big box office but few critical accolades, Norris hit both with 1985's Code of Silence. Follow ups Invasion U.S.A., The Delta Force, Firewalker and Missing in Action III would see diminishing returns and be viewed as less challenging and more exploitative fare. Hero and the Terror, based on the novel by Michael Blodgett, adapted by Dennis Shryack and directed by William Tannen was an attempt to broaden Norris' range. His character isn't the silent badass, he's got fears and even sees a therapist. Throw in the pregnant ladyfriend and some delivery room humor and you've got yourself a character similar to but also very departed from Lone Wolf McQuade, Invasion U.S.A. and The Delta Force where it was more about revenge or taking down scumbags cold, hard and fast. After so many years of that, it was time to be strong yet vulnerable. While the flick is easily a Saturday afternoon repeater, it did little to broaden Norris' fanbase. Opening on August 26th, 1988, Hero and the Terror grossed an anemic $1.8 million for the weekend coming in 12th place behind long released fare like A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Die Hard, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Young Guns and Coming to America on it's way to a $5.3 million total.

Hero and the Terror's weak performance was Norris' worst showing in years. A proposed team up with Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Cowboy and The Cossack was planned but never materialized. A Delta Force sequel would do little to turn the tide and 1991's The Hitman would fare even worse. Norris himself deemed the picture OK and not one of his favorites. Director William Tannen would reteam with Norris nearly 20 years later on entertaining DTV flick The Cutter. Novelist Michael Blodgett would have more success on the cop-canine comedy Turner & Hooch the next year before passing away in 2007. Screenwriter Dennis Shryack had previously written Clint Eastwood vehicles The Gauntlet and Pale Rider as well as Norris' Code of Silence (originally meant for Clint) and would go on to co-write Turner & Hooch and the Peter Weller actioner Fifty/Fifty.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Norris, keep pumping!

Downtown Sunday: Fleming's and U of MMA

Recovering from the late night of the Sunbow Celebration and the time change, on Sunday afternoon we ventured to Downtown, Los Angeles. For some reason, I've been here more in the last year than I had in the previous 5-6. Before heading to Club Nokia for a University of Mixed Martial Arts event, we stopped off at an old Happy Hour standby, Fleming's Steakhouse. I've never actually had a steak at this house of them because they've got a pretty substantial Happy Hour menu that runs every day. There's 5 selections of cocktails, wines and food for $6. Walking in, L.A. Live looked more happening than I'd ever seen it, then looking across to the Staples Center I saw a crowd of people. It finally dawned on me that all these people wearing Lakers jerseys, shirts and hats weren't cosplaying, they were going to a game! We found a standing counter spot easy enough and proceeded to down some Lemonade made with Tito's Vodka out of Austin along with Butternut Squash ravioli, calamari and a bacon cheeseburger. It was all good. The place soon cleared out as Happy Hour ended and tip-off must have been near.

Some friends explained that Nokia Live and Club Nokia were two different things. Good on them otherwise we'd have been wandering around thinking we had the wrong date...Located above Lucky Strike Bowling, Club Nokia is an interesting venue for partying and events. There's a main floor with a bar then you can go up to a seated balcony with another bar. I met promoter/scheduler/everything guy Jorge Albarca at The Van Damme Triple Dip where he came out to see the Belgian badass on the big screen two nights in a row for Double Impact and Bloodsport. After attending Dolph Night and An Evening with Carl Weathers, he's one of the few in the city who have all three Dammaged Goods special edition shirts. Set up as upscale amateur fights, U of MMA was boasting a huge 18 fight card with several title bouts. 30 gyms around the Los Angeles area support the league and it's sanctioned to ensure safety. It was a great atmosphere and I was happy to see it so crowded. I heard one of the fighters was from Bas Rutten's gym, the Dutch kickboxer turned MMA fighter with a hilarious sense of humor. Apparently he was there but I didn't catch a glimpse, next time.

With the earlier matches consisting of three, two minute rounds, the pace of the action was solid. No lay and pray over here, these were all hungry fighters looking to build their records and reputations. By the time they switched to three, three minute rounds, the shin guards came off and you started to see a little more attitude and aggression in the cage. Plus one of the referees had an amazingly long, braided beard. Of course no MMA event would be complete without the guy in the crowd who's an expert yet is spectating instead of participating. This particular guy kept talking about the differences between boxing and MMA and doing more coaching than the guys at ringside. Ah well, it was a fun night and my first fight in years. Looking forward to the next one.

