On a dutch comic forum "Spock"
advised people to read this Masterpiece! I loved it
right away! This massive tome is a page-turner you won't
be able to put down, and prove that these brothers are
a pair to watch!
A hard pace, black satirical graphic
novel !! It came from a time when side-kicks ruled the
comic universe. Now, at last, the notorious graphic
novel that made the mainstream safe for totally twisted
superhero satires is available in a new KING HELL trade
paperback edition!
Christos Gage is worth the attention
!! Now on an nostalgic tour a major brawl between original
Stormwatch members and the ever daring Autorithy.
Brian Wood, activist extraordinaire, has again put his online
skills to the test in promoting his latest series Northlanders
. He performed as a guest blogger at News@rama, deals out
interviews left and right, sets up a mini-site, a myspace
page and actively pursues reviews by giving a select club
of online reviewers advance previews in order to build up
momentum until the actual release of the comic. Many a creator
can learn something from his websavvy and grass roots approach
to things.
An unfortunate side effect of this approach though is that
the apotheosis of release can end in a downer when the comic
doesn't live up to expectations. The artwork from the mini-site
promises a more daring visual approach than the comic actually
delivers. Instead of an illustrative drawing style, Northlanders
is drawn by Davide Gianfelice who uses a more modern style
of drawing, not unlike fellow Italian artist Giuseppe Camuncoli.
It's nice work but unspectacular. Everything is scratchy and
delineated, sparse on blacks and crosshatching and very angular.
What a more illustrative artist brings out in the reader is
more of a feeling of awe. A sort of wonderment that captivates
the reader and involves him in the characters and setting
(which is as much a character here as the persons walking
around in it). There is a closeness to nature-feeling going
on that seems to reverberate of the pathos formula. And the
stylings of Gianfelice just can't seem to captivate that feeling
in Northlanders . Maybe it could be just as simple as saying,
that - for a straight adventure story involving Vikings -
his style is just too modern. When Vikings become less exciting
on paper due to the drawings, than something is off, though.
Critics of the most recent arc in Robert Kirkmans massive
Walking Dead saga complained that too little happened to further
the plot and terror and action were replaced with character
development. Very telling was the title of that arc, The Calm
Before, as this current one erupted two issues ago when the
Governor, the man who brutally tortured Rick, Michonne and
Glenn, arrived at the gates of the prison with a sizable attack
force and even a fully functioning tank.
This issue is one of the most action-packed 22 pages Kirkman
has yet to produce in a zombie book that doesnt feature Spider-Man
feasting on Galactus. And while this series usually works
best when emphasizing character interactions over zombie attacks,
the long build up serves perfectly to whet our appetites for
the waves of destruction brought on by the Governor and his
forces. The battle unfolds realistically and characters react
the way youd expect them to. This isnt a superhero book
and Kirkman doesnt make his characters out to be heroes.
They simply cower on the ground while the Governor opens fire.
The fight isnt as one-sided as the cover would lead you to
believe, however, as Rick and the gang do find a way to strike
back before the issues shocking end.
Het is me wel wat geweest de laatste dagen, heel veel goed nieuws en
nieuwe uitdagingen gevonden. En bovenal eindelijk nog eens een ijzersterke
reeks gelezen !! Maar wat blijkt nu ?? Er heerst een echte hype ; ) Ik
ben niet de enige die in de ban is van spionage verhalen !! Tijdens het
schrijven van deze review bots ik juist op een review van Brainfreeze,
ook al over een spionagereeks. Moet natuurlijk weer lukken !!
Checkmate is één van die vele series die men niet goed
naar waarde geschat wordt en daarmee gedoemd is vroegtijdig te eindigen.
De schrijver Greg Rucka kennen van zijn eigen serie "Queen & Country",
"Gotham Central" in samenwerking met Ed Brubaker en "Batman:
Bruce Wayne Murderer".
De opzet is eigenlijk éénvoudig. Enerzijds heb je de witte
schaakstukken die het politieke gedeelte voor hun rekening nemen en anderzijds
heb je de zwarte schaakstukken die overgaan tot actie. Voor elke superhero
heb je een regular human tegenhanger.
Al gauw blijkt dat er aan deze serie reeds een grote voorgeschiedenis aan
vasthangt en die zorgt ervoor dat telkens je honger naar informatie gestild
geraakt er wel wat nieuws opduikt.
Rucka vertelde dit over zijn serie: "Take a big chunk of The OMAC Project,
take the concept of "Who Watches the Watchmen?" and throw in some James
Bond and you've got Checkmate."
Wat je nog allemaal moet of kunt lezen, is me nog niet helemaal duidelijk.
Voor zover ik het begrijp, is het een voortzetting van Wonder Woman: Mission's
End, The
OMAC Project, Superman: Sacrifice and Infinite Crisis. (Bij deze weet
ik weeral wat te bestellen.) But hey, I've got a hang for it and I want
to discover more !!
Het is een tijdje stil geweest met bespreking van comics. Dit is volledig te wijten aan de automatisering van de comic-preorders via een excel lijst en het integreren van de preorders binnen de shop. Nu zou ik terug meer tijd moeten hebben om op een regelmatige basis rescensies, tips of voor sommigen gezwets neer te poten.
Om eens te breken met de traditie van postieve posts eindelijk ook is iets "teleurstellend".
