Best Summer Ever For Comic-book Fans!

Man, this summer's movies have been geek heaven.

Iron Man started the summer off as the superhero film to beat. True to the comic, polished and perfect casting of Robert Downey Jr.

Next up, The Incredible Hulk. CG was a tad too cartoony, but the movie was way better than I was expecting after seeing the trailers. Marvel did it right this time and tying their universe of heroes together is a fan's dream.

Wanted was entertaining with some great scenes. Unfortunately, after the first 20 minutes, it was nothing like the awesome mini-series it was based on.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is a truly epic fun ride and visually stunning. Del Toro was obviously having a ball making this movie and hats off to him for using CG only when necessary and leaning on the more traditional special effects with amazing costumes and animatronics. Johann Krauss was a welcome addition to the BPRD team and Prince Nuada was an impressive villain.



What felt like the anti-empty-eye candy-summer-blockbuster was the outstanding The Dark Knight. This was just so much more than average comic based movie. Dark and gritty with dense characters make for a gripping action, crime drama. And enough scenes of a brutal Batman doing some serious ass kicking to keep Bat fans happy. (I practically jumped out of my seat with joy when Batman's eyes briefly went to white lenses. Thank you Mr. Nolan for giving this die hard Batman fanatic something I've always wanted to see on screen.) Everyone involved in the Christopher Nolan masterpiece should be congratulated. I can't wait to see this one again.

Revenge of the Fallen

Still cranking away on Transformers 2, which is now listed as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on IMDb.
Our sculpting crew grows every week with lots foam work to be done. Can't mention any details, but we're sculpting some really cool sets just like we did on the first film.

Lone Pine

Akiko and I hit the road for a weekend trip up Route 395 to Lone Pine, situated between Death Valley and Mt. Whitney.
First stop was the living ghost town of Randsburg.


Me in front of the STONECRUSHER.

Then on to Fossil Falls. A really cool area of Volcanic rock that at one point in history had a river running through it.




The very alien looking landscape at Fossil Falls.

We continued up to Lone Pine, checked into our hotel and then got back in the car.
Not far from where we were is the the Mt. Whitney Portal. This mountain is one of the highest peaks in the U.S. and the portal is the spot to find many trailheads leading up the mountain.


Not being prepared for a major hike and the fact that I was getting totally mugged by mosquitoes, we drove back down.

Just behind Lone Pine are rocky hills you've most likely have seen many times. Since the 20's, Alabama Hills has been a location used in movies, TV and commercials. Tons of westerns, movies including Bad Day at Black Rock, Gunga Din and more recently, Iron Man.


Tremors monster at the Lone Pine Film History Museum.


The Alabama Hills.

The final stop the next morning was Manzanar National Historic Site. Manzanar War Relocation Center was one of 10 camps where Japanese American citizens and resident Japanese aliens were interned during World War II. We watched a very moving documentary about the site and checked out the impressive exhibits at the interpretive center.