Wonderful Life along with other Pittsburgh based clothing brands are opening a two week Pop Up Shop in Lawrenceville Pittsburgh.

The Pop Up Shop, called the Two Week Street Boutique, will feature clothing from not only Wonderful Life, but our sister brand Jock ‘n Roll along with Grand Scheme, Daily Bread, farESH, [...]]]>

Wonderful Life along with other Pittsburgh based clothing brands are opening a two week Pop Up Shop in Lawrenceville Pittsburgh.

The Pop Up Shop, called the Two Week Street Boutique, will feature clothing from not only Wonderful Life, but our sister brand Jock ‘n Roll along with Grand Scheme, Daily Bread, farESH, StreetHeart, Penny Candy, and Vinny Vintage.

It’ll be open from May 21st through June 1st with a big kick off party on opening day. Here’s the flier for that.

The shop is located at the Fe Gallery on Butler Street in Lawrenceville. Address is 4102 Butler Street. It’s across from the big PNC bank in the main part of town.

Before Twilight, True Blood, and Vampire Diaries there was Dark Shadows. A gothic soap opera that took daytime TV by storm in the late 60’s. Now the story of vampire Barnabas Collins is ready to hit the big screen with an adaptation by the king of weird ass cinema, Tim Burton.

It will be on display at the Rocking Horse Artspace during their group show tonight from 7 to sometime.

Here’s a link [...]]]>
Tonight’s your last chance to see Masturbaters of the Universe. The eight foot long all nude he-man piece created by some artist buddies and myself.

It will be on display at the Rocking Horse Artspace during their group show tonight from 7 to sometime.

Here’s a link to the facebook page for details, but it you’re more of a reader than a clicker, here’s the details.

Rocking Horse Artspace
179 43rd Street. Floor 1.
Pittsburgh PA 15201

Hope to see you there.

Everything is going along just fine here on planet Earth until the evil Norse God Loki shows up to start some shit. Apparently being an all powerful God is not [...]]]>
Time to kick off the summer with one of the most anticipated super hero movies of all time. The Avengers.

Everything is going along just fine here on planet Earth until the evil Norse God Loki shows up to start some shit. Apparently being an all powerful God is not enough for him and he is seeking the ultimate power. What is the ultimate power?
You might know it as the Cosmic Cube or The Tesseract or that thing Red Skull was creaming over in the Captain America movie.

Whatever you call it remember that whoever holds that tiny magic block could control the faith of the entire planet and that’s exactly why Loki and his army of alien bad guys want it.
But Nick Furry Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. has a plan to stop Loki and all it takes it convincing the world’s superheroes to team up into one freaking awesome team called The Avengers.
Now if you’ve watched any Marvel Movie over the last couple years you already know who the Avengers are but just incase you missed a couple here’s the list. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye. If you’re still not sure who these people are just turn on your TV because there is a commercial for the Avengers on right… now.
The team has to overcome their super egos and come together if they have any chance at defending the planet and that means lots of fights. We’ve already seen Thor and Iron Man smacking each other around in the trailers and I only hope we get to see Captain America bitch slap Hawkeye.
Following these characters for the last 4 years has been really fun. Every time a new movie came out I was almost more excited over seeing the extra Avenger tease after the credits than the actual movie. Then I would go back and re-watch them on DVD and pick up on all the cool little tie-ins I missed the first time around. Say what you will about Marvel but they sure as hell know how to get people excited for their movies and then actually deliver an enjoyable product. Maybe DC should try something like that.

The movie look amazing and there is no doubt that it will make hundreds of millions of dollars but I just wouldn’t be a critic if I didn’t find something to bitch about. So here are the things I don’t like about the Avengers movie.

No Edward Norton:

The 2008 movie The Incredible Hulk was the second movie released with an Avengers tie-in. The movie picked up after the 2003 shit bomb Hulk. The Incredible Hulk was about 1000 times better than the first movie but it still had its issues.
The coolest thing about it was having such a great actor like Edward Norton playing Bruce Banner and knowing that he was going to continue playing Banner in the Avengers movie, but if you check out IMDB you’ll see Norton’s name is nowhere to be found and Bruce Banner is being played by Mark Ruffalo.
Now I got nothing against Mark Ruffalo. It’s just the reason that Norton dropped off the project is a little confusing. Marvel claims he was being difficult and wanted more money but Norton claims it was Marvel that was being difficult and money was never an issue. I don’t know what the real reason was but it’s sad that people’s egos always seem to get in the way and the fans are the ones that end up getting hurt.

Where’s Henry Pym?

If you were to go out and pick up the first ever issue of the Avengers comic book you would notice that the team looks a little different than those guys on the movie poster. That’s because in the comic the original Avengers were Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, and two other people the non-comic book reading world never herd of, Henry Pym aka Ant-Man and Janet Dyne aka Wasp. Captain America doesn’t even make an appearance until issue 4.
For some reason they decided to replace Ant-Man and Wasp with Black Widow and Hawkeye and that’s just not right. Now I know the whole idea of two people being able to shrink down to insect sizes and one of those people having the power to control ants might seem a bit lame to the big budget Hollywood types, but they were founding member for god’s sake can we at least get a cameo.

