Ladies love cool Merkules...

I was talking to my girl on the phone when I clicked on this video of Canadian emcee Merkules in the booth. I never heard of the guy before, and I don't know what I expected to hear, but this wasn't it...

You had me at "World War Wendigo"... OR... PREVIEW- Amazing X-MEN #11

Because you are not a recovering Marvel Zombie like me, you might not know that the Wendigo is a mystical cannibalistic spirit that possesses people and transforms them into super-strong rampaging white wookies. But only in Canada, because it's magic. CANADIAN magic, son! Anyways, one Wendigo can give the Hulk a good slapping around, so you don't want none of the Wendigo blitzkrieg they are dealing with in Amazing X-men #11, which is part 4 of the 5 part World War Wendigo storyline (so you consider yourself alerted to the spoilers in this preview)...

I got my copy of "Song of Songs: The Manga Series" paperback today!

I went to my P.O. Box today and was pleased to find a copy of Song of Songs: The Manga Series waiting on me. This book is one of the most faithful and sincere blends of comics (or in this case, manga) and hip hop you will ever see...

Hip Hop action comic "Song of Songs" goes to Manga format starting this spring!

Start the day off Right with the Journeymen & El Da Sensei

Here's the new video for The Seed by blue collar rap crew, the Journeymen...

PREVIEW- SOS the Comicbook #8 & 9 f/Vast Aire's Carlos The Midget

As if I needed another reason to love Vast Aire, it looks like the Can Ox/LXG front man is creating comicbook characters now... Issues 8 & 9 of the Canadian hip hop caper Song of Songs the Comicbook feature the foul-mouthed, gun-toting mini-thug Carlos the Midget, created by Vast Aire...

Quick album (p)Review: "The Golden Age" by DPRTMNT

The intro to Canadian hip hop duo DPRTMNT's 22 track album The Golden Age reveals that their name is based on the Canadian superscience agency that produced Wolverine and Alpha Flight. So the nerdcore code says I at LEAST had to give them a try and recommend some good tracks for your hard drive...

Pharoahe Monch interview...

The mighty Pharoahe gives a shout-out to Wolverine... speaks on his relationship with hip hop's big names... his producers on the new record... discusses the significance of indie labels in hip hop...

Toronto Animation crew Ex Machina 7 drops free anthology magazine

Ex Machina 7 Productions is an independent collective of professional animation artists working in the city of Toronto. Having worked in the television, commercial and videogame fields, we formed Ex Machina 7 to showcase and develop original content for a demanding audience.

'Scott Pilgrim VS The World' trailer

I just watched the trailer for the film adaptation of the ghettoManga Award-winning OGN series Scott Pilgrim over on CBR. Scott Pilgrim single-handedly justifies Canada's existence. this movie better rock, or the state of Michigan's gonna conquer Canada and hand it over to Sarah Palin.

"Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour" Cover & Release date revealed!

That dude Bryan Lee O'malley revealed the cover of the 6th and final chapter of his ghettoManga Award-winning series Scott Pilgrim today! I honestly don't know if I could be any more excited about a graphic novel release than I am about Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour, which will finally see Scott go head-to-head with his nemesis, Romana's ex-boyfriend Gideon Graves.

Scott Pilgrim Saves Giant Robot (sorta)

Giant Robot Magazine, the asian diaspora pop culture/ arthouse publication is looking for help to keep the magazine going at full strength in a hostile publishing market. "Reducing pages, going from bimonthly to quarterly, or becoming an online entity are not options," says co-publisher Martin Wong "and our editorial and production staff of two full-timers and two part-timers (intact since issue 18) is already as lean as can be." In an effort to assist, ghettoManga-Award-winning cartoonist Bryan Lee O'malley hooked up the fresh Scott Pilgrim piece below for auction on ebay:

Cast of Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'malley
Click Here to bid on this piece. Proceeds will go to the Giant Robot Donation Drive. In addition to O'Malley's auction contribution, the donation drive is bolstered by original art and print incentives from such fresh jokers as James Jean, David Choe and more! to peep the swag and donate to the cause, click here.

holla!

samax.

ghettoManga.com
comics. hiphop. news. art. culture

Scott Pilgrim movie Vlog is live!

here's the production vlog for the film adaptation of the ghettoManga Award-winning OGN series Scott Pilgrim. Scott Pilgrim single-handedly justifies Canada's existence. this movie better rock, or the state of Michigan's gonna conquer Canada and hand it over to Sara Palin. and who KNOWS what that psycho would do with all the power of CANADA at her disposal!!!! so hopefully, it'll be good...

