Free Comic Book Day Goodies

After missing out on the festivities last year, I was bound and determined to make my way over to the local comic shop for Free Comic Book Day.  Of course I didn't drag my ass out of bed until mid-morning though so by the time I reached the shop (noon) I missed out on some of the more coveted titles, but I did manage to get my paws on a couple of hot items.

I'm always a little bit astounded by how many people come out of the woodwork anytime you put the word "Free" in front of something, and that was the case here too.  I don't think I've ever seen my beloved comic shop so packed, and the best part was, most of them were buying other things while there as well.

So here's the free shit I snagged:

Atomic Robo is one of those comics that I always hear good things about but it has never seemed like my cup of tea.  In fact I overheard someone in the shop say: "This is like the single best comic book of all time!" in reference of Atomic Robo.  Hyperbole or truth?  That remains to be seen.  This free comic will be a good way to test that statement.

The last time I hit up a free comic book day Oni Press released the first issue of one of my favorite comics, The Sixth Gun.  This year, Oni Press has another first issue offering, Bad Medicine.  I'm not sure what this one is all about but there's a headless dude on the cover, and it's published by Oni, and it was free, so yeah, I'll check it out.

Since everything was free, I decided to take a chance on my third free comic and go with one outside my usual reading zone.  So....I picked up a Spider-man comic.  Yup.  Ok, this isn't a total wild card pick because it is written by Cullen Bunn of, wait for it, The Sixth Gun fame.  Chances are I wont love it, but it'll make for some entertaining bathroom reading.

I also picked up a few items that I had to pay for.  The most awesome of which is a hard cover Rocketeer collection.  It is almost sacrilegious that I don't already own this, but I own it now.  It was time.   Expect to see a review of The Rocketeer here before too long.

Graphic Novel Review: The Last Days of American Crime

I didn't really know what to expect quality-wise going into this one. Call it an on-the-whim read if you will. The Last Days of American Crime is penned by Rick Remender, a comic writer I've heard good things about, but have never gotten around to checking out.  His Fear Agent series is supposedly quite good, but I don't know much about his other works.  The opportunity to find out for myself popped up during my most recent finals week.

During said finals week, I found myself in need of distractions that were easy come, easy go.  That need manifested itself in a week filled with comics reading.  After an entertaining brush with Transmetropolitan which yielded some great reading material, I decided I was in the mood for a crime story, and I had The Last Days of American Crime, fresh from a clearance rack purchase, just sitting there, so I dove in.

The Last Days of American Crime takes place in the near future where the US government has created the final solution to terrorism and crime.  The Government plans to broadcast a top secret signal that will make it impossible for anyone to commit a crime.  To distract the population from finding out about their crazy mind-control plot, the government has also created a new currency system that uses digital charge cards and data boxes that refill the cards.  The problem is that with one week until the signal is broadcast, and the new currency goes live, the secret about the mind control signal has gotten out and the country has erupted into a lawless orgy of crime.

That's where things stand when Graham Brick, our hero is introduced.  Graham is a life long loser, and has had his fair share of run-ins with the law. With the signal only a week away, he has a plan in mind to nab one of the data boxes and make off with an endless supply of funds.  All he needs to do is enlist the help of a couple other criminals he can trust.  Trust however, is hard to come by in the last days of American crime.

Overall, I found this hard boiled crime story to be decent with maybe too much emphasis on the "hard" aspect. By "hard" I mean sex.  This one tried pretty hard to be a sexy crime story, and maybe it is sexy to some people, but I found it to be just waaaay too much sex for the sake of sex. (Maybe I should have figured that out from the cover...)  I don't get why comic creators think people read comics to get off...they do know there's a thing called the internet right?  The only female character other than Graham's mom, is the overly sexed up Shelby, who is in the story almost exclusively as a source of T&A.  She is part of Graham's last-great-heist team too, but really, she's just there for eye candy.

If you eliminated all the unnecessary sexiness from the story, there's a pretty decent crime story at the center of it all.  With the whole country erupting into crime-fest, Graham's path to achieving his plan is one fraught with peril and his odds of making it all happen seem to get worse as the seconds tick by.  However, that interesting bit of plot gets pushed into the passenger seat as Remender elected to include lots of balls to the walls action, shoot outs, car chases and explosions in the story that are sorta interesting the first couple of times, but these elements were so overdone they  felt pretty tiresome and pedestrian by the end.