Ask Me a Question: The Transformers & G.I. Joe

What a night. That's about the best way I can summarize the amazing evening that was the Sunbow Animation Celebration double feature of The Transformers: The Movie and G.I. Joe: The Movie at the Egyptian Theatre. Buzz on the night had been immense from the get go. Thanks to Hiss Tank, Nerd Reactor and Loot Crate, the message spread quickly and 100 tickets sold in less than a day. Going into the night we only had 100 tickets left, this would be my biggest audience yet for a Dammaged Goods Presents event. Setting up the lobby, Mr. Hank "Dial Tone" Garrett arrived early and he was great. He's lead such an incredible life from being a stand up comic opening for Tony Bennett to being a New York based actor appearing in Three Days of the Condor, Serpico and Death Wish while somehow also being a renowned martial artist and professional wrestler. Author and comic book artist Bill Forster joined us as did G.I. Joe collector and Duke expert Diana Davis. The co-author of Transformers: The Ark and G.I. Joe: Field Manual, Bill had several of his books available as well as some artwork while Diana had a collection of figures, prints, scripts and sketches. Then it was the team from Serenity Place Animal Rescue, personal friends of Mr. Michael "Duke" Bell and the man himself showed up with autographed photos and Voltron DVD's to raffle off. Michael has a great sense of humor and was in a film called Damaged Goods back in the day about a rock singer who gets an STD in Los Angeles!

Artist Livio Ramondelli brought his incredible prints and copies of some of the comic books he's worked on while Flint Dille set up for People to People, an organization that sends students around the world to build leadership skills and global awareness. Flint was amazing through the entire process. He was the first guest I asked and the first to accept. From there he recommended this person and that like G.I. Joe writer Buzz Dixon and storyboard artist/director Larry Houston. Just a really sharp guy with ideas for days. We're working on some follow up events now. Springer and Shipwreck himself Neil Ross arrived and donated a few signed photos to Serenity Place as well. Neil was instrumental in securing guests like Bill Ratner and Bell, so double thanks for attending and connecting the dots. Voice Director and legend in the field Wally Burr had been the one Maybe but he showed up and was ready to mingle. Sadly series writer Donald F. Glut couldn't make it as his home was being used as a film location. Deep-Six and the Predator Hal Rayle was struck by the Con-Fluenza from Long Beach and had to bow out as well. Next time! We had various reporters and writers on tap like That Hash Tag Show, Variety's Matthew Chernov and Stauros Entertainment.TV's Tyronne Tann documenting the evening and interviewing our guests.

We had a line into the courtyard to Hollywood Boulevard waiting when the doors opened at 6:30 PM with several attendees in costume. The lobby mini-con was a huge success with every table bustling. Animation expert, voice over actor and Cinematheque programmer Grant Moninger was originally scheduled to lead the pre-show panel but like me had fallen ill during the week. Luckily, #MovieBro and animation guru Michael Floyd was ready to party as I enlisted him to do the Damme thing. Flint Dille, Buzz Dixon, Bill Ratner, Michael Bell, Neil Ross and Wally Burr all joined him for a casual conversation about writing, animation and working at Sunbow. Someone else will have to fill me in on what they discussed because I was in the lobby! We raffled off two autographed Voltron sets then as my usual, I had a VHS copy of Transformers signed by our guests as a prize. The question? Name all 5 Dinobots. Grimlock, Slag, Snarl, Swoop and Sludge! The Audience nearly turned on me when I wasn't sure which 4 were actually in the movie...

With Lion's rendition of The Transformers theme song blaring, the awesome audience erupted into applause as Grant and I took our guests to do some more interviews. I was also happy when "Oh shit, what are we gonna do now?!" got a round of applause. The print was absolutely beautiful and watching Hot Rod open the Matrix to become Rodimus Prime to the rock-synth soundtrack awesomeness of Stan Bush and Vince DiCola was just too perfect. Larry Houston and then Joe director Don Jurwich showed up and it was great chatting with them. I almost can't believe how many shows Larry has worked on from Joe to Exosquad to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to X-Men. He also spearheaded the one off Pryde of the X-Men, a bitching animated version of Marvel's premiere title. Don had been great the entire process as I called every week sounding like a telemarketer to give him an update. An alumni of Hanna-Barbera, Don oversaw the G.I. Joe series and movie. Now retired, he paints and was excited to have his grandson check out Joe on the big screen.

Between flicks I grabbed the mic for our main panel, first bringing back writers Flint Dille and Buzz Dixon who both came onto the movies out of nowhere. Buzz explained that they were on a 65 episode freight train that wasn't going to stop. Flint and producer Jay Bacall banged out a revised script in a week then later on holed up in a hotel for months drafting a new version. Basically, Dille and Dixon wanted to make the cinema screen adventures something big, wild and exciting. Buzz wanted to kill off some characters to show that war had consequences. Lead character Duke was chosen to be cycled out, a death scene was written and Hasbro liked the idea so much they decided to kill off Optimus Prime in Transformers. A young boy locked himself in his room for two weeks after seeing Prime die. Flint was still surprised at how out there the film was. Don Jurwich joined us next and told us how he had been working on the show, heard about the movie and said he wanted to direct it. One thing he recalled was how difficult it was to introduce so many new characters. Larry joined us and talked about the big, kick ass opening of G.I. Joe that was tasked to him by Jurwich. Influenced by anime, Houston threw everything he could into the opening and basked in the feature budget resources compared to the daily show and mini-series.

