Tradio #7 - 300

Hi all, this week's Tradio is about the classic graphic novel from Frank Miller, 300. 

300 is a quiet tale about a lowly fisherman reluctantly called into battle to protect his wife's honor.  No...wait...that isn't right.  300 is the story of the greatest warriors ever to set foot on this Earth and how they pushed back against overwhelming odds to protect the land that was rightfully theirs and protect their people.  It is dark and bloody and gritty and shows how the great warriors of Sparta were molded into living weapons.  Their bodies looking as hard as the land around them, they refused to bend to outside rule.  It tells the tale of struggle and well...I won't give away the end to the two of you that actually haven't seen the movie, but it is truly an epic painted in blood from the history from which it comes from. 

Where the movie took so much from the printed page (as illustrated above), it doesn't capture all the grandeur of Miller's actual work.  Where it often seemed like Miller was trying to draw as little as possible with his Sin City books, 300 is closer to his more mainstream works, being both iconic and bold and detailed all at the same time and there is so much on the page that just can't be reproduced in a movie.  You can really tell that his heart is in the work and every page pops in a way that his works like The Dark Knight Returns just don't in my mind. 

As you might be able to tell, I love the book.  Loved it before the movie...loved it after...love it now.  I cringe thinking about the sequel to it that Miller has got planned, but I am willing to take a look.  Definitely take a look if you ever get the chance.  You will be very glad you did. 

Oh and before I run, a good buddy of mine, Justin Stewart won the give away from the Tradio last week.  What did he win?  Go back and look.  How can you win?  Just read and see when I am parting with my stuff.  Till next time, imaginary readers.

Rolling in the Derp...

Well, as you might have been able to tell, I haven't been posting as I had said.  It is funny how I can have so much time in the summer and so little in the fall.  Work starts back...the kids started kindergarten...my health hasn't been optimal.  Just been a really busy time.  I have written posts in my head and been ready to put fingers to keyboard, but have just had so many other things taking up my time.  Oh and you may be curious as to how my summer of crappy gaming went.  Well, not well, I got a few games in and just stopped.  I could not do it.  As much as I wanted to plow through a bunch of stuff, my heart just wasn't in it.  So I played some downloadable games...played a used copy of Duke Nukem Forever...and am now like 35 hours into Fallout 3 and loving every minute of it.  I guess in a way I have failed at what I wanted to do as far as volume on here and posting several times a week, but I figure the only way I can do that is if I were to give up something else in my life right now and I really can't think what that could be.  I am happy...will keep rolling out stuff at least once a week (still in it for the long haul with my comic trade reviews) and try to do more as the time and feeling hits me.  I hope you guys stick around.  I appreciate everyone that takes the time to read.

Tradio #6 - Dead @ 17: Compendium Edition

Welcome back!  This week's Tradio is for Josh Howard's Compendium Edition of Dead @ 17, published by Viper Press. 

Dead @ 17 tells the story of Nara Kilday who is killed and mysteriously comes back to life to fight the forces of evil.  Through the course of the stories within this volume, we see how she grows and changes and comes to turn of the whys and hows of her death and resurrection and what her ultimate role is in defeating a rising evil.  There are some really interesting ideas explored and how she still relates and interacts with her friends and family and still tries to juggles her hopes and desires and fears all the while still being a teenage girls with the problems that come from that as well.  I do not want to give anything away, but over the course of the over 300 pages of material, we see how she is faced with embracing her destiny and she learns just how powerful she really is not as she fights ever increasing evil and it's various forms.  This volume includes (I believe) the first three mini series that Josh Howard both wrote and drew along with a lot of bonus material like covers, sketches, and fan submitted material.  Howard's art reflects some very manga sensibilities and seem to fit the story well.  If I have one complaint it is that the art is very sparse on background details, which tends to make you forget at times where the action in taking place. 