Hawkeyes Sunglasses

I don’t like them. There’s nothing more to it than that, I just think they make him look like a douche.

With those complaints out of the way I would like to say I’ve been looking forward to this movie for years and every trailer, still shot, or TV spot that comes out is just getting me more and more excited. Go see this movie. I fully endorse and recommend it.
I give Marvel’s The Avengers a Preview Review of 5 out of 5 Rascals.

If you missed last week’s preview of SAFE, then quit dicking around and click this link.

If you didn’t know the BaconKnight had his own website, then quit dicking around and click here.

Quit being a dick and click this link to Baconknight’s facebook page.

Forbidden Ink releases one new tee done by artists they like every couple of months. This time it was my turn.

The shirt itself is a zombie Bart Simpson riding a skateboard [...]]]> I recently teamed up with Pittsburgh clothing brand Forbidden Ink to release a new shirt under their artist series.

Forbidden Ink releases one new tee done by artists they like every couple of months. This time it was my turn.

The shirt itself is a zombie Bart Simpson riding a skateboard on a Green Shirt. You can check it out in more detail over at the Forbidden Ink store here.

This Saturday is Art all Night in Lawrenceville. An annual one night, almost 24 hours straight art show. On average, each year 12,000 people attend Art all Night. This year, myself and some other artists will be treating the crowds to something special.

Some really great illustrators and myself collaborated on a [...]]]>

This Saturday is Art all Night in Lawrenceville. An annual one night, almost 24 hours straight art show. On average, each year 12,000 people attend Art all Night. This year, myself and some other artists will be treating the crowds to something special.

Some really great illustrators and myself collaborated on a huge all-nude Masters of the Universe character piece. You’ll see naked He-Man, Skeletor, Orko, and some other familiar faces.

The list of artists include not on myself but,

Thomas Szypula from Frankfurt Germany. Check out more of his work at DropLife.net
Michael Shantz from Vancouver Canada. Check out his work at GrimJob
Sol Amstutz from Lancaster Pennsylvania. Check out his work at SolamStutz.com
Doyle Raw Meat from London England. Check out his work at EatRawMeat.com
Robert Trautman from Columbus Ohio. Check out his work at TrautStudio.com
Jason Spencer from Saint Charles Missouri. Check out his work at IamKillerNapkins.com

Art all Night starts tomorrow at 4pm and goes until 2pm on Sunday. The piece will be hung (very hung) the entire length of the show.

The address for Art All Night is 97 40th Street. Pittsburgh PA 15201.

Here’s the official Facebook page for the event. Hope to see you there.

Statham [...]]]>
Here we go again with another action packed movie staring none other than that transporting cranked up death racer himself, Jason Statham. This time he’s not just taking on one group of baddies but has found himself up against the Russian Mob, corrupt cops, and the Triad. Oh my.

Statham plays Luke Wright – a second rate cage fighter whose entire family was murdered by the Russian Mob after he refused to throw a fight. Now he spends his days sitting around the subway station wearing sweatpants and feeling sad. Then one day he takes notice of an Asian school girl, and not in the way most of you are thinking. He notices her because she is being followed by the same Russians that killed his family.
Knowing that these Russians are up to no good he jumps into action. He follows them onto a subway train and beats them all to death and steals that little Asian girl. We all know he’s doing that right thing but any bystanders on that train would think they just witnessed some kind of live version of hobo with a shotgun.

After he saves the little girl he comes to find out that she’s like some kind of Rain Man that can remember everything and the Triad used her Rain Man abilities to store a number combination to a safe. What’s in this safe? I don’t know but everyone wants it and will stop at nothing to get it and that can only mean one thing. Lots of Statham style ass kicking.
One of the things I’m not understanding about this movie is that Statham plays a second rate cage fighter but if he has the skills to single handily beat the shit out of every person he meets. Why was he only a second rate cage fighter? Skills like that should have put him among the top athletes to ever step into the octagon. Then again this is a Jason Statham action flick so things like logic kind of go out the window like a bad guy that just caught a spin kick to the face while standing guard on the 50th floor of a skyscraper.

Now don’t go into this thing looking for some new groundbreaking cinema. It’s an action movie and that means it’s going to be filled with car chases, guns, and face punches galore and if you’re a fan of those kinds of things, and I am, this is going to be a sweet movie.
The only draw back to the action movie is they can be a bit predictable and I have a feeling this one is no different. We all know the to good guys will win and the bad guys will lose and there is no way in hell they’re going to let a 12 year old girl get killed, but the beauty of these movies is the violence.

People are going to get killed in this movie and it’s the question of how are they going to die that brings us back to watch the same basic story over and over again. Now I’m not knocking the genre because I love action movies I just wish sometimes they would shake things up by having the bad guys win.

Overall I think Safe is going to be a solid R rated action movie that will keep you entertained enough with awesome fight sequences to forget the story is just ok.
I give Safe a Preview Review of 4 out of 5 Rascals.

