MANCHILD REVIEWS: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) pilot

   Wow, not a lot I can say about this one right now, other than it was bad.

   I grew up a Ninja Turtles fan, and remain one to this day. I've loved most everything turtles related, a few notable exceptions along the way.

   But this is just reprehensible garbage. From voice acting to character design, there are few redeeming qualities here.

MANCHILD REVIEW: The Dark Knight Returns part 1

  Starting this out quickly, I don't understand the title since the entire graphic novel is presented here.
   I didn't care for Peter Weller's voice work, and the animation style was a bit off for my tastes.
   That said. I loved the movie as it was a pretty direct translation of Frank Miller's fantastic book.

MANCHILD REVIEW: Castle season 5 "After the Storm"

   Castle is one of the best shows on the air today. The season five premiere has been long awaited for fans such as myself.
   The answer to will they or won't they is finally answered, and now we get to see how the dynamics of the relationship will change, or not.
   Plus we get a great cameo from Jack Coleman, the infamous HRG from "Heroes" fame among other shows. Overall a good episode, I gave it a B, but perhaps I was too harsh? Weigh in in the comments below.

MANCHILD DISCUSSIONS: The Dark Knight Returns

Dave Herndon and David Komer discuss their personal relationships with the Frank Miller classic while awaiting the release of the animated movie.

MANCHILD REVIEWS: Green Lantern #0

A week after getting the chance to talk with creator Geoff Johns, I finally got a chance to read Green Lantern #0. It was everything I had hoped for, but still missing just a little something. I'm looking forward to the next issue though.

A case of the Thursdays ...

Many people claim to “hate Mondays,” well after the last few weeks, I hate Thursdays.

A recent Thursday started off great, I got to sleep in a bit because I had a 10:30 doctor’s appointment meaning that I wouldn’t be heading into work until after. Since my doctor’s office is only four miles from my house, I didn’t have to get up before 7 a.m. Like usual.

It was all downhill from there.

I woke up about 8 a.m. Only to discover that my ap-pointment hadn’t been logged by the doctor, so I wouldn’t be getting the “good” news in the form of test results from my doctor.

I decided to make the best of it, and made a quick ap-pointment for my border collie/chow mix at the veterinarian because she’s having skin issues.

The good news is that my vet was able to help me get her issue under control; the bad news is that I was out about $95 and now have to figure out how to get her to take pills multiple times a day.

Then it was time to head off to work, but first I needed gas. Of course, had I filed the tank the night before it would have been nearly 30 cents cheaper per gallon. When you drive 40 plus miles each way to work, those pennies add up quickly.

Thursdays are typically a late night at work for me, and starting off three hours late in the morning didn’t leave me thinking I’d be heading home anytime soon.

But wait, there’s more. I had forgotten that I had promised a colleague at the Dearborn Press & Guide that I would help him with doing play-by-play for the opening night of the high school football season, meaning that I had to take another three hours or so out of the evening.

It was the first time that the P&G had ever done a live Web stream of a sporting event, and he was nervous — though he’ll never admit it.

I have a background in radio, and I love football, so it was a good fit, but I had totally forgotten about it being that day.

On my way to the game, I received a call with news from the doctor. He told me that I have diabetes. Not a shock, but not something you want to hear on the phone either.

The broadcast went well, but that forced me to work until after 2 a.m. by the time I got the rest of my work done.

I don’t mind the late nights every now and again, so that wasn’t a negative.

Normally when I work late, I stay with my dad and step-mom. They live in Gibraltar, so it makes it nice to have a place to crash sometimes.

They hadn’t received my phone call that I’d be by really late, and locked the door. That wouldn’t have been an issue, but several months ago I misplaced my keys to their house.

Dad gets up early for work, so I decided to sit in the driveway for the two hours until he would get up rather than waking him early. He can be kind of cranky after all.

So I parked at the end of the drive, and fell asleep in the car. Apparently the next morning he didn’t notice me in the car and left for work, locking the door once again behind himself.

That left me heading off to a 9 a.m. meeting with the new principal at Arno Elementary School in fresh clothes, but sans a shower.

