How long has it been? A month? Maybe more?
I finally replaced my p.o.s. Mac with another one. I know, I should have gone back to PC considering how much Mac has broken my wallet over its knee but everything that I have as a digital record was in Mac formatting. I figured that it would be easier to just re-do Mac and someday, maybe, get a new computer while this one still works.
I don’t have anything to share today really, outside of the “I’m back” news. No, I didn’t work on anything for this blog during my hiatus. Still, I do have a couple of comics that I plan to continue reviewing like the Y series.
In the meantime I found this French coffee animation. Well, it’s not an animation of coffee, it’s…it’s French.
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1901152
I couldn’t get it to embed. For some reason WordPress only likes youtube, dailymotion and google. The hosts didn’t have a youtube version up. Anyway, just click the link. I found the video very interesting and a little humorous.
So my computer got killed last weekend. Hence my lack of posts. In the mean time I’m waiting for some checks to come in so that I can get a new one.
Which, of course, means that I will be indefinitely out of service on this blog here. It’s unfortunate but it’s probably a good thing that it happened. My stupid Mac was giving me fits from almost day one. I’m glad that the little bastard is finally dead. Maybe I now I can form a healthier relationship with a new computer, a better one, a more caring one.
Here’s to hoping and til I see you again,
Scyo.
One of my favorite contemporary comic writers is Brian K. Vaughn. I currently own two of his series in trades and I’m curious to read his third one, or at least the other one that I know about.
Normally this is the part where I do a little background info on Vaughn but I don’t think I will for this one. Maybe I’ll save it for the last review I do of this particular series.
A little background about the actual series though.
Background: Y: The Last Man has been collected into 10 trades, each with between 5 and 7 issues collected in them. The first book, Unmanned, features issues 1 – 5.
The book is by Vaughn and artist Pia Guerra. Guerra is a great artist by the way. If you have a chance to pick up other books that feature her art I highly recommend it. According to her website Guerra has also done voice over work on cartoons, trading cards for Wizards of the Coast and various comics projects. But whatever, the point here is that her pencils are awesome.
Back to the background. The first trade was released in 2003.
And enough of that.
The Comic: Issues 1 – 5 focus on the immediate aftermath of a “plague” that killed every male animal and human on the plant save Yorick Brown and his Capuchin money, Ampersand.
For some reason every male on the planet is dead. Through his mother (a Democrat Rep. from Ohio) Yorick is sent on a mission to find a biology researcher Dr. Mann. He is accompanied by his Ampersand and an agent of the Culper Ring #355. His sister is involved as well but I’ll leave her plot line alone for now.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, the Secretary of Agriculture is made President due to everyone ahead of her in the line of succession being male. Also, a terrorist group calling themselves the Daughters of Amazon vow to destroy all things male, eventually this comes to include Yorick. Also, for whatever reason two Israeli military women come to America to find Yorick.
Yorick and 355 travel to Boston where they meet Dr. Mann and find out that they need to travel to California to get her research.
—
For an opening book Unmanned does a good job of giving you characters to like, and hate, and opens up their world for the reader. Yorick is easily likable so far, 355 is a cold assassin bitch but what do you want from a secret agent, the moneky is a little hellion, and Dr. Mann blames herself for the plague.
A lot happens in the first five issues but it feels well paced and the moves make sense. It’s not like Last Blood (reviewed last June) where a lot happens but the pacing was way too fast, things felt crammed into the story, and certain plot lines deviated wildly enough to hurt the main story.
Again, it should be emphasized that Guerra’s art is great. Normally I describe art as fun to look at or it really carries you through on its whimsy. Generally, especially with web comics, this is the case. Guerra’s art is not like that. In fact, I would dare say that it is serious. This is a style that’s down to business.
The people, the world, and the action feels realistic. While her backgrounds, and bodies are compelling what I think makes her stand out over other comics that I’ve read is the facial expressions that Guerra gives her characters. Without words you can generally feel what the characters are feeling just by their faces alone. It’s something that really boosts Vaughn’s story.
Y is one of the best series that I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Of course, it has it’s flaws Yorick and 355 are cliched arch-types, the story gets a little vague at times, and some plots are dropped without a good reason but Vaughn and Guerra make it work in an engaging way.
My Recommendation: If you couldn’t tell from the previous words, Fucking Read It. End of story.
Scyo.
Found this one over the weekend.
Too tired to actually write something worthwhile.
Scyo.
I didn’t sit down to watch The Cleveland Show until last night. Surprisingly I hadn’t heard a thing about it between its premiere on Sunday and yesterday.
It might have helped had I heard something about it.
Everything about this show was bad.
