Review: Black Summer

I have been waiting to read Black Summer for awhile now. It is written by Warren Ellis, with artwork by Juan Jose Ryp. Warren Ellis is probably my favorite comic writer, and Juan Jose Ryp's artwork is amazing. This combo has had me drooling over this title for nearly a year, so I was pretty pumped to get it at a half-off sale at a local comic shop. It then skyrocketed to the top of my to-read-pile, and I was rewarded with a kick-ass graphic novel.

Black Summer kicks things off from the get-go with a presidential assassination, an act committed by a costumed super hero. It is never out-rightly stated, but the president who gets killed is George W. Bush. The murderous super hero is John Horus, a member of a scientifically enhanced super group called the Seven Guns. The Guns are all linked to high-tech pistols that deal out more fire power than most small nations could muster. Due to the death of a teammate the Guns are like a rock group who have chosen to go their separate ways; One guy, after losing part of his leg, has quit the hero life completely, four others have somewhat stuck together - but haven't done much, and John Horus, who is surrounded by floating eyes - which is also his "gun", has pursued his solo career. Well, there's nothing like a government mandated bounty hunt to get the old band back together.

Tom Noir, he of the missing leg, gets brought back into the fold after a failed attempt on his life. Fitted with a fancy prosthetic limb, he re-enters the fray alongside his old teammates. But other government controlled enhanced Guns are looking for them, while they search for John Horus and try to right his wrong.


Black Summer is vintage Warren Ellis. A brilliant plot, coupled with gripping characters and tons of action. I haven't read too much of his stuff, but the things that I have read, (half of his Planetary series, and all of Fell), I have loved. He mixes science fiction, fantasy, and costumed heroes very well. I think what I like about him is that his ideas seem just plausible enough that I think they could or already have happened and we just don't know about it...the bastard makes me paranoid!

However, where Black Summer really blew me away was in the art department. Juan Jose Ryp's art is the best I've seen in a graphic novel yet. I found myself scrutinizing every panel, every page taking in Ryp's skill and drooling over the insane detail. My acts of deep scrutiny were rewarded too. I noticed that some pages contained "easter eggs" - little hidden pictures within the tapestry. On one page in particular I found Sponge Bob, Bam-Bam, and Mario. Crazy. Really fantastic art though...just look at the pictures!

The entire Black Summer story is contained in this one graphic novel. While I sometimes like the single book format, versus 10-12 volume story arcs, I felt like Black Summer could have been longer. I wanted more. I wanted more of the back story on the Seven Guns...hell, we never even see who the deceased seventh Gun is. I also think the story could have been fleshed out more, and Ellis could have given more depth to the plot. I can't really complain too much though, because I really loved this graphic novel. Any complaints I have are washed away by Ryp's artwork.

I think Black Summer is a great place to start for readers who are new to Warren Ellis. From what I've read of him, this graphic novel seems to be on par with his other writing and evokes a similar style to what I've seen. Ellis is definitely one of the biggest names in comic writing, and I have my sights set on reading more of his work in the future.

Grade: A

Emerald City Comic Convention

It is a day you'll never forget. You'll feel really nervous beforehand, you'll always remember where you were, how it felt, how much fun it was, and then, in the end, you'll have that feeling of it being over much too soon. No, I'm not talking about losing your virginity, I'm talking about losing your CONginity. Which I did, this past weekend.

I, along with my very supportive girlfriend, (strength in numbers!!) attended the Emerald City Comic Convention here in Seattle. I'll admit I was pretty nervous on the bus ride downtown. I knew that I was taking a step that led down what many would consider to be a verrrrry "dorky" path, but I've been craving some sort of new experience lately and Comicon provided the perfect new experience: it was strange, it was unknown, but CONFIDENCE! It would be also be fun...

