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Podcasts - THE LEAGUE OF EXTREMELY ORDINARY GENTLEMEN: Volume 7, Issue 24: Man vs Nature

Liam Neeson kicking wolf ass got us all ready to talk about this element of conflict (which, yes, includes zombies) and besides that we've got special guest Joe Parsons from Master Pancake Theater who talks about his new, a brand new Killer B's, and more!

Tags: leog, leon, cyrus, podcast, spill, spill.com, comics, tv, movies, man vs nature

106 Comments for THE LEAGUE OF EXTREMELY ORDINARY GENTLEMEN: V...

February 07, 2012 at 5:32 PM, said ...

A few other great Man vs Nature movies: Westworld, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Cube, The Naked Prey, Jeremiah Johnson, Dead Man, Saving Private Ryan, Menace II Society, The Out of Towners (1970), Midnight Cowboy, Hell in the Pacific, The Evil Dead, and almost every prison, haunted house or war picture you've ever seen. It isn't a great film, but The Money Pit also comes to mind.
February 07, 2012 at 5:27 PM, said ...

If "Before Watchmen" was a passion project that DC greenlit, I'd be much more enthusiastic. It doesn't even have to be by Alan Moore - just someone who really loved and, more importantly, understands the original work and has something interesting to add to the universe. But the whole way DC is going about it - making multiple mini-series, hiring several writers and artists, branding the hell out of it - I'm sorry, but I find it a lot difficult not to get my feathers ruffled, so to speak. Yes, they got some good talent, and the good stuff will rise to the top while the bad will sink, but when people say it feels like a cash grab, that's why. I could be totally wrong - maybe someone at the top really loves Watchmen and is masterminding the whole thing, but it doesn't feel that way, and that's what irks me.

For me, it's not an issue of whether DC has the "right." It's where their intentions lie that worry me.
February 07, 2012 at 5:21 PM, said ...

I've been told, and maybe one of you can confirm this, that Neil Gaiman (pre Sandman) was next in line to write Swamp Thing for DC after Rick Veitch, but he turned it down specifically because DC rejected the crucifiction story proposed by Veitch.
February 07, 2012 at 3:51 PM, said ...

Thanks for the WIlliam Girdler recommendations, Brian! I loved Grizzly, and I'm sure Day of the Animals and The Manitou are both movies I'd enjoy watching. On the subject, I would like to chime in with a recommendation for Frogs starrign Sam Elliot and Ray MIlland. It was one of many 70's ecological horror movies where nature revolts against pollution and goes on a killing rampage. (This is what you get for making Iron Eyes Cody cry, motherfuckers!) In Frogs, the fauna of a swamp rise up to kill a family of wealthy ne'er do wells in retaliation for chemical dumping caused by the factories owned by the family. Sam Elliot plays a visiting ecologist who has come to warn/rescue the family and charm the petticoats off the local nubiles. People are killed by lizards, spiders, alligators... come to think about it, just about every animal except the frogs themselves! It's a fun ride, dumb, but entertaining. Brian, if he hasn't already seen it, would like it. Check it out, Spillios!
February 07, 2012 at 3:19 PM, said ...

CAPTAIN CHRONOS! I am so excited about this! Cyrus, go check out the original Captain Chronos. It's like watching Errol Flynn vs Dracula. The movie itself was an inspiration for Marvel's Blade and is a very enjoyable swashbuckling adventure. The title would suggest a much sillier movie than what actually exists. The title is the worst part of the movie. Go check it out; I highly recommend it.
February 07, 2012 at 4:07 AM, MaxJayJay said ...

Is Jason part of the STAG group?
February 07, 2012 at 3:44 AM, said ...

Hollywood has made movies of mans fight against nature, but what if an actor goes and faces nature for real with the foremost survivalist Bear Gryll's in an episode of Man vs. Wild.

"Will half of that twinky was for me". "You just ate all our rations".
February 07, 2012 at 2:56 AM, Dr. Detfink said ...

Remember that scene in Midnight in Paris, where Marion Cotillard's character keeps going further back in time saying, "No, this IS...the perfect time to live in." that's Moore who is Woody Allen's nostalgia merchant and refuses to embrace the now.
February 06, 2012 at 9:28 PM, Tony Beers said ...

Is Gremlins a man versus nature film? After all, they are just basically wild animals doing their thing. If so, that would be my favorite man versus nature film.

Regarding Before Watchmen, Alan Moore should get off his high horse. After all, did he ask Robert Louis Stevenson, H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, Bram Stoker, H. Rider Haggard, Sax Rohmer, Arthur Conan Doyle and any other author that I might be forgetting permission to use their characters in his book The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? They might have thought that his book ruined their characters. DC can do whatever they want with Watchmen whether it is right or wrong.
February 06, 2012 at 5:26 PM, Coca-cola said ...

Just a point of interest when it comes to Bill Waterson and Calvin and Hobbes....