Overall, I liked the book and what it was trying to get across.  The thing that I realize is that manga really isn't my preferred comic book style.  There is something about young girls, wearing very little clothing, and are underage with pointy boobs that just makes me feel like a dirty old man when I read them.  Maybe it is the fact that I have young daughters who I am very protective of or maybe it is the fact that I work with young kids everyday at work, but I am just not all the comfortable at times with a lot of manga and given the art style of Howard, it just is a constant distraction for me.  Anyway, if you dig manga, stories of evil, and/or teen dramas, you will probably want to give this book a try.  Dead @ 17: Compendium Edition was bought via Discount Comic Book Service.

Before I go, how about another (attempted) giveaway?  Just send me an email at paleriderofdoom@gmail.com before the next Tradio next Wednesday and I will pull a name out of the pot and sent you a copy of the Dead @ 17 Compendium Edition...no questions asked...you can just have it...honest.  No hidden fees or anything.  Hope to hear from you soon.

I've Got Balls of Fail!

Duke Nukem Forever.  Few games have been in development for so long and have been the butt of so many jokes (except for maybe Too Human).  Well, I finally got my hands on a copy and thought that I would give it a whirl.  So...what is it?  The second coming of first person shooters? A throw-back to a day long gone by? A sexist, macho power trip?  A complete and utter mess?  Well, in my opinion, it is none of the above...lets see what we have, shall we?

Wait...where is that hand coming from?

Duke Nukem: 3D was one of those games from my younger days that I played and replayed till the twists and turns of the levels were ingrained into my brain.  I loved it's level of interaction and just overall attitude.  Where so many games were trying so hard to make you feel like the nameless main character and immerse you in a world that was all about you, it was nice to get into a role where you could be a foul-mouthed, asshole and do all the things you can't do in real life for a change.  I got to swear all the time, go to strip clubs, blow up aliens, and generally be a total badass.  It was fun and it was one of my first forays into not just playing through a world, but exploring it.  But after that game, I didn't play any other Duke games and over time I really missed what all that game represented.  The twelve years of development were a waiting game played with my impatient self.  It felt like a dream when Duke finally returned this summer.  Did that dream become a nightmare over the years?  Yes and no...

I am thinking that he is all out of gum...

Duke Nukem forever is not a bad game, though if you check out Metacritic, you might think so.  In many ways, it is a throw-back to the nineties, which is both good and bad.  There is a level of interactivity with the environment that is nice, but we have come so far since the game was started that it was weird blowing up some barrels but not all barrels.  There were things like white boards that I could write on or cigars I could smoke, but I couldn't pick up a CD or an action figure.  It was just an odd mix of stuff you could do.  There were a lot of neat interactive things to do, but few of them were fun for long.  The gameplay was also a little odd.  Feeling like a badass, running and gunning in one section and then having to suffer through horrible platforming parts or the dreaded underwater level.  Overall, the story was typical Duke, but sometimes things seemed a little forced just to get a new game feature in like the driving sections or the part where you drive an R/C car in a very small room (which reminded me far to much of Ape Escape).  There is a new level of sexiness in the game as compared to Duke Nukem: 3D, but I think that if they could have done in 1996 what they can today with pixals, they would have done it.  The game itself isn't bad, it was just so uneven and unpolished in parts that you wanted to like it a lot more than it was. 

Girl on girl action...CHECK!

I did like it, though it was far from what I was hoping for.  The humor was there.  The sexiness was there.  The general badassery was there.  Gearbox did an admirable job putting together what they did and I have high hopes that the makers of Borderlands can give us something a lot more fun and refreshing in the future.  I personally am wanting Duke to be his own character class in Borderlands 2 (really...how awesome would that be?!?!?).  The one thing that ultimately made me not want to play through the game more than once were the loading times.  They were horrible.  Sometimes the way the levels were done, you were in loading screens that were as long as the actual levels themselves.  That will get fixed I am sure.  Anyway, if you have some extra trade, pick up a used copy or wait till it hits $20 in the midst of the Christmas rush of new games.  There is a lot of fun to be had here, just don't set your expectations too high on innovation.

Tradio #5 - Mystery Society

This week's Tradio is for the first IDW Publishing trade for Mystery Society by Steve Niles and Fiona Staples.  The trade collects the first five issues of this series.

