Saturday 27 October 2007

Sam and Max Season 2

Just a quick one today.

In case you've missed me talking about my somewhat obsessive love for Sam and Max I just want to draw your attention over to their website:

www.telltalegames.com

The guys are updating pretty much every week with new information, screenshots and videos of the next season of the game so I urge you to go over and look.

Who knows, you may want to take the risk and buy the first season! It really is worth it.

Oh and so you know, I don't get paid for this. These posts are fueled by nothing but my love.

Friday 26 October 2007

Upskirt

I don’t know how many of you are reading X-Men Die By The Sword. Seeing as the readership for both Exiles and New Excalibur is fairly low and tends to be the same people, I doubt it's a whole lot of you.

Half of the people seem to like it as it’s a Claremont book, while the other half seem to read it too bash it. I don’t want to do either. I do feel Claremont hasn’t hit one out of the park with me since X-Treme X-Men but he is one of my favourite all time writers so I won’t sit around pulling him apart.

What I do want to talk about is this art. I respect artists so much because they can do something I could never even dream of doing, I find art so hard. I can see what I want to in my head but getting on paper is impossible.

So the guy doing it, Juan Santacruz, is far more talented than I can dream of. With that being said there are some brutal panels in this book. It’s not they lack talent it’s just they make me embarrassed to me a comic reader.

From the looks of things the letterer has had to do anything he can to cover up this “upskirt” shots. While he’s done the best this just seems to add more attention to this immature cheesecake shots.

What are these shots meant to add? I’d argue nothing. This guy can draw superheroes. He can draw a fight and he can pay stuff out just fine. These three panels take so much away from his work. It’s a shame he feels the need to draw these.

It’s really pathetic. I expect more.

Thursday 25 October 2007

DC's Outsiders

Eek! A week come and gone… if you can’t tell, I’ve been very busy. Lot’s of work, I’ve been away from home and family commitments catching up on me.

I just wanted to make a quick mention to a rumour I heard a few weeks ago. The rumour was that DC was so unhappy with the work Tony Bedard, Sean McKeever and co. were doing on Countdown that any work they had been promised was just quietly being forgotten. So quietly that the writers themselves don’t even know the work isn’t coming.

My summary of Countdown is that it is a bad series. Well it’s a mediocre series, following an amazing series. I complain about this books lack of focus as much as anyone else but I would never lay the blame at the writer’s feet.

As much as I can tell from various interviews these guys are just putting words to the editors and Paul Dini’s stories. I love Paul Dini but I feel that the bad timing of the series and uninteresting stories are mostly his fault.

I didn’t believe this rumour was true when I heard it. Surely DC could see this was a team effort book and wouldn’t pull the rug from under these guy’s feet, effectively screwing over their careers and making it seem the series was all their fault. That would be, for the lack of a better term, a dickish move. DC wouldn’t do that! Could they really blame these guys for writing nothing more than dialogue?

This week say the news that Tony Bedard won’t be taking over the Outsiders as planned for months and has been replaced.

Wednesday 17 October 2007

Three Month Wait

It's that time again. This month it’s all Marvel with one appearance from DC. While I have some Indy books I can't wait to read like Buffy, Angel and The Circle they don't excite me as much as the stuff I've included.

5. Fantastic Four #553

Dwayne’s take on the Fantastic Four is off and on. He wrote a really badass Sue Richards in one issue that I loved. This issue promises the reveal of Reed’s Civil War plans. It’s got me interested.

4. Booster Gold #6

This series really has been fantastic so far. This issue sees the end to the first arc and apparently the return of the original Blue Beetle. From the sound of things it ends the status quo of the series as it is now, so it’ll be very interesting to see where it goes next. I hope this doesn’t end the Sliders/Exiles feel the book has to it.

3. Avengers: The Initiative #9

Secrets revealed! Taskmaster! Antman! Death! I love this book, I can’t imagine thee Marvel Universe without it.

2. Hulk #1

A brand new Hulk series. I have to be honest; this shocks me… it’s not like Incredible Hulk sets the charts on fire. The death interests me; I’m thinking Rick Jones sadly. The seller however has to be Ed McGuinness’ art. I’m still holding out for Loeb to write a good Marvel story. I hope this is the one, I’m sick of wasting money on mediocre comics from him.

Captain America #34

We’ve all seen the concept designs by Alex Ross. We all know what is coming. A brand new Captain America. I can’t wait for this.

Monday 15 October 2007

guggenheim

In a past blog I spoke about how much I loved guggenheim’s work on Wolverine, so much so that his name deserved to be written up in all capitals. If you haven’t already guessed his return to the book is less then stellar and he has now been demoted from all capitals.

Not only is the story full of inaccuracies such as Tank’s and Nazi’s in World War One but it’s just another attempt at making Wolverine much more complex then he needs to be.

The character isn’t that deep. He’s had a crap life and he kicks ass because it’s the right thing to do and he partly enjoys a scrap… at the same time he’s always running the risk of crossing that line between good and evil. It’s worked for years now and it’s what has made the character popular.