-gM

And The Cupid Goes To...

okay, so i finally finished writing the blog posts for the 2008 ghettoManga Award Winners!
the awards usually drop in february, but with the new baby and freelance project, came late this year. awards are handed out for excellence in comics, hipHop, art and popular culture. nominees were selected by myself and anyone who wanted to write in, and winners were selected by fan votes. thanks again to all the people who contributed or voted (and especially to all the nominees for goin' hard in '08!) in the biggest gMa's yet!

this year's Winners will each receive a greeting card with the gMa trophy design ("Cupid" seen here) on it and their name and the award they won (assuming i can get a mailing address for them). eventually, we will start giving out actual trophies...

anyways, here are the winners.

Comic of the Year
Proof

Hardcover/TPB of the Year
Freakangels

OGN of the Year
Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together

Emcee of the Year
Jay Electronica

Rapper of the Year
Talib Kweli

Vocalist of the Year
Erykah Badu

HipHop/Rap Group of the Year
The Roots

Artist/Illustrator of the Year
Jim Mahfood

Cartoonist of the Year
Bryan Lee O'malley

Video of the Year
Honey by Erykah Badu

Album of the Year
Eardrum by Talib Kweli

Movie of the Year
The Dark Knight

Champion of Children Award
Power Pack

Man/Woman of the Year
Barack Obama

peace,
-samax
ghettoManga.com
comics.hipHop.news.art.culture

From Good, to Bad, to REALLY Bad!

okay, so i finally got my hands on Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe, volume 5 of the series by Bryan Lee O'malley. for those just joining us, Scott Pilgrim revolves around the social life of it's twenty-something title character and his adorable supporting cast. it's a lot like Charlie Brown, but with more sex and fight scenes. Its unique blend of action, romance, slice-of-life and humor is-like the immortal Slinky- fun for both girls and boys.
so anyways, similar to vol 3, Scott Pilgrim Vs The Universe is much, much darker than the uparching Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together (for which O'Malley snagged ghettoManga Cartoonist of the Year and OGN of the Year in 2008)... O'Malley meticulously takes apart the good vibes Scott and Ramona brought into this issue from the last volume. the pressures of moving in together would be hard enough on them, but now the unspoken circumstances of Ramona's breakup with evil-exboyfriend Gideon are casting a shadow over Scott and Ramona's future... and did i mention Scott has to repeatedly battle the Katayanagi Twins and their increasingly tough Robots? yeah, there's that too...
The Darker tone of this volume makes it less fun to read than the last one, but it's still top notch. Scott's repeated references to Clairemont-era X-men storylines echo the concept of this volume that things get much worse before they get better. Even when Scott vanquishes the Twins, there's little cause to celebrate because of... well, you get the idea!
when this volume ends, the stage is set for the ultimate battle with Gideon, so you probably wanna read all five previous joints so you can be ready to complete the collection when volume 6 drops!
holla!
-ghettoManga.com
comics.hipHop.news.art.culture

Cartoonist, OGN of the Year

Scott Pilgrim, Vol 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
the ghettoManga Cartoonist of the Year Award for 2008 goes to Bryan Lee O'Malley writer/artist of the OGN series Scott Pilgrim. Part four of the series Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together was voted the 2008 OGN of the Year.
Explaining the appeal of Scott Pilgrim is not difficult. it's a book about a twenty-something slacker who falls in Luh... Luh... who really likes this delivery girl Ramona who just so happens to take short cuts through Scott's dreams (there's a really good subspace portal that passes through there...). the problem is he can only date Ramona if he agrees to vanquish Ramona's Seven Evil Ex-boyfriends, but that's okay, 'cause Scott also happens to have MAD fightin' skills!
as you may have noticed, Scott Pilgrim is filled with hijinx, action, and small to medium doses of mushy stuff! in Gets It Together, Scott and Ramona wrestle with the L word (no, not lesbian!), Scott's band gets a chance to record, and Scott is stalked by a mysterious swordsman... good times! OH! and Scott faces off with another of Ramona's Evil Exes who's a little different than the others. the events of this volume force Scott to grow up (a little... he ACTUALLY gets a JOB!), preparing for his eventual meeting with Gideon, the evilest Ex of them all in part 6!

