February 27th, 2008 by The Grey Ghost
The San Francisco Chronicles posted an article listing “Eight Comic Books To Read Before You Die“.
I have to say that this article really puts my comic street cred’ to the test. Of the eight comics listed, I’ve heard of all but one of them (that being Y: The Last Man: Unmanned). And of the eight, I’ve only read two (Bone Volume 1: Out From Boneville and The Dark Knight Returns). Needless to say, I’m a bit embarrassed. I do have Watchmen, Marvels, and Daredevil: Born Again on my want list, but I’ve never gotten around to picking them up. I’ve tried Sandman off and on, but for some reason, it just doesn’t stick with me.
A couple of books that I’m surprised didn’t make the list? I would have included V For Vendetta, any Sin City trade, and probably some Will Eisner collection. Maybe Understanding Comics, if you count that as a graphic novel…
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February 13th, 2008 by The Grey Ghost
Lately, Josh Lesnick (creator of the webcomic, Girly) has been on a binge of pumping out all sorts of fan art. One of his most recent creations is the one you see above of his character, Winter, set to the theme of Pac-Man. This work reminds me of one of the gifts my girlfriend gave me for Christmas. That being a super-sweet Pac-Man hoodie (front and back) that you can find at Hot Topic and is totally awesome.
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January 20th, 2008 by The Grey Ghost
We’ve been dished our next look at the still-in-development Penny Arcade-based game, Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness. Unlike the disappointing demonstration clip that slipped loose upon us last year, these new clips offer us a deeper look into the gameplay itself.
Along with the much-anticipated cell shading, what’s most visible is the game’s turn-based style of combat. Those who have played Final Fantasy X should find the charge attacks to be very familiar. It also appears that each character’s individual style is faithful to both their webcomic and creative counterparts. Gabe brawls in the way you might see in a fighting game (Gabe being an SNK 2D fighter devotee) and Tycho approaches a fist-fight as one would in a tabletop RPG, his nose buried in a game system tome…and violently insane.
So far, I’m impressed! Graphical improvements aside, what’s been most reassuring for me is seeing that the Penny Arcade style of humor has been kept in tact. Given it’s origins, high standards should be expected for not only the gameplay, but for the laugh-factor as well. From the sarcastic dialog to the silly names of attack moves, the game so far maintains the Penny Arcade spirit.
Still no word on a release date, but as long as quality is the main focus, I’ll accept the “when it’s done” approach to development.
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January 8th, 2008 by The Grey Ghost
It was reported yesterday what the new status quo will be for the upcoming Spider-Man comics. This is probably both good and bad for a lot of comic book fans out there, but mostly for the continuity nerds. I’ve never been a stickler for continuity when it came to reading comics. If you have a series that regularly changes creative teams, you need to be flexible in order for the stories (which are supposed to be the essence of comics) to be interesting. I see each new creative team arc to be an alternate version of the title character’s world; sharing some elements to maintain familiarity, but not identical.
What makes things hard for companies like Marvel and DC Comics is that they frequently have multi-title crossovers that involve the participation of their entire “universes”. Then once the event is over, some books will stay focused in that continuity while others will go through the creative team shift into a new interpretation. This understandably causes some confusion with many a faithful reader.
For example, one of the big notes in the Spider-Man press release that I totally expected concerned the recent “Civil War” event that Marvel had this past year. One of the key moments of that story was that Spider-Man revealed to the public that he was in fact Peter Parker. But as you can see in the release, Marvel’s explained that way simply as that everyone just kinda forgot and his secret identity is a mystery once more. Or in Simpsons terms, “a wizard did it.”
DC Comics tries to clean up their universe’s continuity by doing a “Crisis” event that basically reboots the DC universe. I don’t think that’s necessary, though. I’ve come to accept that with each new story arc, it’s more comfortable to experience it not so much as “this is Batman”, but more like “this is a Batman story”. Cuz who can really decide what is the definitive “Batman”?
I guess my big problem with all the continuity nerds out there is that they demand the impossible. First of all, it’s mathematically impossible for any comic book (let alone comic book universe) to maintain an accurate continuity. If you’re going for anything accurate, then you have to factor in that comic book characters age. If Cyclops joined the X-Men when he was a teenager in the 1960s, then he’d be in his mid- to late-60s by now! I don’t care what kind of cosmic powers the character has that might be used as an excuse for their slowed aging process, their non-superhuman supporting cast would age normally. Aunt May should be long-dead by now. Possibly even J. Jonah Jameson.
Secondly, with all the years that many books have existed, spanning the involvement of multiple creative teams, and if you include every cross-over or spin-off, who can seriously keep track of all that history? Yes, maybe comic book nerds. But unfortunately, the nerds that are best versed in even a single character’s history are also shitty writers. If you can get one person who can get one person with encyclopedic knowledge of a character who can also write a fulfilling story, then it’s an era of beer and skittles for fanboys the world over.
