Stan Lee's "The Guardian Project"

I heard about this in October 2010, and then completely forgot about it until just today. Being a fan of both hockey and superheroes, I'm not sure how this managed to slip my mind for so long.

The National Hockey League and Stan Lee formed a partnership last year to develop superheroes for each of the 30 teams, collectively called "The Guardians". You can check-out the new heroes at guardianproject30.com, which includes bios to all 30 characters, plus short stories for each, a pair of videos, and some other stuff.

When I first heard about this, my reaction was "that sounds kind of lame". Seriously, I didn't think the idea was interesting or that anything decent would come out of it. Now that I can see all 30 characters, I have to admit that, overall, I'm a little impressed with what has been done so far.

Here is my opinion of The Guardians, for those who might care:

My Favorite Guardians (based on appearance):
The Canadien
The Canuck - I like the design of the costume, which is based on the logo. However, I think they missed the "Canuck" part in the overall design (FYI: "Canuck" is slang for a person from Canada).
The Flame
The Predator - I just the idea to go with a robotic humanoid cat was pretty cool.
The Red Wing - Well, it's close to being awesome, if only they decide to drop those stupid wheels on his feet, which only serves to remind me of the Golden Age hero Zippo (from Hillman's "Clue Comics").
The Senator - Almost a no-brainer to take the "roman" logo and run with it. This might be may favorite design of the bunch.

My Least Favorite Guardians (based on appearance):
The Oiler - Something about the helmet & shoulder pads just turns me off.
The Shark - His feet turn into surf boards? Really?
The Panther - Well, first thing is, the costume doesn't contain any red, which the team's jersey still has, although it's not as prominent as the original jersey from the early 1990s. Secondly, I don't like that the head for the character looks exactly like Marvel Comics' Black Panther.
The Blue Jacket - It just looks bad, like something out of a cheap 1980s cartoon.
The Ranger - Kind of a weak design, and I'm not liking how the shield looks.

Cool Comic Links & Other Random Stuff

Terrific Comics is Tony Z's new home on the 'net. Tony previously ran the "Golden Age Heroes" blog. Since October 2010, he has been publishing "Amazing Golden Age Adventure Funnies", which reprints many hard-to-find Golden Age comic book stories. Currently, there are three volumes of this series, so if you enjoy holding an actual book in your hands as opposed to staring at a computer screen in order to read old comic stories, head over to the site and poke around.

Jim Shooter's blog has found its way onto my "check it out every day" list, so I thought I'd give it another plug ... as if it really needed any help.

Sort of related to comics, Trademarkia is an easy-to-use site to search for Registered Trademarks.

Want to keep-up on the latest happenings from DC Comics? Don't waste time getting the information second-hand, go right to The Source, DC's blog where all the breaking-news of their "September Relaunch" first appeared.

Random thought ...

I'm watching the NHL Stanley Cup Finals and really hoping Boston wins. It's not that I'm a fan of the Bruins, but I'm a fan of more players on Boston than I am of players on Vancouver. If the Vancouver Canucks win the series, I'll be happy for former Ottawa Senator Sami Salo. On the other hand, for Boston, these are the players I want to see hoist the Stanley Cup:
former Sentaors Zdeno Chara, Chris Kelly & Shane Hnidy (hope Hnidy gets to play at least one game in the Finals);
former Flyers Mark Recchi & Dennis Seidenberg;
and former Penguin Andrew Ference.

A Logo & Some Links

Yes, "My Opinion Doesn't Matter" now has a craptacular logo. The reason for this is due to the fact that I ran across another blog with a similar name (but entirely different content) recently. I thought I had something semi-original, and even did a search to see if "My Opinion Doesn't Matter" was free-and-clear to use for a blog title. Oh well, that's search engines for you! So now, I'm down to "M.O.D.M.", but really, what difference does it make what this thing is called?

I've been "surfin' the 'net" the last few days and have run across some interesting places. http://flameape.org/ is pretty neat with some "Public Domain Superhero-a-Day" original artwork, including "13" from Lev Gleason, Miss Masque (Nedor) & The Steel Fist (Rural Home). Check-out the "Portfolio" for even more original artwork. Hey, any place that mentions M.O.D.M. is ok by me!

http://www.vintagepbks.com/index.html isn't a place I've fully explored yet, simply because there's a lot to look at. What's it about? Well ...

