Beetle

Comic book addict and wireless geek.

 

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"FreakAngels" 25 & 26

After a week of Warren sitting on the pot for vaca, we get Episode 26.

“It’s a cheeky little vintage.”

I got my “FreakAngels” t-shirt a couple weeks back. It’s comfy. Same with my “No Hero” tee. I was a 30-something Avatar Press whore for two days straight! Hrm. Sounds like a 50’s screenplay.

Also, I forgot to mention Episode 25, so read THAT first, then the charming, drunken, and drugged-up Ellis ramblings of an interlude, THEN Episode 26.

Posted: September 07, 2008 at 11:51 AM

Scale speeds exceeding 150 MPH!

Posted: September 06, 2008 at 09:02 PM

STACKS!

I was on a no-tech vacation for a week, followed by catching up on work, and now I’ve got STACKS of comic books to read. Latest floppies, 4 or 5 trades, and arrived-while-away back issues and auctions. Yeah! This rainy weekend should be FAWEsome!

Oh man, I’ve got to catch up on the forum, too! Wonder what I missed…

Posted: September 05, 2008 at 08:26 PM

Get Q*bert TODAY!

Posted: August 25, 2008 at 09:16 PM

Go Voltron Force!

Posted: August 24, 2008 at 09:40 AM
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Grip roaring FUN!

Posted: August 23, 2008 at 07:39 PM
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"Robotika" HC review

“Robotika” is a self-described “far future” tale that features killer sci-fi samurai, cybernetic gunslinger action, and goal-driven RPG-like group adventure, in violent, ironic tales, peppered with fantastical creatures and bad guys. Niko is a non-speaking, pain-sensor deprived swordsman and a major badass. CG is a bald, weapon-wielding beauty, and a badass. Bronski is a one-normal-eye one-cyber-eye pistol-packing cowboy, and a badass. Lets hear it for badasses, including the writer and artist, Alex Sheikman.

Sheikman has put significant thought into his “Robotika” world here, and for the added benefit of the reader, he takes great care to dampen the shock of “Robotika”’s in-your-face wonder, way-obvious abnormalities, and not-so-implied massiveness. Sheikman pulls this kindness off through sufficient back story, serene and fluid imagery, goal-based stories, and colorful, unique, characters you can quickly start rooting for. Much appreciated. Dialogue is a bit inconsistent; it feels forced and awkward in some places, yet natural and spot-on in others. Niko doesn’t speak, and doesn’t need to, so no complaints there. And there’s an obvious excuse for CG’s poor verbal timing. Pop-up antagonists, however, really throw things off with their dialogue. The gunslinger Bronski is Sheikman’s dialogue ace, though. Yay for Bronski! And as mentioned, you really do root for the three yojimbos. Sheikman does a wonderful job of introducing the heroes, challenging them individually and as a group, and keeping the reader interested AS they gel. Niko’s moments of introspection, either externally coerced, during virtual training, or during meditation, are placed well throughout by Sheikman; giving us a way to connect to a character we’d otherwise think of as just a talented killer.

“Robotika” is artsy! A welcome detour from simple sequential storytelling. Alex Sheikman has a solid command of anatomy, motion, and fight kinetics. Niko’s silly shoes fall off at the beginning of a brawl, just like I thought they would. heh. Throughout “Robotika”, I was always eager for a fight scene to pop up—they were SO good. Zooms, symmetry, and symbolism are used extensively in “Robotika”, but in a thoughtful manner. While there’s a lot of posing throughout “Robotika”, it’s not gratuitous or unnatural. Instead, the placement of characters, in sword-swinging flight or in pensive pause, is for significant effect. There’s not much fore-shortening, as Sheikman opts for near-vs-far proximity placement of characters to create depth extremes, but I didn’t mind that. Sheikman’s style and attention to detail trumps tradition. For many an example of attention to detail, Sheikman does not appear at all afraid to draw HANDS, in all manner of poses and grips, which I TOTALLY appreciate… and immediately envy. While the rare scenery or establishing shot feels a bit cobbled together, I truly enjoyed those frames as well. A bit of a personal nag here, Sheikman leaves a great deal of space unused, and it appears as if that’s intentional, as if to tease the viewer into begging for more. Grr, I say. But what we are blessed with, contrasting those open spaces, is just wonderful.

