Jordan | May 18th, 2011

What The HELL Is A Mr. Owl?

Well, in case you weren’t born between 1980 and 1990, here’s what you missed…

Closing Up Shop Early

I have some sad news all, due to circumstances outside my control, we only have 2 more episodes of Imagine Industries left.  Sale has been forced to take on a new job earlier than originally planned and will not have time enough to finish our originally planned out stopping point.  This is not Sale’s fault; if he did not start his new job early, then he’d risk losing it completely and no new Father could afford not having work.  I will personally miss working with Sale; he always brought as much professionalism to his work as someone drawing characters like Tim Cruise could rationally bring.

With Sale’s departure, we are down one very talented solider in the II Army but we aren’t necessarily finished.   Josh and I will be discussing all our options moving forward and we will hopefully come up with a battle plan soon.  In the meantime,  we still have 2 more comics to update for certain and we’ll be relaying any news and plans for the comic to you guys as we come up with them.  Regardless of what happens, the Imagine Industries Facebook fanpage isn’t going anywhere and, even if we have to go down for a while, if we comeback in one form or another, you’ll be the first to know.

Josh: …even if we have to ‘go down’ for a while?

Jordan: One thing about us II boys, we have no problem going down

Josh: Please don’t wink at me when you say things like that.

First, a minor preamble.  Josh has been talking about Diablo 3 for about a year now.  He even spent 400 some odd dollars building a new PC so he could play THE GAME the way it was meant to be played.  Josh picked up his copy of Diablo 3 this Tuesday.  Due to this, I EXPECTED him to play it right away and be chomping at the bit to share his review with you all but that didn’t end up happening.  Apparently, he hasn’t even started playing it yet (Boo! Hiss!).  So, it has fallen on me to knock out a review in his stead and since I didn’t play Diablo 3 yet either…

LA Noire for the PC: A late review for a game that’s been out for nearly a year

Ok, it’s new to me, at least.  I’ve recently gotten back into my old groove of playing 2 video games a month.  This month, I knocked out Batman: Arkham City and I am in the process of finishing LA Noire.  From what I can tell, this game attempts to be a few things at once.  First and foremost, it’s a Detective Game; you solve crimes using your wits and what little science can afford you in the 1940′s.  Now, the time period allows for the game makers to explore the plot lines of two films they clearly have major woody’s for; The Black Dahlia and, one of my favorite films of all time, LA Confidential.  As much as the game’s tone resembles the latter, unfortunately, the games acting  comes across as far too hammy for it’s own good in some places.  This would be fine, if not for two things; one, although many characters come off as if they are purposely overacting, some other play their roles very straight, leaving the acting as a whole feeling uneven.  And the second reason the acting is an issue is an important part of the game play is reading your suspect’s reactions and questioning them thusly.

The game is also held back by clunky controls (the driving is particularly bad) and an overly linear story that sometimes feels less like you’re solving a case and more like you’re watching it all unfold.

So, what did I think of the game?

I’ve actually really enjoyed it!  It’s far from perfect but I am eerily compelled and excited to finish it.  Something about the way the broadly drawn characters interact inside, ‘Noire’s’ strangely ‘black and white’ World (Don’t worry, the game is in color, I mean the character’s morality seems very ‘black and white’)  is compelling.  Playing the game through the eyes of the main character, Cole Phelps, makes you honestly feel a sense of right and wrong as you decide which suspects should be set free and which should ultimately get pinned with the murder.  I actually felt myself become disgusted with some of the pretend, virtual crimes that Cole was assigned to solve.

All in all, I’d recommend LA Noire for anyone who likes a good story in their games.  But be warned, the first 30 minutes is by far the clunkiest and least rewarding part of the game, so you’ll have to wade through it to get to the good stuff.

Score: 7/10

Oh, and as far as Batman: Arkham City…

Score: 8.5/10

If you’ve played either LA Noire or Batman: Arkham City or even a completely different game you think everyone should play/avoid, let me know in the comment section on this page or on our facebook page.  Thanks for reading and I can’t wait to hear what you have to say.  Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush.

Did I mention how much I loved, ‘LA Confidential’?

Jordan | May 14th, 2011

Yeah, I Drew This Weeks Comic. Want To Fight About It?!

I first have to give all the credit for this weeks episode to our Artist, Sale.  A week or so ago, Sale sent me a very cryptic email telling me to draw Jordan and Josh; once just standing together and again, with their hands up.  Surprisingly enough, I didn’t bat an eye at the strange request and knocked out some pretty awful (although, pretty good for my skill level) doodles.  A few hours ago, I received the comic you just read above.    At first, I assume like many of you, I didn’t know what to make of a comic written in Serbian.  I immediately thought, I’ll ask Sale to tell me what they’re saying, but after reading it a couple more times I came to the conclusion that not knowing made it all the funnier.  So, without further ado, I bring you…

Possible Translations of This Weeks Comic:

The Easy Answer:

Josh: Does that guy have a gun?