"If you love vintage paperbacks, you have come to the right place. ...
"Cover artists featured are Rudolph Belarski, Earle Bergey, Sam Cherry, Reginald Heade, Robert Bonfils, Frank Frazetta, George Gross, Ray Johnson, Rudy Nappi, Rafael De Soto, Tom Adams, Lou Marchetti, Jeff Jones, Paul Rader, Robert Maguire, Robert McGinnis and Jim Steranko.
"Publishers featured are Ace, Avon, Bantam, Banner, Berkley, Dell, Eton, Gold Medal, Graphic, Handi-Books, Lion Books, Monarch, Popular Library and Pyramid. Other authors, artists and publishers will be added as time allows.
"Several pages are listed by theme."

You can browse by author, artist, publisher or theme, and view a lot of really nice artwork.

http://www.coverbrowser.com/ is a place to view the covers of thousands of comics, books, magazines & more, one gallery after another. There's a feature included that lets you jump from whatever cover you're looking at to an eBay search of that very same issue. Pretty handy if you run across something that makes you go "I want that!".

Want to check-out something a little more kid-friendly? Then head on over to http://www.bigblogcomics.com/ and you can read stories featuring Heckle & Jeckle, Supermouse or Homer The Happy Ghost.

Completely unrelated to comics ... Let's go Penguins!

Cool Comic Links update

I've updated the "Cool Comic Links", making a few additions while deleting one link. These links aren't just for you guys, it's also a quick way for me to get where I want to go 'round the 'net.

"OOP! Comics" is gone from my links. While it was a fun online comic strip to read, the guy running the show apparently isn't working on it anymore, not adding anything new since October 2009. That may not mean he's finished ... he could return, and when he does get back into creating new strips, maybe I'll put "OOP!" back on the list.

Love going to comic book sites that are mostly in a foreign language? Then check-out http://gotomars.free.fr/magician.html which features all five of Centaur Comics' "Magician From Mars" stories, which includes the work of John Giunta, Malcolm Kildale & Michael Mirando. Can't read French but want to know what the author of the site is talking about? Just use a free online translator (I usually use WorldLingo's translator because it's free).

The Golden Years is back and better than ever! Well, it's still a work in progress at this point as the old version of the site is still being transferred over to the new site, but things have gotten off to a good start as The Target, Black Terror, The Cadet & Black Diamond are all featured in the brand new issue 37 of "All-Amazing Comics". Go check it out and let the guy know what you think of his hard work.

And that's it for today. I was gonna babble-on about how I wish the Ottawa Senators would trade Chris Neil to either the Penguins or Flyers so he could play for a team I actually care about, or how I thought this past week's episode of "Smallville" was pretty cool but thought that the acting from Michael Shanks was his weakest performance I have ever seen, or how pathetic I think it is that Marvel Comics lets "The Twelve" just kind of linger in oblivion because they aren't smart enough to simply replace that egomaniac of a writer with someone who can meet deadlines & finish what they start, but who cares what I think?

Some cool sites to visit

The internet's a big place, so there's tons of stuff that can (and probably does) get over-looked. In an effort to make life easier for people, I've included two sections of links in my blog. The first, "Cool Comic Links", are for websites where you can read comics or check-out various pieces of comic book artwork. I've added some new links today ...

The first new addition to the "Cool Comic Links" is http://www.bpib.com/index.html, a site run by Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. As an active member of http://goldenagecomics.co.uk/, Jim has gladly donated his Golden Age comic book collection to the site to be scanned & shared with the world, as well as being active in many of the discussions of the extremely friendly message boards. "BPIB" features over 100 biographies of artists from various fields, including comic books. If you like looking at pretty pictures, it's a nice place to spend some time.

Another addition, this time a blog, is http://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.com/. I doubt anyone coming to my little corner of the internet hasn't stumbled upon Pappy's "blogzine" by now, but just in case, go check it out. He posts a lot of Golden Age comic book stories on a more frequent basis than I do, and is fairly balanced as far as what genres he features.

Another blog, http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/, is light on stories but heavy on all sorts of other artwork. For me to try and describe what you'll find there would not do it justice. If you like looking at artwork from a single artist or viewing the covers of various publications in a single genre, like science-fiction for example, it's worth checking-out.

That's enough for me today. I'm tired and feeling lazy, so I'm gonna go watch me some hockey.