Costumes proved to be one of our main sources of entertainment for the day. We knew we were nearing the Convention center when we started seeing people dressed up as Trekkies. As we entered the convention center it became harder and harder to suppress our giggles as we saw more and more people decked out in costumes. We knew there'd be people in costume, but somehow, seeing it for real just made it hilarious. The costumes varied in style from amazing first-rate replicas of the real deal, to solidly done homemade ones that ranged from decent to great. We walked past one scantily clad lady in a red bikni-esque outfit with red fishnet leggings and I then realized that people who wore costumes were an interesting niche group who definitely ascribed to the "go big or go home" frame of mind. Let's face it, super heroes wear some crazy, ridiculous stuff, and seeing normal everyday folk wearing the same thing blew my mind. As we passed the red bikni/fishnet lady, Anjali, my girlfriend, leaned in towards my ear and whispered the quote of the day: "I think I saw her vagina!" Now is that dedication to a hobby or what?

Another cool thing about comicon: celebrities are abound! Well, celebrities for the comic world. I never laid eyes on Stan Lee or Lenard Nimoy, but I did see Lou Ferrigno...he is still Incredibly Hulkish, and I also saw Tom Jane. (I guess he played the Punisher in a movie). Jane struck me as a complete celebrity douche. When I saw him, he was sitting on a table looking ever so much the movie star: Aviators? Check. Cowboy boots? Check. Distressed looking expensive jeans? Check. Leather Coat? Check. The way he "interacted", I use the term loosely, with his fans did not impress me...The word "smarmy" comes to mind.

There were also a large collection of comic writers and artists at the show. Since I am pretty much a comic noobie, I'm sure many of the amazingly talented people there who are big names in the field flew completely under my radar. But, I did see Joe Quesada, editor in chief at Marvel Comics, Brain Michael Bendis, a big name in comic writing, Ed Brubaker, local dude, and comic writer extraordinaire...I think I mentioned him here somewhere...And many others who were kind, polite, and always willing to take the time to discuss their work, and talk to you about your day.

The coolest part for me was being around so many talented people for the day. There was so much amazing artwork to look at and so many nice, interesting people to talk to. I don't think a smile left my face the entire day. I also scored some sweet S.W.A.G. and picked up a few new titles which I'm sure will get mentioned around here sooner or later. Losing my CONginity is certainly one of the highlights of my year so far. It was a really good time, and I'm really glad I decided to try something new on a gray Seattle Saturday.

Enjoy some Emerald City Comic Convention photos!

Battle Hymns Classics: Opiate

My Brother and I have long had the belief that Tool's first album, considered an EP, is the ultimate work-out album. Coming in at just about thirty minutes, it truly is an exceptional work-out companion. Not only does it start out somewhat slow - the warm up, then build in intensity, but it also mellows out a bit at the end for the cool down portion of your work out. Maybe Tool isn't the work out companion for everyone, but before you queue up Coldplay or some shit for your next work-out take this into consideration: This shit will fire you up. This is by far Tool's most intense, pulse pounding album. How intense? I'm talking John McClane versus Hans Gruber in the Nakatomi Plaza on Christmas Eve INTENSE! If this album does not get you fired up for a work out, then you probably don't listen to enough metal.

Even though Tool has a bunch of other great albums Opiate is by far my favorite. Early Tool holds a special place in my heart. I've never really been able to put my finger on why this album is a favorite...their later stuff is certainly more technically skillful, and their song writing has only gotten better through the years, but Opiate has a compact heaviness that sets it apart. All the songs are fairly brief, aside from the title track which is over eight minutes, but each song packs a solid punch. Even though this wasn't the first Tool album I heard, I wasn't a Tool fan until I heard this album.

While every song is essential and awesome, Cold and Ugly and Jerk-Off are my favorites...I've always wondered: who is that "Bob Marley-wannabe-mother-fucker"? I've heard contrary, yet believable tales that it is Zac De La Rocha from Rage Against the Machine, and also that it is King Buzzo from The Melvins...perhaps the world will never know. Either way these two songs are great. The fact that they are played live, in the band's second ever live performance, show's how skilled Tool is. They sound fantastic on these live tracks, and while many singers sound less than great outside of the studio, Maynard James Keenan's voice sounds absolutely fantastic.

Opiate is a must-own for all metal fans. And non-metal fans as well...(I know a few Tool fans who aren't into metal). If you haven't heard this album yet, I suggest you set aside thirty minutes, or dedicate your next work-out to this album. It is sure to rock you.