Jordan: I’m not sure, let’s preemptively raise our hands!

(Jordan and Josh put their hands up)

The Insane Answer:

Josh: Babies Taste of Pancakes, no?

Jordan: Raise an arm for each child you’ve devoured!

(Both Raise Each Arm)

The “All Hail, Sale” Answer:

Josh: How shall we best worship our Master, Sale?

Jordan: Let’s start by raising our hands then, immediately after, drop to our knees and praise his name!

(Step One: Raise Our Hands Into The Air)

Missing (Step Two: Drop Our Knees)

Missing (Step Three: Grovel)

Missing Final Panel (Sale Sits On His Throne, unimpressed by the guys’ efforts.  With a flick of Sale’s hand, he has one of Female Honor Guards remove Jordan and Josh so they might fight to the death for God-King Sale’s amusement.)

Next Weeks Episode:  Josh kills Jordan with a Trident, only to be horrifically gored by the antlers one of Sale’s Mythical, yet Battle-hardened, Bilgesnipes.

The Next Episode After That: New Guy Finally Has Some Peace And Quiet At The Office.

The Final Episode: Sale has his Bilgesnipe trample the New Guy,Tim Cruise and the rest of the II staff; once and for all proving his indomitable power.  Afterwards, Sale sets his sights on ruling the rest of the World.  Sale laughs maniacally as he watches his unlimited Army of Fantasy creatures fan out across the city, bringing destruction and death to all they encounter.  Sale looks back to the camera and winks as the credits begin to role.

… I love a happy ending

Jordan | May 11th, 2011

Inspiration From Real Life

I am a kid at heart.  An older, lazier, and more cynical kid than you might normally find on your local playground but a kid, nonetheless.  One of my favorite things about (still) being a kid is the stupid games you get to play; duck duck goose, I spy and, of course, the ultimate kid’s game, slug-bug.  The rules are beyond simple; if you see a VW Bug, you get to hit the person next to you.  It’s great fun (especially when you’re doing the hitting).  My Wife, Nicole and I  play whenever we are out driving, which is kinda dangerous because we often pay more attention to winning THE GAME than we do to not crashing into people.  So far we’ve only had a few close calls so we’re going to just keep playing til it kills someone.

Speaking of kid games, you just lost

Also, I want to officially give credit for this episode to Nicole for coming up with the concept and helping me put together the script, I couldn’t have done it without you, honey.  This is far from the first time she’s helped me with Imagine Industries, in fact I would have given up a while back if it hadn’t been for her support and encouragement.  I could go on and on about her but it would get really sappy and no one would want to read that… especially Nicole.  I’ll just wrap this up by saying that I love my Wife and she rocks!

Finally, Nicole’s reward for coming up with such an awesome episode, I’ve posted a few of her favorite videos… enjoy

And, of course…

Normally, I’d ask you guys to like us and upvote us on Stumble and Reddit and have a fancy link that takes you there but, for some odd reason, that functionality isn’t working this week so I am going to just write the URL code below for people if they’d be so kind as to help us out. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your help.

For Stumble go to:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/8lU6PL/imagine-industries.com/archive/lets-call-it-a-tie/

For Reddit go to:

http://redd.it/ti0ar

Where is this all coming from?  Well, even though I just watched “The Avengers” and played “Batman: Arkham City” this week, I didn’t want to just do a review for them.  I mean, I could easily knock out the reviews, The Avengers was great and Arkham City was just as much fun as Arkham Asylum, but you could hear that from anyone.  No, instead I wanted to talk about what being a Super Hero or Super Villain really means to us in the real World.

Everyone (at least, I certainly do) thinks they could be a Hero.  Given that push (sudden Super-Human Power, a greater calling, finding a Ancient Artifact that turns you into, “The Mask” etc.) we all like to believe we would do the right thing and use our new power for good.  Whether it be getting your hands dirty by taking down drug cartels and street thugs or taking on the various World issues (famine, starvation, corruption, Michael Bay); we all see our Hero self as a Crusader for justice.

On the other hand, there are those amongst us that given great power, would use it for personal gain, vengeance and other naughty pursuits.  All people are inherently selfish, we have no choice, we see the World through our eyes, not our neighbors.  And giving the keys to the Candy Shop to a child will undoubtedly lead  to at least a few candy bars going missing (if not the whole store).  Villainy also brings one more perk, infamy, most people go their whole lives unknown to the majority of our society.  Our petty sides yearn to be known, to be respected… even loved.  Now, a Hero can gain this adoration but if a Hero’s lone goal is notoriety,  they will undoubtedly slip down the path to villainy.

