Robert [Member Since: December 06 '07]

<—Bzzd is one of my favorite Lanterns (after Mogo).

I’m currently a pharmacy technician working at Walgreens and I’m working towards a degree in Environmental Studies. I love my 360, my DS and my Gamecube, but I barely have any time to play them. (Currently Playing but not really since I don’t have any time to play them: Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, and Advance Wars: Days of Ruin).

Twitter.com/Stobert

Blurbs

MattC says:

will do – really looking forward to it and Spider-Man Noir

Robert said:

Be sure to let me know how you liked X Men Noir. I’m still on the fence whether I want to get it or not.

Pete says:

Cool, looks like we’re sending stuff to the right place :->.

Robert said:

Dear HeavyInk Peoples, Re: Awesomeness Thanks for the cool Ultimatum posters. They are going straight on my wall.

pat514 says:

I remembered you recommended that I pick up the Ultimates hc’s, dude awesome call! I’ve been reading and loving this books so much. The first hc was fantastic, but holy shit I just got finished reading the arc where Hulk goes to trial which totally blew me away. I don’t know if you remember the ending but holy shit man it was amazing.

Thanks again for the rec dude, the books have been a absolute blast!

Troy Hickman says:

Yeah, but I probably should’ve used a British accent…

Robert said:

Heya. I finally just got around to listening to your interview with Comic Geek Speak and it was pretty cool. Awesome work.

pat514 says:

Hey, saw the post on the Dark Tower books. I’m reading the second book right now and while the beginning was great I can’t get into this story with the disabled woman.

Should I tought it out, or was the best book Gunslinger born?

FrogMan says:

Thanks Robert! The trophies were for me performing my two forms (also called kata) as a brown belt in the 30-39 age range at a competition called the Quebec Open. It a pretty big competition where some 2000+ competitors come and compete in diverse categories in forms and point sparring.

I finished 2nd both with my weapon form and with my traditional form (aka open hand form). My son was given a participation medal for also entering with his weapon and traditional forms but the field was much tougher in his age range. As a comparison, there were only three of us adults entered with a weapon form while there were like 15 or so kids performing a weapon form. I would probably have won with my my weapon form had I not dropped my bô (that’s what the long shiny staff is called) but I was very satisfied with my 2nd place in traditional form as there were maybe 10 other competitors in that category.

The bô, or long staff, is what we’re holding. Yup, they are really long wooden staff, it’s only that ours have been covered with shiny, silvery taping. It’s the weapon of choice of Donatello from the TMNT. :)

fwiw, you can see all four of the forms we performed that day in this short youtube video :)

Robert said:

That’s a sweet picture you got in your gallery. What are those trophies/medal for? And what kind of swords (if that’s what those are) are those?

Jay Faerber says:

Thanks, Robert! Fingers crossed!

Robert said:

Hey good luck with Pilot Season! I’m rooting for Urban Myths!

Beetle says:

No problem!

Robert said:

I got them in the mail today! I love getting packages in the mail. Thanks a lot!

Beetle says:

I’ve easily got another 7+ 30-packs of bags & boards. Reply blurb with your email address and I’ll get more shipping details from you then.

B Reddy says:

1010101110101011…(dramatic pause)

okay, now that the coast is clear I can say awesome job documenting the HIAI rogue shenanigans in the forum! Hilarious!

pat514 says:

Hey, I saw that the new issue of The Killer is coming out this week, I’m definitely going to check it out. I talked with the publisher at Comic Con and it seems like they went through some restructuring and are shooting to get back on schedule.

By the way man, you HAVE TO check out this movie called Le Samourai, its a 60’s french film about a hitman very similar to the one in this book, and it’s absolutely fantastic.

Check it out!

pat514 says:

Hah, ya man, kudos to whoever made it.

Gotta love…”the mighty monarch” lol

Matt says:

Being a machine, Tyler does not eat. He does however ingest a steady diet of rusty bolts and lighter fluid.

Robert said:

After reading the newsletter, I was severely disappointed that the HI blog hasn’t had an entry on Tyler’s eating habits yet. We were promised entries on Tyler’s eating habits!!!

Unrelated, I just read Morrison’s Arkham Asylum. Morrison’s writing was terrific, but Dave McKean’s art ruined it for me.

Pete says:

Hey Robert, you asked about this a while ago… and they’ve finally arrived: we have Neozoic issues back in stock!

