Freak Comics

There is a pretty interesting student documentary dealing with the comic book culture on You Tube by Robin Harman.
It is a little heavy on the Marvel side of things but it does have an interview with Glenn Fabry (an artist who has done work for DC Comics among others) and the end credits are kinda cool. Over all it’s worth the watch if you have some time to kill.

Comic Book Culture Part 1

Comic Book Culture Part 2

Comic Book Culture Part 3

Today’s Superman video feature is spoofs… call them SPOOFerman films, if you will (I deserve to be shot for that one)… there’s also a fan film thrown in at the end.

Superman Retires

Someone synced up audio from Rocky and footage from the old Justice League cartoon. Excellent editing!

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Superhero Theater

Superman and Bizzaro in Of Mice and Men. This is decent, until the end (after the credits) which is hilarious.

Superman leaves physics 101

This one has been making the rounds, but it’s funny if you haven’t seen it yet.

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Batman and Superman

This is a trailer for a fan film that was never made.

A few days ago I found a message waiting in my inbox from Kourosh Rahimpour. Neurons churned to life in my inebriated mind… Kourosh was back! The subject of this completely unexpected email?

NEW BATMAN FILM

I starred at the bold letters in awe and wonder. Dare I read this email? Perhaps the great Mr. Rahimpour was simply writing to inform me he could no longer fulfill him promise of a sequel, dashing not only my hopes, but the hopes of all loyal Kourosh-ites to tiny little unreconcilable pieces.

Who’s Kourosh Rahumour do you ask? The greatest director since Alfred Hitchcock, the greatest writer since Shakespeare, and the greatest actor since Fred Savage.

Like many of you I didn’t fully appreciate his first film upon first viewing. I wrote a scathing review and hoped I would never lay eyes on another work of Kourosh. Yet after watching Batman: Defenders of the Night 10 or 12 more times I was nearly ready to quit my job and follow the ways of Kourosh (you know: move back to my parents house and make little known Batman films with my gay buddies).

Kourosh somehow caught wind of my review and replied to it, swearing that he would return with a sequel.

After becoming a follower I patched things up with Rahimpour and interviewed the man behind the film himself. That was five months ago.

Flash-forward to May 9th. I’m in front of the computer. The email is in front of me. I click it, and read:

Hey Joe,
hope all is well. Here is the long awaited sequel I promised you.
Kourosh
http://youtube.com/watch?v=O7OZMoQygGA

Edit: (receding URL has been updated as the last one was broken).

My hands shook. My teeth chattered. Kourosh hadn’t betrayed his promise!

The film in review (spoilers… watch the film first!)

The title of the film is Batman and Robin: Dark Betrayals and it’s nearly 4 minutes longer than Batman: Defenders of the Night. Four minutes longer and ten times funnier.There were several moments when I literally laughed out loud.
The short film centers around Batman’s quest to find Robin, who seems to be on a crime wave.

Dark Betrayals features the first appearance of Commissioner Gordon who is played by Michael, the same actor who play the Riddler in Defenders of the Night. His portrayal of Gordon is much funnier, and happens to be one of my favorite scenes: Batman sneaks up on the Commissioner in his “office”, dirty laundry is lying against one of the walls. Gordon is pouring over a hand drawn Wanted poster of Robin. He claims that Robin has turned up in “robberies, smut shots and all sorts of illegal activities.” Cut to Robin dealing drugs on the street. Comic gold!

Arvin’s portrayal of an evil Robin was very funny, especially the afore mentioned drug scene. If these guys decide to make a third film I would absolutely love to see more Arvin.

After discovering that Robin is actually a thug in disguise, Kourosh gives us one of the worst cuts of the film (on purpose). It goes like this:

Batman tackles Robin (played by Arvin Tounian). Cut to a close shot of Batman on top of Robin getting ready to beat him to a pulp. Robin is now played by a completely different, unnamed actor.

His clothes have changed from the typical Robin costume to black sweat pants and a cut off shirt, and he’s sporting a paper mustache and beard. Hilarious!

There’s a great reference to Defenders of the Night. When “Robin” is attempting to scale a bride he says “I wish Batman were here!”. In Defenders of the Night Batman helped the struggling Robin to climb a bridge.

The acting in the film was better. The fight scene at the end of the film was a bit more realistic. The editing was leaps and bounds above the first film, and the sound was improved slightly.

I do wish music was used a little more sparingly, and when used that it didn’t muffle the actor’s voices… but who am I to question the unfaltering genius that is Kourosh Rahimpour?

So now you know what I think of this amazing gem. Watch the film and let myself, Kourosh and the rest of the crew know what you think.

I’ve had an email sitting in my inbox for a couple of days now alerting me to a new fan movie that was added to the batmanfanfilms.com. I was unable to check in to this movie as I’ve been extremely busy. However I arose at 5:30am today in order to get some extra work done, and started out by watching Batman: Defenders of the Night.

I’m fairly certain that this movie started out with good intentions: making a cool Batman film to pass the time (sure beats the monotony of watching the repo man take your possessions each day), and then turned in to a poor attempt at humor, and then spiraled in to a nightmarish crap fest.

There was so much wrong with this film that I’m not sure where to begin… so I’ll begin with the name, Batman: Defenders of the Night. Batman is a singular entity. If he were a symbiotic being the title would be appropriate, however he isn’t, so it’s not. The title is obviously referring to Batman and his man-child-love-slave, Robin, therefore it should be entitled “Batman and Robin: Defenders of the Night”, or perhaps “Kourosh Rahimpour and Arvin Tounian: Two Dorks Who Think They Will Pick Up Babes After This Movie but Actually Just Impress Their Mothers”. Title too long? OK try this one: “Kourosh and Arvin: Virgins for Life”.

Dear Michael (aka Riddler/Roof Thug #1), I wish I could go back in time and erase the hellish cackling cry of your “voice” from my memory. You sound like a crow.

Note to everyone involved in this movie: you should never make a “film” again. The next time you are working on your Camaros and you feel that tingling urge to throw on some pajamas and call yourselves “super heroe’s” for the afternoon, resist. Just pop open another cool can of Bush beer and watch some reality television.

Oh, by the way, you really should not promote your poorly designed finance website with a poorly made Batman Fan Film, or any other fan film for that matter. It tends to make people question your credibility. (Update: as of this update FinanceKings.com no longer hosts this video).

Watch this stink fest yourself and post your own oppinions.

Note:this article has been edited. Under the request of the “actor” who portrayed the Riddler, Michael, I have removed his last name.

After posting about the crappy Spider Man fan film earlier today, I decided to find a good Batman fan film. Much to my surprise, I succeeded. Batman: New Times is a computer animated film created by one of the classes from Dave School (they teach computer animation for TV, film and games).

The film features the voices of Adam West, Dick Van Dyke, and Courtney Thorne-Smith. I’m still not sure if this is just a joke, but it seems legitimate.

The animation was done with computer generated Lego characters. It was actually fun to watch.