brain out loud

My childhood collection was foolishly abandoned when I moved away to college. For several years the house was left empty, fell into disrepair and eventually demolished. When I was notified of the impending demolition I went back to my hometown, walked through the house, and looked through all my toys. My Star Wars, He-Man, GI Joe, and Transformers collections were all there. Remarkably nobody had broken into the empty house to steal them. Other items, some furniture, and antiques had been stolen, but not my toys. I reminiscent for a while, mainly with the GI Joe collection and for a moment I clutched onto Predaking, the Transformers combiner comprised of five wild beasts. My childhood GI Joe collection was, without doubt, my largest collection and included over a hundred action figures, dozens of vehicles and the piece de resistance the Cobra Terror Drome. I can't recall my thought process at that time but for some reason, I left the house purposely empty-handed. It wasn't

The iconic satirical magazine simply known as Mad, is ceasing publication after issue #10 this fall. However the 67 year old magazine still has life in it...kinda. Reports indicate the magazine will remain on the newsstands (of comic-book retailers) with reprinted older/classic material for the foreseeable future, featuring new covers. How can a magazine published monthly since 1952 only be on the tenth issue, you ask. The magazine was relaunched at #1 in June of 2018 after Warner Brothers purchased it and relocated the headquarters to California. As you may know, Warner Brothers is the parent company of Detective Comics or DC, and the Mad Magazine team was placed under the DC umbrella. Facing challenges after their ill-fated attempt at the box office, and declining comic sales (to be fair an industry wide trend) DC recently announced they will restructure their titles into three age appropriate tiers; DC Kids, DC and DC Black Label. It appears, and I'm just speculating, that t

Spoiler Alert! Godzilla King of the Monsters wasn't a perfect film, worthy of awards, or a shoo-in for an oscars but it did have multiple gigantic monsters in an insane Boston destroying battle royal. After all, why would you go to the theater to watch a Godzilla movie, or any other CGI heavy summer block-buster for that matter, other than the exciting spectacle. The latest entry in Warner Brother's Monsterverse has a low 39% on the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing, mainly because I feel the critics have forgotten that. Pointing out the short-comings of the writing, or the effortless plot and those issues do persist but who cares. As in the original Toho films from the 50s, Godzilla King of the Monsters as well as the Monterverse itself includes a not-so-subtle environmentalist message, a cautionary tale about disrupting the delicate balance of nature. Expressing that message is why the humans are in the film and to set up the fight between Godzi

For no reason it has taken several months for me to upload GI Joe: Mindbender Theater to my Inkitt.com profile. Actually procrastination would be that reason, and if you don't know the definition of procrastination I'll tell you later. Regardless Mindbender Theater is now available to read for free on the website community for aspiring authors. I have other GI Joe adventures in mind, however I also have my own characters and adventures to tell that take the priority, so my next GI Joe fan-fiction may take a while. On the other hand when I get stuck with my own characters I revert to the GI Joe universe where the characters, relationships, and world-building has been completed masterfully by Larry Hama and others. So my next fan-fiction may come sooner than expected. Check brainoutloud for updates and details. Sci-Fi and Mainframe unexpectedly encounter Cobra in a treasured Hollywood landmark. The mad scientist, Dr. Mindbender has a sinister plan, an army of Cobra Vipers