You see, a Hero must be pure or else they fall into the 3rd category, the one almost all of us, regardless of where we started would end up, the Anti-Hero.  When given power, most people will eventually, no matter how well intentioned, give in to there own selfish nature.  Think about it, give yourself all the powers of Superman.  Now, what do you do first?  I might start by ending the Wars in the Middle East and bring the African Warlords to justice.  Now what?  Where do I go?  Well, I saved millions of lives and Trillions of dollars by ending the Wars, the least my country could do is give me a Billion dollar mansion, right?  I’d keep going with this example but it would only get worse from there on in.

If we are to be honest with ourselves, when we watch movies like “The Avengers” and say, “if you gave me power, that’s what I would do with it!” we’d know deep down that we need to add, “…on our best day.” to the quote because otherwise, we’d be lying just a little bit.  Because there is no true Captain America amongst us in the real world.  Really, the best of us would be Iron Man (complete with scenes from the awkward second movie where we get drunk at our birthday party and blow up half our house fighting our best friend).  Sure, we’d do the right thing but at the same time, we’d never lose sight of who is the most important person in the World, ourselves.

But really, most of us would end up being Loki…

Hope you liked my rant and I hear your opinions in the comments or on our Facebook page.  Thanks for reading!

Jordan | May 7th, 2011

Unlucky There’s A Family Guy

So, due to a little miscommunication, this comic tells a slightly different joke than I intended.  The comic comes off like we’re saying, “Josh is mean to the New Guy, so OF COURSE he wouldn’t watch a show with him” which is all well and good but I intended it to read, “The best new Family Guy episode still isn’t that good”.  The mix-up is my fault since I didn’t do a good job (or really any job at all) at explaining the shots.  As the writer of a comic, it is, and should be, my job to Direct each episode and fully explain my vision.  I just assumed Sale was in my head and knew what I was thinking.  I dropped the ball and to both Sale and to you, our readers, I’m sorry for my mistake.

Hey, at least the grammar is all correct… I think.

Now, this leads me into my originally planned post with this comic…

The Lives And Deaths Of The Shows We Love

I was amongst those calling for Family Guy to be saved after it’s sudden cancellation in 2002 and was ecstatic when, 3 years later, it got brought back to FOX, where it’s been a mainstay of the Network ever since.  Honestly, the show deserved to get a second chance based on it’s first 3 seasons and it came back nearly as good as it had been before it got the axe… for a while, anyway.  Eventually, the show grew tired and relied more and more on gross-out humor to fill out it’s 22 minute run time.  Now, that happens and it’s ok to simply run out of fresh material but that, for me, is when I just turn the channel (which I sadly have done with Family Guy).  Community is another example, great first season, got saved by die-hard fans, stuck around for 2 more years and has just gotten worse and worse since (with a few amazing episodes and moments thrown in there to give us hope).

Although a slow, humiliating death isn’t exactly ideal, it’s still much preferred to going down like Firefly or Arrested Development did, while they were still at the top of their game.  At least we know that Family Guy eventually got unwatchable, with Firefly we, as fans, are stuck with 14 amazing episodes and one fantastic movie and a single, burning question.  What if?  What if it got another season in a good time slot with the Network’s support, could it have made it as big as us, the fans, thought it should have?  Instead we are all left with nothing but the improbable hope that the Serenity will fly again.  For me, I think I’d rather they’d burn out than fade away.

Here is hoping that the success of The Avengers will put Joss Whedon in the position to do any project he wants and, if he has another season of our favorite Space Western plan out, let’s hope the Brown Coats will rise again…

Jordan: What do you think, Mal?

Malcolm Reynolds: I’m thinking we’ll rise again.

Jordan: Hehe, quoting Firefly will never get old.

Malcolm Reynolds: God knows we never got the chance to…

Jordan: And that’s what “Grinds My Gears”.

Jordan | May 4th, 2011

They’re Always After Me Leg’s and Arms…

So yeah…dark episode, huh?  Personally, I’d rather eat Tony The Tiger and have Toucan Sam as an appetizer.  And for dessert?  Count Chocula, a la mode with a healthy helping Frankenberry on top.  Bone Appetit!

And yes, I know it should be “bon”, I’m making a bad pun.  I’m making special efforts moving forward to not have any grammar slip ups (especially in comics) from now on.

The Avengers

I’m going to try and keep this review short.  In 2009 (that’s never a good start for a story that’s hoping to be short), I saw a film called, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen on opening night.  It was suppose to be sweeping and epic but fell comically flat for me.  Now, it had Special Effects and big, important things were happening but the thing was, I didn’t give a s#!%, in fact, I would have rooted for the bad guys but they were nearly as horribly unwatchable as the awful good guys.  So, when my friend, Josh (yes, that Josh) texted me immediately afterwards and told me that Transformers 2 was “Beyond Epic” I responded with a combination of confusion, anger, and disbelieve.  See, at the time, I felt that for an Over-The-Top Action Spectacle (which is what Transformers wanted to be) the film needed to have more than just big robots going “boom” to be good, let alone Epic.  An Epic film needs great characters or great dialog or a great story, SOMETHING for us, the viewers, to care about besides the big, loud, smashy-smashy.