Na een schitterende start met "Wolverine: Origin" tracht Marvel dit succes door te trekken met "Wolverine: Origins". Let op "Tracht". Ok, Wolverine rules maar "hoge bomen vangen veel wind". Aan het hoge tempo waarmee hij in talrijke series verschijnt, daarover wil ik het zelfs hier niet over hebben, krijgt hij nog 2 eigen reeksen. Gelukkig dat hij met healingsfactor geen last kan krijgen van burn-out.. Ik wou het eerder hebben over de lage kwaliteit van sommige verhalen. Daniel Way heeft nochthans duidelijk in het verleden bewezen kwalitatieve verhalen te kunnen produceren. Eigenlijk had ik stiekem gehoopt dat het hier om een verderzetting ging van de mini-serie.
Written by DANIEL WAY Penciled by STEVE DILLON Cover by STEVE DILLON Like father, like son?! Having finally seen his face, Wolverine sets out to rescue his son from the grasp of the shadow society that once enslaved him. But Logan's son doesn't want to be saved - he wants revenge against Logan, the father who abandoned him! Collecting WOLVERINE: ORIGINS #11-15.
Het derde deel vertelt dus over NOG een kind van Wolvie, deze keer een jongen met hevige daddy-issues, die nog getrained werd door Cyber, een adamantium nutcase met diepe haatgevoelens. In tegenstelling tot zijn dochter X-23 deed dit character mij niets. Het is vooral dit deel dat echt teleurstellend overkwam. Niets weerhoudt jullie ervan om deze mening aan te vechten.
Laten we hopen dat het volgende deel onze favoriete held weer op juiste spoor kan zetten !! Alvast een voorproefje:
Dat gaat hier helemaal de verkeerde kant op, niet waar ?!?
"Marvel is putting some of its older comics online Tuesday, hoping to
reintroduce young people to the X-Men and Fantastic Four by showcasing
the original issues in which such characters appeared.
Still, it represents perhaps
the comics industry's most aggressive Web push yet. Even as their
creations -- from Iron Man to Wonder Woman -- become increasingly
visible in pop culture through new movies and video games, old-school
comics publishers rely primarily on specialized, out-of-the-way comic
shops for distribution of their bread-and-butter product.
"You don't have that spinner rack of comic books sitting in the
local five-and-dime any more," said Dan Buckley, president of Marvel
Publishing. "We don't have our product intersecting kids in their
lifestyle space as much as we used to."
Translate "kids' lifestyle space" into plain English and you get
"the Internet." Marvel's two most prominent competitors currently offer
online teasers designed to drive the sales of comics or book
collections.
Dark Horse Comics now puts its
monthly anthologies "Dark Horse Presents" up for free viewing on its
MySpace site. The images are vibrant and large.
DC Comics has also put issues up on MySpace, and recently launched
the competition-based Zuda Comics, which encourages users to rank each
other's work, as a way to tap into the expanding Web comic scene.
Company president Paul Levitz said he expects to put more original
comics online in coming years.
"We look at anything that connects comics to people," Levitz said.
"The most interesting thing about the online world to me is the
opportunity for new forms of creativity. ... It's a question of what
forms of storytelling work for the Web?"
For its mature Vertigo imprint, DC offers weekly sneak peeks at the
first five or six pages of upcoming issues. The publisher also gives
out downloadable PDF files of the first issues in certain series, timed
to publication of the series in book or graphic novel format.
The Web release of DC's "Y the Last Man" sent sales of that book
collection soaring at Bridge City Comics in Portland, Ore., the shop's
owner Michael Ring said.
"They really do tend to be feeder systems," Ring said of online comics. "They give people that initial taste."
For Marvel, the general public has often already gotten its initial
taste through movies like "Spider-Man" or the "Fantastic Four"
franchises.
The publisher is hoping fans will be intrigued enough about the
origins of those characters to shell out $9.99 a month, or $4.99
monthly with a year-long commitment. For that price, they'll be able to
poke through, say, the first 100 issues of Stan Lee's 1963 creation
"Amazing Spider-Man" at their leisure, along with more recent titles
like "House of M" and "Young Avengers." Comics can be viewed in several
different formats, including frame-by-frame navigation.
Ring expects Marvel's effort to put a slight dent in the back-issue
segment of the comic shop industry, where rare, out-of-print titles
sell for hundreds of dollars on eBay and at trade shows.
Though most comic fans are collectors, some simply want to catch up
on the backstory of their favorite characters and would no longer have
to pay top dollar to do so.
About 2,500 issues will be available at launch of Marvel Digital Comics, with 20 more being released each week.
" Source: http://www.physorg.com/news114159050.html En Amazon blijft ook niet achter:
"CNET News.com reported last weekthat Amazon would be debuting its much-delayed e-book reader, which the retailer on Monday started selling for $399.
Kindle tips the scales at a total 10.3 ounces--"That's less than a
paperback book," Bezos said--and uses an "electronic ink" technology to
mimic paper, not a computer screen. There is no backlight. Currently,
the screen is black-and-white; Amazon executives have confirmed that E Ink, which manufactures the screen technology for Kindle as well as for other e-book readers like the Sony Reader, has a prototype of a color display; however, that technology is not yet ready for market.
The battery life, company representatives said, will last several
days to a week. A charger can juice up the battery in a matter of two
hours.
Notably, Kindle does not require a PC for synchronization or any
software to be installed. "Instead of shopping from your PC, you shop
directly from the device. The store is on the device, and then the
content is wirelessly and seamlessly delivered to the device," Bezos
explained.
Amazon's new "Kindle Store" now stocks more than 90,000 titles, "including 101 of 112 current New York Times Best Sellers and new releases, which are $9.99, unless marked otherwise," according to a release from the company."
Northlanders
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