Tuesday, August 30, 2011

CHAOS READ #1

Check out the FREE first issue of the bimonthly Chaos Read series.


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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

CHAOS TEASER 2


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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

CHAOS READ TEASER 1



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The Fight

It's the time of year when my mind is pulled between watching baseball and writing.
*note: this Braves Yearbook was what got me interested in baseball as a kid. A gift from my older brother.

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Friday, August 12, 2011

REVIEWS

I will be putting the full reviews here on hold for a while because I was sick for two weeks and still recovering and got behind in the writing that pays. I'll do a review from time to time and hopefully I will get caught up really soon. I appreciate all the people who send me emails and talked to me on Twitter and other places after I post reviews. Hopefully I'll be back soon to writing them because I love doing them.
C.

Reminder:

COMING AUGUST 31st
MONTHLY SHORT STORY SERIES



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Friday, August 5, 2011

REVIEW: SILVER SURFER - IN THY NAME

Marvel Comics

Written by SIMON SPURRIER
Art by TAN ENG HUAT
Color Art by JOSE VILLARRUBIA
Letters by VIRTUAL CALLIGRAPHY’S CORY PETIT
Covers by MICHAEL TURNER & PETER STEIGERWALD, GABRIELE DELL’OTTO, PAUL POPE & JOSE VILLARRUBIA, and TAN ENG HUAT & JOSE VILLARRUBIA
Editor AUBREY SITTERSON

So many people know of the Silver Surfer but I feel not enough people know how great of a character he is really is. In my eyes he is one of the top Marvel characters of all time. I haven’t been the biggest fan of outer space superhero comics but I do love reading Silver Surfer self contained stories every chance I get. I think that format of comic story telling works for the Surfer.  With the setting of a monthly ongoing series I think the shine of how unique of a character he really is falls off the board because most writers have a good Surfer story in them but most do not get the character enough to keep telling his stories on a regular basis.

Pun tried above.

Pun failure above.

And if you might ask me what outer space superhero comics I have enjoyed, off the top of my head I’ll mention The Annihilation stories at Marvel and Green Lantern stories at DC. There are many more but maybe that will have to wait until maybe a day when I have time to explore it more in depth in a blog entry.

I found Silver Surfer: In Thy Name at one of my local libraries on a random trip and took it home with a stack of books not thinking much about until I picked it up one day to read between editing one of my own stories and watching the MLS All-Star game.

When I started it the first thing I noticed was how much I loved the art of Tan Eng Huat and the color work by Jose Villarrubia. I think more than any other kind of story in comics a colorist makes or breaks an outer space tale.

This one once again finds the Surfer being very emo in space; which is his characters nature. He has always been a mixture of emo and hippy and when people attack that part of the character the criticism really doesn’t hit because that’s who he is. It’s like calling Tony Stark a dick. Really? Ok, yea, that’s him.

The Silver Surfer is very much a character about the very nature of life and living. Though I’ve sort of made fun of him for being by nature emo and hippified, The Silver Surfer is very complex in how in the hands of a talented team he can be used to explore such things as whether a utopia is possible and do so without jumping outside his character and standing out for being too preachy.

Like Superman the Silver Surfer is a very hard character for a lot of writers to get a hold of beyond the basics of how people see him. If you write his life an superhero then you are already going down the wrong track.
In the world of Marvel’s outer space stories he should be the key, just as Green Lantern is with DC Comics.

That’s doesn’t mean that they should always be the focal point of outer space adventures but they should be used to expand and tour that side of these universes.

The Silver Surfer can go head to head with the most powerful beings and situations the Marvel Universe can offer up against him but he is also such a human character that he never gets lost in seeing the very nature of not only life but living. And in being this way he should be one of the best characters Marvel has but it seems like so many has a hard time writing his outside of just making him a measurement of how powerful other characters are.

Silver Surfer: In Thy Name is great story whether you have read any Surfer stories in the past or if this is your introduction to the character. This book has great art without so much energy and life to it. The story goes into the deep lines of life that all stories involving the Silver Surfer should do.

And a final note. The cover to issue number 3 of the limited series is one of my all time favorite images of The Silver Surfer. Just love that and wish they had used that for the cover of the trade.

Ok, now I’m going to try that things called sleep.

SILVER SURFER: IN THY NAME
3 out of 5 Stars

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Wednesday, August 3, 2011

REVIEW: MY ROTTEN LIFE NATHAN ABERCROMBIE, ACCIDENTAL ZOMBIE

MY ROTTEN LIFE:
NATHAN ABERCROMBIE, ACCIDENTAL ZOMBIE

By David Lubar

Yet another book I picked up at ALA11 in New Orleans. They were giving away copies of this already released book. That trip is going to be memorable for years to come for so many reasons but most of all the fact that meet so many cool people and brought home some great books.

My Rotten Life: Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie is a book I didn’t get from standing in a line but a book I found when I was sitting down for a rest working on a book of my own and noticed someone had left two copies of it sitting on the floor near the trash can across from where I was seated.

