I heard about this a few days ago and thout it was great but not enough to blog… even though it WAS a pug and it WAS it saying Batman. Now, someone taking the time to synch it to the old Batman intro = gold… and a surmounting desire that this could be my pug one day.

Mogwai (my 7-month old pug) was dead asleep on my lap when I started playing this video and he startled awake and was entirely transfixed on my large-screen tv for the video’s full run before falling back asleep. He was learning, I tell myself.

Aaron Schoenke, through his Bat in the Sun Productions, has floored me with 30 minutes of amazing. It baffles me how a fan can put together such a robust short film like this on a “small budget”. I say small in relation to the exuberant Hollywood $$$ figures. The plot in this film is very straight forward which keeps the production clean and easy to follow. The costumes, setting and actors do a great job as well–and come on… SCARFACE is in it? I friggin love Scarface, he’s easily one of my favorite rogues.

Considering the production team pretty much consisted of Aaron Schoenke and his brother, I’m simply going to be floored for years to come just as I was with the first Batman fan film I saw called Dead End. If you have 30 minutes free and wanna to come face to face with ultimate fan dedication, watch this! You won’t be disappointed!

I just can’t get enough of alternate Batman concepts–probably because I really REALLY dislike underwear-on-top-of-pants superhero designs. I think they are dated and goofy and work against modern day aesthetics. Alas, each has their own thoughts on the matter. But that’s mine. So these crazy concepts are a breathe of fresh air…

Well, not so sure this guy is breathing any fresh air. He kinda looks like he died, went to hell and came back as a Hellspawn. This piece is by artist Halil Ural, his DeviantArt gallery has other great stuff.

What?! Seriously? Akira was one of the first animes I watched in my early teens when we had to rent VHS cassettes. Good times.

Not really actually…

But look what we get out of a big Akira fan’s imagination 2 decades later! DeviantArt user, Ulises Farina gives us Batman done in an Akira style. How cool is this? God it’s so grungy and “street” that it may just make Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass look like it’s owned by Disney (oh, wait… no no it’s not technically…) or Frank Millar’s Dark Knight look like “your father’s Batman” (oh, wait, technically, it is nowadays…)

Update: Wow, I just came across a 2nd piece of Farinas featuring Batman–this time it feels like a Batman Mixes it up with I Am Legend. Instead of making a new post I’m updating this one and keeping it all together! Wicked stuff!

Just when I start thinking too much is going on in the Batverse over at DC Comics, and I start fearing the day it’ll all just go back to the same old same old… an artist comes up with a concept like this–Robin and Bat.

So simple. So perfect. So fresh.

The artists’ intent was for this to be Tim Drake with a new troubled teen… but I can’t help wanting this more than the current Dick Grayson as Batman and Damian Wayne as Robin setup. It’s obvious Batman will return after he figures out how to get back from the past–yadda yadda–but lets face it: The day of Bruce Wayne as Batman is coming. Deal with it.

Wouldn’t this be the perfect answer?! The conceptual stuff aside… this Robin design just looks badass and maintains a level of fearful respect that would have been learned during his time as Batman. This artist, “kizer180” needs to get hired asap.

Batman isn’t really dead, see? Aliens took him. Or he’s lied to us this whole time and he IS an alien. Or, or, or, the ALIENS need his help and superior detective skills to solve an inter-galactic mystery, and this is their form or “Bat Signal”. Ah, yes, it can mean so many things…

Or it could just be an awesome Photoshop idea DeviantArt user TWManny did up. There was also a Worth1000.com “alien message ins crop circle” competition you can check out as well. The below Batman inspired circle was posted there.

Swamp Thing

Joel Silver hopes to make a new Swamp Think movie in 3D. From Joel Silver: “I’m developing a picture now that I’d like to do. I’ll hopefully do Swamp Thing, which is a movie we’ve had for a long time. We think that would be great to do in 3D. There are a couple of projects I’m thinking about (for the format) but not everything. Maybe I’m going to do it. I like it.”

Green Lantern

After some budgeting issue came up with the film being shot in Australia due to the value of the Australian dollar having risen 16% higher since the spring. It was no longer attractive to shoot there and take advantage of tax benefits. The studio is now scouting Louisiana for some of the possible production.

Powers

Brian Michael Bendis’s Powers series is confirmed to be coming to television. From Bendis: “What made ‘Powers’ special in a culture filled with superhero stories was that we never left the cop’s point of view. We don’t go flying around with the superheroes. We always stay on the ground. ’Powers’ is not a superhero story. We mention all these cool fantastic ideas but it’s a cop story. It’s ‘CSI’ and not ‘Heroes.’”

X-Men Origins: Magneto

David Goyer to MTV News: “They’re still thinking about doing it. They’re definitely looking into doing other X-Men spin offs. I’ve been in touch with them. I’m sure that project will move forward in the next year or so.” So 2010 folks!

Queen & Country

Ryan Condal is writing Queen & Country for Fox. The script will be based on Greg Rucka’s Oni Press comic which follows a female Special Ops agent who finds herself on the run when she carries out a high-level assassination in Eastern Europe.

Spawn

From Todd McFarlane’s Twitter: I’ve officially begun writing the Spawn movie screenplay. The story has been in my head for 7 or 8 years. Will continue to update. The movie idea is neither a recap or continuation. It is a stand alone story that will be R-rated. Creepy and scary. The tone of this Spawn movie will be for a more older audience. Like the film Departed.

Batman 3

Magan Fox is Catwoman! Holy crap! Please say it ain’t so! Alright: “It ain’t so.” Thankfully this was nothing more than a prototypical example of Internet-provoked rumor. Warner Bros. has confirmed that no casting has been done for Batman 3 because there IS no Batman 3 yet. No script. No Casting Calls. We can all breathe normally again.

[Original Comic at xkcd.com]

It’s strange how a simply drawn webcomic like xkcd can sometimes perfectly capture the complexity of thoughts going on in one’s mind. This strip above pretty much explains my experience with hearing all the jargon details surrounding house shopping and loans, interest rates, bridged financing, etc.

When things get shadowy in the brain–I think of the master of shadows himself: Batman. Batman fixes everything and makes it nice, no matter how scary it is.

comiXtrips Mini-Review: Batman & Robin #1 on 12seconds.tv

[See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.]

This is why I hate Superman as a character. He ruins things by… um… saving things…

One day I just know I’ll figure out the magical reason comic fans drool over Sups–and don’t throw mental turmoil about “this” or “that” at me as a viable angle for extra character dimension. Sheesh.