The reasoning for Cleveland leaving was quick and almost painful. So was his unnecessary marriage at the end of the show.
His reason for staying in his old hometown of Stoolbend, VA was about the same.
Everything about the show just felt forced. The jokes didn’t hit on any level and none of the characters presented themselves as likable.
Cleveland was annoying at best, contrived at worst. And his son? What happened? In the early seasons of Family Guy his son was an ADD jerk who flitted around the show like a hummingbird. Now…now, he’s a fat bastard who eats creme cookies.
Cleveland’s replacement friends are the worst of the lot though. One is a redneck racist, another is a 40 year old douche who lives with his mom, and the last is a Russian? bear. The bear…I don’t understand the bear. What’s the point? Do all of Seth McFarlane’s shows need a talking animal of some kind?
Family Guy has Bryan. American Dad has Klaus the German Fish and if you want Roger the Alien. Now Cleveland has a russian or something bear. The bear is a waste despite that.
Like Family Guy is a thinly veiled excuse to be a more “wild” the Simpsons, and American Dad is a thinly veiled excuse to let McFarlane’s personal politics into a show (though he does it more with the Griffins than the Smiths) The Cleveland Show is a thinly veiled excuse for McFarlane to be racist.
Despite Cleveland being an upstanding businessman and a well (sort of) rounded character all of his interactions with everyone in his show came through stereotypes.
His friends are clearly an example of that.
However it’s his “family” that is the worst about it. The wife is a large-assed woman who falls in with an abusive drunk (also black). The two kids aren’t as bad but there are undertones. Really it’s the wife that kills it.
It comes across that if the show references the racism by using bits that tell you it’s racist then it okay for them to do so. Literally there’s a bit where the daughter character says something about white producers making awful shows that they think black would like. Ooh-ho-ho Mr. McFarlane aren’t you so clever with that little ruse.
It’s out in the open the show so it’s okay if it’s racist.
In the end, it’s more uncomfortable and not just because of the obvious racism. The jokes were terrible and Cleveland is not a character that makes me want to watch the show. He’s boring at best and annoying at worst.
On the other hand, I do plan to make a drinking game out of this show so drunk Sunday nights here I come.
Scyo.
P.S. My recommendation? Save yourselves the agony and watch something else, like I don’t know…the Simpsons.
I took last week off in the hopes that it would rejuvenate my desire to write for this blog. I want to write for it but this summer I lost some of my will to do so.
While I was off vacationing I did see the new movie ‘9′.
I wasn’t a fan.
The graphics were amazing. The music choices were pretty good but I was pretty disappointed to not here the Coheed and Cambria song that they used in all of the commercials.
What I mostly had a problem with was the story. It was boring, mostly if not completely predictable and I never really found myself caring about the various numbers, save #5.
The movie follows the story of 9 a doll that can talk and move. He was the last doll made by a human scientist before he died.
9 meets up with 2, who gets kidnapped by a catbot thing. Eventually he meets up with the other dolls. Something about robot brain that the scientist created that destroys mankind, etc. etc.
My friend, who came with me, fell asleep several times during the movie. I wish I had, I felt more tired afterwards. The writing moved along slowly and even the action pieces didn’t really connect. They felt disjointed or too slow to entice the kind of excitement and tension that they needed.
The complaint ends with me just saying this movie was way too slow.
Scyo.
I was going to save this video for Friday but I spent the last couple days browsing directories to find potential comic magazines to try and internship for after I graduate. We’ll see how it goes. I’m also thinking about looking into video game magazines. We’ll see.
Which means I didn’t spend time reading comics for this. However, I do have this pretty cool French animation that’s about nine minutes long.
Enjoy it.
Scyo.
Well, I’m finally settled. It feels great. I moved into my new apartment for my Senior year of college on Thursday and Friday. It’s not quite done. This coming Thursday I have to drive back to Portland to pick up some furniture with my roommate. So this coming Friday might be a little shaky. We’ll see, if worse comes to worse I’ll try to throw up an animation video that I have bookmarked.
In the meantime I should be able to start throwing up some more regular posts. Over the weekend I unpacked all of my comics. I’m hoping to start getting back into that aspect of comics. I can’t remember the last time I actually wrote about a physical comic.
So expect that in the coming weeks. Outside of Extra Life, which I hope to finish soon with moving I didn’t get much further than I was, I think I’ll try to stay away from web comics and try to review some more comics and animation.
See you guys on Wednesday.
Scyo.
Took the day off on Monday to enjoy the holiday. Also, I used to start on the archives of a web comic. I’m still working on it, at about 2003 at the moment but it’s going quick so hopefully I should be ready for Friday. Of course, I’m thinking of seeing ‘9′ as well, so I might do that for Friday, we’ll see.
