Rise Frankenstein Rise!

Versus Book #46. This has to be the coolest idea in a long time to me. You're in the know if you know about this book "Frankenstein" by Dean Koontz. That's right, it's not the original, it's set in the future where cyborgs are real. This reminds me a lot of the character in "Frankenstein" (a movie about a cyborg) which happened to be based on this very book series! The shame is that Dean Koontz left the project due to artistic differences, that sucks, and left the movie without a sequel which many felt it needed. But it's still a great piece of cyberpunk horror fiction on film, gothic horror. I love the fact that this became a comic series and even a book. Maybe he did that because he couldn't get the right vision on film. It sure could be a film though, that's for sure. I think we need more ideas like this, with a cyberpunk twist. I'd love to read the comic sometime. You know in the future when cyborgs are a reality there's no reason why this sort of Frankenstein couldn't be real, and that in itself is a wild thought. Can you imagine being made of the body parts of criminals and derelicts put together into one body? And then having a cyborg body underneath the flesh? It's an abomination even if you could make it. It might prove how electricity or something could revive dead flesh, who knows, but that's a different sort of application of the science. So if you wanna read something really cool then this is the ticket.



Guest Commentator HARVESTER OF SORROW says: "It's actually fun to reanimate people!"

Stepping Into Surreal Country

Versus Art #64. Got some cool art here. This cyclops boy in the countryside is actually a really cool pic. I mean yeah it does look like something that would adorn the wall of The Addams house but it's not a bad painting at all. And As far as portraits go I'm really bad at painting human faces so to distort a person is much easier. Even I have faith that I could paint something like this easier than a regular human. It's not easy to paint faces. On the other hand, simplicity gives it a style much like a surreal vision instead of a totally realistic portrait. Ever see those guys that do portraits of you for money in markets or festivals? They don't look the most realistic all the time but they sure do resemble you don't they! More realistic portraits are harder to do unless looking at a picture. I know I do better when trying to copy a picture. Now wouldn't it be cool if this unknown artist did a whole series of characters like this with different backgrounds? That could start something like "The Addams Family" but totally different. We are only limited by our imaginations. If you don't do it then someone else with a much greater imagination might. Don't be afraid of your inner bizarre artist. It reminds me of work by Tim Burtion or Clive Barker.



Guest Commentator X-RAY SALLY says: "Hey WTF! That's my brother you bastard!"

Making The Mandroid

Versus Science #66. You see this fella here, he's what you call an electric eel. And recently they've figured out what makes their electrical shocking mechanism work. The fields of technology and science have some big plans for this research. They want to make what they call a biological battery. This is of course the making of many things to come, like possible mandroids. In "Bladerunner" the mandroid was a man-like thing that only lived 4 years, quite inhumane. This sort of science is impossible to stop though. They were bound to figure that out. And if it weren't that then it'd be some other breakthrough so there's no point in trying to stop it. All one can think is about how the future will change. I can't imagine what the biological battery could lead to but you can be smart enough to know that it could lead to many things, good and bad. Most sciences do, I believe a doctor created Ecstasy, the rave drug. Except in the beginning it wasn't meant to be a drug. So you see is there really any way to stop good ideas from being twisted into other things? Not really. Will we all become mandroids? Possibly, but not for a very, very long time. And this brings up some issues, what is a mandroid? A manufactured human? Well, on the bright side they're also planning on using this same technology for car batteries in the future!



Guest Commentator VIRGIN VIKING SLUT says: "My lord, shall I kill it and fetch it for your dinner?!"

It Gets Even More Obscure

Versus Game #42. Felt the need to get a second "Dark Knight" out of the gallery cue, haha. This time I brought ya one of my faves, "Obscure", set in a teen horror movie setting complete with soundtrack by "Sum 41". You got like 4 or 5 people in your group of teens trying to figure out what's going on at their school. Odd things have been happening and people have been disappearing. The game starts out like you're in a movie and does well with atmosphere. I really got into it and found myself wanting to keep playing and playing. It turns out it's a mutant strain of plant! Some monster planet serum was given to plants at the school by a scientist that lives under the school! That's about as crazy as they get but it was so cool to play, and you can unlock like 3 music videos if you play it on hard mode. That was before I started playing all games on hard mode so I only unlocked 1 music video, dammit! I'd like to play it again. Now we got a sequel out! Aptly titled "Obscure: The Aftermath". As hard as that is to believe it's true and I am once psyched puppy! Of course with the Wii things are a bit tougher since you have a motion sensing controller used in gameplay much like the Wii version of "Resident Evil 4" being harder than the original. So this oughta be interesting!