Sheikman’s wonderful art is also rather unique, in my opinion. I can’t really put his art in a cubby of classification or artist comparison. I’ve seen bits of commentary with comparisons to Tony Harris, and I think those moments in Sheikman’s art are fleeting at best. If this hadn’t come out before “The Dark Tower”, I’d swear Sheikman was heavily influenced by Jae Lee’s recent work. Now I’m wondering if Lee soaked up some Sheikman. “Robotika” art feels very RPG-ish, and that’s very consistent with the writing, and that’s quite alright by me. Enough with the comparison, inspection, and disassembly—”Robotika”, all on its own, is just really damned good, and so is Alex Sheikman.

While you can get newer “Robotika” via “Robotika: For A Few Rubles More”, the collection of the initial “Robotika” isn’t available at HI, so I’ve linked the cover image below with Amazon. Buy, buy, buy.

Posted: August 22, 2008 at 09:43 PM

"Atomic Robo Vol 1" TPB review

Atomic Robo is a Tesla-designed Earth-saving badass robot. “Atomic Robo” is a Red 5 Comics-designed badass comic book title. Learn it, live it, love it.

Brian Clevinger spins heart-warming, humorous, and mission-impossible tales for Atomic Robo, the sarcastic and lovable, albeit physically heartless, main character who saves the world on behalf of a grateful nation. What? Not for dough? Well of course not, what would a robot spend his hero dough on anyway? Clevinger proffers “Helsingard” whom I assume will be a recurring arch-villain / nemesis. Helsingard is a brain-with-no-body “B.P.R.D”-ish antagonist, but definitely distinct, thanks to Clevinger-born, salty, intimate, non-stop, hero-vs-villain banter that tastes of history we are not yet privy to. The lines throughout are not memorable, but only because there are SO MANY that crack you up. They are carelessly quipped by the characters, and at such a rate that, while you may be immediately endeared and giggling to Robo and his supporting cast, you’re doomed to replace each dialogue moment with the next FRAME’s drop-dead funny line. Clevinger jumps back and forth in Robo’s history of adventures, taking breaks from the intimated hunt-for-Helsingard grind to bring us period tales of WWII dogfights or Mars landings. Clevinger has brilliantly succeeded in writing fresh and extreme adventure comic book tales with a wonderful hero who has impenetrable verbal wit to go along with his indestructible metal hide. I just cannot wait to read the the Atomic Robo stories scattered across “history” that Brian Clevinger will eventually bless us with.

Scott Wegener draws your socks off. The art, at first glance, is cartoon simple with obvious Mignola flavor. Pay a bit more attention, and you realize that Wegener did too. His “cartoony” ends up being not too far from “realistic”. Weapons are weapons. Physics are respected. Robo looks and feels like a robot. The expression picked up from Robo’s eyes, however, is spot on with emotes. Action sequences can be naturally followed. The framing and angle of scenes is very well matched to, if not singularly defining in some cases, mood. Wegener, on more than one occasion, totally nails “irony of the situation”. Or, “you gotta be shitting me”. Completely absent of dialogue even. Wegener’s detail is just enough throughout—this guy is a master at line conservation. While I would normally prefer significantly more blacks for lighting contrast / effect, Wegener appears to intentionally hold his blacks in reserve, so that when he whips them out, it REALLY means something. His not-so-heavy style goes well with the light nature of Clevinger’s dialogue anyway. Hrm. I’m now a fan.

