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I totally forgot this came out yesterday - issue #1 of Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. Ex Machina is one of my favourite comic books of all time, and I've adored Fiona Staples' artwork ever since she drew The Secret History of the Authority: Hawksmoor. The story is a sort of high-concept space epic with gritty BSG undertones, and the preview looks freaking awesome. Here's a gushing spoiler-free review. WANT this book.
Comic book grousing
Jan. 10th, 2012 09:30 amI love Peter David's X-Factor. I hate that its sales figures are always so dangerously low for such a critically acclaimed, beautifully constructed, thoughtful, fun comic. And yet right now I want to slap upside the head all the people on forums who are saying they'll definitely pick up the book now that Havok and Polaris are in it, as if the core cast, the characters David has done so much awesome development with and woven so many excellent stories around, are just an annoying add-on that they're tolerating. Part of me wants to say no, please, just stay with your big proper X-books and leave X-Factor out of your rabid following-characters-without-caring-who-writes-them thing; if you didn't appreciate this book before then it's wasted on you. But then, sales. Hmph.
Fanartistically challenged
Dec. 27th, 2011 08:13 pmI want someone to create software that will cleverly take a script, drabble or ficlet and turn it magically into a piece of fanart. Honestly, I have so many dorky little ideas for fanart that amuse me, but I can't draw for crap. I'm almost tempted to try and teach myself to draw just to get these little scenes and gags out of my system, but the results would be so embarrassing; I'm pretty sure it's not something you can learn at my age unless you're already talented in that direction. Thwarted geekdom. Hmph.
X-Factor #229
Dec. 21st, 2011 03:06 pm...is beautiful, loopy and intriguing, with a side of magnificent fanservice.
( I'm Kiev, I know stuff. Spoilers. )
( I'm Kiev, I know stuff. Spoilers. )
Because, shiftships
Oct. 3rd, 2011 11:27 pmI've been trying to get it together to write a proper entry about films and stuff, and then another one about writing, because I'm aware my shiny new LJ with its shiny new good intentions has gone a bit quiet already. But I still don't have those entries finished and I'm getting stupidly, regressively hung up on writing issues so here, randomly, is my current desktop picture. It's been my desktop picture for a while now, because I really struggle to find something to look at so regularly that makes me feel as instinctively happy as this does, for no intelligent reason. I mostly think it's the joyous pitch at which it shouts COMICS! in your face; but it also seems to work as a visual antidote to dithering, colourlessness and nerves when I sit at the laptop. Sliding Albion, in the house.
( Big noisy pretty comic page )
( Big noisy pretty comic page )
Old comic reviews #2 - misc. WildStorm
Sep. 2nd, 2011 02:14 pmJust a few more old WildStorm reviews. Again, these first went up on Comixology and co. when the issues came out.
On reflection, it's weird that I've never reviewed Peter David's X-Factor. I love that book to distraction, but I seem to have the notion that my reviewing efforts are redundant unless they're aimed at a book that needs all the help it can get. When I wrote the Authority stuff, passionate user reviews were the only exposure that book was getting. X-Factor by contrast is all over the comic critic radar, wins awards, gets properly promoted by Marvel, and pisses off all the right people on CBR's X-forums. But I don't really think user reviews raise a book's profile all that much (they sure as hell didn't save WildStorm), so maybe I should stop being so stupid-earnest and write them for fun.
( Secret History of the Authority: Jack Hawksmoor )
( North 40 #2 )
( North 40 #3 )
( WildCATS #19 )
( Authority #18 )
( Authority #19 )
On reflection, it's weird that I've never reviewed Peter David's X-Factor. I love that book to distraction, but I seem to have the notion that my reviewing efforts are redundant unless they're aimed at a book that needs all the help it can get. When I wrote the Authority stuff, passionate user reviews were the only exposure that book was getting. X-Factor by contrast is all over the comic critic radar, wins awards, gets properly promoted by Marvel, and pisses off all the right people on CBR's X-forums. But I don't really think user reviews raise a book's profile all that much (they sure as hell didn't save WildStorm), so maybe I should stop being so stupid-earnest and write them for fun.
( Secret History of the Authority: Jack Hawksmoor )
( North 40 #2 )
( North 40 #3 )
( WildCATS #19 )
( Authority #18 )
( Authority #19 )
Tags:
Okay, this is kind of a cheap win on the 'yes, I will write some entries' front. Below is a sheaf of reviews I posted on Comixology, ComicVine and iFanboy during the World's End era of WildStorm comics, i.e. the last ongoings before DC canned the imprint last year. I started these in response to a call to arms from Authority uberfan Chris Striker on his very excellent Clark's Bar message board; sales on the World's End books were tanking and he posted a challenge to us fans to raise the profile through reviews and stuff. WildStorm pimping aside, I found that producing these things - the discipline of reading the issue and then turning around a half-decent review as quickly as possible, keeping to the word limit imposed by the sites - was a really tight writing exercise.
Anyway, if you read the issues at the time you might like these write-ups. If you didn't, and you're a fan of the Authority, I really can't recommend the Abnett, Lanning and Coleby series highly enough. The relevant trades are Authority: World's End and Authority: Rule Britannia.
A lot has changed since these reviews were first written, not least the death of WildStorm as a separate imprint and the absorption of various WS fragments into the DC universe in time for the ambitious 'New 52' shakeup going on at DC. As much as I abhor DC's wastage of WildStorm, I am hugely psyched for the potential awesomeness that is Paul Cornell's Stormwatch, so I may start reviewing it when it hits the stands.
( Authority #8 )
( Authority #9 )
( Authority #10 )
( Authority #11 )
( Authority #12 )
( Authority #13 )
( Authority #14 )
( Authority #17 )
( Authority World's End Volume 1 TPB )
Anyway, if you read the issues at the time you might like these write-ups. If you didn't, and you're a fan of the Authority, I really can't recommend the Abnett, Lanning and Coleby series highly enough. The relevant trades are Authority: World's End and Authority: Rule Britannia.
A lot has changed since these reviews were first written, not least the death of WildStorm as a separate imprint and the absorption of various WS fragments into the DC universe in time for the ambitious 'New 52' shakeup going on at DC. As much as I abhor DC's wastage of WildStorm, I am hugely psyched for the potential awesomeness that is Paul Cornell's Stormwatch, so I may start reviewing it when it hits the stands.
( Authority #8 )
( Authority #9 )
( Authority #10 )
( Authority #11 )
( Authority #12 )
( Authority #13 )
( Authority #14 )
( Authority #17 )
( Authority World's End Volume 1 TPB )
