Spacecraft Orion successfully launches, tests early Mars missions

"A new era of American space exploration"

          - Mission Control Houston

Yesterday at 7: 05 a.m. EST the NASA spacecraft Orion successfully launched and eventually soared as high as 3,600 miles above the Earth. It was an unmanned capsule that is an important step in the campaign to eventually take a crew of humans to Mars.

"A human-rated system hasn't gone that far since 1972. ... That reminded us that here we are again, now, the United States leading exploration out into the solar system."

          Mark Geyer, Program Manager

Here is an HD video of the launch of Orion's maiden voyage into space.

For a longer, lower quality video of Orion's launch and its ascent to its preliminary orbit above the earth, click here. And here is a Redditor's GIF timelapse of the spacecraft's path.

The capsule eventually faced speeds up to 20,000 miles during the successful reentry of Earth's atmosphere, and subsequent landing in the Pacific Ocean.

Finishing touches

Sneak peak of the Requiem poster, before inking. #ImaginosPlus

 Almost done with the contours. Gotta put in the details tomorrow then off to the inks. Poster for J Albert Cain's REQUIEM comic.

Honeycomb Hideout Double Feature: Episodes 24 and 25

Alright, 'Combies! After a few intermissions and a ridiculously busy schedule, the Hideout's back! And as a reward for all your patience, here we have two, count 'em, TWO episodes of the show in one post! We have "M2X Day 2" where Joe Cain and April Cox partake in a discussion of the convention at the halfway point and some of the cool things they'd seen so far and what they look forward to seeing. But that's not all for "Day 2"! In the second half of the episode, The Joes (Cain and Young) are joined by a couple of new friends at M2X for a lovely game of "Cards Against Humanity" and, whether you've heard of the game or not, you're in for a treat! And for "Day 3", Joe Cain's joined by Nik Emmadi who besieged his partners with his unexpected presence late in day 2. The two of them discuss a great many topics in geek culture as well as things that are good and that they'd like to see in future conventions. Also, they discuss the ever so interesting topic of "Death's revolving door" in comics as well as character turnover in many of our favorite shows. So here's the obligatory "Spoiler Warning" for any fans of "The Walking Dead", "The Superior Spider-Man" and numerous other series that you'll just have to listen to find out more about.  ;)

Episode 24: M2X Day 2/Imaginos plays Cards Against Humanity
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Episode 25: M2X Day 3
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Also, don't forget, 'Combies, for all of our iTunes fans, our shows are available for download on iTunes a couple of days after it's posted here. And if you're interested in getting your own copy of "Cards Against Humanity", check out their website where the game and its many expansions are available for purchase: Cards Against Humany

Imaginos Movie Review: "Guardians of the Galaxy"

Review by Joseph Young

            Guardians of the Galaxy was amazing.  I’d love to just leave it at that and call it a day, but I can’t in good conscience do that to you guys.  This movie left very little to be desired and those are only nit picks on my part, one of which is that I wish it was just a bit longer. "Guardians" had me laughing and overall completely engaged, but when the backstories came out for the individual characters, things got serious.  It's hard to pull off that kind of blend in a movie and another to bounce back and forth with it and still make you feel like your not missing a thing, and this movie kills it in that regard, but in a good way.

            The characters were on point too; Star Lord was funny as hell he always had a one liner or some remark to make, even when the dude is being heroic and does something right, he has to pop off a joke or something.  The guy is all about the 80s, I was sitting there in the theater and I was actually able to count off the number of references at one point.  All that said, Star Lord is easily the most fleshed out character in the movie, it starts with him and we do see a lot of growth in him threw out the movie.

Gamora…wow, this chick should have her own movie. I mean, every character gets screen time and they all get a backstory and all get treated fair in that regard, but there are some characters that I wanted to see more of, problem being that a single movie would not allow for that.  Rocket, yes the raccoon with the gun, this guy was a scene stealer throughout the whole movie. Every scene he was in, it was either funny as hell or emotional, and that's really a tough call because Peter Quill (Star Lord) was exactly the same way. But Rocket stole the show for me, I walked out of the theater a Big fan of that raccoon.

 

            This movie was very much "Avengers" meets "Firefly". You have an ensemble crew that shouldn’t work well together but does oh so well, you have a space ship and a galaxy to go and make trouble in, and there's even a point in the trailer where you get the feeling that while these guys are the good guys, they aren’t against taking the odd or slightly illegal job to keep on doing what they do.  My one gripe is that the movie ended too soon and that I wanted to see more of the characters and the world they are in and that's how a movie is supposed to be done.