Wally Burr then Flint took us through some of their recently lost colleagues from the era like Leonard Nimoy, Gary Owens and Gordon Kent. Neil Ross talked about getting the role of new character Springer through audition and lucking out as he had already voiced him in some new episodes thus saving the role from a celebrity voice a la Judd Nelson, Robert Stack and Orson Welles. Ross talked fondly of Lionel Stander who played Kup and how during their recording sessions, Stander needed to look other actors in the eye so Ross would play off the old school actor to get through a scene. Hank Garrett explained how he did Italian gibberish for some producers who believed he was from the mother country. Honing his skills from listening to the radio, Garrett went on to do commercials before landing G.I. Joe. Bill Ratner was used to an hour or 90 minutes over at Hanna-Barbera but would put in double and triple that for tough director Burr. Ratner and Lady Jaye voice Mary MacDonald-Lewis learned from a fan at JoeCon that Flint and Jaye had an illegitimate daughter who shows up on Transformers. This lead to Buzz and Flint admitting they came real close to having fellow property My Little Pony show up in the Transformers and G.I. Joe universes. Don commented on trying hard to give the new villains of Cobra-La a believable atmosphere while Buzz publicly apologized for naming it Cobra-La after Hasbro became infatuated with it and not caring about the connection to Shangri-La. Michael Bell had no idea Duke was being killed off and figured his toy wasn't selling well anymore. New Joe addition Don Johnson was busy with hit series Miami Vice so Wally Burr traveled to the Florida set where Johnson recorded his dialog in his trailer. Afterwards the TV star was supposed to do a photo shoot but said he had a party to get to and bounced. Classic.

I asked Larry, Bill and Michael what it was like to come back to G.I. Joe for the recent episode of Community and Bill let us know the producers reached out to his agent asking if he was still alive! Larry's directive was to draw the show as if it had never gone off the air in the 80's. One of the greatest moments of the panel was Ross recalling some of Bell's outrageous comments. On Inhumanoids, a half dozen actors were playing flesh eating something or others and to make the voices, the actors sucked on their own arms to which Bell commented that it sounded just like Ernest Borgnine's wedding night. Several of our guests told stories about Orson Welles who didn't appreciate line readings and jokes turned into rumors that Wally starved him to death. I asked about the fabled Comic-Con 1987 screening where Don told us he thought the projectionist was drunk as the second reel was loaded first. Flint said he didn't even notice, it was the 80's...Bill may or may not have said that the Sunbow crew smoked crack before work...Buzz is working on an e-book and lost episode that can't come soon enough. With that it was time for intermission and then G.I. Joe: The Movie on the big screen for the first time in who knows how long if ever. An autographed VHS went to the the gent who knew the names of Sgt. Slaugther's Renegades; Mercer, Taurus and Red Dog.
  
The opening of G.I. Joe: The Movie takes place on and around the Statue of Liberty with a million characters fighting it out and a rocking rendition of the theme song that looked just oh so awesome on the big screen. It was a truly fantastic evening with a full house of passionate fans. Driving home I thought it really couldn't get any better than that. Our attendees had fun, our guests had a great time, the response has been tremendous and we're working on a follow up.

"Til all are one" and "Yo, Joe!". Thanks to everyone who attended, our guests in the lobby, on the panels, Michael, Grant, Christian, Tammi, Andrew, Travis, Jeremy, Oliver and the staff at The Egyptian.

Sherman Oaks Saturday: Earth 2 Comics & The One Up

Wow what a week! Started a kick ass new gig all while going into the final days leading up to the Sunbow Animation Celebration double feature of The Transformers and G.I. Joe: The Movies, fighting a cold and planning another big movie night. Saturday it was off to Sherman Oaks to check out a parking lot sale of comics with thousands of issues advertised for a buck a piece. Earth 2 Comics is located right on Ventura Blvd off the 405 a few minutes from The Galleria. The Galleria? John Conner alert! I think that was Glendale actually...Anyways, it was already a bustling scene
with people elbow to elbow skimming through books. Toys, calendars, figurines and more were also on sale but I was more there looking for issues. After whetting my appetite with some Cable (Body slide by one) from last week's Long Beach Comic Expo, I was hoping I'd run into some more 90's action and was not disappointed as I scooped up some of Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza's X-Force from 1991. Also grabbed were several issues of Nick Fury: Agent of Shield, some more 80's Captain America that I already have in boxes in Ohio, Sgt. Rock and a couple of random issues of West Coast Avengers with interesting covers. There seemed to be a lot of DC for sale and I hauled up a few issues of The Flash written by the TV writing duo of the 1990 show, Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo. If you bought 20, the price went down to .50 cents so it was money well spent. The staff there were all super cool and say they hold the sale a couple times a year so we'll be sure to come back.

