Ahem.

The Nutroll: The Illness teaser page is done and uploaded to the site. Finally. By finished, I mean that my shambling, bloodstained shell of flesh limped to the finish line with this thing because nearly everything on this damned planet was trying to keep me from doing this. The sketchbook with layouts for pages 1 through 3 is one of the only two things that I haven’t found since having to move in February. The other thing? G.I. JOE the Animated Movie on DVD. In other words, fate decided that I should stop “Nutroll: the Illness” at the teaser and that I should be denied the glory of watching Big Lob make his move. People seem to like the teaser so far and that seals the fact that I should just leave it as a teaser until I find the original layouts for the next few pages. Besides, I have some website and commission artwork to do now.

Here’s the Thank You pic drawn to show my appreciation for 20,000 visits to Illmosis’ front page. Not bad considering how many people go straight to the galleries instead of the index page. Oh-damn-well. The theme of the picture is “two” and features Two.P from Capcom’s Final Fight, my character Twofold and the ultra-legendary Mr. Wrestling #2. I wanted to draw a bigger piece that also had Duo Damsel, Jack-2 from Tekken 2, Two-Bad from Masters of the Universe, the Two-Gun Kid, the evil twin brothers Tomax and Xamot from G.I.JOE and Two-Face. Between all the work I’d put into the comic and my sinus problems getting bad enough to make my head throb, I cut it down to 3 characters with outfits that had a nice place to stop before getting to the legs. That’s why Mr. Wrestling #2 is in a suit. Plus, I’d never drawn a masked wrestler in a suit, one of the coolest visuals known to the frail eyes of mankind. Two.P is there because I can’t think of a reason to not draw Two.P when the chance makes itself known AND I could cut him off at the bottom of the coat. Not that you asked, but still.

Random news things that I’ve run across:

The Black Church and the Hollowing Out of Black Politics by BAR Managing Editor Bruce Dixon

A good article, even if it’s disturbing and sad. It’s sad to see that some of Black pastors and politicians are using the same crooked, divisive moves that were used against those that came before them. Here’s a quote:

The fears of those who predicted that billions of dollars in faith-based subsidies distributed by the Bush Administration to churches across the country would build a Republican patronage machine in white constituencies, and severely blunt the prophetic edge of the Black Church, may be coming to pass. Where once Black pastors were among the few who could speak truth to power with little fear of economic retaliation, many may now have ministries with governmental funding streams to worry about, while the least principled among them have been emboldened to ape the talking points and political interventions of white right wing ministers. In the current context, given the flood of corporate money available to pliant African American politicians, and the lack of local news coverage that might facilitate their being held accountable, the interventions of the Black Church into politics only threaten to take those politics further and further away from the desires of African American constituencies.

And now a Newsarama article by Dirk Danning about the whole Spider-Man marriage thing that I kinda don’t care about. What scares me about this article is that he also makes a perfect wrestling analogy that makes sense if you follow wrestling. I’ve been thinking the same thing about how many of the things that I enjoy seem to use the same tactics. Imagine paying for a wrestling Pay-Per-View to see how a rivalry finishes up only for it to drag on to the weekly show. Sounds like a lot of comic book Big Event mini-series, hunh?

Well, I’m going to end this thing on an up note:
Bionic Commando: Rearmed
Well hot damn.

I would like to give thanks for the following:

• For my family and my friends for still betting on the most worthless horse on the track!
• For the relief from the artistic constipation I caught back in 2002. With any luck, I’ll catch some creative diarrhea in time for 2008.
• For those who fought for what was right especially when no one was looking.
• For the people that check out my sites Illmosis and ScrollBoss. No one looks at this blog, though. Seeing as how this place is filled with stupid posts like this, I’m thankful for that no one else is actually reading this.
• For these beautiful things: 25th Anniversary G.I.JOE figures and the box sets that play the theme song, Taito Legends 2 for being full of old-school gaming goodnes, Dr. Thirteen, Gumby, the new Booster Gold series, the Sinestro Corps. Crossover, the All-New Atom by Gail Simone, the Rey Mysterio: the Biggest Little Man 3 disc set, whoever was behind Steven Richards and Little Guido Nunzio getting more screen time in ECW, whoever lets Santino Marella get on the mic on RAW, female wrestlers (like Victoria, Beth Phoenix, Mickie James, Gail Kim, Jackie Moore, Ms. Brooks and ODB), everybody that worked on the Shaw Studios/Dragon Dynasty DVDs and whatever mad genius at Lego came up with the skeleton horse.