The Honeycomb Hideout Episode Special: In the Trenches

Alright, 'Combies! Mark Dudley's taking the reins once again for a special artist-centric episode of the Honeycomb Hideout. Returning to the Hideout is phenomenal artist Sharard Jackson and making her debut in the Hideout is Whitney Cook, an incredibly talented colorist and one of our collaborators on our soon-to-be-completed anthology "Imaginos Plus" as the colorist on Mark Dudley's "Juda Fist".

A great many serious and inane topics abound in this episode as the trio discuss the ins-and-outs of making a kickstarter work, the trials and tribulations of comic book production and politics involved in the professional and fan portions of the comics community. There's likely more there too, so come on down and enjoy!

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And don't forget, our shows are also available on iTunes, so feel free to check us out there as well.  :)

The Honeycomb Hideout Episode 23: The Midwest Media Expo Day 1

Alright, gang! It's been awhile coming but it's finally here, the first day of the guys and girls of Imaginos Workshop at the Midwest Media Expo. It was a really fun show with a lot of interesting happenings, so give it a listen and check out all the fun we had. Also, stay tuned for Day 2 next week!

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And once again, sorry to those of you that prefer to listen to our show while on the blog, but feel free to download it and listen to it anytime. Also, don't forget that the podcast is also available on iTunes the next day after it's posted here. :)

The Honeycomb Hideout Episode 22: Sharard Jackson and the Galaxy Girls

What's up, 'Combies! With everything running at the speed sound at Imaginos Workshop, the boys have been up to their necks in working on the Imaginos PLUS anthology. But, Mark, Nik and Little Joe still have a treat for you. With prolific comic artist Sharard Jackson on deck, the boys are discussing the rigors of independent comic production, the pluses and minuses of crowd-funding and the awesomeness that is Galaxy Girls, which is Sharard's current project with co-creator Shawn DePasquale. So have a listen to the hi-jinx and if you want to check out their project, here's the link!

And be sure to tune back in later for Imaginos Workshop's coverage of the Midwest Media Expo back in May! It was a lot of fun and we should have the first part ready for you in a couple of weeks, so don't go too far or you'll miss it!

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P.S.: To our listenership, unfortunately our current pocasting provider no longer has a playable widget that's supported by blogspot. So, feel free to download our podcast through the link above or download it from iTunes. Thanks for your understanding!

Kickstarter Update: New Artwork, Prizes Coming Very Soon!

No professional and creative endeavor that's worth a damn ever goes off exactly according to plan. While we were thrilled to have our Imaginos Plus comic book fully funded on Kickstarter, that was just the beginning of one helluva process. Despite some bumps in the road and production changes, we are moving forward nicely.

Custom-designed Juda Fist and Imaginos Team T-Shirt prizes will be shipping out to backers as soon as the end of next week, and we have more prizes (sketchbooks, posters) in the pipeline after that. We've said it before and we can't say it enough: thank you again to everyone that has supported us, financially and otherwise, during this process. We are thrilled to be in a position to produce something real and awesome - hopefully something that we ourselves would want to experience as fans of the medium.

Here's a sneak peak of the superhero action-comedy Candy Coated, which will appear in Imaginos Plus. Hopefully you like the results we're getting as much as we do. Don't forget to click on the link at the bottom of this post: our Kickstarter Update will give even more details and sneak peaks of the colored pages!

Imaginos Plus: Kickstarter Update #20

The Honeycomb Hideout Episode 21: Youmadness Day 3

We finally made it! The final part of Imaginos Workshop's experiences at Youmacon 2013!! That sunday was particularly interesting as some old 'Combies returned to the fray. Jon Fournier and Cory Clements join Joe Cain and Joe Young behind the mic as they banter, observe and oogle. Yes, there was much oogling, even whilst recording.  LOL  This episode also brought about the introduction of a new feature for the Honeycomb Hideout that may become a new convention tradition. We hereby dub it "HCH Uber-BRAWL!"; oh yeah, feel the awesome. This first edition started out as an "East vs. West" style tournament but quickly turned into a geeky battle royale. Give a listen and join in on the fun!

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And if you have any suggestions for match-ups for future editions of "HCH Uber-BRAWL!" that you would like to hear us research and discuss, leave us a comment on any future episode. We'll collect them between episodes and when the time comes for the next "Uber-BRAWL!", we'll use the match-ups we're sent. Cool, huh?

The Imaginos Movie Review: 47 Ronin (Potentially Spoiler-ish)

 Written by Joseph Young

 Edited by J. Albert Cain

A few weeks ago, I went to go see "47 Ronin" in theaters with a fellow imaginos member and thought this movie is sweet as hell,. 2 thumbs up! Then I went to go read the 313 year old true story that the movie was based off of.  I can honestly say that the movie held to its roots very well, though it did make some choices that ...let's say "color" the story a bit.  Because the story is true or mostly true in this case, there are few plot holes, if any, that I can find, though the changes that were made are something to talk about.