Ronda Pattison, with her thoughtful and themed coloring, does a wonderful job at adding just enough depth to Wegener’s art. “Atomic Robo” owes much of its visual liveliness to her. Jeff Powell’s lettering is clean and solid, and does a splendid job of distinguishing Robo’s speech, radio chatter, and HUGE sounds. Nice touch, and a great rounding out of the team.

So yeah, this was GREAT! The “Atomic Robo Vol 1” TPB collects issues 1-6 of the wildly popular, and for good reason, “Atomic Robo”. You’ll be challenged to find individual first printing issues of this killer title. Save yourself dough and eBay frustration and just get this collected volume NOW.

The mission-to-Mars was my favorite tale of the bunch in this book, BTW.

Atomic Robo: “I know it seems like a small thing, but I’m gonna need more than FIVE MAGAZINES to entertain myself for a TWO YEAR ROUND TRIP.”

Posted: August 20, 2008 at 09:21 PM

"Dark Knight" movie is high-brow?

I can’t tell if Robert Downey Jr. is serious or just fucking with people, but he pseudo-rants regarding the “Dark Knight” movie, “This is so high brow and so fucking smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie,” and quips, “Fuck DC comics.”

Check out ”’Iron Man’ drops F-bomb on DC Comics”.

The original interview, in full context, is actually a h00t.

heh. Given that, I’m going to chalk it up to Downey Jr. just fucking with people. Good one, “Iron Man”. Maybe we can see him and Christian Bale throw down on a red carpet in L.A. sometime.

Posted: August 18, 2008 at 06:21 PM

"Justice League: The New Frontier Special" review

When I picked up and watched the new “Justice League: The New Frontier” movie on Blu-ray, I wasn’t sure the DC heroes reboot into the 50s thing would work. It did. I floved it. While it had quaint post-WWII American settings, the character interaction and story-telling were mature, almost adult. I think there’s a bit of profanity in that cartoon movie even.

So now there’s a comic, “Justice League: The New Frontier”, which I haven’t read, but I picked up the recently released “Justice League: The New Frontier Special” #1. Three stories, still in the 50s, centering on key DC characters, including: Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Robin, Kid Flash, and Black Canary. The writing is exclusively by wow-he’s-really-good Darwyn Cooke, natch. The stories are great. Simple and bubble gum in immediate presentation, but comfortably enjoyable in punchline. You feel GOOD when you read this. Not enlightened or challenged. Just GOOD. And that’s just FINE with me.

The art is well done, by Darwyn Cooke, David Bullock, and J. Bone. Dave Stewart colors all of it well, too. If you like old-school square Dick Tracy-ish chins, cartoonish figures, and silhouettes, you’ll absolutely love this. I did. Even if you don’t, I think you’ll find the art certainly doesn’t detract from the writing, and at the very least, based on the era, feels appropriate. My one complaint was that the layouts seemed a bit rushed or sub-optimal in some places. As if they may have started off as cartoon / film storyboards and were just never fully cultivated to sequential page-by-page comic book visual storytelling; perhaps shoehorned. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all still great stuff. Enough so, I’m looking to get “New Frontier” back issues now.

The first story is Batman vs Superman, and it is easily the best Batman vs Superman throw-down since 1986 and Frank Miller’s “Dark Knight Returns” #4. But perhaps, not AS good. Hmm. I’ll have to re-read each and compare. Anyway, Superman gets the order from POTUS to take Batman down, and Batman basically says, “Bring it, bitch.” I REALLY like watching Batman outwit and beat the crap out of other DC heroes and this battle did not disappoint. Well, perhaps at it’s very end. But it was a beat-down I’m going to be grinning about for quite some time. Superman was really friggin’ SCARED. Hahahaha. That fight alone was worth the price of admission for “Justice League: The New Frontier Special” #1, IMO. The rest is a very welcomed bonus.

Posted: August 16, 2008 at 05:40 PM

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Blurbs

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I got them in the mail today! I love getting packages in the mail. Thanks a lot!