It was a tough choice between the Rey Mysterio - the Biggest Little Man set and the entire Filmation series of Aquaman, but Rey won out in this case. The Cruiserweight division was one the main reasons I watched WCW Monday Nitro and Rey Mysterio Jr. always pulled off some insane move that blew my mind. Those matches were my introduction to the Lucha Libre style of wrestling and I’ve dug it ever since. I haven’t watched anything from the set yet because I’m saving it all for Sunday. I’m already hyped up for it because reading the match listing reveals matches vs. Dean Malenko, Juventud Guerrera, Juvi’s dad Fuerza, Ultimate Dragon/Ultimo Dragon, Psicosis, Jushin Thunder Liger, Super Calo and Blitzkreig. Some of my favorite matches in wrestling had Rey vs. Malenko and Rey vs. Ultimate Dragon, but I’m dying to see that match with Blitzkreig. I’m a bit disappointed that there’s only one 6-man tag match, but I’m just glad that this set has what it has. Of course, I’m saddened about the lack of La Parka but maybe he’ll do a run-in on one of these matches. Still, three discs of Rey doing his thing is well worth $20 and I hope sales on this can lead to some later releases with more Cruiserweight action.

When I got this DVD set at Wal-Mart, it was bundled with a DVD preview of the latest Smackdown vs. Raw game that’s about to drop soon. While I’m looking forward to getting SvR2008 one day, Fire Pro Wrestling Returns will be my next wrestling game purchase. I don’t have any of the fancy new gen machines, so I’ll hold off on SvR2008 until I get one. I’ve only played the GBA version of Fire Pro, but I immediately got into the depth of it and I’ve heard the PS2 version ups the ante much, much more. The two-dimensional graphics don’t put me off at all and video that I’ve seen of it shows that it’s just as or maybe even more fluid than the current 3-D wrestling games. Plus, the chance to customize everything from wrestlers (and you can make HUNDREDS), factions, tag teams, rings (even draw your own logos), and even referees is too insane to pass up. Even better: it’s less that $20. Aw yeah.

While working on the ScrollBoss update, I’ll jot some commentary down on the draft. Not that you care, but it’ll be fun for me. I’ll have to post some of it after it’s done since I got to work at 9:30.

8:18 - I’m digging the borderline mental patient verson of Vincent McMahon. Weird to see such a short match between two champs like Edge and John Cena. Of course, it’s fully explained when the Great Khali is drafted and you see the “Oh crap, this guy’s going to take my title” look on his face. I also like how whoever made the random wrestler selector must’ve played video games. Seriously, it’s like playing MUGEN and putting it on Random Select (with big portraits included). Cool.

8:26 - Jesse the Body cutting a promo? Beautiful.

8:40 - Heh, I wonder what Foley will be up to once he gets back. Maybe even a GM position somewhere? CM Punk and Carlito need to wrestle more often because that was pretty damned good for being a short match. But… eh… the Boogieman in ECW? Look, I like Boogie. But that’s just… I don’t know. Then again, they can bring back the ECW Zombie and make a new tag team. Yes, i’d like that. Shut up. After Snoop’s lil’ speech about McMahon, this night might drive the poor owner completely insane. Hmmm…

8:59 - Balls Mahoney on the losing end of a squash match against Umaga? Well, sounds like ECW’s still the same. Balls deserves better than that. Nice to see Booker and Charmelle again, though. I’m looking forward to seeing him in action again.

9:13 - The draft made me root for Lashley more than Benoit? That’s crazy as catfish. Great to see that Benoit is going to make the transition to ECW. I’m hoping that’ll give him a chance to go back to his older, more varied wrestling style. Oh, Trump’s on. Time to do something else.

9:22 - That was so wrong that it was just right. Moolah and Mae Young… they’ve still got it!

Okay, I’m off to work. I’ll blab about the rest after work.

Edit: Back from work. Seeing as how there’s no point in keeping the time thing going, I’ll just keep things brief with the rest.

Candice Michelle looks like she’s been practicing her in-ring skills a lot more and it’s paying off. Even better, her win lead to Lashley getting drafted. It’s good to see Lashley move to Raw where he won’t just be squashing ECW regulars and wrestling on other programs.