So in a way, I wish comic book publishers would make announcements like this more often. Instead of taking a great story and then retro-fitting it so that it’s compatible with the supposed continuity in order to satisfy nit-picking dorks, they come out an say, “Hey, here’s your Spider-Man for the this year. We think you’ll like him.” Sure, you risk turning away some of the niche audience, but in the long run you leave the door wide open to welcome in loads of new readership.
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January 5th, 2008 by The Grey Ghost
The Washington Post put up an article the other day mentioning what they call “5 web comics that will make you ditch your newspaper”. Of the five, two of my personal favorite web comics were mentioned, PvP and Perry Bible Fellowship.
PvP is probably the most famous of the group as well, and has been almost synonymous with the term “web comic” for nearly 10 years. I don’t read web comics nearly as much as I used to (and I say that with some shame), but PvP is the only one that I still read faithfully every single day.
Perry Bible Fellowship is a comic strip that’s filled with dark humor that you rarely see in any comic strip. Nicholas Gurewitch doesn’t update the strip very regularly these days, but his work is getting published in more and more sites and magazines.
There’s a few other web comics out there that I enjoy, some I would suggest for if they put together a top 10 list. I may link to them in later posts, but for now I’m just happy to see two of my favorites get this kind of recognition.
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December 31st, 2007 by The Grey Ghost
This was a big weekend for birthdays. Yesterday, a close buddy of mine had his 30th birthday. The day before, my sister turned 19. And the day before that, Stan Lee turned–holy shit, that guy is 85??
Wow, Stan Lee’s getting old. Like, ooooooold. And yet he continues to take part in terrible television show year after year. I’ll give him one thing; he has a lot of energy and enthusiasm for his age. I think that it’s because of that (more so than the fact that he created some of the most influential comic book characters in history) that when he finally leaves us, he’ll be so greatly missed.
I always read stories from all sorts of comic book professionals about the day they first met Jack “King” Kirby. All of them–no matter how old the person was at the time–gave the sense of a child meeting his hero. All very inspirational. Unfortunately, I’d never met Jack Kirby before he died. Never even seen him at any of the conventions I’d attended. Unlike Stan Lee, Jack Kirby wasn’t in the spotlight much, so I never got much exposure to him other than his artwork and those stories.
Stan Lee’s different. The closest I ever got to seeing him myself was when I walked in on the last 5min of a panel he was on. I could barely see him from behind all the people standing in the back of the room. But aside from that, I think that him being in the public eye was a positive thing. Every time I see him talking on TV, I get excited! Even if it’s about comics that I’ll never read ever, I feel like a kid again!
I think one reason why we’ve been seeing Stan Lee so often lately in both film and TV is because people are realizing that he’s not going to be around to lead the way for the comic book industry for much longer. So they’re going to get as much mileage out of his notoriety as possible. Whether it be producing crappy reality shows or 3-second cameos. Sure, it might be exploitive, but I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t love seeing him.
Happy 85th, Stan Lee… Excelsior!
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December 16th, 2007 by The Grey Ghost
Recently I was exploring my memories of my arcade experiences, particularly the amount of dorks I’d run into. Now, granted, in any geeky community, there are bound to be it’s batch of losers. And most of them can be pointed out by the ones that recurrently ponder which two unrelated fictional characters would win in a fight. Back when Capcom started producing the “Versus” series of their fighting games, I witnessed these hypothetical proposals increase by folds.
It pisses me off because for over a decade, that’s the most common response when I hear fighting game fanboys talk about what they’d like to see in the future of fighting games. Is that really where the limits are drawn in our imaginations? Can we not think outside the box, beyond just more of the same that we’ve been handed in the past? Are we limited to only sequels or crossovers? If that were really true, would we have such great new series out there like Guilty Gear or Melty Blood? No, of course not! Can we please openly put the blame on ourselves for expressing the demand for more sequels/crossovers, which lead to the abomination that is Capcom Fighting Jam?
The most common, as you may easily guess, was the constant longing for a Marvel Vs. DC fighting game. To this day, fucktards in fighting game message boards across the web long to see this video game come to be. Well, thank goodness that it’s no longer (if ever) a legal possibility, because no matter how one could try, it could never happen!
The only reason why Marvel characters work in a fighting game scenario is because most of their characters are defined by their powers. And while nerds may argue endlessly over the mathematics of their individual stats, you can easily bullshit around that and create a balance. You can’t do that with DC characters because while many of them do have fantastic powers, their characters are defined by the skills they possess and the application by which they use their abilities. So in the DC cast, you have an obvious unbalance of raw superpowers.