Guest Commentator BONE COLLECTOR says: "I play this all the time on my spaceship!"

Pulp Fiction Meets Avenged Sevenfold

Versus Music #34. Sometimes part of being cool is about what looks cool. I usually like heavy industrial metal but this group had me at hello, haha! Just kidding, they had a cool video that reminded me of one by "Avenged Sevenfold", an animated one. This group, "Los Tiki Phantoms" is a surf rock band with a ghoulish aftertaste. Their video was goth in a way and I feel in love with it. Now surf rock has never been major by me, except in that movie "Pulp Fiction". Sometimes the surf sound just sounds really cool when done right. I mean, it doesn't have to sound like "surf", you could take that aspect and alter it as you see fit of course. These guys wear skull masks, kinda reminds me of the "Misfits" except they never wore masks. "The Berzerker" wore masks though. I think it's kinda cool, not like a mask is gonna keep people from finding out who you really are. Although I bet it probably helps with fans swarming them. Is it possible to have goth surf rock? I wouldn't know but this sure sounds like it to me, you'll have to watch that same video I saw to understand what I'm saying. Just look up some vids on Youtube and you should find it. Pity I never learned how to surf. I was too busy as a teen chasing who I thought were serial killers and trying to solve mysteries. No "Scooby Doo" jokes please. Wow... this band could totally fit on that cartoon.



Guest Commentator BLOOD MISTRESS says: "It's like a soundtrack to Hell!"

Pushing The Fear Of Evolution

Versus Movie #66. Time for another movie already. Just rented this movie. It didn't have a lot of action but it did have a good plot and managed to pull you in for the whole movie, "Push" is the film. I hope the sequel isn't named "Pull", that would really suck. Kinda like that joke, the sequel to "Hope Floats" could be... which was obviously planned. I know none of you know what to think of my theories but I'm smart enough to know that the stuff in this movie could be real. And that isn't even an exaggeration. Like the guys that can shout and make your ears bleed. Well we do know that dogs answer to dog whistles, which we can't even hear. And bats use sonar. So why couldn't one believe if a human was born with different vocal chords then it could be possible? Of course it could. And the psychic ones, well that's a bit creepier I think but it is possible. I fear for anyone that does that kind of experiment on anyone though, that just sounds like a bad idea, like something out of that PS1 game "Galerians". The push ability is a bit more complex but it involves ESP so it's not supposed to be like magic or something. This reminds me of the "X-Men" movie. You know the government would be against mutants with powers like that.



Guest Commentator THE EVIL SCHOOLGIRL says: "I need that power dammit!"

Condemn Those Kids To Gamer Hell

Does anyone believe in video game addiction? I don't. But I'm sure someone out there does. If it weren't for all those supposed addicted teens then who would grow up to become video game designers or game testers? Who would play in gaming tournaments? Who would come up with insane ideas for new games? I'm not sure what parents really have to worry about if their teens aren't even graduated yet to tell you the truth. It's a different story if they're just loafing for years after high school and playing games instead of looking for work but if teens aren't even graduated then who really cares? I think this term "video game addiction" is made up by parents who are ultra paranoid. The only form of addiction I've seen is from married men playing too much of a web game or online MMORPG to the point of the wife filing for divorce. And did you know the average gamer is about 28? That means a lot of kids are going to love video games well into their 30's and beyond. So you can't knock the entertainment value of them. Did you ever see "Godzilla"? Or "The Matrix"? They both had video game-like controls to fire guns on gunships. You'd have to be good at video games to even shoot those guns. Don't tell me games don't have any real world application. Even the Army was using games to try to figure out how many things not to do and what you should do because many things can go wrong, and a video game will certainly teach you that. I die all the time in games. So imagine what soldiers would be thinking? Yeah, it pays to play.



Guest Commentator CHROMESHINE says: "My brain thinks like a videogame!"

An Illusion We All Might Pay For

Virtual cities might not seem like much now but when VR starts taking over and cities look more real than the ones in "Second Life" then we'll be a bit more submersed. That does bring up the fear of mental shock too. Could people kill you in a virtual world and actually kill you? And even if they couldn't would you feel o.k. after the mental shock and physical pain of death? I have a feeling digital worlds have many bugs coming. I can't really imagine dealing with all the possible problems in a world where anything is possible. Literally! If a hacker wanted to he could change anything or create something that wasn't there before or make odd things happen. It's a new form of hacking that hasn't even happened yet. We're not advanced enough to imagine this sort of hacking. You remember that virus Agent Smith in "The Matrix" that took over someone's mind? Well it's possible if people have an electrical tube plugged into their brain to have something like that happen! And maybe it's just me but I think the virus that infected inanimate objects in "Johnny Mnemonic" is even more frightening. Imagine a virus that you could get from touching your T.V. or radio or other electronic devices. I'm having a hard time imagining that myself. We already have diseases out there, so the thought of new ones from technology is a bit creepy. I'd like to stroll around in a virtual city that looks really real but will that ever be safe? It could be if they limited the actions. But after a while someone may come along that might want to scare us.



