LaCasaComics» Comic Books

Kaiju toys

LaCasaComics — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:25:08 +0000

Kaiju means “strange beast” in Japanese, and in pop culture, refers to the monsters that are part of the old Japanese movies, books and comics. From these movies and comics came some of the coolest collectible toys in the world – kaiju toys. These toys are collected by men and children alike, and their value can be quite high depending on their age and how rare they are.

Ultraman toys

The most famous of these is Godzilla, a beast who appeared in many of his own movies, starting as far back as 1954. In the 70s, Marvel made their own comic about Godzillla. The first one was 24 issues, titled “Godzilla: King of Monsters” and solidified Godzilla´s fame in the United States (he was previously only popular in Japan). In the 1980s and 1990s, Dark Horse published their own comics with Godzilla.

By this point, Godzilla was well-known throughout the world, and had been created into dozens collectible toys as well. You can actually purchase the original 24 issues in one large book, called “Essential Godzilla.” If you are at all a fan of this super kaiju, this is definitely worth reading.

Now, when it comes to kaiju, Godzilla, and Japanese pop culture, one cannot fail to mention the importance of Ultraman. Many argue his movies and comics sparked the beginning of kaiju craze as it is today, and compare him to the American Superman ***Please note: This Ultraman is NOT to be confused with the Ultraman from the DC comics who was Superman´s archvillain nor should he be confused with the father son combo that were both called Ultra-Man in the 40s. Both of these comics were based on an American created Ultraman).

The Japanese Ultraman was created by the same person who created Godzilla, back in the 1950s. He is an alien that came from outer space who, while flying around the universe, crashed into a human spacecraft and killed the pilot. He revived the pilot by using his life force, which caused him to become the pilot. From then on, he travels the universe fighting the evil kaiju. One of these kaiju is Godzilla, hence the connection between the two.

Ultraman continues to be one of the great superheroes of all time. There are thousands of collectible Ultraman toys and some classic movies and TV series. He has not appeared often in comics, although there were two short series done by Harvey Comics Entertainment and more recently, Dark Horse published a comic adaptation of the Ultraman series known as Ultraman Tiga. It is 10 issues long, and is all about Ultraman battling with the various kaiju attacking the world. It is a great read with some killer art!

If you are not familiar with Ultraman, Godzilla, and other kaiju, I highly recommend you watch some of the classic Godzilla and Ultraman movies. This is truly where kaiju began, and watching these classics will help you understand more about current Ultraman series, and all about Godzilla, one of the greatest monsters of all time.

Diego is a big fan of Japanese pop culture, and is especially interested in kaiju toys. You can visit his site for more information.

Avatar quotes

LaCasaComics — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:35:09 +0000

Avatar, the new film by James Cameron, is breaking box office records around the world. There is good reason for the film’s success – it uses state of the art special effects and computer graphics to create a comic book feel within a world which looks so real you can almost step inside. Sometimes funny, sometimes touching and sometimes downright thrilling – the movie has it all.

Avatar quotes

The soundtrack of Avatar also stands head and shoulders above its rivals, with stirring melodies and huge orchestral numbers which help the story rush along with an urgency and excitement which is unmatched in the sci-fi genre to this point.

There is also the small issue of the story, a fantastic mixture of love between star-crossed lovers, the sci-fi punch of Aliens and the epic mixture of characters and storylines that rivals Lord of the Rings.

There is certainly a ‘Middle Earth’ feel about some of the scenes, especially those where the mountains of the country are shown in the backdrop – but when we enter the jungles of the planet the real beauty is revealed. It is almost a seamless transition between computer generated graphics and real life, and the budget that was spent on Avatar (which has already been recouped, less than two weeks into the cinema run) was clearly well spent.

Avatar quotes

But the unsung hero of Avatar is surely the screenplay. Written by James Cameron himself, his feeding of classic quotes and lines to Jake Sully shows his amazing ability to give the audience and the world, across racial and national divides, exactly what they want.

If you want to be able to find Avatar quotes and sayings you can now have a look at a new website which has been set up specifically to cater to your desire. It not only has Jake Sully’s words, but also those of Grace, Neytiri and the rest of the all-star Avatar cast.