::Editor's Note: This is actually a hella spoiler-ific review. So yeah, beware if you want to see this movie in the near future and care about spoilers.::

The Honeycomb Hideout Throwback: The Black History Month show

Well, 'Combies, the Imaginos crew has been hard at work on "Imaginos Plus", but since we didn't want to let Black History Month go by without contributing something, we've got a little treat for you. We're climbing into our Tardis and hittin' that wayback switch and taking y'all back to the second episode of the original Honeycomb Hideout! For this one, we covered a number of different topics ranging from prominent black characters in fiction to the logistics of Marvel vs. Capcom. Yep, it was a fun one, so come on and relive it with us!

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The Honeycomb Hideout Episode 20: Youmadness Day 2

 And here we go, 'Combies! Part 2 of the Honeycomb Hideout's coverage of Youmacon 2013! This episode goes straight into the trenches as we interview "Jesus Christ" (yep, we're going to hell.), the awesome costumer Faye (who's website is listed below), a good commentary from Imaginos Workshop peeps Alexa Walker and Shauna Grant and an incredibly in-depth conversation with Ara Belian and Jim O' Brien! Yeah, when we 'Con it up, we do it up all over the place in the Hideout!

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And make sure to check out Faye's website for any of your cosplay costume and accessory needs:
+3 Defense

Stay tuned for the Day 3 show and photos from Youmacon 2013 and don't forget that you can also find all of our episodes on iTunes!!

Work Updates and First Event of the Year

So far 2014 has been off to a great start. We've been hard at work on the Imaginos Workshop Anthology - drawing, flatting, inking and lettering are all part of the process and so far we love the results. There will be prizes coming out for our wonderful Kickstarter backers in the first quarter of the year, as we continue to put this comic book together.

We're proud to show a sneak peak: Requiem Page 1, now fully inked and looking sweet!

We're also about to kick off Black History Month with our first event of the year: Black Comic Book Day 2014 (#bcbd2014). The event is taking place at the Detroit Public Library from 11 am - 5 pm on Saturday, Feb 1. We will be there selling sketchbooks and posters, and chatting with the good people of Detroit. Come down and see us there!

And here's a glance of Candy Coated the way it was always meant to be: in full color.

Don't forget to Like our Facebook Page, follow us on Twitter and check for Kickstarter updates. 

The Honeycomb Hideout Episode 19: Youmadness Day 1!

Alright, 'Combies! You heard about throughout 2013 and some of you even got to meet us there. Now you get to hear about Imaginos Workshop's adventures during Youmacon 2013! That's right, we recorded live during the entire weekend and we aren't just talking about the boys (Joe, Mark and Nik), the entire workshop membership was in attendence and on the mic. Now that the holidays and kickstarter madness has died down, you all get to hear about the 'Nos-ian hijinks that ensued. So sit back and enjoy "Day 1"!

CAUTION: Prepare to be waylaid by hilarity!!

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And for all you Apple users, don't forget that you can listen to and download episodes of the Honeycomb Hideout on itunes!

2013 Year in Review: Goals Not Dreams

I usually don't like going backward but this past year warrants a look. We left 2012 a little dejected as we had failed our first Kickstarter attempt. But being the never say die hard chargers we are we drudged forward. In 2013 We completed the first complete draft of our movie script. Yup, 110 some pages of work that we are revising still.

We also completed a short film with our partners at Wrapped Productions and Mill Movement Conglomerates called CHANCES for Canon's Project Imagination with Ron Howard. Even though our shoot was tight, we still showed in the top 40 of submissions with hundreds of submissions behind us.

We also just recently got our supernatural sci-fi pitch DARK DAYS back into corporate hands for review, as well as completing the curriculum for the non profit.

Image Art From "Dark Days" by Mike Majestic, using Vulne Pro

Finally at the end of this year, we relaunched the Kickstarter for our comic anthology iMAGINOs Plus and the rest, shall we say, is history. 

We want to thank everybody who believes in iMAGINOs Workshop.This year we are going to work to get these iMAGINOs PLUS issues one and two out. We will be relaunching iMAGINOS TV on YouTube and we will be focusing on getting more done in the short film Arena and in Hollywood. 

People always tell us how cool it is that we can follow our dreams. I never want to sound like a dick, so I just smile and listen. What's going on inside my head, however, is this: dreams are for people who don't have the talent (or work ethic) to make what's in their head manifest. We Imaginos Workshop people we don't have dreams, WE HAVE GOALS. Goals are what people have when they make solid plans to achieve things and have the talent to back it up. 

2014 THE YEAR OF MEETING THE GOAL!!! 

Mark