Enjoy the Cold and Ugly video...the camera work is less than stellar, but the sound quality is pretty good.

Review: Sleeper

*Note that this is a review of the entire Sleeper series. It can be found two volumes: Season 1 and Season 2.


Sleeper is a graphic novel series that stands out as unique. Devoid of costumed heroes (unless they are getting pounded on by the main characters), it instead chooses to focus on the bad-guys (and gals). The series has a very distinct film noir feel that gives the comic an edge. This dark, gritty motif sets the stage for a great spy-thriller where the spies have super-abilities and trust doesn't exist.

The series' protagonist is Holden Carver. Codenamed The Conductor for his ability to transfer any pain he has absorbed into another person by touching them. Carver is a deep cover agent, who is posing as one of the bad-guys. When we meet him, Carver has managed to work his way up to rungs of the criminal organization, getting ever closer to Tao, the mastermind who pulls all the strings. Carver's success seems like a good thing until we find out his only contact is in a coma and Carver is now stranded with the bad-guys, while his old employers are actively hunting him. Now Carver must employ his spy skills and his powers to survive in a twisted game of cat and mouse.

Sleeper stars some other very memorable characters. Most notably, Carver's love interest and fellow Prodigy, (the highest ranking members of Tao's criminal organization), Miss Misery, a deliciously evil and sexy lady who needs to commit acts of violence in order to stay alive. Miss Misery inspired very little sympathy from me, she is an evil, evil woman, but as a character, I admired her. Brubaker uses a fairly small cast of characters, but they all stand out as well constructed, without feeling like spy genre cliches. For example, on the surface, Tao is just a shitty Bond villain, but Brubaker fleshes the character out, and I actually found myself admiring his guile and scheming.

As with most graphic novels that I enjoy, Sleeper has fantastic artwork. The artist, Sean Phillips does a fantastic job of matching the art to the tone of the story. Sleeper is a dark tale and the art matches up nicely. Phillips certainly has his own art style, and often each page is a full page drawing, with smaller panels showing the action. Having never really seen this done before, I thought it was cool, stylish way to tell the story. Another thing about the artwork that stood out for me was Phillips' ability to portray human emotion in facial expressions. He often had panels of close ups on a character's face, and with out words or narration, I was easily able to tell exactly what was on that character's mind. This may seem like a minor thing for an artist to be able to draw faces well, but I thought it stood out as exceptionally well done.

As a series, I thought Sleeper was quite good, but I felt that Season 1 was stronger than Season Two. This is likely a case of personal taste, because in Season 2 there are so many back-stabs, and double and triple crosses, that I often had a hard time keeping everything straight. For that reason I had to go back and reread pages to make sure I knew what the hell was going on, which broke up the flow a bit. But really, I can't complain too much, because in the end, I was very much satisfied. Sleeper makes Jason Bourne look like Hello Kitty, and packs enough action and intrigue to stand with any of the great spy thrillers.

Brubaker and Phillips team up in a few other graphic novels as well, and I look forward to reading more of their material in the future.

Grade: B+

Review: Lamentation

Lamentation by Ken Scholes

Lamentation literally starts out with a bang. Somehow, an ancient weapon has destroyed the entire city of Windwir. Windwir, long the intellectual/religious (the two go hand in hand in this book) center of the Named Lands is completely decimated by this unknown weapon, and armies and kings are flocking to the ruins to see what is going on.

At the heart of conflict are a handful of key players: Rudolfo, the King of a gypsy like forest people. Jin Li Tam, daughter of a powerful lord, and consort (read: spy/sex kitten) to Sethbert, the Overseer of a group of City States. Neb, a survivor of the city who watched it's destruction from nearby. And Petronus, a fisherman with a really big secret.

At first glance it appears that Sethbert is responsible for the destruction of Windwir...he takes credit for it, but Rudolfo finds a metal man, (a robo-computer from a past, more technologically advanced, age), in the rubble. The metal man, called Issak, holds valuable information about the destruction of Windwir, and before you know it, the armies of The Named Lands are at each others throats. Pulling strings from both behind the scenes and from center stage is Jin Li Tam's father, Vlad Li Tam, who appears to know more about what the hell is going on than anyone else.

