What the heck just happened? That was my reaction after reading City of Glass.
To be honest, I found it interesting and neat but I don't quite think it's my cup of tea. That doesn't mean I can't respect it as being a really good piece, I just didn't enjoy it as much as some of the other things we've read this semester. Why exactly is that? I'm not too sure myself, I just don't think it's my favorite style.
Now it's definitely nifty and a cool type of story. It just didn't latch onto me as much as some of the others. In any case, I think the art is really really good and some of the ways things are portrayed is very unique, and a fair few of those are creepy as well :P
All in all, I think it's a great comic and if you have any interest in that type of story then I'd recommend it to you. As for me, it's worth reading for sure, but it won't go on my list of favorites.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
City of Glass
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Dead Space Comics
So here I am playing around with Xbox Live and checking out the marketplace when I come across animated comics for Dead Space? I remembered hearing about the comics tie-in so that was no surprise. The real surprise was that they were GOOD. Not just regular plain old good, but GOOD.
The story is enthralling, the art is fantastic, the voice acting is great - it's certainly not every day you get something of this caliber for free. I will tell them, as promotional material, this worked amazingly. I'm not big on horror games but the story is just so good that I'm definitely going to give the demo a try when that comes out tomorrow.
Here's the links, you could certainly do much worse with your time:
Dead Space Animated Comic #1: Standard Definition
Dead Space Animated Comic #2: SD, High Definition
Dead Space Animated Comic #3: SD, HD
Dead Space Animated Comic #4: SD, HD
Dead Space Animated Comic #5: SD, HD
Dead Space Animated Comic #6: SD, HD
Still here? I'm hoping that means you've at least given them a shot :P
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
It's a Bird
It's a Bird is definitely a great comic, no doubt about that. But like many of the others we've read, it's not a kids comic. It's got real themes with real story, if it had to be rated I'd rate it "Mature" for it's themes are pretty heavy and deep. (As a side note, I find it interesting that Comics do not have need for such a ratings system that movies and games have)
The art style is definite neat, unique and appealing which works seamlessly with Seagle's story. The story is deeply embedded with realism and themes that can resonate with many people. For me the geneticly passed disease that fills his families history and future relates to a syndrome that my family has that has come about. I continue to get tested every year/two in order to make sure that no issues have cropped up, so I was able to relate on that note among with many of the others. I just really felt like I understood where he was coming from, even though I felt like he was still being an idiot at times but that happens :P
The transitions from him talking to people and then suddenly getting an idea that his mind needed to pursue and the reader was brought into, and then being brought back to the real world where near no time had passed at all was well done and just seemed to work, I wasn't confused at all and knew exactly what was going on which was pretty neat. In any case, I kept flipping through the pages because I wanted to keep finding out what was going to happen and how he was going to deal with all these issues. The issues that are brought up are very real as I have stated and that he is able to bring them out to the public through the comic is very neat. It's very much like how his friend airs out such private issues through his play. And for some reason, such private things like this are just easy for people to latch onto and find pieces of themselves in and makes it all the more special because of it.
In response to Cynthia's questions:
It's a Bird is clearly a reference to the saying from Superman "It's a Bird1 It's a Plane! It's Superman!"
The cover art has a reference to a bird in the sky that you're unable to clearly make out (although it does appear to be a bird) many of the individuals on the screen have the Superman logo etched on them in some fashion, and this relates to the conclusion that Seagle seems to make towards the end of the comic is that everyone is a Superman in their own right (at least I think that's what I Seagle was getting at at one point in the end, at least something like that anyway)
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Persepolis
I saw the movie a couple of weeks ago and have just gotten around to reading the comic book version. It's pretty easy to talk about it. The movie is probably the best medium to medium transfer of anything that I've seen. It kept the feel of the comic book so well it surprised me. I didn't feel like I missed out on anything by seeing the movie. Although I did not make the connection for some reason that this was the authors story and the comic just reinforced everything I heard in the movie. There was very little cut out of the movie so like I said the transition from the movie to comic was incredibly easy. But I still enjoyed reading the comic. I'd say that you're not missing anything if you just see the movie, and that's tough to say for any piece of material that has a written format and a movie format.
Overall, the piece is great, it really tells a story that everyone should read and know about. And the way it tells the story is fantastic, the style and simply everything keep you reading for more. All in all, a great read if you want to read the comic or a great movie if you want to see the film.
Oh and for those of you interested, Persepolis is the capital city of the Persian Empire, and Iran was called Persia up until the 1930s.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Death Note #1/#2 (Live Action Movie)
After having read the first episode of Death Note and my adviser saying she would lend me the DVD for episode 1, I was eager to watch it. It was definitely pretty neat and I'd say a good movie - although not the best.