Now Marvel have always seemed to want to tamper around with his history and such, which I understand as when you have a character who doesn’t know their past in fiction it is going to bite them in ass at some point.

Here they just seem to want to give him crappy shock value twists to his power set. In the past year we’ve found out he’s an evolved mutant wolverine. This idea was rejected years ago and it should have stayed that way.

Now we find out every time he dies his spirit has to fight the devil in order to rejoin his healing body.

Really… Why? Does this add anything to the character? I have to say no, it just makes him far more confusing then he needs to be. It also brings up many questions of just how his healing factor works.

If he comes out of this with a reduced healing factor so the fear of him dying is there, even if we know it won’t happen, I’m all up for it. For now all we have is a really mediocre comic.

I hope this is just a misstep on guggenheim’s part. This is entirely possible as he is still fairly new to the game. I hope his work on Amazing Spider-Man is better. I have my caps lock waiting.

Note: I did love how Wolverine still manages to cup his "member" which both hands, while dead.

Sunday 14 October 2007

Infinity Eck

As most of you know, I’m mostly a Marvel fan. Always have been and chances are, I always will be. That being said I can dish out the compliments to DC when they deserve them. One series they have put out that I don’t think I could ever compliment enough was 52.

52 is easily one of the best series in the last 10 years and is one of those series I can see fans talking about for years. Not only was it a fun concept, it also had the creative team to back up the hype. These types of series can so easily fail but this way beyond anyone's expectations.

The only complaints I tend to hear about this series is that is started out very slow. I disagree with that on a personal level as I enjoyed it from start to beginning. Even so, starting out slow is a fairly tame complaint. If you haven’t had the chance to read it, make sure you get round to it. It’s fairly accessible to anyone and is a good introduction to the DC universe if you need one.

As I enjoyed that series I’ve also picked up a number of the spin offs. Due to a budget I’ve picked up Black Adam, Booster Gold and Infinity Inc. At some point I will also get around to Countdown to Adventure, Metal Man and Four Horsemen.

Booster Gold has been amazing and Black Adam has been pretty good too. The one that really disappoints me is Infinity Inc.

The way I saw Steel’s personal story in 52 was one of the classic hero. He has a deep sense of responsibility that is what makes a hero, rather then any power set. His story was pretty much a modern day look at the classic genre.

If you were looking to spring board an ongoing series off of the success of his story in 52 surely it would make sense to stick to the themes you showed people in the series. I’ll admit those more classic based series tend not to sell well these days (Take a look at Marvel’s Thing for example) but the series they have come out with is a complete 180.

It’s Peter Milligan, a guy known for not doing the classic superhero genre, doing a very dark tale about a group of hero’s who are mentally screwed up. It’s everything but what hundreds of thousands of people read about for a year.

It’s quite and odd move to make. Two issues in and I can't help but think it doesn't work. I’ll give it one or two more issues but I can see me dropping this one and not looking back.

Saturday 13 October 2007

I love Judd

News just in, Judd Winick is amazing!

I spoke a few weeks ago about how much I enjoyed the Black Canary and Green Arrow Wedding Special. On the strength of this one shot I asked my comic shop to pull their new ongoing.

Of course, I’ve done this a few times. I get a taste of a character or a writer and when I follow them to their next project it turns out it was a fluke. I am happy to say this wasn’t the case at all.

I loved this issue and first thing Monday I’m getting an ongoing subscription for this book.

It could just be Judd Winick has a great handle on this character but reading these two issues I’ve fallen in love with the character. I said that before but it’s an incredible skill he has. I can’t think of any other writer currently working who can make me love a character so fast. I might like them and grow to like them, but to be hooked in a matter of pages is amazing.

The pace of the book is also incredibly fast too. If you are one of those comic readers who complains about decompression then get this. The cliff-hanger from the Wedding Special (Black Canary stabbing Green Arrow, who had just tried to kill her, through the neck) is answered straight away. That takes guts, that cliff-hanger launched the series and really could have been stretched out for months.

I googled Judd’s bio just to see his background and previous work and it’s safe to say that he is by far the most talented person to come out of any reality show, in any country… ever. Although let’s face it the competition isn’t that fierce.

Thursday 11 October 2007

Hype Machine Part 2

Okay, so the announcement was Captain America is coming back. They’ll be a new person in the suit and he’ll be a little more hardcore (he has a knife and gun!) but the icon is coming back.

I won’t judge the idea because I haven’t read the story yet. I trust in Ed Brubaker so chances are I’ll enjoy the story.

What I do want to comment on is Marvel’s advertising of this “event”. I understand why they’ve done this, making it seem like a big announcement. They want the people who ran to comic stores to buy Cap’s death to run back and see his replacement. I get that and I understand it.

But... why leave it this long? When Captain America died we had 2 or 3 months of people speculating who would replace Captain America. You couldn’t go in any comic shop without it being discussed, you couldn’t log onto a message board without seeing at least one “Who will be the new Captain America?” topic. On holiday in a place totally unrelated to comics someone I just met started talking to me about Captain America’s death. It was huge news and that hardly ever happens in comics!