Lamentation is a fast paced novel that is packed with more political wrangling, backstabs, and double crosses than any novel I've read before. Somehow, Scholes manages to keep everything straight, keep everything interesting and write a damn good book. The characters are engaging and realistic from the start. I initially thought that some of the names were silly, Rudolfo in particular, but as you get to know the characters, the names seem to fit their personalities well.

The world of the Named Lands isn't as fleshed out as well as some other fantasies. I never really got a sense of place in this novel. The Named Lands never really captured my imagination and I hardly spent any time flipping back to the map. For me this was a bit of a negative, as I like maps in fantasy novels, and I like feeling like the author is transporting me off to a new land.

This is clearly a character driven novel though. Scholes shifts between point of view characters every few pages, and this keeps the book moving at a good clip. The characters all have their own motivations and none come across as "good" or "bad" characters, but instead seem genuinely human. When you couple the fleshed out characters of Lamentation with lots of politics, you get a solid novel.

Lamentation is the first novel in a five book series by Ken Scholes.

Grade: B

Sweet News!

Its been all over the webernets, and I am probably the last guy on earth to blog about it, but HBO has decided to greenlight the A Song of Ice and Fire series.

HBO has been responsible for some of my favorite TV shows such as Rome, Deadwood, The Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and others, so I got pretty excited when I heard they were gonna shoot a pilot episode of my favorite fantasy series.

Well, I'm even more excited now. Hopefully the show does well, and there will be lots of seasons, but at the very least there will be one full season. Sweet!

Too bad I'll be the poor sap who doesn't have cable or satellite TV or whatever, and will have to wait for it to come out on DVD. Oh well. Good things come to those who wait right?

Review: Preacher: Until the End of the World

I recently read the second installment in Garth Ennis's Preacher series and I am glad to say that it was mind blasting.

Until the End of the World picks up where the previous installment, Gone to Texas left off. Reverend Jesse Custer and his gal Tulip have returned to Texas, intent on settling up some debts, but instead they get captured by Custer's most lethal enemies, who take him back to the family homestead. As far as homecomings go, this is about as terrible as it can get. Custer's Gran'Ma is easily the most severely deranged one hundred year old wheelchair bound granny ever. Her evilness is matached nearly equally by her cronies Jody and T.C. Jody is brains and brawn combined with a lethal temper, and T.C. is a shotgun toting lack-wit who sodomizes farm animals...Not exactly a family tree you'd be proud to branch off of.

To top things off, Jesse's "word of God" power has no effect on his family members.

During the capture, much is learned about both Jesse's and Tulip's history. Much of the mysteries of these two central characters are revealed, as Ennis expertly fleshes out his characters. Both have fucked up histories, Custer's unbelievably so. Through these flashback scenes, Ennis was able to make me really start to care about his main characters, and fully appreciate just how extremely evil Gran'Ma, Jody and T.C. truly are.

We also learn that Custer has a Guardian Angel/Pardner who may or may not be the Duke himself John Wayne...Crazy!

Adding to Custer's problems is the fact that word about his "word of God" power is getting around, and for better or worse, other groups are seeking him as well. With his world getting torn in two, Custer has to face evils that may be even more terrible than his Gran'Ma.

Until the End of the World is easily the best comic I've read so far this year. Ennis took everything that was great about the first preacher volume and ramped up the intensity. I think character building is tough to do in the Graphic format, but Ennis really made me care about his characters and those that surround them. Another amazing thing about Preacher is the dialog. Ennis may be a brit, but I can hear the Texas twang when characters speak. The conversations have an amazing flow and true to life feeling that is rare in writing these days.

I can't get over how much fun it was to read this graphic novel. Until the End of the World is a true page turner. There is more excitement packed into its 250 or so pages then most movies or novels. I can't say enough good things about this graphic novel, and I cant say much bad about it. I will say that Preacher is certainly NOT for everyone, but I still think everyone should read it. I give this graphic novel my fullest and most emphatic recommendation. Look for more Preacher reviews in the future of Battle Hymns.

Score: A+