One of the things that really bugged Mar and I both while attending the conference was how some people were just grabbing anything free and then later discarding them. We saw books tossed on the floor, in the trash, and many places you should never leave a book. We only tried to get books that we had interest in for the writer, artist, or content. People were being so wasteful and that pissed me off. Not everyone was doing this but enough were for it to bother me a lot.

And since these books I found were homeless and mistreated I just had to give them a home. Plus Mar loves zombie stuff so I thought she might like a copy. I’ve read so man Middle Grade books of that that I really enjoyed I’m always looking for more good Middle Grade books.

And if you wondering about some Middle Grade books I would recommend here’s a quick list off the top of my head: Dani Noir by Nova Ren Suma, Horton Halfpott by Tom Angleberger, and Peter Nimble And His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier to name a few.

My Rotten Life turned out to be another great book surprise and when I showed the book to Mar back at the hotel after the day at the convention Mar said she knew the writer and enjoyed his writing so I decided to give it a try even if I’m not the biggest zombie fan.

I’m really glad someone was stupid and tossed these. Their lose turns out to be my gain. After finishing Peter Nimble And His Fantastic Eyes this became my before bedtime read and I loved it. I finished it quicker than I normally do before bedtime reads but that’s because I was sick for a few days and read it early in the morning also after making Mar coffee.

My Rotten Life is a Middle Grade book by David Lubar about ten year old Nathan Abercrombie. This book is full of great humor, a very well written supporting cast, and a story that moves fast but without any sacrifices in its storytelling for its speed.

Though this book has tons of humor it only has some really heart twisting moments when it comes to how Nathan and his friends are treated by the popular kids. And I felt these moments with more strength than a lot of the more graphic nature of some YA books that tackled the issues of bullying and school life.

I loved all the characters in this story. Supporting cast, parents, teachers, and settings all took you deeper into this world. Such good craft in the storytelling. One of the better supporting cast of characters in a book I’ve read in a long time of any level, style, or genre.

A little note: Everyone talks about the absent parents that are in YA books and that is true in a lot of YA books but it seems like to me Middle Grade books have more of a parental presence in their stories and that’s because of the age of the characters but in books of the quality like that of My Rotten Life you are glad to see more of the parents because they added a lot to the world of this story. From the parents of lead character Nathan to the parents of his friend Abigail the life of the young characters is expanded by including well written parents.

Nathan’s friend Mookie is the comedy character you will find in a lot of stories but he’s a great character overall and him being the so called comedy character works even more here because he doesn’t stand out as that “type” of character because of the humor of the other characters.

All of the characters in My Rotten Life exist very natural and I loved that take in this type of story instead of only creating stereotypes which is the route a lot of writers would have gone.

This story is funny, heart wrenching, gross, and wants me wanting more. I’m glad to have read by the sample at the back of this book that there are plans for more adventures of Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie.

Just checked Amazon and it seems like there are already a couple more in the series out and for sale but also checking my local library shows they don’t have any for check. Sorry to find that out. If I can find some used copies cheap I’ll buy and probably donate. I’ll be keeping the first book though because if I get the chance I would love to get it signed in the future.

MY ROTTEN LIFE: 
NATHAN ABERCROMBIE, ACCIDENTAL ZOMBIE
4 out of 5 stars

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Tuesday, August 2, 2011

REVIEW: DOCTOR WHO - A FAIRYTALE LIFE #3 & #4

DOCTOR WHO: 
A FAIRYTALE LIFE 
#3 & #4

IDW Publishing

Written by MATTHEW STURGES
Art by BRIAN SHEARER
Colors by RACHELLE ROSENBERG
Lettering by SHAWN LEE
Edited by DENTON J. TIPTON
Covers by MARK BUCKINGHAM and PHIL ELLIOTT

To end off this limited series and also to help to try and catch up with the single issue comic reviews I need to do I’m combining my reviews for issues #3 and #4. 

I might combine more single issues in the future also when I review them as I tend to only go to the comic shop maybe once a month. But with the new DC relaunch books coming out I'll try to read, review, and post those reviews as I get the books.

In my review for the second issue of this Doctor Who limited series I talked about how I had hoped this story as it entered its pay off issues of 3 & 4 would have a lot more to offer up because as it was its course was very standard sci-fi. It did improve but for the most part only by a duck on the head measure. Read #3 and you will get that joke and it was one of the few really creative things I found in this story.

The biggest star of these last two issues and this limited series in total is Amy Pond. The writer did a pretty good job with writing her and capturing the onscreen character. 

The characterization of the Doctor though is very hit and miss throughout the series but that’s true also in the history of people writing the Doctor for comics. 

I really enjoyed a lot of the Doctor Who one-shots IDW put out in the past and feel this story would have been better suited to a one-shot. I think it would have turned out more compact and more streamlined.
But the next test will be when I buy the trade and read this story as a whole because sometimes my view of a story changes when I’m able to sit down and read the story as one thought.

DOCTOR WHO: A FAIRYTALE LIFE #3 & #4
2 out of 5 Stars

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