Then Fallen Son #5 hit and we were told no one would replace Captain America. So everyone let out a collective “Oh…” and walked off to discuss the next Internet topic be it Skrulls, Green Arrow or Countdown sucking.

Now Marvel has chosen the time to get us all excited for this replacement but no one seems to care. Everyone got out all the excitement and anticipation months ago. If you ask me, they waited too long to try and encourage this speculation.

Wednesday 10 October 2007

Hype Machine

Just a quick one today, as you can tell university has been very buys these first few weeks. I apologize but I'm doing my best.

Marvel seem to be hyping a big announcement for tomorrow at 12pm, click here to see it. I've got to admit, I'm interested in how this one will turn out. I always pay attention when companies decide they are going to announce they are going to announce something. Most of the time it turns out to be nothing but I always enjoy the antipitation and when it really does take you by suprise like the Nintendo Wii for example it's great.

So expect an update on this tomorrow. Speculation seems to be looking at Joe stepping down at EIC or a countdown series to the Skrull Invasion, I'll guess we'll soon know.

Sunday 7 October 2007

Creative, Processed

Comics are an interesting medium. It’s a medium that seems to inspire some sort of creative inspiration into everyone who reads them. If you were to log onto any message board, everyone seems to have a story want out there or they have some level of artistic talent.

I couldn’t begin to explain why this only happens in comic books. With film and television while people can point out faults and lines they would of done differently, it’s very rare you’d ever find someone who would be inspired enough to pick up a pen and try and write down a movie script or a pilot for a television programme. It just doesn't happen.

Am I included in that list of dreamers? Of course I am. My bookshelf is increasingly filling with books on the craft of writing from all sorts of mediums and my laptop’s hard drive is diminishing as more and more scripts are being saved.

Will I ever get published? Probably not.

So why keep doing it? I have no idea.

The only possible reasons I can think of is that the people drawn to comics are generally more inclined to go a little over the top and get attached to the characters. I think I would be included in that list, when I was 7 or 8 and saw Toy Story I wrote 8 sequel stories. If you think Disney milk their franchise, they’ve got nothing on me. They weren't just short 10 page stories either, they filled notepads.

The other reason could be that these characters have been around for so many years, longer then most readers have been alive. To be able to write these characters would be a privilege. With television and film, they air and it’s over. You can get them on DVD sure, but Spider-Man and Batman come at you every single month for so long that it’s hard not to let them into your hearts when reading them.

Do I have a fitting ending? No (See why I am not a writer?) but I’d be interested in hearing from you lot reading. Do you have hopes of being involved in the creative process in some form, or do you have views on why the majority of fans seem to want to? It really is a fascinating phenomenon that only happens in comics.

Friday 5 October 2007

Dematteis Da Man?

JM DeMatteis recently posted on his blog found over on Amazon that he has finished working on his first Spider-Man story in 10 years. While he wrote an ok Spider-Man during and after the Clone Saga he will always be known for his Kraven's Last Hunt story and so discussion on this announcement has lead to Kraven talk, rather then any of the other Spidey books he wrote.

I have to admit something about this story... I didn't like it that much. I mean it was good and well written but it's one of those stories that are discussed so much and so often that by the time you get it, it can never live up to the hype.

All the twists and turns, all the character insight, everything you want from a good story has already been told to you a thousand times before hand that when you finally read the story, it feels like you are just rereading message boards or reliving comic store discussions.

So I'll be interesting in reading this story just to see if I like DeMatteis' work rather then any sort of legendary status he has gotten.

If you haven’t already Kraven’s Last Hunt do so. I won’t expand on it for obvious reasons.

Wednesday 3 October 2007

Give Me Liberty...

I love Frank Cho. While he is known for drawing beautiful women, which he does very well, I think he is one of the soundest storytellers in comics today. With my new mindset of trying to find Indy work of guys I enjoy, in the main stream I went out and got Liberty Meadows Vol. 1.

Now I have to say, I found this hard to read at first. Reading a comic strip, which was originally published once a day in newspaper as one long story, is kind of hard. Every four panels you have a quick recap. It takes a different mindset to get into it and that was something I hadn’t thought of when I got the book. So that’s just a little warning.

At first I have to admit I wasn't blown away. It was cute and amusing, nothing amazing but somewhere along the line I got emotionally hooked to the characters. There is a storyline where one of the animals leaves the sanctuary and I just felt sorry for his friend. Getting someone attached to characters in 4 panel stories a very hard thing to do.

I still need to check out the other volumes but I think it’s got me hooked; I want to see these characters lives move on and see their little, cute jokes. It’s not an amazing piece of literature; it’s just a good piece of escapism that is accessible to pretty much anyone. It’s not just for the comic fan, although I’d imagine the people buying it are hardcore fans as those are who buy Indy comics regularly. Give it a shot.