It wasn't that there was a big deal with Waterson and products. It was the UNLICENSED products (rip-offs) that were flooding the market, as well as the marketing department that wanted to have Calvin and Hobbes plastered on products that weren't really "in-character" with the comic-strip. A good example is the Calvin "peeing on ------" stickers that you see from time to time. It was unlicensed products that didn't really support the character's protrayal as seen in the comics. It's when they started to fight in courts and production offices to "cease and desist" the production of those "unlicensed" Calvin and Hobbes products, that Waterson finally decided that he would pull the ultimate move on the product. In order to get the rights to do products that HE wanted for the character, he stopped doing the comics and maintained the rights to the characters. That's why there hasn't been anything like a TV-show or Movie, because of the rights of the characters are solely in the hands of Waterson and he refuses to let people do something stupid with the product/character.... Like Maraduke movie.
February 06, 2012 at 3:12 PM, Fungusmonkey said ...

Apparently I will need to brush up on my coconut engineering...

As for Before Watchmen, I am vehemently against. I'm not surprised that others in the LEOG are looking forward to it because I know that most people aren't as anti-sequel/prequel as I am. I truly feel that Watchmen was complete and whole unto itself and does not need (nor should it have) a tie-in prequel series. Moore was good enough to give you all the important backstory elements IN THE BOOKS. Every character was fleshed out, all of their motivations and arcs were defined and resolved. This feels like a cash grab on the characters because someone at DC suddenly realized that one of their most popular properties really can't go any further than the single collection itself. So, they're doing some prequels in the hope that one of them takes off and they can make some more money off the characters and franchise. I like most of the creative teams involved, but a prequel story for characters who already have established backstories seems like a breeding ground for useless "fill in the blank" storytelling where, rather than shining further light upon the character, it can just become extraneous exposition and "this happened, then this happened, "look - we're foreshadowing things that you already know will happen", then this happened" writing.

From the ownership perspective, whatever shadowy and underhanded treatment Moore received - DC owns the characters. They can do what they want with them. It's just that simple. "Lie down with dogs..." and whatnot. However, there is (and should always be) a fine line between doing something because you should, and doing something simply because you can. DC is riding a media high as the kind of company that's willing to do something drastic and try something new (thanks, New 52) and this is the next step. They want to see just how much they can get away with. Moore feels (and I agree with him) that his work stands as a full and complete story. Now, if they took his characters and made an entirely new story with them, outside the world he created (an alternate world or history or whatever), then he wouldn't really have a leg to stand on (because that's what he's done in the past). However, this is a company-mandated addition to the history and world that he created, which is why he's understandably nonplussed about it. It's one thing to take a character and do something new with it, it's an entirely different thing to take an established character and world and start playing fast and loose with them.

However, it's not all gloom and doom. While I think prequels for the main characters in Watchmen is a terribly poor idea, I am looking forward to the Minutemen book - a group that had a long and sordid history but was not the primary focus of the original books. If you read all the supplemental material (and kudos to you if you did), we already know a lot about the group, but there's enough there that it could be really interesting. Truly a "before Watchmen" book.
February 06, 2012 at 8:56 AM, Matt Taylor-Curby said ...

@Kian410

lol fair play mate. Would love to party with you sometime. Must have been a far run though because I was in MA, not Alaska.

@EathanSkies

Thanks mate I'll take that as a compliment
February 06, 2012 at 7:12 AM, said ...

Oh the sweet sweet memories.
February 06, 2012 at 7:07 AM, said ...

@The Winter Soldier: Who is this Paul Rubio? John Rubio's older Non-gimp brother?

@Id0ntknow:
February 06, 2012 at 6:38 AM, said ...

Winter soldier, I believe you mean "you're".

THE MORE YOU KNOW! *Insert rainbow here*
February 06, 2012 at 5:58 AM, said ...

Totally Rubio!
February 06, 2012 at 5:52 AM, Meksicano said ...

I'm surprised no one has done this already after talking about it on the show.
February 06, 2012 at 5:47 AM, CasperVonSidecar said ...

@andaverde--THIS is a glave. The amazing, if somewhat poorly used, weapon from Krull.
February 06, 2012 at 5:12 AM, andaverde said ...

lol funny as always ^_^

but what the fuck are the glades?/glaves? XD
February 05, 2012 at 11:42 PM, said ...

There was a game called Sims Castaway
February 05, 2012 at 11:00 PM, said ...

A good middle ground between Twilight vampire, and 30 days of night vampire. Is the Daybreakers vampiers an awesome movie.
February 05, 2012 at 10:47 PM, BOWENARROW said ...

Does Ladyhawke count?
February 05, 2012 at 10:42 PM, BOWENARROW said ...

Charlton Heston vs Ants
February 05, 2012 at 10:38 PM, said ...

Thank you for introducing me to We are alive i have not been able too stop listening to it, I bow and praise to Leog for one again introducing new a great stuff. LONG LIVE THE LEAGUE!!!!!!
February 05, 2012 at 9:43 PM, Jef said ...

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