What the hell @ teasing a Jeff Hardy vs. Elijah Burke match then putting Batista in it? The match was okay while it lasted, but the outcome was predictable. Still, whoever put these matches together did a nice job of having some of them match up with draft pick. I wonder if we’ll see Flair and Batista chillin’ on Smackdown. That 15 man battle royal made no kind of damned sense at all.

It’s good to see that Rowdy Roddy Piper’s doing okay, that Bobby the Brain still has that wit and Capt. Lou is still “a legend in his own mind” (and mine, while we’re at it). Seeing Bret Hart on a WWE program talking about McMahon was just too ill considering what happened all those years ago. But above all, Dusty Rhodes’ sermon takes the top spot in my book.

Of course… that ending? Did NOT see that coming.

Heh, I was trying to get that last challenge unlocked to get this ring while having the difficulty set to Easy when it has to be on Normal. D’oh! Now I can wrestle in what looks like the Hammerstein Ballroom on steroids. Except for the need to tweak a lot of characters move sets, I’m running out of reasons to avoid doing Create-a-Wrestler mode videos.

I’m still working my way through unlocking items in Raw vs. Smackdown 2006, which was bought at around $10 once RvS2007 hit the streets. No, it’s not the shiny, new game, but it still has a lot of my favorite wrestlers who aren’t in WWE anymore. Eddy Guerrero (R.I.P.) is still among the living here Kurt Angle, Christian and Spike Dudley haven’t moved to TNA yet and divas Trish Stratus, Stacy Keibler and Lita are still around. Right now, I’m working to unlock the extra arenas by completing certain challenges. I still have a few to go and they include throwing 10 people out of the Royal Rumble (and I always mess up on the 9th and poor Andre the Giant gets tossed out) and completing a spank combo in the “Fufill your Fantasy” match. Yes, a spank combo done by sports game-like meter where you must time your movements when the hand cursor is in the right place. It’d be easier if I knew which part of the hand was supposed to be within the target section on the Spank-o-meter when pressing down. Unfortunately, yet appropriately, the Spank-o-meter is a pain in the ass (ba-dump-BUMP). I wonder if the ladies have their own Spank Stats. Don’t laugh! Even Tekken Tag’s Bowling mode has a stat system. Eh, at least it won’t be boring trying to figure this out.

I’ve loved the Create-a-wrestler mode in grappling games ever since I first played WWF War Zone by Acclaim. There’s an insane amount of options for customizing your characters and that allows you to make danged near anyone you want to make. Guy and Cody here (from Final Fight)

aren’t done yet, but close enough to just goof around with in the game. I’ll have more ridiculous screenshots (and maybe videos) once I’ve done some work on other characters. On an odd note, I’ve heard that a lot of custom options where taken out of the 2007 edition and that some prefer 2006. I’m tempted by 2007, since Tazz, Psicosis, Super Crazy and Ken Kennedy are playable in it. I’m not clocking doo-doo dumb dollars in crazy stacks so I can’t swing dough like that all the time. Maybe I’ll get 2007 when it’s 10 bones in about a year.

Hmmm… I wonder if I can make Nutroll in this…

edit: After some consulation with the referee and hours of soul searching, I decided to change the name of the post. If you saw it earlier, you’ll probably forget it in a few days anyway. If you didn’t see it, then you didn’t miss much.

The Playahata Awards 2006 edition brings the acclaim and shame like Huey and Caesar did back in the Boondocks comic strip. It gives love where it’s due and hits below the belt when it’s more than deserved. Between Playahata.com and Davey D’s sites, my faith in Hip-Hop survives. To tell the truth, I want that t-shirt that Naomi Campbell’s wearing. I’m sure there’s a funny, suggestive line to follow that up with, but I’ll leave that up to you.

Speaking of Davey D, his is one of the sites where I’ve been learning about this RIAA-inspired SWAT raid on a DJ:
Digital Music News
Davey D’s blog
In other words, it took 30 SWAT guys to take down a guy that makes mixtapes.

Finally, farewell to wrestler Bam Bam Bigelow who passed away Friday. He was a favorite of mine back in the day, especially as a big man that could move much faster than you’d imagine. I’ll have to watch that match he had against Taz tonight in his memory. As I thought, Lance Storm has a great tribute to the man on his StormWrestling site. Beast of the East, rest in peace and thanks for those matches and overall coolness.