I am very glad you have enjoyed Robotika :) Thank you for supporting the book and for taking the time to write a review. That is very much appreciated.

If you have a chance, let me know if you feel that the dialogue in the new series is more solid. I have asked David Moran to help me out on “A Few Rubles More” because, like you, I thought I was being inconsistent.

By the way, you nailed my my RPG roots. I spent almost 10 years illustrating RPG manuals for White Wolf Games :)

Again, thank you!

Thanks Beetle!

Just got the bags and boards today. Thanks a bunch!

Cool man, thanks! Hey I’ve had to keep back on my subscriptions as of late and am sorta looking for really the must have stuff right now. If you could only get 5 books what would they be?

Hey, I was checking out the Action Comics page because I was thinking about giving it a shot and I saw you were a subscriber. How’s Action Comics been so far, I’ve never really been a Superman fan but I’ve heard such great things about this book.

Wheres a good issue to start for this?

-b.

Hey dude, thanks! Much appreciated. I cannot tell you how psyched I am. I’ve been out of the IT world since December 2007. It’s been so tough to find work. Anyway, thanks again. Take it easy.

http://www.opera.com/download/get.pl?distro=ubuntu&id=31453%2C31404&location=121&sub=++&x=92&y=13 Exit out the download, and then click on the link that that page gives to go to Opera’s offical surveymonkey page and tell THEM how you feel! :) They ask you not only how you think they’re doing, but what you think is most important in a browser, so they know where to put their resources. Opera loves their customers. :)

Err… if you’re trying to get me to view something, you should probably link to it. I have NO idea what you’re talking about. I don’t know if there’s a hotkey sequence for a new speed dial without a new tab (I don’t know all the hotkeys by any means) but I know that in the last versions of Opera that was actually the default, and I had to go to settings to change it. Since you’re saying this, I suppose they heard that the more popular thing was as a New Tab, but I’m sure you can change it back. :) It’s important to remember that with any browser, you’ll have to go it and change those silly little things to the way you like it. Nothing will come fitted to suit EVERYONE.

Have you tried Opera’s mail? I just switched from Thunderbird and I LOVE IT! I didn’t think I would. Like… “Ew… email… in a web browser? That’s stupid!” but… oh my god… it does everything… and it’s so pretty (Opera always reminds me of being in an Ikea) and organized. I LOVE it. I can’t place my finger EXACTLY on what I like about it, but if you already have it installed, I’d try it. :)

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Recent Reviews

View all 6 of Beetle's reviews

Atomic Robo is a Tesla-designed Earth-saving badass robot. “Atomic Robo” is a Red 5 Comics-designed badass comic book title. Learn it, live it, love it.

Brian Clevinger spins heart-warming, humorous, and mission-impossible tales for Atomic Robo, the sarcastic and lovable, albeit physically heartless, main character who saves the world on behalf of a grateful nation. What? Not for dough? Well of course not, what would a robot spend his hero dough on anyway? Clevinger proffers “Helsingard” whom I assume will be a recurring arch-villain / nemesis. Helsingard is a brain-with-no-body “B.P.R.D”-ish antagonist, but definitely distinct, thanks to Clevinger-born, salty, intimate, non-stop, hero-vs-villain banter that tastes of history we are not yet privy to. The lines throughout are not memorable, but only because there are SO MANY that crack you up. They are carelessly quipped by the characters, and at such a rate that, while you may be immediately endeared and giggling to Robo and his supporting cast, you’re doomed to replace each dialogue moment with the next FRAME’s drop-dead funny line. Clevinger jumps back and forth in Robo’s history of adventures, taking breaks from the intimated hunt-for-Helsingard grind to bring us period tales of WWII dogfights or Mars landings. Clevinger has brilliantly succeeded in writing fresh and extreme adventure comic book tales with a wonderful hero who has impenetrable verbal wit to go along with his indestructible metal hide. I just cannot wait to read the the Atomic Robo stories scattered across “history” that Brian Clevinger will eventually bless us with.