Robert said:

Would Heavy Ink be getting any more stock for Neozoic #2 soon? I just started the series (months after everyone else started) and I can’t read my #3 copy until I read #2. :)

pat514 says:

Hah, trying to find more on what’s up with the killer and I found amazon is soliciting the 2nd hardcover for Oct 28, 2008.

http://www.amazon.com/Killer-2-Matz/dp/1932386564/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213132956&sr=1-2

pat514 says:

Hm, I clicked on the link and it shows the first gn as “preorder now”, does that mean they are getting it in stock or do you think it is more like a “just in case this ever comes in”?

This publisher has been so weird with this title, I’ve gotten issues 5,6 and then nothing. Have you heard anything new on the book, or what the heck happened?

Matt says:

Hey, Robert…can you drop me a line at matt@heavyink.com? I wanna get you your prizes from the Ask Zango contest! Thanks.

pat514 says:

Hey man, are you going to check out Ultimate Origins #1 next week? I’m sort of getting sick of everything being written by Bendis these days, but damn the preview looks awesome. I guess it’s a mini though, so I might wait for the trade.

Heres the preview on ign http://comics.ign.com/articles/877/877724p1.html Cover B looks awesome btw.

Douglas says:

Heh, ... fair enough. I will have pull my copy of ELOG.

Robert said:

I haven’t read “V” or “League”… yet. Probably cause I watched the movies?? I picked up League a couple of years ago, but haven’t got to it yet. I have been eyeballing Black Dossier.

I highly suggest not starting League with Black Dossier. It would be a very confusing place to start with. I’ve read the whole series in order and BD is still super confusing to me…

Pete says:

I’ll look into what we can do about getting more Neozoic, we may have to go direct to Red5 again, and hope they still have issues…

Robert said:

Would Heavy Ink be getting any more stock for Neozoic #2 soon? I just started the series (months after everyone else started) and I can’t read my #3 copy until I read #2. :)

ohwowitsbecca says:

Shh, you’ll blow my secret commie spy cover.

Robert said:

Except it turns out people who major in math and Russian aren’t really in high demand.

You can help us in the Cold War!! Not that Cold War. The second one, the secret one.

MadMikeyD says:

Thanks. And thanks for being the first person other than me to take it:)

Robert said:

That was a cool quiz you made.

pat514 says:

Hey man, my birthday was coming up and I was thinking of spoiling myself and getting a real nice collection (absolute edition, oversized hardcover).

Any suggestions? I was considering getting Absolute Kingdom Come, Absolute The new frontier, or The Ultimates vol 1 and 2.

Have you checked any of these out? The Absolute Watchmen and New Frontier look like they are going out of print, so I was thinking of trying to pick them up, are they worth the 60+ for em?

Nicholas says:

Also, Pheonix Wright is awesome! I also love my DS and my roommate’s other consoles (360, Wii). PC games are cool too, if you have a computer that can run them.

Nicholas says:

Yes, as of right now I’ve read up to issue 17. I believe the last one I read was the one where Hughie had his ‘oral incident’. Probably one of the most hilarious things to happen thus far. But yeah I think this series has incredible potential. I read in Wizard that Columbia Pictures has already acquired the rights to make a movie of it too. I think it would make a pretty good one as long as they don’t screw it up. Which with comic book movies is liable to happen.

Robert said:

I recently finished reading the first volume of The Boys, and let me just say that I’m very impressed so far.

You are my new best friend. The Boys is one of my favorite series right now. I think The Boys has the potential to be as iconic as Preacher is. I was really worried when Firestorm dropped it, but relieved when Dynamite picked it up. Have you been reading the most recent issues?

Gin says:

Heh… no pants on Pi day! Really, I’ll hafta try to keep that in mind for future comics tho… thats the first time Id ever attempted people sitting in desks before, from any angle… so… hm.

I think shiny objects did me in tho… well, in a way. More of a person than an object, and more soft than shiny, but….
We’ll see if I can get my feet back under me before my buffer runs out (iow, next thursday)

Robert said:

I like your comic. It’s simple and you aren’t being clichéd. Keep it up and don’t try to overwork yourself (the number 2 cause of death of webcomics, just behind the number one cause, shiney objects).

FYI, the people sitting at the desks in the Pi comic look like they’re not wearing any pants. :)

Gin says:

Im gonna TRY 3x a week in a lil while. Its easy to come up with ideas- its just getting them illustrated. Iow, keeping track of my sketchbook. Heh. Shiny things tho… mm… that could be a problem.