Mystery Society tells the story of husband and wife team Nick Mystery (legally changed from Hammond) and Anastasia Collins.  They are wealthy, charming, and madly in love.  It is kind of a nice change from many plot set ups of this type where the author puts a lot of effort into creating sexual tension between the male and female leads and throwing them into precarious situations to see how their feelings for each other are expressed.  Not the case here.  They love each other from the very beginning and it is honestly very refreshing to see two people who share a deep bond depend and trust each other from the beginning.  Though the "society" starts with only the two main characters, three or four others (depending on how you look at things) join the cast quickly to form a core group of quirky, yet entertaining characters.  I won't go into the particulars of who those people are because that is part of the fun of the tale that is told.  Needless to say, you get giant robots, an angry US military, coverups, flying saucers, and the skull of Edgar Allen Poe.  It is a fun tale about how the group starts out that leaves plenty of back story still left to sort out.  The overall plot is a little short on substance, but that really isn't the point of the story.  It is about meeting interesting characters and having the good guys win, all the while having a great time doing it.

I really enjoyed the trade.  Not for everyone, I am sure, but if you are a fan of Hellboy and the BPRD, there is definiately something here for you.  While not Steve Niles' best writing, it moves at a good pace and you never feel over-burdened by what is going on.  You want to keep reading and see where things will lead.  Fiona Staples' art is very good.  It is a sketchy style that conveys a lot of character in the figures that she draws with a good sense of movement.  If I have a problem, it is that her robots and the Mystery Society plane seemed to need a little more of an iconic feel and were pretty rote to me, though her overall layouts were great.  Overall, it was a good trade that will make for a fun read if you are interested in horror tales without much horror in them.  It's like a mix of BPRD, Casanova, and League Extraordinary Gentlemen and it works in a fun way.  Give it a try.

Tradio #4 - Blankets

Today's Tradio is Craig Thompson's Blankets.  Not about quilting as you may expect at first...which is good if you are an avid comic reader and bad if you were looking for a book about how to make a duvet cover.

Craig Thompson's Blankets is an autobiograpical graphic novel published in 2003 by Top Shelf.  It was both written and drawn by Thompson.  In it, we see a glimpse into the young life of Thompson as he meets a young lady at christian camp named Raina and we follow their relationship and how it parallels his own struggles with his christian faith.  Through both literal art and a more abstract style, we see a love story develop and how it very deeply affects Thompson in both mind and spirit.  Through flashbacks we see how Thompson got to this point in his life and how his past has shaped his present.  Family, both his and Raina's, star as the strong supporting cast of the book and help you to see how people struggle from day to day in their lives to make ends meet, take care of the ones they love, and deal with their personal faith.  I don't want to spoil a thing, but you will see relationships grow and relationships end.  You will be presented with things that make you cry, scenes that make you uncomfortable, and images that make you really think about how you view your own faith.  Not always easy, but always rewarding.

I loved this book.  The black and white line work conveys so many emotions and you get to see the stages of a relationship from beginning to end and how affecting sharing your life with another person can be.  It is a very emotional journey and be prepared to cry more than once along the way.  Till next time, imaginary readers.

Oh...and for the give away...no one entered.  Not one person.  Having to rethink this whole thing and if it is really worth my time.

Everyone Needs A Little Brad-Time, Brah...

As my summer vacation comes closer and closer to an end, I needed something short and easily digested in small chunks to piss away the last few days that I have left and I discovered an XBox Live Arcade game that I had bought on sale and never played, so I figured why not...and I am so glad I did.  Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley was just what I needed.

 Comic Jumper came out in October of 2010 from the fine folks at Twisted Pixel.  It centers around a comic book character named Captain Smiley and the foul-mouthed logo on his chest named Star.  As the game begins, we are in one of Captain Smiley's many adventures as he goes against his arch rival, Brad.  Brad is everything that Captain Smiley is not.  He is good looking, strong, smooth with the ladies, and he has the Brad-copter that is covered in speakers that constantly drone out the Brad theme song.  At the end of this first adventure, we see Captain Smiley's comic cancelled and him having to jump into other comics as a guest star in order to boost his popularity and earn enough money to restart his failed book.  He has to go into fantasy, silver-age (there is Kirby all over this stuff), and manga comics in order to further his adventures.  It is a lot of fun and the different takes on different genres of comics is a hoot to see.

