Just some shirtless men from the Arrowverse. Not everything I post has to be funny or deep. 😉
Oliver Queen / Green Arrow
John Diggle / Spartan
Roy Harper / Arsenal
Malcolm Merlyn / Dark Archer
Slade Wilson / Deathstroke
Ray Palmer / The Atom
Barry Allen / The Flash
Eddie Thawne
Ronnie Raymond / Firestorm
Jay Garrick / Earth-2 Flash
Wally West / Kid Flash
Ralph Dibny / Elongated Man
Carter Hall / Hawkman
Mon-El
Clark Kent / Superman
By Joshie Jaxon
Greetings, geek fans! Time for the return of Top Five Tuesday! Today’s countdown, if you couldn’t tell from the title, will be on roles played by the great Eliza Dushku. I’ve enjoyed her in everything I’ve seen her in, and though I have yet to see Tru Calling, I’m sure she’s good in that as well. Let’s get right to the list. Let the geeks begin!
5- Special Agent Page, Big Bang Theory
First off is a guest appearance. Now, I prefer Eliza as a leading lady, but she did a great job with a relatively small role. Howard, needing clearance to go to the space station, warns his friends that someone will be contacting them. That someone is Agent Page of the FBI. Raj, unable to speak to women unless inebriated, has rum cake, and ends up throwing up on her shoes. Leonard ends up hitting on her. Sheldon, in true Sheldon fashion, bitches about Howard’s shortcomings without really answering any of her questions, and even files a complaint with her superiors. Despite all of this, she remains professional.
4- Danielle, The New Guy
Second is Eliza’s role as leading lady, and cheerleader in a movie about a geek who transforms himself into a cool kid at a new school. Danielle hangs with him, and he falls for her. He even gets a private bikini shopping montage. Danielle gets her own character arc as well. She does from clique cheerleader, to someone who remembers her old friends, and socialized with them again, much to the surprise of the student body. While not her greatest or classiest role, she gets a great deal of screen time, and brings it the whole time. Speaking of bringing it…
3- Missy, Bring It On
Third place is actually the second role I originally lived Eliza in. This movie has a special place for me and Bevianna. We watched it on tv during difficult times. That year for X-Mas we got it for each other on DVD. That was a fun round of present opening that year. Despite the fact that when she appears on screen, everyone assumes she’s a dyke, Missy is the same type of character that Eliza usually embodies; strong, independent, and kind of a badass. She becomes friends with Torrance, and even brings a moral compass to the squad, getting them to be original rather than continuing to use the stolen routines they’d be using until she arrived. She’s a worthy costar for the film, and it would have been weaker without her in it.
2- Echo, Dollhouse
This was a tough call. I almost put this as number one. I still may declare it a tie for top slot. For those unfamiliar with this particular gem, I strongly suggest you watch it. It’s a simple premise, but has so much depth it almost hurts. A facility full of people who’ve been wiped clean, and can be implanted with any personality or training that the client desires. These “dolls” can be anything from a sex toy, to therapist, to sniper, crook, negotiator, you get the point. It allows Eliza to show a wide range of talents while still giving her “blank self”, Echo, a personality of her own. She is believable in each of the personas she portrays and makes each of them original, rather than just Echo in a whatever outfit. It’s one that I need to watch again, as there’s always something new to find each time.
1- Faith, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Here we are, the number one slot. It should surprise anyone. I gave Faith the edge for two reasons. First, it’s Buffy’s 20th, and two, that means we’ve had access to this character for 18 years. Faith is the third Slayer we see on the series, and some would argue she’s the best. Granted, her arc in season 3 has her going from Slayer to right hand of the big bad. At first you think she’s just a loose cannon, but when she accidentally kills an innocent, and tells Buffy that she doesn’t care, we see she’s going downhill fast. An attitude of “want, take, have”, gets her quite far. My favorite moment with Faith though is when she returns and switches bodies with Buffy. We then get to see Eliza play the good Slayer. It’s a spectacular performance. Some would say Faith is better as a redeemed character, and good girl. I’m not one of them. Much as I have an affinity for villains/bad boys, I have an affinity for dark Faith as well. Relating to the dark characters gives us a chance to embrace the darkness within, while in the confines of a fictional universe. Want, take, have may work for Faith, but not for Joshie. That doesn’t stop me from loving Faith, Eliza, and the many badass characters she has and will portray. Until next time, stay geeky, and keep five by five.