Since we were already in The Oaks, we cruised down to The One Up for a midday cocktail and some more brawling action following up on The Punisher mayhem from a few weeks ago. It was barely noon so the place was empty but with Space Balls on the tube and a Jameson Mule aka Dublin Donkey in hand, it was time to check out what other oddities and classics the 400 game emulator had in store for us. I really hoping for Aliens VS Predator so I could be video game Arnold aka Dutch but with a metal arm and fight xenomorphs. Alas AVP was not included but 1991's forgotten yet awesome side scrolling beat'em up Knights of the Round from Capcom was. I remember playing the crap out of that game as Lancelot, Arthur and Perceval. We settled on Cadillacs and Dinosaurs for the sheer WTF value as it's a beat'em up but with a story involving cars and dinosaurs. A comic book series turned cartoon, the Capcom arcade game came out in 1993 where you play as the hyper buff dude Jack Tenrec or hot diplomat Hannah Dundee along with fast fighting Mustapha or heavy hitter Mess O'Bradovich.

Like Final Fight or The Punisher, you roll down the streets of some crazy city where dinosaurs have been hunted and modified, becoming violent tools of gang warlords. Using your fists, feet, uzi's, shotguns, knives and TNT, you fight your way through various parts of The City by the Sea and a nearby jungle. The game had a BLARING rock and roll soundtrack and was really, really loud. But fun to button mash and brawl. It was surprisingly violent with dead dinosaur carcases, being able to use swords to hack peeps and of course shoot them with a variety of firearms. One stage you're driving a Caddy and literally trying to mow down the baddies in your way. Road rage! It was a fun morning before we needed to head to Hollywood for the big show...

(Almost) Ask Me a Question: Transformers and G.I. Joe

Less than a week until the Sunbow Animation Celebration double feature of The Transformers and G.I. Joe: The Movies! Response has been great with online Joe powerhouse HissTank being very supportive and subsequent shares from the likes of Nerd Reactor and LootCrate. It all goes down Saturday, March 7th at the Egyptian Theatre at 7:30 PM. Doors will be open at 6:30 PM as we've got a lobby full of fun and a pre-show you won't want to miss. In addition to our already terrific line up of special guests, excited to announce even more Sunbow Alumni in addition to writers Flint Dille, Buzz Dixon, Donald F. Glut, storyboard director Larry Houston and Joe director Don Jurwich:

Bill Ratner - Voice of Flint on G.I. Joe, also heard in video game series Mass Effect and is an author with an Amazon #1, Parenting for the Digital Age.

Michael Bell - G.I. Joe leader Duke as well as Prowl on Transformers. You've also heard him on The Smurfs, Voltron and Rugrats. Aside from his 300+ acting credits, Bell supports local charities like animal rescue.

Hank Garrett - Dial Tone from G.I. Joe. On screen you've seen him in Three Days of the Condor, Serpico, Death Wish and Max Headroom. Besides acting, Hank is also known in the worlds of bodybuilding, professional wrestling and martial arts. These days, Mr. Garrett speaks at prisons to help inspire troubled youths as he himself was going nowhere before Sammy Davis, Jr. set him straight.

But that's not all, not by a long shot! Arrive early to check out our mini-Sunbow Con in the lobby:

Diana Davis - G.I. Joe expert and collector, Diana will be showcasing some of her awesome personal collection including portfolios, press books, official design sketches and more.

Livio Ramondelli - IDW, Google and video game artist who will be selling and displaying Transformers prints. Pick one up to have our guests sign as a keepsake of this sure to be crazy event.

Bill Forster - Comic book artist and co-author of the Transformers AllSpark Alamanacs, Ark Books and G.I. Joe Field Manuals. Bill will have some of his books and research materials on display. Sadly, Forster's writing co-hort Mr. Jim Sorenson won't be able to make it.

We'll also be supporting the following charities and programs:

People to People Ambassador Program - School trips and adventures to introduce students to new cultures, create global awareness as well as develop leadership skills and prepare them for college. Sunbow writer and special guest Flint Dille will be selling some of his personal memorabilia to support People to People.

Serenity Place Rescue - A volunteer group that rescues and rehabilitates cats and kittens offering advice, assistance and education on responsible pet ownership. Voice actor Michael Bell will raffle off a personalized signed photo to help raise money for Serenity Place.

Wounded Warrior Project - With a mission To honor and empower Wounded Warriors, the Project raises awareness and provides service to injured veterans addressing mental, physical, financial and family. Actor Hank Garrett will be selling signed photos and autographing items with all proceeds going directly to the Wounded Warrior Project.