Click here to read last week’s Preview Review of The Lucky One

Click here to see the BaconKnight’s very own website.

Lastly, if Facebook is more your thing, here’s his.

Indy Doesn’t Always Mean Crappy

In the comic world there is a common misconception that an independent title equals the crap of the crop. To me, that never ever made any sense. Very few people in the business land their very first comic gig at Marvel or [...]]]> The Quarter Bin is written by Joe Fogel

Indy Doesn’t Always Mean Crappy

In the comic world there is a common misconception that an independent title equals the crap of the crop. To me, that never ever made any sense. Very few people in the business land their very first comic gig at Marvel or DC. Just about every one of the current comic book writers and illustrators have spent years toiling around in the indy comic realm. That’s just how things go…whether you’re doing it just to land a job at a major publisher or launch your idea into the mainstream via a network deal or whether you’re doing it for the pure pleasure of self-publishing your own ideas on your own terms…this is what makes up the underground independent comic community. You could land that big break like “The Walking Dead” or “Hellboy” but those are one-in-a-million odds. The indy community is really, truly about creators/artists/writers doing their own thing how they want to do it.

Finally having the chance to be a representative of the independent comic book circuit at this year’s Pittsburgh Comicon, I’m going to dedicate this issue of the Quarter Bin to some of my personal favorite indy comics that influenced what I do today.

Madman:
Madman was a modern day Frankenstein character is he was a true-to-form superhero. I remember being oddly reminded of the old Dick Tracy comic strips when reading Madman.

Cerebus:
Cerebus comics were all over the frickin’ place and that’s one of the reasons that I think I loved them. I remember the first time that I had ever heard of Cerebus…it was in an issue of Spawn and most of the comic was done in black and white much like the Cerebus comic was. I liked the weirdness and brash personality of the character, a three-foot-tall aardvark, and I sunk my head into those comics for a few years.

The Maxx:
Another comic that obviously comes from another dimension, I got hooked on the Maxx because I was always a fan of Sam Keith’s artwork. It had a distinct dark, cartoony look that was very different from anything that I had ever seen before. Because of the Maxx comics, I spent quite a long time drawing characters with oversized feet. Oh, and by the way, the Maxx comics had one of my favorite endings to a comic series of all time, as weird as it all was.

The Tick:
For those of you who remember the Tick animated series, the comic book was pretty much the same…except for the violence and soft core porn……..just kidding…there wasn’t much violence. Everything about the Tick was a parody of something else but that’s what made the comic so charming. If only Little Wooden Boy would have survived that house fire…

Hellboy:
Hellboy is another character that I was drawn to because of the artwork. I remember picking up reprints of X-Men Classics because the covers looked so damn cool, only to realize that I already had the original issue in my collection. When Mike Mignola decided pushed forth with the Hellboy character I tried following him as much as I could, but the Hellboy comics were usually just mini-series and one-shots and were pretty hard to come by. Thankfully, the graphic novel format came in handy with big happy collections of Hellboy stories in one sitting. Hellboy was also a major influence on my “Creatures Of War” comic since a lot of the Hellboy stories involved folklore, the supernatural and fighting Nazis. The entire core of most of my characters is based in regional folklore.

Usagi Yojimbo:
What can one say about one of the greatest independent comic books of all time other than the fact that for once, someone managed to make historical comics fun and entertaining as well as educational. Originally intended as a historical documentation of the famous Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, Stan Sakai instead doodled some rabbit ears onto his character and went with it. What I always loved about the Usagi Yojimbo series was the clean and crisp black and white artwork. There was no color needed for Stan Sakai’s artwork. It was pure and simple but nonetheless amazingly beautiful.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
Quite a few people are under the misconception that the TMNT franchise was an instant success when in reality it took nearly half a decade to actually get out to a mainstream audience. Compared to most indy comics that’s still a fairly short time frame but one cannot deny the overall appeal of TMNT. I’ll admit that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are the single biggest influence on my comics. They almost single-handedly shaped my childhood and I have never stopped loving the franchise…from the original black and white comics to the cartoony but equally as awesome Archie Comics and every single crappy rap song that represented the “heroes in a half-shell”. If it weren’t for the Ninja Turtles, I probably wouldn’t have heard of Usagi Yojimbo and I would most likely never want to draw anamorphic creatures with weapons fighting for the good of mankind. In my mind, TMNT just can’t be beat.

Every one of the indy comics that I mentioned are either still going strong or have had a resurgence recently and it is a testament to the true nature of every creative person that puts their heart and soul into their own work. To be able to do that for a living each and every day is the true measure of success.

For those of you who are also comic fans, I’m anxious to hear what some of your own personal favorite independent comics are. Feel free to comment galore!

Joe is the creator of the indie comic book “Creatures of War”. He would like to shamelessly plug the website here: CreaturesofWar.net. Be sure to check out Creatures of War on Facebook for even more shameless plugs.

Did you miss the last Quarter Bin: Avengers vs. X-Men? Check it out here.