Project:Bookshelf

For the past couple of months I started to notice that I was running out of space on my current bookshelf what with all the books I either bought or received for Christmas.



You also have to add to my collection my addiction to Marvel's Mighty Muggs, with all this I needed to find a solution to this situation fast.


In my place I have a wall that's between my bedroom and my roommate's bedroom where I once had a small 3-shelf bookshelf,
this is where I decided to start my project.



Now big thanks goes to my brother Tony for helping me come up with the idea and for telling me to built it.
This Is the process I took to built my bookshelf, first I had to come up with the idea, so I drew it up on google's sketchup



and after that, I started my project.











Now that it was built I had to decide on paint, I decided to paint it one color only because I would be a lot of work and I was lazy.







Now this is the completed work with all my collection.





you can see more of the shelf and close-up of my collection on my flickr page.

You can follow my on twitter here.

Top stories From NY Comic-con (that I'm excited about)

On February 6-8, in New York City, the NY Comic con took place which marked the start to the comic convention season and with each convention there is plenty of news stories coming out and plenty of news to be excited about.
For me these are my favorite news stories (not in any order)

The marvel project by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting exploring the early history of the marvel universe.
Anything done by Brubaker and Epting is sure to be fantastic.

After ultimatum comes Ultimate comics
Ultimate Comics Spider-man by Brian Michael Bendis and David Lafuentes
Ultimate Comics Avengers by Mark Millar and Carlos Pacheco
As Much as I'm disliking Ultimatum, having Bendis and Millar back in the ultimate universe is something i can't wait for.

Amazing Spider-man: The Short Halloween by SNL members Seth Meyer and Bill Hader art by Kevin Maguire
SNL has been really funny this year and i think it's all because of this guys so for them to work on a spider-man comic is really cool.

Creative team after millar & hitch's fantastic four are
Jonathan Hickman and Dale Eaglesham
This is more excitement for Eaglesham than Hickman because I'm a huge fan of Eaglesham's JSA run, so I'm really looking forward to this.




Brian Michael Bendis's Powers TV Pilot offered to channel FX
(powers is one of my all-time favorite series and I can't wait to see it on the small screen)

Flash:rebirth #1 out in May by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver
Green Lantern:Rebirth is the comic that not only learn to love Green Lantern but got me into DC Comics again.

Vertigo crime line
smaller than standard comics mostly done in black & white around 200+ pages for about $20
some of the titles are:
Filthy Rich by Brian Azzarello and Victor Santos
Dark Entries by Ian Rankin and Werther Dell' Edera
Are Ten by Christos Gage and Chris Samnee
I hated that DC Comics' Minx Line didn't survive but I love a lot of vertigo book and a line of crime book sounds too good to be true.

Josh Howard's Dead@17 & Chris Giarrusso's G-man are coming to Image
Happy to see these series going to a good company to get a better exposure.




Dellec a new series from Aspen
(one man will discover that servants of God are creating evil on earth. It's all part of God's plan to the create enough disaster and fear on Earth that people will worship him.)
Co-written by Aspen President Frank Mastromauro and Editor-in-Chief Frank Hernandez with art by Micah Gunnell
Issue #0 in may($1.99), issue #1 in July ($2.59)
Finally a series from Aspen that I'm really excited to read.

Any many more, you can check Newsarama or Comic Book Resources for more info and for more news on NY Comic con.

Filipino comics artists

This topic came about because last summer my girlfriend and I were watching the Olympics, and during the opening ceremony she had mentioned that she thought her country was not being represented in the Olympics.

For those who don't know I'm Mexican and she is Filipino, so after looking online I was able to show her that in fact there were several people representing the Philippines.

Now for fun and educational purpose, I decided to look up Filipino comic artist to show her and I was amazed at who came up on the list.
I was so Amazed that I had to make a blog about it,and here is the list.


Leinil Francis Yu - New Avengers, Secret Invasion, Superman:Birthright.






Philip Tan - Green Lantern, Spawn, New Avengers, Final Crisis:Revelation.






Carlos Pagulatan - planet Hulk, Skaar:Son of Hulk, Agent of Atlas, New Avengers Annual 2.






Whilce Portacio - Spawn, Batman:Confidential.






Francis Manapul - Legion of Superheroes, Witchblade, Iron and the Maiden






Lan Medina - Fables, Punisher:Max






and many more, if you are interested they have a great Wikipedia page about these artist and many artist from different nationalities from Mexico, Spain and many other Countries.

Best of 2008 - Comics Part 2

Best miniseries - 1985 by Mark Millar and Tommy Lee Edwards (Marvel) & The Umbrella Academy: The Apocalypse Suite by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba (Dark Horse)

With so many comics that were read in 2008, I was having a tough time remembering which mini-series I read this past year and after putting away my comics form the last 6 month in boxes, I stumbled across these 2 series that were really stood out as greatness.


1985 is a 6-issues miniseries from the mind of Mark Millar comes a story a bout a boy named Toby Goodman who is into comics especially the crossover of the time “Secret Wars” as he is on his way home, he encounters super-villains from the comic book world out in the real world and the story goes from there, the artwork from Edwards is simply breathtaking and very different from anything in comics right now.

>

The Umbrella Academy is also a 6-issues from first-time writer Gerard Way (if that name sounds familiar, it is because he is the lead singer for the band My Chemical Romance) now usually when celebrities come to this medium the results are usually either very good ( Joss Whedon, Allan Heinberg) or very bad (Damon Lindelof) but Gerard looks like he is going to be one of the greats with Gabriel on art (Gabriel Ba and his brother Fabian Moon are one of my favorite artists) this mini-series is one of the best of 2008.



The story is about a group of heroes who are adopted at birth by Sir Reginald Hargreeves because they showed to have powers to become heroes. The series takes place in the present and in the past and it all comes to conclusion with the pending Apocalypse.