At 7:00 PM, a pre-show with writers Flint Dille, Buzz Dixon, Donald F. Glut and voice actor Bill Ratner will accompany the mini-con and incoming attendees. They'll be talking about writing, animation, acting and the various other properties they've been a part of like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, comic books, video games and more.

7:30 PM it's time to Transform and roll out to the awesomely 80's synth and guitar soundtrack of Vince Di Cola and Stan Bush as the Autobots face the evil Decepticons and a new threat; the giant, planet eating Unicron!

Between films it's a Sunbow Celebration panel with writers Flint Dille, Buzz Dixon, Donald F. Glut, voice actors Neil Ross, Michael Bell, Bill Ratner and Hank Garrett, G.I. Joe storyboard director Larry Houston and director Don Jurwich!

And then it's time for G.I. Joe: The Movie where America's elite take on Cobra and their ancestors from Cobra-La, a secret society hidden in the mountains looking to take over the world with mutant spores.

It's going to be a great night, we'll see you there. Yo, Joe!

Tickets and info here!

Con-Man: Long Beach Comic Expo

After a night of birthday celebrating it was down to Long Beach for the Comic Expo on Saturday. This is usually the smaller of the two LB shows but this year expanded so much that they had to move it to another section of the convention center. There was some science technology summit or other happening where LBCC usually is so we were around the back by the Performing Arts Center and Aquarium. Replica cars from Knight Rider, Jurassic Park, The Blues Brothers and Back to the Future welcomed you, it was a breeze to grab tickets and head inside. Right away we saw one Lance Henriksen at the non-RAW, RAW booth with The Lone Gunmen actor Dean Haglund along with a local artist. I immediately searched the floor for NECA's new Bishop figure and took it over to Mr. Henriksen to sign. Having already bought his book last year, The Lance was still just too Damme cool and gracious, chit chatting about Alien 5 (He hasn't heard anything) and how he actually hadn't seen the new figure yet. Again, just a great guy and here's hoping I put together an event he can attend. Why was it the non-RAW, RAW booth? Well convention specialist Mike was on hand, the RAW Studios banner was up, but neither Messrs Thomas Jane or Tim Bradstreet were attending. The Jane is still shooting new show The Expanse up in Canada while Bradstreet was also out of town. Here's hoping the duo return to Long Beach soon as their previous years have been outstanding with screenings and panels.

From there we walked the floor which was nice and padded with carpet checking out comics, toys, arts and crafts, Big Trouble in Little China ReAction figures and Funko's were around. I recognized some vendors from previous shows, guess we're becoming regulars huh? The floor boasted over 165 exhibitors and artists but strangely didn't feel much bigger than previous shows. Star Wars Laser Tag was set up in the back, there was a signing area where Futurama's Phil LaMarr and martial arts heroine Cynthia Rothrock were set up near a new addition, video games projected on a big screen. Street Fighter and Super Mario Brothers action ensued. Writing legend and X-Men mainstay Chris Claremont showed up and had a line at his table the entire day.

11:00 AM marked our first and only panel of the day, G.I. Joe Cartoon Voices! Hosted by combat fatigue clad Flint aka Bill Ratner, the panel included Keone Young (Storm Shadow), Hal Rayle (Deep-Six), Mary McDonald-Lewis (Lady Jaye), Jerry Houser (Sci-Fi) and Neil Ross (Shipwreck). There was a great camaraderie between the actors and they started things off with a reading of a funny G.I. Joe skit where Cobra ninja assassin Storm Shadow is actually trying to help the Joes. The panel included much talk of working for Wally Burr who would push his actors to provide a realistic, non-obvious cartoony performance in sessions that went 7-8 hours versus the typical 4. Basically if you didn't leave blood on the music stand, you weren't doing it right. Burr also strove for authenticity and instead of having an actor play ethnic, he'd just go out and get a person from the community aka Asian or black characters being played by Asian and black actors. Many a tale spoke of Megatron voice actor Frank Welker who would help the young guys while also being able to give you the sounds of a rocking chair or a male or female dolphin! Lewis was proud that her character wasn't fetish-ized and her action figure was the first female toy to have short hair. Lewis was great, very cool, very smart and just a ball of fire. She made sure everyone was involved during the panel and offered some terrific insight into being a positive force in the world. This was Houser's first time at a convention and he was really funny with a voice you swear you recognize but don't know why. Rayle went into Deep-Six and I immediately thought he was doing Charles Bronson, which he was! Rayle based the voice on Bronson as Tunnel King Danny in The Great Escape.