There seemed to be a concerted effort to make this story incredibly sexy and action packed, but for my tastes, it didn't work out.  I felt like I was reading the script to a shitty summer blockbuster. I couldn't care less about shitty summer blockbusters.

The art here is by Greg Tocchini, an artist I am completely unfamiliar with.  I wasn't a very big fan of his work either.  The pages and panels were all far too busy for my tastes, but the biggest drawback for me was the coloring. It's hard to put my finger on exactly what I didn't like, but I think it comes down to too many different shades and hues on the same page.  My eyes were constantly bombarded by a lot of bright spots of light on the characters which I think was meant to give that noir atmosphere, but instead all it did was make it hard to focus on what was going on.  Page after page of this got pretty old after a while.

With a plot that got overlooked in favor of sex and 'splosions and art that was nothing special, I can't recommend The Last Days of American Crime.  What few good qualities this one had were far overshadowed by too many negatives.

Grade: D

Book Review: The Lathe of Heaven

The Lathe of Heaven takes place in what was, at the time of publication in 1971, the near future, but when read now is just about current day, give or take a few years.  Anyway, the story follows George Orr, a pretty regular guy with a totally unique ability; His dreams can alter the shape of reality.  In order to avoid these reality altering dreams George borrows prescription cards from friends and neighbors in order to stock up on sleep depriving drugs.  He's eventually busted and sent to a psychiatrist, Dr. William Haber, who specializes in dream psychology.

Once the two meet up and Dr. Haber learns about George's strange gift, he quickly learns to harness George's ability through hypnosis and a dream augmentation machine.  Before too long, Dr. Haber is manipulating George's dreams for his own purposes.  George must find a way to stop Dr. Haber before the world as they know it is completely altered beyond redemption.

After reading and loving Jo Walton's Among Others I knew I wanted to explore some of the old school science fiction and fantasy works that get mentioned in that novel.  It didn't take me long to realize that The Lathe of Heaven would be something I would enjoy, so I quickly set out to track down a copy and give it a read.

The Lathe of Heaven is one of those unique stories that is a wonderful blend of a little bit of science fiction and a little bit of fantasy. It seems like nowadays we have such clear distinctions between the two genres, but that couldn't be less true here. Le Guin managed to meld the two genres together like an expert metallurgist and create a truly wonderful novel that felt completely unique to me.

Aside from being a story with a plot that completely sucked me in and had me devouring page after page, I was most impressed with the fact that Le Guin was able to pack so much story into a mere 184 pages.  Way more goes on here than in many of the door-stopper sized novels we see on the shelves today, and the characters are a hell of a lot more well developed and interesting as well.  Le Guin's prose was equally impressive, as I got a distinct feel for her voice from the opening lines on page one.

As I mentioned above, the characters in The Lathe of Heaven are impressively written.  George Orr was a fun character to read, as I felt like I could understand him, and I found myself really hoping for things to turn out well for the guy.  Dr. Haber on the other hand is very much the antagonist of the story, but he too was someone I felt a connection with as well.  I felt like I could understand and relate to his motivations even though they weren't always the most ethical.  With primary characters like these two, and secondary characters that stand out as well, this is one of the better character driven stories I've read in recent memory.

The Lathe of Heaven was pretty much the perfect novel to being my excursions into the history of the science fiction/fantasy genres, as this was a great example of a classic that has an incredibly fresh and new feel to it, all while managing to still have the distinct feel of being from another era.  This is an absolutely fantastic book that I loved from beginning to end.  I highly recommend this, as I think it holds appeal to any fan of genre literature, and could be enjoyed by non-genre fanatics as well.  I can only hope all my other "old school" reads are as good as this.

Grade: A

Music Review: De Vermis Mysteriis

It's been a couple years since my last High on Fire fix, and I've been looking forward to a new release from metal's most powerful power trio since they rocked my socks off with their 2010 release Snakes For The Divine.  So when their latest, De Vermis Mysteriis, hit record stores (yes, I still go to record stores) I went and got myself a copy of their latest album.