Fast forward a week … I was finally able to get in to see the doctor, but wasn’t made aware of the appointment until Wednesday night, so I hadn’t been able to plan for it.

The appointment went OK, though I had to wait about half an hour, which wasted most of my morning by the time we were done, and I got more pills to take for various medical issues.

I’ve always been relatively healthy other than my weight issues, so all of these pills are bothering me, but I’ll learn to manage.

After that, I ended up working until after midnight again, though this time I didn’t try to stay with my dad.

Problem was, I spent most of the rest of the normal work day waiting on people to call me back for stories, which never happened.

I didn’t get a single comment on the record all day.

Such is the life of a journalist, I suppose.

Contact Video Coordinator Dave Herndon at 1-734-246-0867 or dherndon@heritage.com. Follow him on Facebook and @NHDaveH on Twitter.

MANCHILD INTERVIEWS: Geoff Johns talks Simon Baz, the new Green Lantern

Geoff Johns returns home to promote new Arab-American comic book character

DEARBORN – Geoff Johns appears to be at home when he's telling stories, whether its helping a group of children create “Dr. Tomato” or telling a room full of people a story involving his mother and a Boba Fett action figure he is obviously very comfortable telling a story.
It's even more evident when you look at his career, Johns is the most prolific comic book writer in the modern age of comics. He also writes screenplays, video games and for several TV shows.
Johns told a lot of stories during a visit the Arab American National Museum Saturday.
He held a seminar on creating comic books for kids in the early afternoon and then hosted a question and answer session for the community at large in the late afternoon.
Johns, who grew up in Metro Detroit and graduated from Michigan State University, returned to his home state to promote the launch of his newest character in the DC Universe.
The character – Simon Baz, is the newest member of the Green Lantern Corps and the first Arab-American superhero from any of the major comic publishers.
Johns shares many similar traits to Baz, both have a strong Lebanese heritage. When asked how much of himself he put into the character, Johns said that he and the character are very different.

“He's a very different type of character,” he said. “I never stole cars.”
Johns said the creative team behind DC Comics wanted diversify the universe, so it was the perfect time to introduce the first Arab-American character.
To their credit, DC Comics publishers, Dan Didio and Jim Lee never questioned the move.
Diversification isn't a new concept in the comic book world, in the 1970's several characters were created during the blaxploitation era that reach most of the decade's pop culture.
Most of comic characters of that era are looked upon poorly by modern audiences. Johns said that he doesn't think Baz will have that type of legacy.
“I'm working with the Arab American Musuem to make sure the scripts are as real and as made up as possible,” he said. “I I just don't think that is going to happen. I hope it doesn't happen.

Johns is looking forward to introducing his character to the rest of the DCU. One detail that he let out about the upcoming arc in the Green Lantern book is the first time that Baz meets the Justice League. According to Johns the meet-up doesn't go as smoothly as one might hope, culminating is a stand-off where the League must decide if he is friend or foe.
Johns also wrote the recent Justice League #12 which sees Superman and Wonder Woman start a fledgling relationship for the first official time in the DCU.
A relationship between two of the tent pole characters of the DCU is made possible due to some of the resets with the DC New 52. The New 52 was a universe wide reboot that happened just over a year ago that allowed the creators of the comics to reset pieces of continuity that as they saw fit.
Johns first broke into the entertainment field as an intern and later a personal assistant to film director Richard Donner.

Johns worked on both 1997's “Conspiracy Theory” and 1998's “Lethal Weapon 4” while working for Donner. During that time he also began selling stories to both DC and Marvel Comics.
The first character Johns sold to DC was Stargirl, whom he said was based largely on his sister.
All of Johns works from DC Comics were donated to the museum library to be included in permanent collection. The “Geoff Johns Collection” contains more than 600 pieces.
“Green Lantern #0” is available at comic books stores everywhere.
Contact Staff Writer Dave Herndon at 1-734-246-0867 or dherndon@heritage.com. Follow him on Facebook and @NHDaveH on Twitter.

SLIDESHOW: Labor Day Weekend @Granny's House

The slideshow had about 100 pictures from yesterday at my granny's house. Most of the family was there just hanging out.

If you want to see any of the photos individually check out the album on Facebook.