Why am I telling you this?

Because The Avengers didn’t have great dialog or great characters or a great story… it had all of them, in spades.  It was, without a doubt, the most fun I’ve ever had watching a movie.  I laughed more times than I do during the best comedies and I really liked the characters, they were each a joy to watch.  The story may have been only functional for the most part but if you take into account how many working pieces had to come together to make a movie that tied together 4 different story arcs, it was pretty darn great.

Oh and all these things just made the Over-The-Top Action Spectacle aspect just that much more rewarding.  In fact, the Avengers destroyed Transformers 2, even if you just take graphics into account.  Now if you add all the other things into it…comparatively, Transformers looks like it was pieced together by an impotent, man-child who would rather throw toy trucks at each other than write a good script.

i.e. Michael Bay

Transformers debate settled!

To be perfectly honest this is going to be a fairly short post. Not because I don’t want to go into every nook and cranny detail of the movie and how good or bad it was, but just simply because I want you to drop everything you are doing in your life… your job, your significant other… whatever you have that is holding you back from watching this movie, and go see it.

I will tell you just a couple of very vague things about the movie that will possibly make you interested but keep in mind that I am leaving out any and all details about the movie specifically, and that is for the reason that you SIMPLY NEED TO GO SEE IT YOURSELF.

1) The cast of characters is fantastic. It has Chris Hemsworth in it, who was the hunk of man meat that played Thor, it has Jesse Williams who plays the heartthrob “Avory” in the hit tv show, Greys Anatomy, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford who essentially make the movie what it is, and a few other key people whom I have never seen in any movies before, but really play a vital part in helping the movie be what it is.

2) It’s not what you may expect… that’s all I’m gonna say about that.

3) It’s directed by Joss Whedon. If you don’t know who that is, then we don’t really have any business being friends. If you happen to know his genius and the previous shows/movies that he has worked on then that fact ALONE should make you want to go see the movie. I never saw a preview, never knew who was in the movie… the only thing I knew what that Whedon wrote it and that simple fact sold me on the $8.50 movie ticket.

Listen, I don’t really tell people to go see many movies. I am excited for some flicks that are coming out soon/this summer like Avengers, (also written by Whedon), Dark Knight Rises etc… but I absolutely recommend this movie. I HIGHLY doubt you will be disappointed. Oh, and if you have seen the movie, PLEASE don’t ruin it for anyone else. Just let them watch it.

So while you were working, the writers of II went and saw Cabin in the Woods, and now you have to.

Vague enough for you?

Josh | April 30, 2012

Never take your eyes off your opponent

Ok, so I should have known that Jordan would not only build a super advanced robot that was capable of karate skills, but one that would have a setting specifically designed to destroy me. I can tell you all that this robot may or may not have a purpose later in the comic and could play a huge part in the story… Just something for you all to think about

I do hope that all of you are loving this string of singles comics. I know we did a poll a while ago about if you enjoy long story lines or the one at a time, but we try and do a little of both to keep it hot and fresh… I’m not really sure who I am right now. It’s 2:30am and I need to get up early for work. Keep it real Imagine Industries. Josh out.

Also, please please please, give us some love on Reddit and Stumble. With our last episode, Ten likes on Stumble translated to 800 hits

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Jordan | April 23th, 2011

Please Like Us On Stumble and Upvote Us On Reddit

Star Wars… Again

For those of you keeping track, this is my 15th episode having something to do with Star Wars. I’d apologies but that would be pretty empty since I’ve got another one coming up in a week or so. You might say I’m a fanboy, heck you might even call me obsessed… that’s it, I have no defense, in fact, I’m probably a little of both. Can’t help it, it’s just who I am; when I was a kid and wrote Santa, I’d always, without fail, ask for a lightsaber and Millennium Falcon and to be clear, I didn’t want toys… I wanted a working laser sword and a ship capable of interstellar travel.

And when I say, “when I was a kid”, I should mention that those are still the things I want for Christmas. I guess we never really grow up, do we?

Grizz Frix and Captain Panaka Are Going To Send Hatemail

I just wanted to jump out ahead of this and say, yes… there ARE other Black characters in Star War, they just had such forgettable roles that it didn’t matter. In fact, I’d be shocked if anyone knows who Grizz Frix is without looking him up. Now, arguably the worst character in the history of Star Wars, Jar Jar Binks was played by African American actor, Ahmed Best and James Earl Jones did voice Darth Vader but otherwise, it’s a pretty segregated Universe. And if you don’t believe me, just ask this guy.