Guest Commentator QUEEN OF BLASPHEMY says: "You wanna see something really scary?!"

Captain Spaulding To The Rescue!

Versus Killer #25. I think it's safe to say that anything modeled after "Captain Spaulding" from "House Of 1,000 Corpses" will be utterly creepy and revolting. He's a creepy old man and he likes to kill defenseless cheerleaders and the like. I wonder if everyone in his town was dropped on their head as a child. So now you can even be this creepy bastard for halloween if you so desire! Just imagine, little kids dressing like old men with bad make-up on! And if that's not enough you could even get a plush doll of this lovable character, or should I say unlovable? You could say he's started a cult. Sometimes single characters in movies start cult followings of their own and take on a life bigger than the movie itself. Well as far as killers go he is a creepy one. He's got that maggot teeth thing going on like "Beetlejuice" with his green teeth. Call me crazy but I'd get tired of having a rancid, rotten smell in the house due to bodies in the basement. So who did more killing in that movie? We need a stat board for these killers to see who's racking up the score. Is it possible that they could've killed a whole town by themselves? Possibly. But then where would you shop? So the big question is would you take a ride on the Murder Ride? Even the bobblehead of Captain Spaulding is freaky. Just give him a piece of fried chicken and he won't kill you... for 15 more minutes.



Guest Commentator BRAINSUCKER says: "The cult of Spaulding needs a church!"

All The Badguys Come From Asylums

Versus Game #41. I think the new games coming out are remaking the games of old the way we wanted them to be. Like for instance with this game "The Dark Knight: Arkham Asylum". It looks great on the PS3 and I'm willing to bet it's supposed to be like the sequel to the movie "The Dark Knight". That would make sense really. You get the feeling after The Dark Knight is over that there's a new problem since they mentioned some escapees from that asylum in the end of the movie. And we don't see what they do with the Joker but one could guess he goes to an asylum. So it makes perfect sense. Then the next Dark Knight movie, if there is one, would be the part after the game. That's how "The Chronicles Of Riddick" did it, animation movies bringing the movies together, along with games to complete the story. So in this game you're playing Batman the way you wish it always was. The combat looks great and fluid. And this new generation of kids are being raised on amazing graphics. There's more independent choice of how to do things in certain parts that require a bit of planning. In my opinion this is the way the game should be. And that Joker looks so evil in video game form. This game makes things a lot more in depth. In truth, this game has already been reviewed, before it came out, so now it's up twice on the versus game gallery. Maybe it deserves to be up there twice.



Guest Commentator GOODBYE KITTY says: "Asylums are good hiring centers!"

Synthesized Futures

Versus Science #65. It's been foreseen in video games and movies, the idea of synthetic foods taking over when animals die out. Synthetic beef produced in large blocks, how do you like the sound of that? This is something I wish the world didn't have to encounter because it means the dying out of a species if that happens. It also means a lot more people living on this crowded planet. Like in all those movies where there's a double decker city or triple decker city with tons of people living in one area. What room will be left for all the animals of the world in the future? Will we bring back the polar bear synthetically? Is that playing God? It's a frightening concept because you have to understand that one thing leads to others. Like people trying to bring back their deceased loved ones by taking a DNA sample from the tissue and regrowing them. And humans aren't like animals, we wouldn't want to be brought back. It could happen though if we simply let animals die and started the process of synthetic meats. It's a sort of Frankenstein horror when it comes to humans. Don't doubt that this couldn't happen for a second. It could. Sometimes I wonder about the future, would it really be better? Maybe that's why some of us don't want to live forever. I used to want to but now I'm not so sure. I mean yeah it would be nice to live longer than we do now and not grow old so drastically, or at least look a lot younger in old age, but those are mere ideas of literature and film. Real life is never so novel. Will there be any animals in the future I wonder? Forests may disappear and we would be left with high technology but no sanctuary.



Guest Commentator BLUE FIEND says: "I'll eat anything, so hungry!"