So in general, I thought the movie was neat and all but something just didn't push me over the edge to give it 5 stars. Maybe it's cause I read the manga before seeing it, I'm not sure exactly - could have been cause I saw it by myself. Now, I'm not saying it wasn't good. I enjoyed watching it and it was well done and neat, just not my favorite movie by any means. I'd say 3 1/2 stars?
So a few weeks later with the opportunity to see the screening for the second episode I decided to do so. This time I was able to see it with one of my fellow class-mates. This time I'd say 4 stars. I hadn't read the manga so I can't complain about it on that front, so I didn't know what to expect (even with the first movie, so much of it is new content when compared to the manga so I don't think that was my issue with it). It was good, humorous at times and well done - my one complaint is that there were too many twists and turns. The last one is really cool and I never saw it coming but still, up to that point it was getting a bit crazy.
Overall, like I said I did enjoy it and think it was well done but it does have its flaws.
OH and let me say that while watching the DVD I had to turn off the English dubbing and turn on the subtitles - it just looks and sounds so awkward! So when we watched episode #2 in the theater with English voices I was disappointed. In many points its just laughable and can change the scene drastically.
Astro City: Life in the Big City
As is the trend with most of my posts, I read Astro City: Life in the Big City by Kurt Busiek for my Scripting for Comics class. It's definitely unique and a great read and I'm glad that I bought it because I'll look forward to loaning it to some people so they can read it.
The story is definitely not your comic for children as I think it brings about a whole bunch of themes that kids wouldn't understand or even interest them. The whole way that Busiek tells the story of the rest of the superhero world. It's all just as interesting as the pieces about the battles between the superheros and their villains. I keep thinking that it would have been REALLY interesting to have had City of Heroes based in this universe, with such a well thought out history and universe I think it could have really benefited the game greatly and added as well to the story of Astro City. Overall, it's a pretty quick read but with depth that will astound you and worth checking out. Oh and I commented on it in class, but the art is very well done and the colors are amazing.
In class we were asked what our favorite "scene" was and I wasn't able to answer because I hadn't finished it yet but I'd go with Safeguards. I'm not particularly sure why but something just resonated with me in that story. I also really liked the Reconnaissance story.
I also noticed that Astro City is published by the WildStorm branch of DC Comics which is the group that has been doing all the video game related comics.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
New York Anime Festival
With the availability of free tickets from my advisor, I decided I wanted to go to the Anime Festival. Besides, it's anime, and it's free and there are sure to be nifty people there - right?
Nifty is one word for it :P
My anime history is as such, I grew up on Dragon Ball Z and Gundam Wing and that's really how I grew into role playing games on the internet and that is one of the major reasons why I'm so internet/tech-savy. I've been playing games/making websites/games with random people I've met on the internet since I was 11. I still have some of the friends from when I started today!
So in any case, I love DBZ (Dragon Ball Z), Gundam Wing and from there I went on to view Full Metal Alchemist, Naruto, Bleach. I've also seen Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Ghost in a Shell, Spirited Away. So I've seen a fair few, but none of it recently, mostly while I was growing up.
So I was looking forward to the Anime Festival and while I was at work Friday a co-worker mentioned that she wanted to attend and was looking for someone else to go. That was awesome because I didn't really want to attend the festival by myself. Things worked out really well in that regard.
I attended the festival with my friend, we ended up arriving around 3pm and shopped around the different vendors for a while. There was some good art there, some interesting clothing, some neat accessories and of course some anime to buy. The best thing about the festival was the people dressed up. People were dressed up from all the popular anime, lots of people dressed up from Bleach and Naruto. It was a lot of fun to see them walking around.
We tried to go to a few of the events but they were either full or not interesting to me or my friend. We did end up going to the main event Saturday night which was the Anime Masquerade event. Pretty much it was anyone who wanted to dress up and perform a skit.
There were some really bad skits, only maybe 4 or 5 of them were actually decent/good which made the event interesting to say the least. The beginning was hilarious because it was opened by 3 songs from this well known voice over actress. The guy in front of my friend would go nuts whenever she sang or whenever he recognized a song. He got her to say "thank you" when she was leaving as he professed his love for her and he did an anime melt to the floor. I don't think an artist could have drawn it any better. Besides that and the few actually funny skits the event was a bit of a let down.
Overall, the anime festival was neat, but I would definitely not pay $50 for it. If it was like $10? Maybe. But they expect you to pay extra for the cool merchandise that you could pretty much find anywhere else and the events were intriguing but I would have had to come specifically for ones that I wanted to see in order to it to have been worth money. Perhaps then it would have been, but I have trouble thinking it would be worth $50 even then.