Today’s comic is Shortpacked!.
Background: The archives for Shortpacked! go back to January 17, 2005. The comic is written and drawn by David Willis. He has a couple of other comics called It’s Walky and Roomies. I haven’t checked those out and may or may not do so in the future. I do know that two of the characters in Shortpacked!
Apparently Willis is considered an innovator of web comics. I’m not really sure why or how but that’s what various articles I read said. So there.
Willis did help co-found Blank Label comics which features several other popular web comics. Blank Label was started in 2005 and Willis is still a part of the company.
The Comic: Shortpacked! is about the employees of a toy store called Shortpacked. The store is run by a maniacal owner named Galasso who has delusions of dictatorships.
Mostly the focus is on the employees Ethan (a gay failed stand up comedian), Amber (a neurotic girl with Dad issues), Robin (a crazy girl), Mike (a crazy/mean guy), Leslie (Robin’s lover), Faz (the most annoying character outside of Faye from Questionable Content), Rick (a ninja who loves Naruto, ugh), and Ultra Car (a talking car).
For some reason when I was looking for gaming comics to review this one showed up. I would not describe this as a gaming comic by any means. It talks about video games and such from time to time but the focus is on toys and comics (more toys than comics).
It was a refreshing idea. Also, unlike many of the game comics that I’ve read recently it has continuity, story lines, and interesting characters to get attached too.
It’s not focused on a lot of different toys. For the most part it focuses on Transformers. Just about everything Transformers too, we’re talking the cartoons, the movies, and the especially the toys.
I’d always known there was a culture around figurines and toy collecting but this comic really opened my eyes to it. I mean, debates about plastic type and color? Something I never would have considered. True, it might be a joke but there’s a little bit of truth in every joke you know.
Another focus in the comic is Batman and those jokes are good for laughs. Especially the over-done “I’m Batman” strips. Strangely no matter how many “I’m Batman” strips I saw I chuckled every time.
The art for this comic feels very 80s which isn’t a bad thing. It continually reminded me of cartoons that I watched as a kid or stuff that my dad showed me, including the Transformers cartoons.
Willis’ style is fun to look at. I don’t think that it’s anything memorable but it is solid. It’s worth the look on that end.
His writing style is also pretty solid. Willis does a good job of balancing his strips with story arcs, dailies, and comedy and drama. The drama isn’t so angsty that it detracts from the comic. In fact usually it adds to the comedy.
Shortpacked! won’t change worlds but it’s very solid in most aspects of it’s delivery. The writing is good, the art is good, and the characters are interesting and likable (save Faz).
My Recommendation: Read it. Take some time to sift through the archives. Of the web comics that I’ve reviewed for this comic (that I didn’t previously read) this one is one that I might keep reading. It’s a great comic.
Check it out.
Scyo.
Look! A three post week, it’s sad that it seems like I’ve not this for awhile.
Anyway, I’ve got another gaming comic for you but this one is a little more interesting.
Background: Nerf NOW!! is not about Nerf guns or NOW really. It was started in February 2008 by Josue Pereira. It updates Tuesdays and Fridays. I couldn’t find any information on the creator but I know that he’s not a native English speaker.
The Comic: Nerf NOW!! is a gaming comic that mainly focuses on the Valve game Team Fortress 2. Not all of the strips are about TF2, occasionally there are WOW comics or the random Mario one. There was a long Starcraft run towards the start of the year. However, I would mainly consider this a TF2 comic.
The art style is very much inspired by a anime chibi-esque look. It’s a mix of chibi and anime. Not much to say about it after that. It’s cute and decent.
There is no dialogue in like 98% of the comics. I’ve seen a couple with dialogue but that’s a rarity. However, the emotions in the faces and bodies of the characters are very apparent.
Now, I don’t play TF2 so some of the jokes or plot movement scenes are missed on me. Sometimes some frames don’t connect with the strip or the plot. For the most part though it works.
The stories like the art tend to be cute or cute-funny.
In all, I would say that the best word to describe this comic is cute. It’s not trying to be over-cute, least I don’t think it is. But the art style and the various plots make it so.
Yes, being based on a violent game there are definitely violent moments in the comic but it usually ends well or in a heart-warming fashion.
My recommendation: Based on the style of no dialogue in this comic and the fun art style I would definitely recommend this one. It’s a fun one to look at and the archives a breeze.
As mentioned some strips won’t connect if you don’t play Team Fortress but for the most part that doesn’t hurt the comic. Even if you don’t get all the jokes the general plot and humor works.
Check it out.
Scyo.