Primordial Ooze From Hell

Versus Movie #65. I'm sure you've heard of this movie but if not then you're missing a gem. The new Versus Movie is "Phantoms". I loved this movie the first time I saw it. It's so bizarre that you can't help but want to keep watching it. The beginning has them in a house where two heads fall from the top of the oven vents, yikes! And just how odd is that? I mean how would they even end up there? Did the phantom do it? We're led to assume so but it sure is out there. The cast to this movie really made me think "Wow those guys Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are in everything." Ben Affleck happens to be in this one. Rose McGowan is also in here, nice treat! I remember the part where Liev Schreiber gets chopped in half and has tentacles coming out, that was awesome! The creature itself is a strange primordial ooze that's basically made of the DNA of many creatures, and it's base is in oil, like the type we use in cars. It's like some DNA mass of hellish proportions that can become anything, a scientifically proven natural shape shifting creature with oil as it's bodily catalyst. The theory is sound, and that's why I like it so much. That's also why I like cyberpunk, they try to make the unreal real. So this movie deserves to be on my list. And it's written by Dean Koontz! You know it's good if he wrote it.



Guest Commentator VIRGIN VIKING SLUT says: "I will kill the foul beast with my trusty axe!"

VERSUS GIRL #50 - Young Secret Agent

This new Versus Girl is really awesome. She makes me all tingly on the inside and makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up! I find myself gazing off into the ceiling with a smile on my face to thoughts of her. Allison Scagliotti is her name. You may not know of her unless you watch the Disney channel because that's where she got her start. I would've never guessed upon seeing her in "Warehouse 13", a cool adventure show on the Syfy channel. The show ends up making her like the new generation of Warehouse 13 agent and it gives it a really cool touch. I really liked the episode where she was wanting her brother back and they get him after 10 years in a virtual domain! This was the first appearance of her of course. I love her name and then you add a face to that of a hot, young thing and you're set. Don't feel guilty either, in the show she says her job was a stripper! Aren't all the strippers hard body 18 year olds? Yeah, and yet we're supposed to act like we don't know why they choose them. I have no shame anymore. This girl is smokin'. She hasn't done a whole lot but she's off to a really great start. If this turns out to be anything like Jessica Biel then she'll probably end up in a "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" sequel or something, hahaha. The dark side has a way of choosing those cute innocent ones.

Guest Commentator TOUGH GUY says: "Excuse me while I use my x-ray vision!"

The Death Of Electrical Death

I've heard of this new technology coming out that's waterproof. And then I heard about how people are putting things like T.V.'s in their bathrooms but these aren't the waterproof ones yet. It may be extravagant but not the most functional. People could end up electrocuted in their bathtubs doing that. And I have heard of that happening before, as sad as that is some people do go through that. With this new waterproof technology they could put that in not only T.V.'s for the bathroom but also laptops! Just imagine, a waterproof laptop is like a revolution! I'd pay for something like that. The touch screen awesome enough but add waterproof to that and you got a really cool idea. I mean it's a shame if you gotta get on your laptop to end up getting electrocuted as you take a bath. That is a sad way to go and it shouldn't happen. With that sort of technology you could revolutionize a lot of things, especially the amount of electricity related deaths! I'd say it's a way to a safer future and that adds a lot of value. Imagine the sort of bathrooms rich people will be having once this stuff hits the market! Yeah, it's safe to say that this may well be the best idea yet. No more people throwing T.V.'s into pools and killing people, haha.



Guest Commentator THE GRAVEROBBER says: "Just great, now what'll I do for fun?!"

The Horror Of The Madballs!

Versus Art #63. Those crazy "Madballs" should have their own movie. But not like a movie with headless heads, more like the heads with bodies attached. I think it'd be cool. If you don't do it right though then it could turn out to be like "Bionicles" the movie. Don't get me wrong I love Bionicles but in a movie they would obviously be made from Lego pieces, haha. And a movie with Madballs without bodies would be a bunch of flying heads. That sure seems funny, although it could work possibly. I was thinking of the fully bodied characters with their heads and all doing silly things. I imagine a character for each, like a zombie, or werewolf, or mummy, or some other monster. And if they could make a movie with characters like that without it being cheesy in any way that would be even cooler. The only movie I can think of with all three monsters was Either "The Monster Squad" or "Van Helsing". I was thinking of how some older cartoon movies have more blood and guts, or even nudity. The Madballs would fit in well with a crowd like that. I mean they're gross to begin with, nobody would be surprised by a bloody movie with naked chicks in it. Maybe I'm just a mad genius and I have film maker to share my ideas with.



Guest Commentator THE LUSTY NUN says: "Madballs really turn me on!"