The first thing I want to mention here is that the band went and got another different producer for this album, and once again, it shows. This album has a stylistically much different sound from their last two efforts.  I think this is now five different producers for their last five albums.  That seems kinda crazy to me.  I'd like to see the band settle in with a producer and develop their sound.  Instead, I feel like each producer has a different vision of what this band is all about and how they should sound. The result is that each album, (while still being distinctly High On Fire), on a technical level, sounds a lot different from the previous one.

The High on Fire I came to love is one that masterfully blends the heavy and melodic and delivers some crushing riffs and face melting solos.  That musical signature can be found in abundance on their two previous albums, Snake for the Divine and Death is This Communion.  However, it is scarcely seen here on De Vermis Mysteriis.  In place of that is a sound that reminds me of the worst parts of the Thrash sub-genre; loud, fast, frantic, crunchy and lacking cohesion.

That's not to say that this is a bad album, it's not, it's just not nearly as good as their last two efforts.  In the past, High on Fire has been a band that I usually cant listen to loud enough.  No speaker I own has been able to fully do justice to their music.  Call it the decibel test if you want, but whatever it is, De Vermis Mysteriis is not an album I want to crank up and rock out to.  Taken as a whole, the album does not offer up much that really hits my music loving nerves.

There are a couple good tracks here though, Fertile Green being the very best of the bunch, followed by King of Days but other than that, the rest of the album has failed to really impress me.  If you are like me and were hoping to get shredded and beheaded by this one, you will likely be disappointed.  I'm hoping that a few more listens will endear this album to me a bit more, but with a half-dozen listens already under my belt, I'm not so sure that will be the case.

If you are a casual metal fan, or new to High On Fire, De Vermis Mysteriis may not be the one for you.  However, die hard fans of the band, and listeners less picky than myself will find some value in the album, but likely not as much as their past efforts have offered up.

Grade: C-

Comic Quickies: A Hot Batch of Tasty Comics

Reset #1 of 4: This new title has two good things going for it; one it is written by Peter Bagge, of Buddy Does Seattle fame, and it has a premise similar to that of my #2 book of the year last year, Replay.  With two gold stars sitting proudly on its star chart, it should come as no surprise that I've been looking forward to Reset for quite some time.

So what exactly is the premise? Well, the comic stars a guy named Guy Krause, who's a has-been actor and stand-up comedian.  Krause is at a court-ordered safe driving course, thanks to a road-rage conviction, when he meets Angie Minor, a consultant for a tech firm that has developed a machine that lets you relive your own life.  Angie wants to hire Guy to be the guinea pig and test out this new technology.  Since life seems to have Guy backed up against the ropes, he agrees to this strange proposal.

The first issue lays down a lot of ground work, and explains the machine but still manages to pack in some great story as well.  Guy's first foray into his past begins at his high school graduation where a pretty girl who'd never spoken to him all through high school finally talks to him, and when she does she calls him a "Spaz".  It's pretty funny to see how such a stupid little incident has had a lasting impact on Guy and watching him relive that moment is pretty hilarious.

As far as first issues go, this was a pretty good one and I'm definitely looking forward to more.

Prophet #24: Holy shit, it is hard to believe, but this comic just keeps getting better.    First I was treated to three issues of incredible Simon Roy art, and though I am sad to see him go, I was also happy to see that the art for this issue and the next will be handled by the amazing Farel Dalrymple.  This entire issue is like one great big treat for the eyes.  I think I read the whole issue with my jaw dropped.

So yeah, Dalrymple delivers some very beautiful art here, and as per usual, Brandon Graham delivers another slice of awesome story.  This issue kicks off a new story arc, and I gotta say, it looks to be another gem.  I'd put this comic in my top three favorite comics right now.

Even though this comic is already great enough, I think it gets a few extra cool points for not only featuring some kick-ass art talent, but also some absolutely wonderful back-up stories.  This month's Shock Post  by Matt Sheean and Malachi Ward is my favorite one yet.

