Dimension X Tears Into NYC in new TMNT Trailer

Still not feeling the love for this movie version of Casey Jones (WHERE'S THE ATTITUDE??!!), but on the flip side, I'm loving how insane it seems they went with the rest of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie universe! The winning formula for a live action TMNT movie will always be hysterical, smart writing, plots that make at least a little sense and crazy, crazy moments. Basically everything the first movie was not. It can't take itself so seriously..and that is the most important element. Paramount unleashes a new trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, complete with nods to our favorite cartoon/comic book characters and the classic toy line. Basically, they geeked all over it..and it's working. My God, it's working.

Asbury Park Comic Con 2013

There are many conventions across the globe covering all manor of genre and fetish. Within that world, there must be over 50 that call themselves Comic Book Conventions...or more specifically, as to draw the crowds and bank on the most popular brand, call themselves Comic Con. I've been attending Comic Book and Horror conventions for over 20 years now, so you'll have to trust me when I say Asbury Park Comic Con is unique. HOW does a convention, fairly new to the scene, manage to find a hook few others are attempting these days, in a world where every idea has been done to death? By going back to basics. Asbury Park Comic Con...has comics as its focus! Radical idea.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles Forever

In one of the most ingenius plot twists of all time, the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles team up with the super cheesy, one liner slinging, pizza gobbling, 4th wall breaking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of our youth. WHO IS THE MADMAN BEHIND THIS SCRIPT AND HOW DID IT GET A GREEN LIGHT??!! Pure brilliance. Anyways..for your friday evening viewing pleasure...

My Psycho Sweet Halloween 2010: Part 6: Execution!

Ahhhh..the blessed holiday is over. Actually for me, I've got one more party and THEN rabbit season is done. The festivities started last Saturday with the NJ Zombie Walk in Asbury Park, NJ as hordes of the undead in every shape and size took over everything from convention hall the the edge of the beach...cuz...zombies don't swim, ya know? The day's costume was Casey Jones with Undead April O'Neil and Leonardo bringing up the rear. My girls from Rigor Mortis Revue (best zombie geek burlesque in the states) were representing Decayed Americans and in general, the mood was uncoordinated, but festive! We quickly polled the crowd on what they wanted to see from the outcome of the elections and they resoundingly agreed that "Brains" were what was needed. Brains, indeed. We snapped some photos, answered the call of some people showing their love for Team Turtle (+ one little girls who called me LAZA MAN!!) and scored a fantastically sculpted head of Vincent Price. We ended the night at a party where Peg Bundy showed her love for The Shocker, Lori got a lap dance ambush and I got fantastically drunk. A good night.



























































Sunday was ACTUALLY Halloween and the day Red Rain Batman would finally see the light of day..or rather the DARK OF NIGHT!! This would be the first time I put the costume together with the contacts, makeup and blood. I was off to a late start after a little too much Vodka the night before but swung into NY in record time. The process hit a quick snag though, as my contacts and my eyes didn't want to play together and when finally in, the left one threatened to make me blind. I had to pull it out, clean it and start all over again, but I finally got it. Unfortunately, I encountered my third time putting on eye makeup BEFORE putting in the contacts...which is dumb since there are a lot of tears..but I do it every time. Big time duh. Luckily, the smudging of the red and black together looked excellent for the effect I was going for, so yay me. So on came the armor, the shirt, the belt, the cowl and the cape...and lastly the teeth and we were off to meet up with Lori, Eileen and Heather which meant one thing. MASS TRANSIT! Of course this was way more amusing with Li Lu of The 5th Element and Vampire Batman on the train.

This being my first time anywhere near the parade route, it quickly became apparent finding the girls would not be easy. As we approached a cafe we thought they were inside, I looked to the left and saw my nemesis THE JOKER, who then spotted me and enacted an overly dramatic, slow motion realization and pointed at me. I pointed back, then pulled the Joker Gangmember head from beneath my cape and pressed its face against the glass making that awesome flesh-to-glass squeaky noise. He mock fell out of his chair and everyone in the place seemed to be laughing their asses off. We finally found Lori and Eileen a half hour later and after trying to fight through the crowd for another 20 minutes, I suggested we give up as "pressed super heroes" was not the way I wanted to watch the parade, and spend the rest of the night, as cozy as it was. As we made our way for open streets and a little breathing room, I discovered that any time we'd stop for more than a minute, people asked for pictures. This must be what cosplayers at conventions experience, but 100 times worse. On one particular corner I came across Nightwing, Superman and Joker in the nurse's costume, all coming from separate directions. FATE!! We took some pictures and drew a crowd that we actually had to walk away from after 20 minutes as the ladies were freezing their turtle butts off.














