Buys
Yes! My comic book store magically made a copy of The Brave and the Bold #4 appear (maybe somebody took it off their pull list or something) and it was enjoyable AND went against the "Vertigo characters can only appear in Vertigo comics" edict. There's hope for Buddy, Swampy and Johnny! Of course I was going for Showcase Presents Batman volume 2, even if I won't be reading it for a while, and taking advantage of a sale, I also picked up DMZ vol. 1 and 2, to try. All of that for only 40$ Canadian.
Speaking of deals, I also got the first two hardcover collections of Invincible, which came highly recommended by the blogosphere and at only 20$ apiece of Amazon. That's 2/3rds of the normal price, very sweet. See below for my thoughts on volume 1.
"Accomplishments"
Pretty busy at work so I only went up one level on World of Warcraft (now 54) and crafted only one card for my WhoCCG. Ah well, at least I got a lot of reading done on the walks to and from the office and finished Keith Topping's Byzantium!, a Doctor Who novel starring the first Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki. Not an unpleasant read, but it has no plot whatsoever. The four characters get separated in the opening scenes and are witness to some political and religious mayhem in 2nd-century Byzantium, oh and the Doctor helps translate the Gospel of Mark, and that's it. It's like a forum for Topping's research on the subject, but he hasn't written a story around it. To make matters worse, Ian is pretty unrecognizable, talking in a strange familiar vernacular, and sometimes coming off as an anti-Semite! To make matters worse, the novel is a mess stylistically. It tries to emulate the show by being split into episodes and fitting in just before "The Romans", but is also full of extreme violence and coarse sexual situations (Vicki almost getting raped). In the same way, the hip pop-tune chapter titles clash terribly with the quotations from Mark's Gospel accompanying them. The point of view keeps shifting violently too. It's a shame, because the era is captured vibrantly and the prose isn't bad.
Invincible volume 1, collecting the first 13 issues of the series, was much more pleasant. Wonderful, even. Kirkman manages to create a complete superhero universe in very broad strokes. Mark (Invincible) and other main characters are far from stock, but by making incidental characters pastiches of well-known superheroes and villains, the expert comics reader immediately gets it, and yet it seems wholly original. Great twists, the violence is never off-putting thanks to a slightly cartoony style, and it feels "real" in a postmodern way. I devoured the book, but tried to make sure I was always saving some for the next night. I'm sold!
Another reason I was kind of busy this week is that we had an improv show. Though unfortunately marred by excessive noise coming from a club across the way, we did manage some sketches I loved, including a macabre tale in the style of Kafka. But the reason I mention it on Weekly Geekery is that we also mimed a tragedy to 20 minutes of music from the Doctor Who soundtrack. Not perfect, but a really creepy ending that reminded me the faceless people in The Idiot's Lantern.
Website finds
Mingle2 has a couple of fun thingamajigs (I don't know what to call these), including What's My Blog Rated? Mine:
I'm not surprised. The reason? The incidence of these words: death (3x), ass (2x), zombie (1x). No doubt on the front page. I didn't' know zombies were 17+, but that brings me to...
What are your chances of surviving a Zombie Apocalypse? Answer for yourself. Whoever gets the highest score, I'm camping out at YOUR place. Me?
35%
35% isn't bad, but I don't like my chances. I've got a juicy brain.
And finally, a website with some really fun consumer humor is Licensable Bear. Check out his videos, they're a hoot!
Yes! My comic book store magically made a copy of The Brave and the Bold #4 appear (maybe somebody took it off their pull list or something) and it was enjoyable AND went against the "Vertigo characters can only appear in Vertigo comics" edict. There's hope for Buddy, Swampy and Johnny! Of course I was going for Showcase Presents Batman volume 2, even if I won't be reading it for a while, and taking advantage of a sale, I also picked up DMZ vol. 1 and 2, to try. All of that for only 40$ Canadian.Speaking of deals, I also got the first two hardcover collections of Invincible, which came highly recommended by the blogosphere and at only 20$ apiece of Amazon. That's 2/3rds of the normal price, very sweet. See below for my thoughts on volume 1.
"Accomplishments"
Pretty busy at work so I only went up one level on World of Warcraft (now 54) and crafted only one card for my WhoCCG. Ah well, at least I got a lot of reading done on the walks to and from the office and finished Keith Topping's Byzantium!, a Doctor Who novel starring the first Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki. Not an unpleasant read, but it has no plot whatsoever. The four characters get separated in the opening scenes and are witness to some political and religious mayhem in 2nd-century Byzantium, oh and the Doctor helps translate the Gospel of Mark, and that's it. It's like a forum for Topping's research on the subject, but he hasn't written a story around it. To make matters worse, Ian is pretty unrecognizable, talking in a strange familiar vernacular, and sometimes coming off as an anti-Semite! To make matters worse, the novel is a mess stylistically. It tries to emulate the show by being split into episodes and fitting in just before "The Romans", but is also full of extreme violence and coarse sexual situations (Vicki almost getting raped). In the same way, the hip pop-tune chapter titles clash terribly with the quotations from Mark's Gospel accompanying them. The point of view keeps shifting violently too. It's a shame, because the era is captured vibrantly and the prose isn't bad.
Invincible volume 1, collecting the first 13 issues of the series, was much more pleasant. Wonderful, even. Kirkman manages to create a complete superhero universe in very broad strokes. Mark (Invincible) and other main characters are far from stock, but by making incidental characters pastiches of well-known superheroes and villains, the expert comics reader immediately gets it, and yet it seems wholly original. Great twists, the violence is never off-putting thanks to a slightly cartoony style, and it feels "real" in a postmodern way. I devoured the book, but tried to make sure I was always saving some for the next night. I'm sold!
Another reason I was kind of busy this week is that we had an improv show. Though unfortunately marred by excessive noise coming from a club across the way, we did manage some sketches I loved, including a macabre tale in the style of Kafka. But the reason I mention it on Weekly Geekery is that we also mimed a tragedy to 20 minutes of music from the Doctor Who soundtrack. Not perfect, but a really creepy ending that reminded me the faceless people in The Idiot's Lantern.Website finds
Mingle2 has a couple of fun thingamajigs (I don't know what to call these), including What's My Blog Rated? Mine:
I'm not surprised. The reason? The incidence of these words: death (3x), ass (2x), zombie (1x). No doubt on the front page. I didn't' know zombies were 17+, but that brings me to...
What are your chances of surviving a Zombie Apocalypse? Answer for yourself. Whoever gets the highest score, I'm camping out at YOUR place. Me?
35%
35% isn't bad, but I don't like my chances. I've got a juicy brain.
And finally, a website with some really fun consumer humor is Licensable Bear. Check out his videos, they're a hoot!
Comments