This gives a peek at the styles

You can tell that this idea has been in someones head for a long time and you get to unlock a ton of extras with the in game cash that you earn that really let you know where the story came from and where it could have gone.  Concept art, comic covers and art used in game, videos from the creators, audio clips of music from the game, models used for producing the characters, and exclusives that unlock a lot of fun stuff from outside of the game.  These extras give a lot of back story, but also each increases the amount of in game money that you earn on each of the eleven missions.  The exclusives were probably my favorite because they included two cool gamer pics, a premium theme for the Xbox dashboard, and a new level for one of Twisted Pixel's other games, Splosion Man.  Additionally, just for the playing the game, you unlock two different avatar items, a t-shirt with Star on it and a wearable Captain Smiley head. 

Overall, I really love the game.  The dialog is great and the attention to detail when it comes to the types of comics that the levels are trying to emulate are top-notch.  If I have any complaints it is that the fantasy levels could have been more diverse and represented the story matter better and the game play can get very repetitive at times.  It is definitely a game that gets better the more time you spend with it.  The dialog and characters will make you forgive that and you will have a lot of fun overall. 

So if you have the Microsoft points and some time to kill, give Comic Jumper a try...and tell 'em that your buddy Brad sent ya, brah!

Brad is a bad-ass, brah!

Tradio #3 - Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days

This week's edition of Tradio offers up the first trade in Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris' epic Vertigo series, Ex Machina.  This will also be my first blog give away, but more on that at the end.

Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days collects the first five issues of Vaughan and Harris' 50+ issue Vertigo series which chronicles the life and times of Mitchell Hundred, a former super hero turned mayor of New York City.  The five issues included focus on his earliest days in office as he struggles with attempted blackmail, a blizzard, a racist art exhibit, and two connected murders.  All these plots are woven around Mitchell and his close advisers and many of the details needed to show what he was as a super hero and what he could do are shown through flashbacks.  Not to give away any of the twists and turns, but we see how the existence of Hundred has changed the history of NYC and how someone with a checkered past such as his, could be elected major over better funded and arguably better trained candidates.  By issue five, we see how the twists have led you and Hundred to the same conclusion, which may not be the right one, and we get to see the pressures that his new job have on him.

Ex Machina is very well written.  Vaughan has a wonderful ability with dialogue that seems very natural and makes you really connect with the characters.  Additionally, he exhibits very good use of restraint as well, not explaining all, but letting you come to conclusions along with the characters as they do in the story.  The art by Harris is amazing; expressive and realistic, it really gives you a sense that you are watching a television drama as much as you are reading a comic book.  All that should work so well together and it does...just not for me.  At the end of the five issues, I honestly didn't care.  I mean, I did care about the characters, but not in the overall mysteries surrounding Hundred's powers.  To me, it felt too much like I was watching a television drama about a mayor who can talk to machines.  The flashbacks were also a problem for me.  They happen a lot.  They chop up the story so much and though they explain a lot, I felt more often than not that Hundred was reacting in the now and not acting to stop or even really handle anything.  As a first trade, it just didn't hook me into wanting to read more and that is what a good first trade needs to do. 

Now...the first Tradio giveaway.  Between now and the next Tradio next Wednesday, anyone who emails me at paleriderofdoom@gmail.com will be entered into a random drawing for both the first trade in the Ex Machina series that I just reviewed and the second trade entitled Tag. 

Just include your name and address and I will draw one person at random and send those two trades out to you.  I will post the winner in next week's review.  Easy enough...right?  But you might ask why anyone would want two trades of a series that I didn't like and I would understand your concern, but in the end, it is a good series by two talented creators, just not the right series for me.  So why not take a chance on something free and see if it is something you would enjoy more than me. Hope to hear from you soon.  Till next time, imaginary readers...