Robert said:

I like your comic. It’s simple and you aren’t being clichéd. Keep it up and don’t try to overwork yourself (the number 2 cause of death of webcomics, just behind the number one cause, shiney objects).

FYI, the people sitting at the desks in the Pi comic look like they’re not wearing any pants. :)

Brian! says:

Sounds like a cinematic gem :\

Robert said:

Dang, I wish I had checked nuklearpower before I went to go see Superhero Movie. I completely missed seeing Atomic Robo. Then again, it’s probably a good thing that Atomic Robo won’t be directly associated with that movie, cause it was pretty bad. I can understand why the occasional poop/fart joke can be funny, but that’s a good majority of the movie right there. That and a whole scene of animals humping.

pat514 says:

Damn, you got daredevil on the quiz! I tried three times to get that, heh. Hey are you picking up secret invasion #1 wedenseday, waiting for the trade, or not bothering with the whole thing?

I haven’t been following Mighty Avengers or New Avengers, but its so hard to say no to the massive hype they built up for it, lol.

By the way, if you get a chance Hotel Desk for the DS has a really great story, and it sorta reminds me of Phoenix Wright. The game is real heavy on the story and not so much on the gameplay, but it’s still totally worth checking out.

FrogMan says:

just saw this Bendis feature about Ultimate Origins on CBR and thought you might be interested…

enjoy!

Bob Loblaw says:

Really? GOOD! (What’s AD?)

I kid. I know Arrested Development but I actually took this name from someone yeaaars ago. Couldn’t believe his name was actually boblawblaw.. It’s stuck with me ever since!

Robert said:

Well we’re not here to talk nonsense to Bob Loblaw.

Classic Arrested Development. Did you hear that they’re thinking about making a AD movie?

FrogMan says:

I know you are quite into the Ultimate Universe so I’m turning to you on this one. Regarding Ultimate Origins. Has the issue showing up here ever shipped, or is this something that got delayed and delayed. I see there’s a Ultimate Origins series slated to start in June on the Marvel website…

pat514 says:

Sorry to triple post, but I loved Planet hulk too. It was actually the first thing that got me into comics (i just started really). What was your favorite scene? I thought the fight with silver surfer was mind blowing!

pat514 says:

Oh ya, What’s pretty cool is that the first Season Box art is done by Bill Sienkiewicz, absoutely crazy stuff. Brock http://i.adultswim.com/adultswim/downloads/tools/shows/venturebros/wp/3_800.jpg Dr. Venture http://i.adultswim.com/adultswim/downloads/tools/shows/venturebros/wp/1_800.jpg The boys (hank and dean) http://i.adultswim.com/adultswim/downloads/tools/shows/venturebros/wp/2_800.jpg

pat514 says:

Dude I love the Venture Brothers, and ya that scene was epic. My favorite part of that picture is Dr. Venture holding up the tarot cards with the Magneto Helmet on!

Robert said:

By the way, I love your profile picture.

“What the hell are we supposed to do with this crap? Make them laugh so hard they blow malt liquor out of their noses?”

“No, I think you’ll have that covered when you storm the room in butterfly costumes.”

Todd Michael R. says:

Picture: I’m knee deep in vodka, wearing nothing but a suit of furry hats and screaming.

Gin says:

Ahh, deciding where loyalties lie… In guilty pleasures (which is only the first novel) you’re still getting to know the characters, and the politics is kinda confusing… you dont know who’s on whose side until the end for SURE. It’s not switching teams so much as being forced to obey those stronger than them, or finally showing their true colors. The first time thru, yah its a bit hard to keep it straight. Thats why they came out with the little info book which was put into the ‘first death’ GN.

Robert said:

Regarding “Anita Blake: Guilty Pleasures,” I really liked it when I picked it up, but I hadn’t read any of her books, so there were points where it was very confusing to me. Was it me or were there times where it’s really hard to remember who is on who’s side? Those vampires seemed to be switching teams every other minute.

FrogMan says:

thanks for your input (re: Bluffy). Based on it and on some from out sources, I’ve decided to pass on it for now. I don’t have time to invest in watching DVDs of past seasons and there’s still way too much catching up for me to do in the whole comics realm before I run out of new stuff to try… :)

I’m not saying I won’t pick up an omnibus of Buffy in the future though…

Robert said:

Reading your blurb on Matt’s page: As much as I hate to say it, if you haven’t seen much of the TV series, I would hold off on Season 8 for a bit. I suggest seeing if your library or video rental place has the DVDs of Buffy and watch the show a bit. I only say this because I wouldn’t want you to be turned off by the fact that you have no idea who these people are.

