Planet Griffin Public Service Announcement

Once again, returning to your atmosphere, the pirate blogcast known as PLANET GRIFFIN is here! Just a word of note today--- while making a few changes on the site, I inadvertently erased the Network blogs link to the page... To those of you who linked up to the site through that application, I'm still appreciative to you for signing in. I may put it back up later.

Relax--- PLANET GRIFFIN is still here (in fact, it's about to spawn some new tricks to which I'm very excited about... In the world of show and tell, I'd rather show it and let it speak for itself.)

Stay tuned, True Believers--- more to come shortly!

THE BIG BUZZ: Grindhouse Uncovers The Missing Reel

*REEL MISSING* SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE* -The Management


I stumbled upon this from NEXT 100 member JAY POTTS over at The World of Hurt... Needless to say, as a fan of the Grindhouse/Blaxploitation era, I had to throw this one out there to those who follow the pirate blogcast known as PLANET GRIFFIN!
KURT LLOYD and DAVID WALKER took their love for 70's grindhouse and did something about it, creating a 10 minute show for the love of the genre! THE MISSING REEL examines 3 movies from the sub genre and points out their place in the context of Hollywood lore. Complete with all of the bad jump cuts, commercial trailers, and griminess of the time period without a single loss of life for being there. Kurt and David developed a pilot for the hope of getting distribution, but they need the continued support of those of us who still love the genre, so be sure to check'em out on their facebook page. New episodes are planned, so stay tuned for the next episode! This is THE BIG BUZZ!

Don't Take My Word For It

"Something that Pope brought up got me thinking. Basically he was saying that one reason he did his Batman 100 was in order to get the DC readers. Kind of hits a sour note with me ---I mean, I have mixed feelings about it-- I fully believe that living off of your art is a hustle and you have to pull some scams and do shit to get by but then there's the idea that I think it kind of hurts the culture of comics that so many good creators live in the shadow of DC/Marvel.

And even if I'm less hyped on Pope's batman than his other work, maybe it was something he really wanted to do and I'm sure it payed better than self publishing. I just think Pope is a lot better than Batman, and where a lot of dudes can do a decent batman comic, he's the only one that can do that specific mix of cool enough for girls thick, black batter ink comics that I miss on the shelves. That's a big part of this rant, I wish Batman 100 was years more THB or another Buzz buzz.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think creators have a lot more power than waiting for DC/Marvel to call. I always joke that if I needed them to co-sign my career I'd still be waiting."
-Brandon Graham

"MC's should have OTHER WAYS of getting money
That's to say learn other things beside music
Make money elsewhere, Hip-Hop you won't abuse it
Too many MC's, just emcee/
so their longevity, is based on an Uncle Tom
at the record company"
-KRS-1

"The creators who have done amazing work for the “industry” – literally created masterpieces and future corporate properties – who as employees of said “industry” were then cast aside, CRUSHED. Oh, y’know, Siegel, Shuster, Simon, Kirby, Ditko, Whitney, Rude, and then all the freelancers who were popular once, or just “got work” forever but now haven’t worked for years – like Tom Grindberg who can’t get work these days because his Neal Adams-like style is just out of style…"
-Frank Santoro

Boom. Here's to the 4th of July.

Ghettomanga Contest Serves Up The Goods

Independence Day stands as a double meaning here at PLANET GRIFFIN... As an American holiday where we like to gather our families together to watch things explode, and the boiling point of underground indies as they begin their creative march on the mainstream--- a march I plan to buy the tickets to!

Speaking to NEXT 100 affiliate SAMAX AMEN over at GHETTOMANGA, I've learned of two contests he's promoting and wanted to make sure the word got heard. FELIPE SMITH, formerly of MBQ fame, has long since graduated to the Manga capital of Japan, becoming the first African American to publish a major series there known as PEEPO CHOO--- a series that's captured the Japanese readers' attention in droves! Anyway, Samax got his hands on a few copies of the recently released translated version of the series and is giving them away ahead of the American release date of JULY 13th.

CONTEST #ONE: Send an email with your name and mailing address to contests@ghettoManga.com to enter the drawing. Just make sure to put PEEPO CHOO MANGA CONTEST in the subject line to get counted! You must be 18 years or older to enter, since the Japanese has a far stranger tolerance of over the top sex and violence than most american parents...

CONTEST # TWO:

GhettoManga presents The Felipe Smith Fan Art contest! Just draw one or more characters from Peepo Choo or MBQ or even a drawing of Felipe himself, and the winner will cop a free copy of the PEEPO CHOO vol 1! Any medium is fine... draw, paint, and even cosplay with photographs, just make sure to put FELIPE SMITH ART CONTEST in the subject line AND include your mailing address to enter! You can enter both contests or one at a time, but make sure you include the correct info to each contest you enter.

Both contests end Friday, July 9th!

Black & Blue DIY: Guerilla Filmmakers On The Rise

A couple of years ago, a young collective of guerilla filmmakers from North Carolina became disheartened and bored as hell with some of the genre garbage that Hollywood continued to churn out and decided to make their own movies. By 2008, the group quickly burst onto the independent film circuit (including CANNE) with a modest budgeted flick known as THE DOGS OF CHINATOWN, a martial arts actioner that quickly turned heads with it's outrageous stunts and innovative techniques that follows in the DIY tradition of directors like ROBERT RODRIGUEZ...
Of course, it was merely a warm-up to what they were really planning next.

Under the banner of ALL ACES MEDIA, the director/producer/writer craziness of MICAH MOORE and BLAKE FAUCETTE have been tirelessly gathering up some of the best up-and-coming fight choreographers around and began shooting test footage for something completely different... BEAT DOWN BOOGIE is currently in it's raw stage (the first run footage you see above was shot with a handheld camera), but the buzz that's being generated right now has earned AAM the label of 'New School Guerilla Filmmaking At It's Best', as this mix of JACKIE CHAN meets SAMURAI CHAMPLOO for the hip hop set continues shooting through the summer.

Stay tuned to PLANET GRIFFIN and catch more coverage on their BeatDownBoogie production blog.

Dogs of Chinatown Opera Trailer from All Aces Media on Vimeo.