–by Bevianna Bones
It’s been a while readers, and while it saddens me that I was unable to bring you an epically awful horror movie to celebrate Valentine’s Day, or President’s day with, the reason for my absence is now to be unveiled to you, the geeky world.
For sometime, pretty much for as long as I could hold a pencil, I have been perusing my artistic endeavors. It’s all that I’ve ever really wanted to do with my life. Unfortunately, in the course of my life, there have been circumstances that have kept me from making that passion a reality…such as an unforgiving career in retail management and having to pay the nasty, nasty billsies. With a career change late in 2015, I was able to open up my time to persue the things that I’ve been wanting to do.
I am happy to say, that with a newly renewed drive to make this life what I want to be, as of January 31, I have opened an Etsy store to sell my art prints of all things geeky. There isn’t a huge variety on there currently, but I am committed to adding more every week. The ultimate goal of this is to be able to make and sale art full time, through not only the interwebs, but traveling to many of the annual Comic Cons and other geek conventions.
I invite you to take a look at my shop page on Etsy at http://etsy.com/shop/InkofGeek
And to like Ink of Geek on Facebook and on follow me @jade_3101 on Twitter.
I leave you now with some of my favorites of the prints available so far.
It’s Tom Servo!…and he’s huge!!!
Gizmo has had enough shit and it’s time to take it all back!
‘Murica!!!
Holy na-na-na-na na-na-na Batman!!!
Oswald Cobblepot…I bet he gives great flipper.
If there are any ideas of characters you’d like to see, leave a comment on the blog, or on the Ink of Geek Facebook page.
Till next time!
–BB
–by Bevianna Bones
The third day of conventions is usually a shorter, more peaceful day. Artists and vendors generally start discounting their wares and the crowd is usually less than half it was the day before. Day 3 at the ACCC was still serving up some great panels in Flash Gordon, Comic Book Men, Edward James Olmos, Villians of Arrow, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Sadly the later was overbooked and it was going to be standing room only; by this point in the con, my partner and I were pretty peopled out and decided to cut the panels from the itinerary. We spent the day visiting with some of the artists and vendors; knocking out about half of our Xmas shopping for the fam. We ran into some of our pals and had a little fun with some cosplayers. Shenanigans! We did get to sneak a pic of Stan Lee. He was signing autographs and he literally looked like someone was propping him up. (How did you cast Ms Monroe in this picture, she’s been dead for years…she’s perfect for the part really, she’s lying on the floor, falling out of cupboards…) If anyone out there actually gets that reference, I’ll be most impressed.
One of our great finds was this awesome Borg standee that we picked up for 5 bucks. What a steal!!
And the hilarity ensued! While visiting with some of our pals, Darth Vadar enters the room with an entourage of Sith cheerleaders. People start snapping pics, and other people in Star Wars garb start joining the group. (Including some of our own Jedi pals)
I’m laughing to myself about how some of these Star Wars fans are flipping their shit for this epic photo op, and realize I’m holding this Borg in my hand. I look over to the misses and mention how funny it would be to go put the Borg in the pic, since Wars fans generally have no sense of humor when it comes to Trek being better. The result, was this.
Best part is, my friend that took that pic was telling me that everyone else taking the picture was asking why the Borg was there. Great stuff. And it became a bit of an ongoing theme for us the rest of the day. Photo-Borging other people’s pics. Good times.
All in all, it was a great geeky weekend, despite my frustration from being around large swarms of people. Saturday’s attendance numbers were estimated to close to 100,000 people. (All wanting to see the Walking Dead panel haha) Oh, and the cheesey wristband did actually hold up for all three days, albeit a bit ragged by the end.
In it’s third year, it only has kept getting better, and if any of the powers that be are reading this, here’s these geeks request for next year: more retro panels and less current events. But maybe I’m just biased, after all 3G is all about the retro and fabulous.
