Wednesday was comics day, but I had several other forms of media to pick up as well such as a book and a CD.
I got The Massive 19, a continuing story about a Greenpeace-like group out to stop the last offenders of environment degradation after the world has already crashed through various natural and man-made disasters. It was created and written by Brian Wood who also writes the Star Wars series I’m reading. He’s quite good. Gary Brown does the fantastic art.
I noticed this week that Gary Brown also did the art for Mass Effect Foundation 7. Mac Walters writes that one and he’s good too. This issue was about an ex Biotic trainee of Cerebus returning to gain revenge for perceived wrongs inflicted on her by the organization. Two elite agents are sent to subdue her. I was wondering while reading this what would've happened if Master Chief had snapped like this during training.
I also picked up, but haven’t read yet, Atomic Robo: The Savage Sword of Dr. Dinosaur 5. I’ve been following everything Atomic Robo for a while now. Writer Brian Clevinger does a great job creating a fun, smart and humerous comic that’s good for any age. It kinda reminds me of a really good Saturday morning cartoon series like The Tick. Atomic Robo, created by Nikola Tesla, is a self-aware robot who runs the science organization Tesladyne Industries which delivers scientific innovation and protects the world against strange threats like the ones concocted by Atomic Robo’s nemesis Dr. Dinosaur, an actual dinosaur with a bit more intelligence and a lot of megalomania. Would that this series turn into an actual Saturday morning cartoon, video game and movie, ‘cause I’d watch it all.
Then, I had to pick up Harley Quinn 2. She’s the female mad clown in love with The Joker created by Batman: Arkham Asylum and City writer Paul Dini. This series isn’t written by him but by Amanda Conner (Power Girl) and Jimmy Palmiotti, who I am familiar with from following Jonah Hex which he wrote with Justin Gray. I haven’t read this one yet either, but the first two issues were fantastic. Harley is completely wacked and the art by Chad Hardin and Stephane Roux is very colorful and full of fun house distortions. I find it hard to get into the super hero comics unless they are really out there and this one fits the bill.
Finally, I picked up Karen Traviss’ new Halo novel Halo: Mortal Dictata. I had to get a Barnes and Noble’s salesperson to get it from the back since they hadn’t had time to put it on shelves since the truck arrived late because of all the snow we had on Tuesday. This is Karen’s third Halo book centering on the Black-Ops squad Kilo-Five. The book takes place after the defeat of the Covenant on Earth and while Master Chief is still MIA. The conflicts between Earth their human colonies begin to stir again, Covenant member races are all in disarray with civil wars breaking out with the UNSC trying to contain the chaos, and Kilo-Five is right smack dab in the middle of it all. It should be a great read.
Then I went to get the new album by Iced Earth, Plague of Babylon, but it was only available in a Deluxe version for $17 and that seemed too much. I just wanted a regular verison for around $10 but no luck. So I passed, but I may go back and pick it up tomorrow. I would rather have a CD of this than a download. I only follow a few new bands these days, and when a new release comes out, it’s a special thing.
Atomic Robo sounds very cool. Damn that Dr. Dinosaur!
sounds like you have a lot of reading to do.
I think I started reading Atomic Robo because of Scott Wegener's art. I love the way he draws metal things like tanks and planes and such. It reminds me of the art in Valkyria Chronicles.
Then I kept laughing at the dialog and noticed it was really smartly written too. That's when I had to go find all the old trades and read everything.
When I read papery things I immediately thought of the Blackadder episode where Baldrick burns the dictionary
[referring to Dr. Johnson's dictionary]
Blackadder: Right, Baldrick. Where's the manuscript?
Baldrick: You mean the big papery thing tied up with string?
Blackadder: Yes, Baldrick. The manuscript belonging to Dr. Johnson.
Baldrick: You mean the baity fellow in the black coat who just left?
Blackadder: Yes, Baldrick. Dr. Johnson.