The two perfect examples of this reside in their two most popular characters: Superman and Batman, of which you can’t have any DC-centered ensemble cast without. Superman is nigh-invulnerable and possesses powers from almost every corner of the spectrum. If he doesn’t have one specific power, he can use the ones he does have to accomplish the same task Superman doesn’t even need the rest of the Justice League other than to keep him company. So there’s no way you can have a fighting game with him in it and ever hope for it to be believably balanced.
Then there’s Batman, who is the exact opposite. Batman has no super powers whatsoever. His abilities are based in his intelligence and skills. Pit him in a fist fight with just about any superhuman character, and he’s toast. Of course, many geeks out there will quote, “Yeah, but… In The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, Batman almost kills Superman!” Yes. If given a week to formulate a plan, gather the necessary tools and resources, and also enlisted a couple other superhero buddies to give him a hand, Batman could in fact kill Superman. But that’s not how a Street Fighter style game works… Fighting games are one-on-one, on the fly.
Think of it like a bar fight. Say both Superman and Batman are in a bar one night and Batman slaps his hand down and says, “Alright, fuck it, let’s go!” right in Superman’s face. Superman would shatter Batman’s body with his freeze breath while simultaneously melting his face before the caped crusader’s beer mug hit the floor. Superman wouldn’t even have to get up from his stool; the most he’d have to do is turn his head! And if Superman was feeling sporting enough to use his fists, he would fuckin’ destroy Batman! One punch and Batman’s done…no contest. In a physical fight, Superman could fucking eat most of the DC characters.
Come to think of it… I don’t know why Superman doesn’t do that. Why doesn’t Superman eat people?? I mean, he’s a figure of righteousness, so he stands firm on his policy of not killing, no matter how dangerously twisted his villains may be. Wouldn’t that be an acceptable loophole? Cuz it’s not like he’d be murdering Lex Luthor if he simply used him as a food source. And it can’t be considered cannibalism, because remember that Superman isn’t human…he’s an alien being from another planet. God dammit! I want to see Superman eating more people!
Anyway, that tangent aside… While you can take a decent selection of DC’s characters to make a balanced video game, you can’t do it using the most essential of heroes and still maintain any credibility. And for those geeks eager to point out the Sega Genesis game, I’m aware of it and I think it proves my point.
Posted in Games, Street Fighter, comics, rants | 1 Comment »
December 2nd, 2007 by The Grey Ghost
As a warning, some of the imagery linked here is NSFW.
As I browse through the various online art galleries that I frequent, it’s hardly uncommon that I come across adult material. And let’s be honest…some of it is pr0n. But every now and then I see another genre that I can’t tell if it’s meant to be erotic or just something else. It’s called “guro” or “ero guro” (“ero guro nansensu” being derived from the English words “erotic grotesque nonsense”) and it’s very brutally violent.
I usually skip over these images, but every once and a while I’ll take a curious peek. Lately, a few of those peeks have lead me to another shocking discovery. Now, I know that most artists out there–whether you see it or not–create mature art. Some, like Josh Lesnick, will even admit that the majority of his income comes from adult work (Slipshine), even if his labor of love (Girly) is more tame. It’s also not hard to find erotica made my manga god Masamune Shirow. But every now and then I’ll find an artist that I had no idea had such a dark side to their art.
I like to read Chugworth Academy. I even bought the first book. Apparently many in the webcomics community knew, but I’m just finding out that the series as I know it is actually it’s second incarnation. The first being more pornographic. Not only that, but Scribble Kid used to draw and post all sorts of erotica that even I would call “questionable”. It wasn’t until I recently saw some comics like this one posted on an online art gallery that I learned that side of him. At first I thought, “Yikes, this comic is kinda gruesome, but the art looks just like the style from the Chugworth Academy guy.” A google or two later, I found out that the style resemblance was more than coincidence. Now, I’m not passing judgment on him as an artist, but I certainly feel like I understand him a bit better as a person.
Another shock was when I found this guro image, with incredibly impressive pencil work. I’ve come to find out that it was done by Hiroaki Samura, famed artist of the Blade Of The Immortal manga, whose work I also admire. In fact, there’s a whole art book that collects it! Again, I was a little shocked… I can’t say I’m surprised when I find these things, but it’s always a bit of a shake-up when I identify the artist.
Most guro I’ve seen is meant to just be gross or disturbing. Often it comes off more as silly. But when I find a piece done by an artist whose work I dig, I get a sense of the emotions behind it. Kinda like the reaction you might get from an HR Giger piece. As a male, at least, I can empathize that sometimes men feel a hostile anger toward women, and pieces like the ones I’ve seen are an expression of that anger. I don’t at all condone the actual brutalization of women, but I do understand the emotions that fuel the art. Most guys have that part of them deep down that holds hostility toward women and uses sex to express dominance over someone.
Through all this, I’ve become wary of the other artists whom I admire. In the back of my mind, I’m now thinking, “Okay, which one of you fuckers am I gonna find next?” It’s like finding your friend’s porn stash…only he’s the one that shot the video.
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