Then again, I started watching Buffy when it was on Season 5 and I kept up with that while watching reruns of the older episodes at the same time.

In conclusion, I have no idea what you should do. :-) I guess try it out and if you don’t mind being thrust into a story that’s already on it’s eighth season, more power to ya.

Matt says:

It’s not that I thought Ultimate Spider-Man was bad, necessarily; it just seemed…boring? In general, of the Ultimate books I have read, I like the ones best that really have strong dialogue, characters, and writing. Ellis on Ultimate FF is just perfect wacky superhero Ellis writing, with good humor, good ideas, and great plotting. Millar on Ultimates just exploded that whole concept into some amazing stratosphere. Bendis’ USM is…Spider-Man, but different. It just isn’t at the same level for me.

Todd Michael R. says:

Hey Robert, thanks for the comment. I think that that is actually the plan, but we’ve been so busy gettin stuff ready that we’re still working some kinks out. Wait till you see the last episode of Boy Friends..it’s amazing. Oh, and I think we’re throwing up another video tomorrow…

Todd Michael R. says:

Unbelievable, a bird flew in between his head and the axe at the very last minute.

Todd Michael R. says:

hahahaHA!

...just you wait.

Robert said:

Yea, I had definately not prepared myself to see Todd’s bare ass when I visited that site. Damn you Rogers!!!!

Todd Michael R. says:

haha thanks man, spread that shit around! Also, stay tuned, we’re gonna be uploading so much awesomeness this year.

I love how Paul says “you will beeee…the wizard?”

Todd Michael R. says:

Thanks for reading my fucking blog.

daynah says:

With me, I choose between issues or downloading it. I think that decompression is really just horrible storytelling. Each word in a good story should have a greater purpose and meaning. Thus, I try not to support trades. If it’s not a good enough story for me to want to read it issue by issue, I download it.

Brian! says:

Yeah, and the sad thing is that it really doesn’t take much forethought to plan out a coherent timeline. Honestly, they could get rid of everything that wasn’t USM and I’d be fine with that.

Robert said:

Your newest blog entry made me think about the Marvel Ultimate universe; essentially a completely rebooted universe in order to get rid of the ‘cache’ that caused continuity errors. Despite their best intentions, they already have a bunch of inconsistencies (The biggest offender is the “Ultimate Team-Up” series). Most of them are relatively minute, but could have easily been prevented. Nothing profound here, just something that came to mind.

Pete says: Hey Robert, your order confirmation email bounced... wanna double check that your email address is correct? Thanks!
by Robert at 07:50 PM November 18, 2008

Wow. This is one of the most well written stories I’ve ever read. I stumbled upon it by chance, looking for stuff written by Warren Ellis and it is absolutely amazing.

I love the idea too. “Damn! If only we had someone here who knew quantum physics! bleepbloop Okay we got a guy at MIT on the line.” That’s more or less how each of the individual stories go. A group of 1001 people linked together by uber cell phones who work together to protect the planet from various crises by combining their skills, abilities and knowledge.

For Heavy Ink’s discounted price of $11.99, I absolutely urge you to try this trade out. After I finished it I immediately grabbed the second one.

Bullet_arrow_up Bullet_arrow_down 1 pts.
by Robert at 06:19 PM November 04, 2008

The story was decent. The focus was on Peter and Mary Jane while the villain of the story took the backseat. It was a little annoying because I feel that the villain story wasn’t very fleshed out and I’m really not sure what happened there at the end. But overall a pretty good story.

What knocked what would have been a 4 star issue to 3 stars was the art. This has possibly been the most fugly art I’ve ever seen in the Ultimate Universe. This art was even worse than Kaare Andrews’s art in U. X-Men #23 & 24 (it was super cartoony, bleh, not matching the feel of U. X-Men at all). It clearly states that Peter and M.J. are 15 (which I wish they would bump up a year or two, because they’ve been 15 for a while now…) but they look five. In an art style that is way too anime (in a bad way) for my tastes, Peter and M.J. look like toddlers. For the sake of the Ultimate Universe, David Lafuente never works as the artist again.

Bullet_arrow_up Bullet_arrow_down 1 pts.
by Robert at 09:28 PM October 15, 2008

I really like where this and Green Lantern are going. The build up for Blackest Night has been amazing. It would be very easy to stumble and just make all the various lantern sects be just multi-colored carbon copies of each other, but we’re getting insight to every single new lantern that is introduced. I really liked how Miri was able to become a Star Sapphire, it showed great writing.