The Sixth Gun #21: This was a pretty cool issue of The Sixth Gun as it was a completely silent issue.  The reason behind the silent issue is that (Slight Spoiler...) Becky has temporarily lost her hearing due to a large explosion, so we get a text-less issue.

When I was reading this I tried to decide if it would be easier or harder to pull off a silent issue, and I decided it would be much harder.  The scripting has be a lot tighter, and there's a lot of pressure on the artist to carry the story and make it understandable.

Well, easier, harder, whatever, Bunn and Hurtt pulled it off, and delivered a sweet action-packed issue.  Lots of shit gets blowed up, lots of bullets fly and lots of folks get filled with lead.  There's also an appearance by a (seemingly) massive tentacled beast towards the end, so I'm excited to see what that's all about next month.  This is one of the best comics on the shelf month in and month out.

Saga #2: Saga, one of the hottest debuts of the year is back for it's second issue.  The first issue was sublime, so my expectations were pretty high going into this second issue.

Vaughan and Staples did not disappoint.

There's a lot of character development, and world building going on in this issue, and Vaughan does a great job of blending all that in with the story.  I'm already beginning to like, dislike and be weirded out by a bunch of the characters in a way that reminds me of my first ever A Game of Thrones read.  The various story lines are all quite fascinating so far, and I am very eager for more.

This issue also had a very creepy and haunting scene with a bounty hunter named The Stalk that will surely be giving me nightmares until the next issue comes around.  Great stuff!

Graphic Novel Review: Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery

It is hard enough for me to resist anything that has to do with the team-up of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, so when Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery was re-released (in deluxe hardcover none the less) it should come as no surprise that I immediately bowed under the pressure and bought this lovely item the day of release.

On the surface, Flex Mentallo is about a muscly man named, uh, Flex Mentallo, who is living in the real world, and trying to solve a mystery that seems to involve a completely fictional character operating in real life.  This may sound far-fetched, but Flex himself was once nothing more than a work of fiction until he was somehow written to life.  While Flex is doing his detecting thing, we meet Wallace Sage, a suicidal writer/musician/artist who has recently taken a deadly overdose of drugs and is retelling his life story to a suicide helpline worker on the other end of the phone.

Though it is hard to tell exactly how in the early stages, it is clear that these two stories intertwine, and sure enough, as things go on, they begin to interact with each other.  The how, and why of it all are tough to explain, and equally hard to understand.  Frankly, I'm not totally sure I completely "get" everything about Flex Mentallo.  The story is so clearly about more than just a strange mystery and some guy committing suicide, but after one read through, I can't confidently say exactly what "it" is.

I've read a few other places that each of the four issues is meant to represent an era of comics: the golden age, silver age, modern age, and future. When viewing the story through this "era" lens, I can definitely see the distinction, but there are other layers to be had here as well; layers I hope to discover as I read though this thing a few more times in the future.  I don't often come across a comic that lends itself to such close scrutiny, but that sure is the case here.  This story pretty much flat out demands to be read a few times over.

As far as the writing goes, this is some primo Grant Morrison material.  It definitely lies on the weird side of things, but things aren't so weird as to be unpalatable or off putting.  Morrison managed to instill a strong sense of "what the hell is going on here?" in me as I read Flex Mentallo which made me want to read more in hopes of uncovering some secrets.  As I said, this is a story that will benefit from further readings, so even though I enjoyed my first read-through, I get the feeling I'll like this even more upon future reads.

On the artistic front, the art in Flex Mentallo is simply wonderful.  Frank Quitely is easily one of the best comics artists in the business, and one could make a strong case for him being the best period.  Like Flex Mentallo, Quitely flexes his artistic muscles here and delivers some absolutely beautiful art.  I am always impressed with Quitely's art, but there were a few panels in this one that stand out as some of my all time favorite Quitely art.  I always feel like I'm holding something truly special when I have a comic drawn by Frank Quitely in my hands, probably because it is special.  The guy can really make a story come to life.

It is typically a special occasion when I read a Morrison/Quitely comic, and Flex Mentallo is pretty damn special too.  I would have bought this and enjoyed it no matter what, but to be treated to something that is not only exciting to read, and lovely to look at but also demanding of the reader's scrutiny is a nice rare treat.  This is a truly special comic.  Highly recommended.