If you’ve already seen the 3D version of Avatar, or even the iMax version then you will no-doubt be keen to relive the experience by checking out these quotations, which are a mixture of humorous, touching and exciting.

If you enjoyed Cameron’s Avatar, then you will certainly enjoy looking at those Avatar quotes, and if you have some more that you’d like to see on that site I believe you can add them in the comments section – so get writing!

MSN symbols

LaCasaComics — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:21:48 +0000

As everybody knows, the most interesting things to appear in the recent history of chat for MSN is the return of a thing which has actually been lurking for more than a decade – the pasting of cool MSN symbols in chat boxes.

MSN symbols

There are lots of cool symbols, and you don’t even need to go through the problems of installing them in your Messenger client, you can easily and simply highlight and paste them into your Messenger status message, name on WLM and MSN chat. You will definitely make your online colleagues go nuts by copying the cool alt characters into your MSN name and new Messenger status update.

There are lots of different types of special WLM Messenger smileys (listed under here):

MSN Symbols

WLM Messenger Weather alt characters

You can tell people what the weather is like near you or as an alternative say to people in your WLM chat box your warm attitude or make your Messenger colleagues cheer up by giving them this symbol.
IE: ☀ – Nice weather

Song note alt map characters

Calming music relax our feelings from the pointless and boring everyday existence. Why not enjoy your short moment with a friend by copying some music note icons and tell them of yesteryear?
IE: ♫ – Musical single bar note special WLM symbols

Smilies and emoticons

Have you ever found a situation where you used the same emoticon with so many MSN contacts? Feel weary and uninventive about this? This is a good opportunity to look for something unique and special.
IE: ☺ – Smiley face emoticon for Microsoft Messenger

Heart special MSN characters

The heart characters is the most amazing method to show your feelings for your WLM mates. You will realise words are meaningless compared with this smilie as it is worth a thousand words..
IE: ♡ – Heart MSN Messenger symbol

Star signs special MSN symbols

Around the world, people love to read about the theory of horoscopes and stars. Believe it or not, followers always like taking varied sorts of reading to predict the luck of their job, marital status and family unit in the upcoming months and years. That is the reason why astrological alt characters are always installed into their Messenger status update or name on Messenger and in their MSN conversation.
EG: ♒ – Capricorn Messenger alt character

Games smileys

Just think for a moment what your MSN buddies are going to do when they read your name on Messenger includes lots of chess emotes. It’s possible that they will be astonished by your intelligence and even feel envious of you? Why not just copy them and maybe they will make you feel beaming!
EG: ♔ – King Microsoft Messenger emoticon

Shapes symbols
Do you need to explain something to a Messenger buddy but don’t have access to the right shape? Using special MSN characters, you can find lots of different sorts of shapes. They can help you when you have to give a description of shapes for your WLM colleagues.
IE: ▲ – triangle symbol

You might have seen other people creating their Messenger status message by using some special symbols, and now you can as well! Good luck with these special cool MSN symbols!

Happy Christmas!

LaCasaComics — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 03:29:38 +0000

Happy Christmas from everyone at La Casa Comics! Hope you’re eating a lot of turkey (wherever you are!).

Hundred Feet Heroes

LaCasaComics — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:09:44 +0000

The Hundred Feet Heroes, is based in the Fantasy World of Football meets American Football meets Tolkien. Odd but it works surprisingly.

Follow Stu and Jim with their ceramic collegue Pot-Plant, as they deal with the trials and tribulations based on and around this world.

(For more on the real world board game go to TalkFantasyFootball.org)

Visit www.hfh.smackjeeves.com/archive/ for more story.

Christmas Covers – December 9

LaCasaComics — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:38:00 +0000

The Frog finds an unwelcome gift in his Christmas stocking on Otto Feuer’s cover for span style=”font-style: italic;”>Funny Stuff #30 (1948).

For each day of December until Christmas I’m featuring a Holiday-related comic book cover. (Click on the image to get a larger version.)