There was some enlightening stuff like the script girl encouraging the cast to buy Hasbro stock as the toy giant knew FCC regulations were changing so the cartoons could have commercials for their products during the run-time essentially make it a 30 minute advertisement. Ratner said if he would have invested $1,000 dollars in 1985, it would have been worth $28,000 just a few years later. Jokes about their figures selling poorly leading to being featured less on the show were common place during sessions of 10-12 voice actors. Houser said Sci-Fi was really good at sitting still in silence...I asked when the panel realized they had jumped generations and started going to cons with Lewis and Ratner saying they'd only known about the show's impact in the last ten years. Frank Welker couldn't make it but doesn't believe people still love the shows 30 years later. Rayle has only been going for a few years and is headed to Australia for a show soon. A few passionate fans spoke of their love for the show and Lewis shared that the percentage of first responders and EMT's in the Joe community is extremely high when compared to the rest of the population. She and Ratner also attended the official G.I. JoeCon where they watched the new live action movies and Lewis mentioned that there wouldn't be cons for those in 30 years. Young was asked about working for supposed tough guy writer-director Kurt Sutter on Sons of Anarchy to which he responded he'd worked with guys like Billy Wilder so Sutter was nothing and that was the point of being a professional. I ran into Young in the hallway after and asked him about Surf Ninjas, he said it was a lot of fun and they shot it in beautiful Thailand. On and on it went, just a really great time, lots of laughs, stories and heart. If that weren't enough, Neil Ross gave next week's Sunbow Celebration a shout out, Yo, Joe!

It was off to get our Dublin Donkey's on across the street at The Auld Dubliner and next door to collectible store Geeky Mamas where they have an awesome selection of toys old and new, accessories and clothes. I totally meant to get a Transformers or Joe shirt for next week but didn't see any good ones...Back at the show we walked the floor some more, checking out artist alley and digging through random boxes. That Hashtag Show is coming to Sunbow Celebration and I introduced myself, cool guys who like Long Beach the same as I do for it's chill vibe, guest approachability and nice surrounding area. Grabbed a few Captain America Annuals and Sgt. Rock issues from a 3 for 1 booth as well as a collection of time traveling mutant soldier badass Cable for a solid $5! Created in "1990, the dawn of the most action-packed decade in comic-book history" by Louise Simonson and wunder-kid Rob Liefeld. "Body-Slide by one". I would have liked to stuck around to see Claremont's panel, it had been a full and fun day so we headed home. Just when I thought Long Beach Con wasn't evolving, they shut my face by putting on a terrific show. Here's hoping to an even bigger one in the fall. Bring on Emerald City!

Con-Man: Spring Circuit

While it's cold and snowy across much of the country, Spring Time is nearly here and that means conventions! This weekend is The Long Beach Comic Expo, sister show to The Long Beach Comic Con. They're pulling out all the stops to make this their biggest Expo ever with lots of comic book and media guests as well as some back to back stacked programming.

Long Beach Comic Expo | Saturday & Sunday, February 28 - March 1 | Long Beach, California

Looking forward to the G.I. Joe animation panel as a nice primer to next week's Sunbow Celebration double feature. The Gargoyles panel is a nice touch as is the spotlight on legendary X-Men scribe Chris Claremont. Cool to see Magnet and Magnolia previewing new movies as well as the Eat. Geek. Play. Studio hanging out with Stan Sakai and Gerry Conway among others. Genre movie favorite Lance Henriksen is attending but I'm disappointed a panel wasn't scheduled. Lots of topics covered though with writing, diversity, cosplay, webcomics, marketing and more over the two days.

Emerald City Comicon | Thursday - Sunday, March 27-29 | Seattle, Washington

We're heading back to the great green north to check out Emerald City for a second time. This will be our only out of state show we're attending again as Calgary Expo and Salt Lake City were fun but just not as convenient or special enough to lure us back. Hoping to get out to Arizona or Nevada for a new show in 2015 though. ECCC is shaping up to be another great time with guests across the Artist, Writer, Cosplayer, Novelist and Celebrity spectrum. Comics guys like Kevin Eastman, Tim Sale, Humberto Ramos and Dan Jurgens will be on hand while celebs Hayley Atwell, Michael Bell, Levar Burton and John Wesley Shipp will be sure to provide some great spotlight panels. The Cinema Series is back with Karen Allen, Stan Lee and Brandon Routh attending screenings of Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Avengers and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Congratulations to Jennifer Blanc and Michael Biehn as they're expecting a child together meaning we won't be seeing them on the flight up again like last year. Biehn will be participating in an Aliens reunion panel at Monsterpalooza in Los Angeles the same weekend of ECCC.