To wrap up, I’ll leave you with some of my favorite cosplay pics we took. Imagine each photo fading in and out, with a soft Sarah McLachlan playing in the background as you scroll through.
–BB
–by Bevianna Bones
Holy cattle!! Call the sheep hearders, Batman! Was I ever wrong! If you read yesterday’s recap you’ll know that I had much hope for an avoided cluster fuck here on day 2. It is to laugh. The experience for us actually began on our way to the convention center, as the monitors above the freeway stressed how parking at the Almaodome (told you everything here had to represent the Alamo…remember the Alamo!! How could we forget at this rate…) was by permit only for the…game? For those of you not familiar with the downtown layout and parking situation in the Alamo city; the Alamodome is across the street from the convention center which is across the street from the rivercenter and riverwalk, which is across the street from Hemisfair park, which is next to the Tower of America’s, which is next to the precious Alamo.
Top this off, that minus the tourists, San Antone is the seventh largest city in the nation with a population of nearly 1.5 million. To accommodate all of this, our current infrastructure and city planning accommodates approximately 1,000 downtown parking spaces, give or take 500 or so.
(Truth be told, I was looking for my useless information picture, but unfortunately couldn’t easily find it. Insert new “joke” here)
So there we are, heading down to the convention center when it occurs to me that the opening of college football season was last weekend and our homegrown UTSA Roadrunners were in fact having their first home game. Texans love their high school and college football. Way more than any “normal” people should, but that’s a topic for another day. Just know, that the combination of the regular, everyday parking situation, the football game, and the comic con all at the same time lead to extreme frustration with the parking situation. We parked around 11:15 or so, and by 11:40 were still in line to pay for the space at the terminal. The mate stayed in line to pay, whilst I ran to the convention center (about 4 blocks away at this point) to find a sea of people flowing it’s way through the doors to purchase tickets. The Legends of Wrastlin panel started at noon. I had zero time, nor did I have the patience to wait in line again. I had already waited yesterday to get my pass. I had purchased online a month ago. Look at all these people who waited until the last minute. Who, because of their procrastination, made my parking situation worse.
I had to get in. So I cut across the crowd, flashing my wristbands, like I owned the place and waltzed in. By the time I got into the line for the ballroom I had a few moments to spare and made the wrastlin on time. The misses had to sit it out unfortunately, but I don’t think she was nearly as excited about seeing a group of once were superstars all washed up and wrinkly.
The line up for the panel was supposed to have included Jerry Lawler, Ric Flair, JBL, Chyna, Rob Van Damne, and originally Rowdy Roddy Piper (RIP). After waiting for another 20 minutes for the panel to begin, some WWE spokesman came out to to the stage and gave us some spill about how when they brought Chyna out, we all needed to chant “Hall of Fame” for some promotional bullshit they are making. After a few more minutes, the moderator finally came out and introduced us to the panel, Chyna and RVD.
Wait, who? Are they bringing them all out separately? Is that why there is only a loveseat on the stage? Where are the Nature Boy and The King supposed to sit? Surely they will bring them out…wait, this is it? This is the whole thing? What happened to the rest of them? Oh well, I guess I’ll just listen as RVD acts like an STD and reaffirm my thoughts that he’s a total DB.
Then, Chyna opened up about her Playboy shoot, and named it the highlight of her career then told us she likes to spend her time mediating in Japan. She reminded of the porn star sketch in Amazon Women on the Moon.
After those thrilling twenty plus minutes of stimulating conversation, the panel ended and the crowd dispersed so the Walking Dead panel could start. My hopes that I could just go get back in line for the Walking Dead were soon crushed. The line to get into it was wrapped twice around the convention floor. The mate and I agreed that neither of us wanted to deal with it, and decided we would catch the Breaking Bad one instead, which started at 2.
We shopped, we laughed, we perused and took pictures of the cosplayers (which will be highlighted in a separate post) and at about twenty til 2, we decided it was best to get in line for Breaking Bad. When we got to the ballroom doors, there were still people filing in for the Walking Dead. What. The. Fuck. So we ask the people that are working the con, where the line for Breaking Bad was, and they tell us that the people lined up are for Sons of Anarchy and Walking Dead. I asked them politely a couple where the Breaking Bad line is and no one seemed to know; so, again channeling a young Debbie, I proclaimed to them that the line for it would essentially start in the spot I was standing, on account that no one knew what was going on.