O'Malley takes advantage of the OGN format (popularized by the mass importing of manga) as well as anyone i've ever read. the pacing and storytelling in Scott Pilgrim would be very, very difficult to pull off in any other format. O'malley's art is deceptively cartoony, like a cross between Schulz's Peanuts, Waterson's Calvin and Hobbes and your favorite fighting video game. O'Malley combines humor, action and adolescent sweetheart drama as well as anyone since Stan Lee and Romita on classic Amazing Spiderman. peep this CBR interview with Bryan Lee O'Malley for more, but really, just buy the books. the 200 plus page joints are available for ten bucks apiece on Amazon, and well worth the look!

peace.
-ghettoManga.com

comics.hipHop.news.art.culture

He Comes wit the THUNDER!

my favorite Africanadian artist, Olivier Coipel is in the house for Thor #600, 'longside J. M. Straczynski for this milestone issue.
the sales pitch:
"The mighty God of Thunder hits a major milestone! THOR goes back to its classic numbering for this issue 600 mega-event, and even Stan “The Man” Lee joins the party with an all-new story! J. Michael Straczynski and Olivier Coipel bring their widely acclaimed run to a major culmination!"
Thor's grandad Bor is resurrected by his evil step-tranny Loki... and he isn't feeling the modern world at all!
anyways, click the cover for a free preview, fam!
uno.
-gM

Somebody Buy Me This!

okay, times are tight, but i GOTS ta have that new Scott Pilgrim!!! yep, Scott Pilgrim vs The Universe drops next week (Feb 4th), and i reeeeeeally want it, so if you buy it for me, I'll hook you up with something fresh! if one of YOU doesn't buy it for me... i'll uh, buy it myself. but, if you read this review on CBR and i think you'll agree i deserve it!
that's all...
-gM

Santa Claws is a little late...

but better late than never, right?
okay, lame Christmas jokes aside, Wolverine is shifting into high-profile in preparation for that movie he got comin' out in OH NUEVE (are YOU the last person not to see that new trailer? peep it here... y'welcome), Marvel got mad attention on Logan, includin' superstar creative team of Mark Millar and Steve Mcniven (Civil War) on the killer canadian's book craftin' his future history! here's the sales pitch: Fifty years ago the heroes of the Marvel Universe were massacred and as far as Old Man Logan is concerned, WOLVERINE died with them. During that final battle, something happened to Logan…something so traumatic that he hasn’t popped his claws since. Now Logan lives out his days a shell of a man, his warrior spirit long since crushed by the horrible weight of the secret he carries with him. What happened? Finally, the darkest chapter in Logan’s history can be told! MARK MILLAR and STEVE MCNIVEN’s character defining run continues!
Click the cover above for a preview of the January issue, a flashback to Wolverine's Final Battle... or click the cover below to sample Wolverine: Old Man Logan pt 1.uno
ghettoManga.com

International, Playa...

canadian hip hop manifesto Song of Songs is a comic i've been following online for some time. but i just never got around to ordering it until now (i mean, i just ordered the first six issues about 90 seconds ago!) as much as i DON'T like to get caught sleeping, i just kept putting off buying this book. i ALWAYS have a list of books a mile long i wanna order, and SOS kept falling through the cracks. but today, peeped the ten page sample of issue #4, and i couldn't justify putting it off one second longer! after all, any comic with the balls to spend ten pages showing a group of kids rocking out watching an emcee named "Extravagangsta" spit deserves my support, seen? once i get my issues, i'll review the book overall, so keep your eyes peeled. but if you wanna preview the book for yourself, go here.
uno.
samax
gM