WonderCon | Friday - Sunday, April 3 - 5 | Anaheim, Calilfornia

Coming back to Anaheim for it's 4th year is San Diego Comic-Con International's less crazy but nearly as awesome sister show WonderCon. First tip for attending, don't stay at the Clarion. Stay at the Hilton since it's connected or if you feel like walking a couple blocks, The Red Lion, cause they have mini-fridges in all their rooms. Anywho, WonderCon is great, it really is like Comic-Con junior. You've got the huge exhibition floor, tons of vendors, lots of guests and programming with literally half the madness. The show is still being put together but the likes of Darwyn Cooke, Jae Lee, Dustin Nguyen and Rick Remender caught my eye on the Special Guests list. Warner Brothers is bringing latest DC animated flick, Batman vs. Robin as it holds it's world premiere during WonderCon. Also announced is special event Superman: The Richard Donner Years Celebrity Super Reunion with producers, actors and writers.

Star Wars Celebration | Thursday - Sunday, April 16 - 19 | Anaheim, California

Two weeks after WonderCon it's back to Anaheim for the show I bought tickets for 20 months ahead of time, Star Wars Celebration! Originally scheduled to coincide with the release of the new films, Star Wars Celebration is now hitting early as the flicks won't be ready until the holidays. No matter, it's still looking like a fantastic show with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew and so many more guests scheduled to attend. On top of that, they're screening all 6 Star Wars movies! There's also an art show, cosplay contest, speed dating, podcasting and much much more lined up.

Workout of the Day: Gravity Guy

After a few days off upon returning from Oklahoma City and Austin, I'm back on the training trail and just hit my 20 workouts for the month goal. Changing it up a bit I went ahead and kept a few things from Vince Gironda's training methods I liked and mixed it with some Frank Zane while putting my own personal spin on it. When possible, I'll get in two sessions in a day, quick ones under 35 minutes working generally the same muscles and then taking the following day off. That way if I do this say 3 days a week, I've gotten in 6 workouts. And they say multiple sessions of faster, shorter and more intense work is better for the body than a marathon 90 minute visit. Try it yourself and see how you feel. You could take a nice empty stomach walk in the morning then do some weights at night or do some body weight exercises upon rising then weights at night or just hit the weights twice but you'll probably need to back off the poundage for the second workout as you'll be fatigued from the morning session.

Right now I'm focused on performing 3 exercises per body part doing 4 sets of 8 reps with slow negatives to fight gravity. The added resistance will challenge your muscles in a new way as most people don't think about the negative phase.

Shoulders and Arms:
Press Machine/Bent Over EZ Bar Curls/EZ Bar Pullover and Press
Dumbbell Side Laterals/Lying DB Curls/1-Arm Side Extensions
Straight Bar Cable Front Raise/Cable Curl Preacher, 21's/Rope Extension

As you can see, I designed this workout to start heavy with basic moves to get everything pumped up then moved into Dumbbells for form, range of motion and definition then finished with cables to keep constant tension on the muscles.

While following Gironda's training methods, I stopped doing cardio after weights and felt kind of blubbery so I'm back to 10 minutes or so of bike, jump rope or ab aerobics and feeling good.

For Legs I'm employing Squats, Front Squats, Sissy Squats, Hack Slides Froggy Style, Leg Curls and Calves seated, standing or on a leg press machine:

Squat/Leg Curl/Hack Slide/Calf Raises on Smith Machine

Same thing here doing 4 sets of 8 reps to build a nice foundation except calves, you gotta go 15-20 to make them respond. Legs are arguably the most overlooked body part so you have to try and keep them strong yet proportioned to your upper body. Once upon a time, having the same size biceps and calves was the ultimate goal. Doing legs releases more testosterone and growth hormone so theoretically your other muscles would actually get bigger if you trained your lower body more often.

It's convention and wedding season so keep it up!

Chief Goods: Chasing Yesterday

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' new album, Chasing Yesterday, drops next week. With festival appearances and a world tour in the wings, it's been a welcome rush of interviews and Gallagher related soundbites. I've been listening to Chasing Yesterday daily for the last two weeks so how does it stack up in the solo Gallagher legacy? Pretty good I must say. My first listens it was hit and miss. One song was a bit meandering (nowhere near the levels of Beady Eye's sophomore release) or 60's mod that made me think I was watching Ocean's 11. Then the next song would be uptempo, ethereal and easy to get stuck in the brain. Personal highlights:

In the Heat of the Moment, first song released months back, still great, still rocking. Catchy and easily repeatable. Talking about cracking whips, being at his side, not letting go and other pseudo lovey dovey jazz.

Lock All the Doors, off and running from the first second, it sounds like another song I can't quite put my finger on or maybe I've just listened to a lot of Noel demos and it's all blending together...Nice upbeat charger though, what I expect or enjoy most from Noel.

The Dying of the Light & The Right Stuff, middle album paunch, just deliberately paced talking about streets paved with gold, no time to get out, it'll be alright if you dance with me tonight, etc. Kinda dreamy and out there. Right Stuff same thing, slow starter with sexy saxophone out of nowhere and then some piano, horns, drums, guitars, etc. Kinda wonder where these songs are going.