I’m definately psyched for everything leading up to Blackest Night.

Bullet_arrow_up Bullet_arrow_down 2 pts.
by Robert at 03:31 PM October 15, 2008

So far things are going in a direction that I like. My only problem with this series so far is the art. The action scenes are barely comprehensible. Especially on the second page, bottom left panel. What the hell is happening right there? Chase is on Xavin’s back for some reason? I don’t know but it’s way to muddled for my tastes. My second problem with the art is Nico’s character design. Is Ramos aware that it’s possible to draw an character of Asian descent without having super-slanted eyes? The art for Brian K. Vaughan’s reign on Runaways was top notch. I just hope the art in this series improves a bit or I’ll have to wait for it to grow on me.

My only problem with the actual story itself is that it seems that Karolina’s and Xavin’s relationship issues seemed really forced. There was no indication throughout the entire issue that something was wrong, and yet apparently there is. Just like how Joss Whedon just decided that Nico and Victor were going to break up just because some random dancing chick caught his eye. None of these break ups make any sense!! Have any of these writers actually been in a relationship?

EDIT: Okay, it explains things a little bit at the end of issue 3. I’ll be pissed if Karolina and Xavin don’t get things patched up though.

Bullet_arrow_up Bullet_arrow_down 1 pts.
by Robert at 07:16 PM October 14, 2008

The story is alright. I liked the fight between Marvel’s two biggest heavyweights. My biggest problem with this was the art. I am definately not a fan of how the Thing is drawn. He’s very, very fugly.

Bullet_arrow_up Bullet_arrow_down 1 pts.
by Robert at 11:23 PM September 09, 2008

I am a big fan of the Jeph Loeb and the Carlos Pacheco combination. The story is fun and the artwork to go with it is fantastic.

This was just a great trade. It’s a perfect recipe really: Take Superman and Batman and make them fascists. I don’t know why it’s awesome, it just is. There’s something about making those two bad guys that makes a great story. You see plenty of “bad” Superman stories (Frank Miller’s Dark Knight books, Red Son) but there really aren’t that many “bad” Batman stories out there (that I know of). It’s simple but it works well.

Bullet_arrow_up Bullet_arrow_down 1 pts.
by Robert at 12:51 AM September 04, 2008

About a week before this issue came out, Newsarama.com had a pretty scathing review up on Runaways 3 #1. I read it and I was pretty uneasy to whether I should even order this series or not. In the end I decided to get it and I’m glad I did. The points the Newsarama.com made were still valid, but I think they blew it way out of proportion.

The biggest issue was that Joss Whedon was taking too long to finish his run on Runaways so Terry Moore had to start writing before Whedon had finished his story arc. So some character development that was put in the end of Whedon’s run isn’t in Moore’s writing yet. Hopefully now that Whedon is done Moore can catch up with the story points.

Bullet_arrow_up Bullet_arrow_down 0 pts.
by Robert at 09:34 PM September 02, 2008

I was not expecting to love this trade as much as I did. I normally like to pick up the trades featuring old issues for the nostalgia, but usually I find myself bored with the old-timey writing and art.

I actually really liked a lot of the art here, especially Bob Brown and Klaus Janson’s depiction of Daredevil’s super senses in the first issue. What really makes this trade amazing is the very last issue where Daredevil is standing over Bullseye’s paralyzed body, contemplating life. Frank Miller did an absolute fantastic job.

Bullet_arrow_up Bullet_arrow_down 2 pts.
by Robert at 11:24 PM September 01, 2008

The whole “Don’t judge a book by its cover” axiom really comes to mind. I was under the impression that this would be set in medieval times but I was pleasantly surprised.

The only problem I had with it was that the first 3/4 of it was summarizing what he had already done in previous issues. To me, Pilot Season is about giving new comics a chance decided by public demand. I kinda wish he had just started over instead of just starting where he had left off.

Bullet_arrow_up Bullet_arrow_down 1 pts.
by Robert at 10:49 PM September 01, 2008

Here’s the thing, it wasn’t bad writing. It actually interested me a lot. It reminded me of a female, mild version of Kick-Ass and I liked this version of it. The one problem was that nothing really happened. If it wins the Pilot Season, then I would be very interested in seeing where this series is going. The only requirement for this is that it actually has to go somewhere.

Bullet_arrow_up Bullet_arrow_down 1 pts.