Back onto the slowest train in the history of trains (due to track construction..which is a smart thing to be doing on a holiday) and some quick pictures on the streets of New York, in a more sane area, and we were back at Bev (Li Lu) and Ted's apartment for a little Walking Dead and drinks. Lessons learned...

1. My boots suck and almost broke my feet. Bad boots. Bad.
2. Even in 40 degree weather, the cowl will still make u sweat your ass off.
3. If you try and drink after about 3 to 4 hours of wearing any Bat suit, you will very quickly find you have to lie down..or fall over..or sleep...which ever comes first involuntarily.

In short, that costume was a beast, but really awesome to wear! Looking forward to the next opportunity I can strap it on, if only for a shorter time period and maybe not so much walking. I'm now taking suggestions!

My Psycho Sweet Halloween 2010: Part 5: Details Details

Halloween is just around the corner. Actually it's down the street screaming my name, so I'm in "finish these fucking costumes mode!" The last few days were just about the little details...perfecting the color in the cape and shirt..fraying the ends of the bat cape and finding a way for them to do that creepy curling up thing so they look a little unnatural..making the fingers on my gloves pointy..finding the perfect accessory (which I did but I'm not revealing that until the full costume is worn on Halloween)..glossing the Casey Jones mask..TURTLE COMMUNICATORS!!! ..all the little stuff that is going to take the Red Rain Batman and Casey Jones costumes from "Oh that's nice" to "HOLY SHIT THAT RULES!!" I can never do anything half assed. So Here's a bunch of pictures to show you what I've been up to to get these two costumes to a respectable level!















If you want to see the costumes in person, I'll be Casey Jones with Undead April O'Neil at the Asbury, NJ zombie walk this Saturday and Red Rain Batman at the New York Village Halloween Parade on Halloween night.

My Psycho Sweet Halloween 2010: Part 4: Makeup Test

The challenge? SWEAT. The enemy of the geek. In a Batman cowl, sweat is more than an enemy. It is one with your head. Since I'm going to be slippery mess inside that rubber torture device, I decided to go very minimal with any makeup on the exposed parts of my face. I did a slight rubbing of black under my eyes with red liner smudged in and on the inside of my eyelids. Of course I did this after poking my eyes 16 times trying to get my contacts in. I'm getting better at it!! I also did a little white to pale out the area around my mouth and chin. I might go less when I do the actual costume because creme makeup always just seems to look like cream makeup and when I sweat for an hour...it will make me even creamier. I was tempted to use longer werewolf teeth I got from Scarecrow since Red Rain Batman sports sont enormous fangs. They seemed really uncomfortable, so I prepped the old standard ones and they look fine and are fairly comfortable. Test complete!

I also had the Casey Jones mask come in from Thailand. In the plus category, it looks the way its supposed to and feels durable. The straps are very high quality. In the minus, he rushed it out. With a little sanding and a coat of paint to give it a hockey mask sheen, it can look great. Probably still the cheapest, best option for those looking to do it up Casey style. I also got the golf bag in the mail and thankfully, it is light weight and came with a padded strap! Now I just need to fill it up with weapons of sports destruction.

My Psycho Sweet Halloween 2010: Part 2: The Pieces

In our last episode, I showed off the concepts for this year's Halloween costumes; Red Rain Batman and Casey Jones. I've redesigned the Red Rain costume because I'm not crazy about the slightly modified Bat blue and grey suit and you won't catch me dead in spandex. Casey Jones is a no brainer and I'm not shooting for super accuracy, so he stays pretty close to the source material. Here's where we are at...

Red Rain Batman: The Reeves Arkham Asylum Video Game inspired cowl has arrived and is sweeeeet. After a trial and error in getting the damned thing on, I was very happy with the effect, though I'm not sure if the little space inside will be an issue. Looks pretty good tho! Watch for pics with the contacts and teeth in for a future installment. The tall ears on this cowl really make it work. Eileen Cleary has just finished the first pass on the cape/cloak and will tackle the gathering around the shoulders next. We discussed how it might cover the bottom of the cowl and toyed with the idea of adding buckles, giving it a more gothic/medieval feel, but we are going to do a test run before we alter the design. Also in the house are the belt, boots and a chest piece for under armor, courtesy of a killer deal from Pastadude of The League of Heroes forum. I may swap out the small pouches for the larger, blocky vintage ammo pouches I used for Deadpool last year. I also scored a MASSIF Military shirt for a sort of practical battle gear shirt. Fits very nice over the armor. Now what do I use to paint on the bloody bat symbol that won't stain it forever, after I've died the whole shirt grey?



Casey Jones: Mask coming from Thailand..Golf Bag coming from Florida..sports wrappings and gloves from KMart and i've started the hysterical task of making all his weapons out of cardboard along with April O'Neil's camera for lori. Why? Because it is fucking funny.