You Know We Can't Go Back, arguably my favorite track off the album. Just a here we go, off and moving long song about stuff being all right and you know we can't go back, taking you to a one horse town, running away, sun's out, the wind's in your hair, grab your gal (or guy) and just go. Love this song.

Ballad of the Mighty I, another upbeat, just gets moving tune, kinda sounds like a break up song.

In typical fashion, Noel leaves perfectly excellent song, Do the Damage off the album. A great charging, moody track about dreams and people dragging you down but not stopping the power of love.

Overall a great listen with several songs that get stuck in my head. Will have to try and score concert tix on Craigslist closer to his Los Angeles date.

(Pre) Ask Me a Question: The Transformers & G.I. Joe The Movie

"Autobots! Transform and roll out!" To the Egyptian Theater on Saturday, March 7th at 7:30PM. Or, "Yo, Joe!" The Transformers and the G.I. Joe animated movies are playing at a Sunbow Celebration! And end my infomercial...

Dammaged Goods Presents is back, this time celebrating another glorious aspect of the 80's, cartoons! Try and tell me you didn't grow up on Masters of the Universe, G.I. Joe, Transformers, My Little Pony, Jem, Duck Tales and the like. One of the main contributors to the era of animated toy commercials that became so much more is Sunbow Entertainment, an animation studio that ran from 1980 to 1998 founded by Griffin-Bacal Advertising out of New York. Working with toy giant Hasbro and comic book mainstay Marvel, Sunbow gave the world G.I. Joe, Transformers, Jem, Inhumanoids, Visionaries, My Little Pony and Bucky O'Hare among other series. While the main goal was to sell toys, Sunbow managed to create worlds and mythologies that have lived on 30 years later.

From these daily animated series, four films emerged: The Transformers, My Little Pony, Inhumanoids and G.I. Joe. The first two titles would be released in theaters to weak box office thus relegating the remaining titles to go straight to video and sliced up for broadcast. I grew up on Transformers and G.I. Joe though and their movies have a special place in my heart. In a weird twist I watched more Joe episodes and followed the brand through comic books, toys and whatnot more so than Transformers. But when it comes to movies, I know the tale of Robots in Disguise just about front to back. From the opening scene where a planet is devoured by the mysterious Unicron to the awesomely 80's heavy metal soundtrack, Transformers: The Movie has just always been a treasured part of my life that opened up my imagination as a kid while also making realize that life is beautiful but life is also sad when Optimus Prime died. Although it's lived on through midnight and anniversary screenings, I've never seen it on the big screen. And in all my years I've never heard of G.I. Joe playing on the big screen. So here I am rectifying the situation and putting on a Sunbow Celebration to honor those who gave us so much wonderful entertainment as kids. While the shows were attacked for being glorified toy commercials, the worlds, characters and messages of good VS evil helped shape a generation of kids.

Taking place once again at The Egyptian in Hollywood, site of both Dolph Night and An Evening With Carl Weathers, we're doing our best to make this more than just a double feature. So far guests include:

Donald F. Glut - Writer and actor who scripted episodes of Joe, Transformers, Shazam!, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, G.I. Joe, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Go-Bots, Transformers, Duck Tales and Robocop, phew! Glut also wrote the hit novelization of The Empire Strikes Back among his 65 published books as well as comic books.

Flint Dille - Writer and director whose resume includes Garbage Pail Kids, Mister T, G.I. Joe, InHumanoids, Transformers and Visionaries. Dille was credited as Story Consultant on Transformers: The Movie hashing out the story and pounding out a new script. Also worked on video games Diablo III, Ghostbusters, Transformers and Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu.

Buzz Dixon - Writer on Thundaar the Barbarian, Alvin & The Chipmunks, Transformers, Jem, Visionaries, Bionic Six, Story Editor of G.I. Joe and Story Consultant on the movie.

Larry Houston - Storyboard Artist and Director on EVERY FRIGGING CARTOON YOU'VE EVER SEEN AND LOVED! Seriously, The Incredible Hulk, Spidey and His Amazing Friends, Defenders of the Earth, G.I. Joe, Jem, The Real Ghost Busters, Denver the Last Dinosaur, Pryde of the X-Men, C.O.P.S., James Bond Jr., Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Captain Planet, X-Men...is that enough? He still has more.

Neil Ross - Voice of Shipwreck from Joe and Springer from the Transformers Movie, also worked on Voltron, Kung Fu Panda, Spider-Man, Garfield and Friends and many, many more.

Don Jurwich - Director, writer and producer. Veteran of Hanna-Barbera and Sunbow with Smurfs, SuperFriends, Jabberjaw, Hong Kong Phooey, The Flintstones and acted as Supervising Producer on the Joe series and directed the movie.

We'll have memorabilia on display and for sale in the lobby from personal collections, trivia and prizes! Tickets are only $11 or $7 for American Cinematheque members and are available here. Yo, Joe!