Scott Wegener draws your socks off. The art, at first glance, is cartoon simple with obvious Mignola flavor. Pay a bit more attention, and you realize that Wegener did too. His “cartoony” ends up being not too far from “realistic”. Weapons are weapons. Physics are respected. Robo looks and feels like a robot. The expression picked up from Robo’s eyes, however, is spot on with emotes. Action sequences can be naturally followed. The framing and angle of scenes is very well matched to, if not singularly defining in some cases, mood. Wegener, on more than one occasion, totally nails “irony of the situation”. Or, “you gotta be shitting me”. Completely absent of dialogue even. Wegener’s detail is just enough throughout—this guy is a master at line conservation. While I would normally prefer significantly more blacks for lighting contrast / effect, Wegener appears to intentionally hold his blacks in reserve, so that when he whips them out, it REALLY means something. His not-so-heavy style goes well with the light nature of Clevinger’s dialogue anyway. Hrm. I’m now a fan.

Ronda Pattison, with her thoughtful and themed coloring, does a wonderful job at adding just enough depth to Wegener’s art. “Atomic Robo” owes much of its visual liveliness to her. Jeff Powell’s lettering is clean and solid, and does a splendid job of distinguishing Robo’s speech, radio chatter, and HUGE sounds. Nice touch, and a great rounding out of the team.

So yeah, this was GREAT! The “Atomic Robo Vol 1” TPB collects issues 1-6 of the wildly popular, and for good reason, “Atomic Robo”. You’ll be challenged to find individual first printing issues of this killer title. Save yourself dough and eBay frustration and just get this collected volume NOW.

The mission-to-Mars was my favorite tale of the bunch in this book, BTW.

Atomic Robo: “I know it seems like a small thing, but I’m gonna need more than FIVE MAGAZINES to entertain myself for a TWO YEAR ROUND TRIP.”

Bullet_arrow_up Bullet_arrow_down 2 pts.

I had read good things about this in CBG and yup, it’s rocking out.

Three issues in, and it already feels “X-Files” or “Starman”-ish from a .gov conspiracy / manhunt standpoint, respectively, but with a touch of “X-O”, and a bunch of female baggage thrown in.

Recommended. Definitely over “Resurrection”, which has just stunk it up for the last two issues.

Bullet_arrow_up Bullet_arrow_down 1 pts.

I receive the first issue of “Red Mass for Mars”, and immediately, a wave of dread passes over me. I haven’t even opened to page one yet. Fuck.

As soon as I start reading, I wholly understand my panic attack. Jonathan Hickman. He throws himself into the writing, and reading it, while a true unadulterated blast, takes exertion. I submit to you: “Transhuman”. Am I really up for this?

Lest you say I poopoo the Hickman: reading that requires exertion is a “Good Thing” (TM), IMO. And I submit to you: “Red Mass for Mars”

Ryan Bodenheim’s art on “Red Mass” is a solid companion here. Bodenheims’s art feels like Frank Quitely (see “All-Star Superman”), but not as good and with shortcuts.

Actual story? I’m a sucker for Earth-apocalypto shit, and “Red Mass for Mars” fits the bill. Hickman does a SOLID job of conveying how truly screwed Earth is. That’s AFTER Earth’s burnt up, experienced super-bugs, terrorist nukes, AND gray goo. Apparently, it’s gonna get WORSE.

“Humor relief” consists of a two-page spread announcing the blatant murder and worse of the British royal family. This is the fuckin’ weird, initial, and symbolic reprisal for failure to obey a psycho superhuman international edict that the world shall instantly switch to English as the written and spoken global language; brilliantly concluded with said psycho mumbling: “Book burning and data elimination to ensue immediately. This message is not to be translated… except for the hand stuff for the deafs.”

The deafs. heh. Hickman slays.

Bullet_arrow_up Bullet_arrow_down 1 pts.