Best writer - Geoff Johns (JSA, Action Comics, Green Lantern, Etc)

"The man with the golden touch" Geoff johns has always been a great writer but it seems that this year he has surpassed everyone expectations, by writing everything from Superman, Green Lantern, The justice Society and even bringing real meaning to the Rogues, it seem like everything he write turns to gold.
Even thought he is leaving Action Comics & JSA in 2009, there is a big chance that Geoff Johns will still be my pick of best writer for 2009.





Best artist - Olivier Coipel (Thor)

Olivier artwork first stood out in the House of M mini-series but it is in Thor that his brilliance really shines.
Olivier is a french artist who signed a exclusive contract with Marvel comics in 2005 and has been drawing for them since.
In Thor not only does he capture the raw power of Thor, but he also capture the subtlety of Donald Blake, Thor alter ego.





Best Hero -Superman (Superman, Action Comics) & Batman (Batman, Detective Comics) DC Comics

This year both of this heroes went to some dramatic changes, Superman went from being the only kryptonian to being one of thousands with the "New Krypton" storyline.

While with Batman he went from dealing with the Black Glove, to having to see Catwoman have her heart literally taken out to sacrificing himself to stop Darkseid.
All year we have been given some of the best stories from these two characters in a long time and looks like 2009 will only get better.





Best Villain - Darkseid (DC Comics)

It's been a hell of a year for the New God with having to battle Jimmy Olsen on Countdown and having his heart ripped out by his Son, Orion.
But you can never keep a God down, having come back from near death take total control of the DC Universe with killing Batman being the icing of the cake.

Best of 2008 - Comics Part 1

With the new year here, I wanted to reflect on a great year for comics we had for 2008.
From the big companies like Marvel and DC comics to Indies, everyone brought out there best and this is a list of my very best of comics from 2008.




Best Series of 2008 - JSA (Justice Society of America)

Even though this current arc (Thy Kingdom Come) started in 2007 and the last issue finished on January 2, 2009, this was the book that I most looked forward to in 2008 by far.
This unofficial Sequel to Kingdom Come came from the seeds that were planted since the very first issue and had me wanting more. With great writing from Geoff Johns and some beautiful artwork from Dale Eaglesham and covers from Alex Ross, this was to me the best of 2008.





Best Single Issue - Joker's Asylum: Penguin by Written by Jason Aaron Art and cover by Jason Pearson(DC Comics)

Joker's Asylum was a fifth week event (meaning the comic comes out weekly for five week straight done by different creators)
To me not only was this the best issue of the series, but the best single issue of the year.
Aaron and Pearson gave us a compelling story of the penguin for his beginning to his current state all told from an outside perspective.
this story really elevates The Penguin to another level of villains.




Best New Series - Guardians of the Galaxy(Marvel), Terry Moore's Echo (Abstract)

Both of these series let me venture onto something that I had never read before, one is Sci-fi comics and the other is Terry moore.

Guardians of the galaxy written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning is a team of interstellar heroes that will be proactive in protecting the galaxy, rather than reacting to crises as they happen. The team consist of Star-Lord, Adam Warlock, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Phyla-Vell(the new Quasar) and Rocket Raccoon. each character has bring something different to the story and your curious to find out what happens next.



Terry Moore's Echo written and drawn by Terry Moore is a story revolves around Julie, a young photographer who inadvertently comes across a government test facility which has an explosion that rains down on Julie covering her body with some kind of metal and the government wants it back.
Even though I'm reading both of Terry Moore's major works (Runaways and Spider-man loves Mary Jane) this is the best of all his current work.






Best Revamp - Amazing Spider-man (Marvel)

I'm a big enough man to admit when I was wrong and on this series I WAS WRONG. After the controversial and disappointing "One More Day" storyline, I thought this series would never make its promise of both good stories and having the book on time (book has gone to a 3 times a month schedule) but they have.
With great writers like Dan Slott, Bob Gale, Marc Guggenheim, Zeb Wells and others and amazing artists like Chris Bachalo, Phil Jimenez, Mike McKone, John Romita, Jr. and Marcos Martin this series has gotten a second chance at greatness.

This is part 1 with the second one coming in about a week.

How To Create Free Ringtones for IPhones.

So for my brother's birthday, My family and I decided to give him an Iphone and since I was adding him to my current phone line, I needed to upgrade my phone line so I got an Iphone as well

Once I activated my Iphone, I decided to see about getting some ringtones and I found out that not only do you have to pay for the song ($0.99) you also have to pay to create a ringtone ($0.99).
Well after searching around the internet, i came across several websites on how to create your own ringtones for free.

I also have several colleagues who own Iphones that didn't know this was possible so I created this cheat sheet to help them and anyone else who is interested in creating their own ringtones.

How to create ringtones for the Iphone

• Add the song to itunes.
  
• Right-click the song and select “Get info”
  
• Click the “Options” tab.
  
• Select the start time and end time (song can only be between 30 & 40 seconds long) and click ok.
  
• Right-click on the song again and select “Convert Selection to AAC”.
  
• Create a folder on the desktop called “Ringtones”.
  
• Copy the song and place it on the “Ringtones” folder.
  
• Go to the “Ringtones” folder and click Tools > Folder Options and click the “View” tab.
  
• Uncheck the box titled "Hide extensions for known file types".
  
• Right-click the song and select “Rename”, replace the "m4a" extension of your ringtone with "m4r".
  
• Confirm when the dialog asks if you really want to make the change.
  
• Double-click the ringtone or add the file to itunes.
  
• Sync your Iphone and select ringtone tab to select which ringtones you want.
  
• Done.
  
  Hope this can work out as best for you that it did for me.
  - Highlighted part you only have to do this one time.