Grade: A-

Book Review: The Winds of Khalakovo

The Winds of Khalakovo is set in the duchy of Khalakovo, a grouping of islands that are part of a greater archipelago set off from the mainland in a turbulent sea.  Since seafaring is a dangerous exploit at best, the folk of the duchies utilize windships to travel and trade.  Khalakovo lies in the crossroads of the windship trade routes and has been a prosperous duchy in the past but has faded from the limelight a bit due to the blight, which has reduced crop harvests and infected both nobles and commoners alike with a terrible wasting disease.  In order to bolster the duchy's standing, Duke Iaros Khalakovo has arranged a marriage between his son, Nikandr, and Atiana, the daughter of the Duke of Vostroma.

With the wedding drawing nigh, Khalakovo is to host all the nine dukes of Anuskaya but a conflict has arisen between the nobles and the Maharraht, a fanatical group of indigenous Aramahn folk.  When the Maharraht unleash a deadly elemental spirit on the Grand Duke and his retinue Nikandr must track down the militants and the child prodigy they are using to unleash the spirits.  For Nikandr, it's a race against time because the nobles are calling for blood and looking for enemies among both the peaceful Aramahn and the Khalakovo family.  Nikandr must find some answers before an all out war erupts.

The Winds of Khalakovo is one of the fantasy debuts from last year that was well received and scored a lot of positive reviews.  Add to that what appears to be a fairly unique setting for an epic fantasy, and I am lured in.  The positive reviews are mostly well deserved as this was a solid debut, though not without a few flaws.  The story took a fairly good chunk of the book to get rolling, and lacked any sort of tension for about the first 100 pages or thereabouts.  Rather than develop plot right out the gates, author Bradley P. Beaulieu instead chose to do some world building and introduce his characters.  This approach did help me get a feel for the setting, and the people that populate the world, but it wasn't the most exciting start to the novel, and as a result, I had a hard time getting engaged by the narrative.  I think the story would have been stronger had the plot development, character development and world building been woven together more tightly.

The setting here is a unique one.  The place names and character names give The Winds of Khalakovo a distinct Russian feel, and the windswept archipelago geography is pretty cool too.  I gotta give Beaulieu credit, he definitely found his story a unique setting without pushing epic fantasy readers too far outside of their usual European-like setting comfort zone.  That said, there were a lot of the same elements that we see played out repeatedly in the genre at play here as well.  Beaulieu does play with and challenge a few of these norms though, especially in terms of his female characters, and I for one was greatly pleased. Personally, I'd love to see more authors do the same thing as Beaulieu has done, but push the normative boundaries even further.

With the natural elements such as harsh winds, harsh weather, and harsh topography playing such a big role in the world building, it was nice to see the natural elements play a big role in the magic system that Beaulieu has created too.  Among the indigenous Aramahn people there are those with the ability to bind elemental spirits and use these spirits to harness the power of earth, air, water, fire and the "raw stuff of life", (or, dare I say, "heart" Go Planet!) Captain Planet references aside, I was fan of the magic system.  It didn't require any lengthy explanations or seem too complex, yet at the same time, worked well for the world it occurred in.

Once the plot does get rolling, Beaulieu delivers a pretty solid and entertaining ending.  I wouldn't say that this is a fast paced, action packed novel, but probably more of a slow-burn style novel.  That's not to say this one is devoid of action though as Beaulieu gives the reader a number of aerial battles between the windships.  However, these action scenes came across as a bit choppy and hard to follow.  This is due a bit to the fact that the windships are a unique concept, thus the battles a bit tough to envision, but also a result of Beaulieu's still developing skills.  In a book that was a bit slow paced for my tastes, the fact that the action scenes left something to be desired took away from my overall enjoyment.

Like I said, this is a solid fantasy debut, but brought down a bit by some flaws, particularly the pacing, which made it difficult for me to really get into this novel. This was pretty much a middle of the road read for me, nothing too terrible to really take away my enjoyment, but nothing extra special to set it apart from the crowd either. I'm definitely in a wait and see holding pattern on the sequel for now.

Grade: B-