Be its that Walking, and Breaking were held in the same ballroom, by the time they got everyone in there, there was about 20 minutes left of the actual panel that was supposed to have been 45. Luckily the ballrooms all have private bars, so the mate and I got some much needed “refreshments” by the time our panel started.
Breaking Bad ft. RJ Mitte, was to feature production stories from the set as told from the perspective of Walt Jr. And, while we got a few snippets of facts about Bryan Cranston, (Somebody brushed up on their Wiki before the show…) the majority of the panel felt like a motivational seminar about being handicapable. Alcohol definitely made this one go down easier.
In light of the “Walking Dead Debacle”, we decided to skip Stan Lee. We we’re peopled out. We ate, shopped more, visited with some of the vendors, and some of our friends that were there and called it a day. We are both looking forward to a quieter and more laid back day 3 today. Our lineup today includes Flash Gordon (the 80s tastic one), Comic Book Men, My Little Pony, Extreme Horror, and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Oh and here’s an aerial view I got of part of the convention floor. The crowd had died down at this point.
Until next time.
–BB
–by Bevianna Bones
Day one of Comic-Con here in the Alamo city, otherwise known as San Antonio, (native San Antonians are very proud of the Alamo, personally I think it’s pretty overrated, just like their precious Spurs…however, don’t say that to anyone on the street for fear of getting shanked) has come and gone. It’s always a fun and interesting place to be, with artists, cosplayers, vendors, celebrities, and panels. Day one is usually the best day to scope everything out before the mass of crowds get there over the weekend. This year, it does seem as though they have made a better use of the space and separated out the artists, vendors, and panel rooms, to where there, hopefully, won’t be as much cluster fucking with the crowds. We shall see today when we embark on day two. One other thing however that need be mentioned, is the cheese factor of this paper wristband that is intended to hold up for 3 days.
While it is better from the perspective that people can’t hand off their lanyard style passes to others (which has often happened in the past) it seems that they could have sprung for the plastic wristbands, at least for the 3 day pass holders.
Day one offered many panels, the two highlights for me were the Back to the Future panel, and the TMNT movie (original) panel. Let’s start off with the BTTF. This featured Claudia Wells, and James Tolkan. Jennifer and Mr. Strickland.
Where is Michael J Fox, Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson? Not here, nor were they ever mentioned sadly. Nor was there much talk about the production of the film. There was however, much discussion from Claudia about her men’s clothing store, website where she sells bedazzled save the clock tower teeshirts, and how much she loves real Texas men. James, on the other hand, did delight the audience with a couple instances of denouncing us all as “slackers!”
As often seen in the panels, the audience Q&A was nearly unbearable and filled with too many, “thank you for being a part of this project and making such a huge impact on our lives”. The misses and I are going to bring a flask and turn these Q&As into a drinking game today. We’re sure to be faced two panels in.
Also, I really wasn’t aware of any major impact the role of Jennifer Parker had on pop culture, and apparently the lives of so many. Really though, the blame for this train wreck of a panel goes to the mediator, who had zero questions for the two guests, and at one point begged the audience to come up with some more for them, so that he wouldn’t have to think of anything to ask.
In great contrast to the BTTF mess, was the TMNT panel featuring Judith Hoag and Francois Chau; the best April, and Shredder.
This is actually the second Ninja Turtle discussion I’ve been to featuring them, and it was a pleasure as always. From the way they engaged the audience, the production stories and recounts, the mediator asked purposeful questions; the Q&A didn’t include, not even one, obsessed fan droning on about the impact the actors have had on their life; and April, well April is still pretty smoking after all these years.
The personal recounts and stories really made for a great panel, and the one moment of sadness for me, is that I didn’t have the balls to ask Mr. Chau, in his best Shredder voice, to say, “They are…babies!” Although, there was some slight mockery of Vanilla Ice to make up for it.
Stay tuned to the blog for more coverage to come as day two begins. Included in the itinerary today are The Legends of Wrestling, The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, and gasp…wait for it…Stan Lee!
EXCELSIOR!!!
-BB
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