Baldrick: So, you're asking where the big papery thing tied up with string belonging to the baity fellow in the black coat who just left is?
Blackadder: Yes, Baldrick. I am. And if you don't answer, then the booted bony thing with five toes at the end of my leg will soon connect sharply with soft, dangly collection of objects in your trousers. Now for the last time, Baldrick, where is Dr. Johnson's manuscript?
Baldrick: On the fire.
Blackadder: On the *what*?
Baldrick: The hot, orangy thing under the stony mantelpiece.
Is it bad that I heard that in their voices?
Nope it just means you're one of us!
You my friend, are right on the money. That's exactly what I was thinking. The third series of Black Adder is my favorite. Hugh Laurie as the Prince of Wales was priceless and there are amazing performances by: Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid in Harry Potter) as Samuel Johnson, Chris Barrie (Rimmer in Red Dwarf) as a French jailer, and best of all Stephen Fry (of Fry and Laurie) as Duke of Wellington, reunited with Hugh Laurie in the last episode to give Hugh a big giant swat on the face. I nearly died laughing.
My wife bought me the whole series (or is it serieses?) on DVD for Christmas one year. I can watch those shows over and over again and they still crack me up.
I always thought the writing in Black Adder was just great. Richard Curtis, who went on to write screenplays for a bunch of successful romantic comedies like Three Weddings and a Funeral, and Rowan Atkinson wrote the thing. I love all the word play. It's just great.
It made me sad to hear that Matt Barlow left Iced Earth. He's my second favorite vocalist of all time. I wonder if the guy they got to replace him is any good. 
Yea I was saddened too after I got Live in Athens and realized it was the last album with Barlow on it; however, Stu Block is very very good and I'm very satisfied with his performances. They have been rotating drummers around lately. The new album has Rapael Saini who replaced Brent Smedley, but after recording the album, Jon Dette became their drummer.
Oh the Deluxe versions...Sometimes they're good but usually an extra four songs for $4-5 bucks more just isn't worth it. I do love the option of having the regular and Deluxe versions, and physical formats is 100X better than digital.
I went back to BestBuy today and turns out the Deluxe version was labeled 16.99 but was actually 12.99 when I took it to the counter. It has a DVD with a making of video, a couple versions of the album mastered in different ways, a 5.1 surround sound mix of most of the songs, and some other thing that might be an interview or something. It's a sweet set with a lyric book full of creepy artwork. I'm very happy with it and it was the price I wanted afterall.
Nice, $12.99 you get the album, as well as extras that are worth the extra cash. I do hate it when labels try to justify a deluxe price by throwing in just a couple of extra tracks.
Deluxe editions, they're usually worth it if they offer something special like bonus tracks or the like.
This one has a DVD full of extra stuff. It made me think of the extras you get with movie DVDs. I'm sure they were thinking of that. They got to give you something to get you to buy real media instead of downloading it. I would've bought it as just a CD anyway 'cause I'm crazy like that.
Thanks for letting me know Iced Earth has a new album. They may be something I want to get on the station.
Despite loosing their lead vocalist way back, they are still amazing. Stu Block is a great replacement and the guitars are as frightful as ever.
I need to get some income coming in so that I can buy papery things again.
I feel for you. I feel for the trees too. The Lorax isn't pleased.
I live in Maine - trees are a renewable resource up here. We have more forested land now than we did at the time of the Civil War, and 89% of the tree cover that was present before white Europeans showed up.
Oh that's cool. I just read American Canopy by Eric Rutkow and he mentioned the various reforresting projects that have been done. I didn't know it was that sucessful up there in Maine though.
Maine hasn't been really been reforested by humans, the forest just takes over again. At one park where I worked, we were putting in a trail in what was a hay field about five years previously. It was at the old-growth field stage of succession, still lots of grasses, but with woody stuff like raspberries, and saplings from aspens and birches starting to take over. That was in 2000. Ten years later, it was all forest and people who didn't know the area previously have no idea that it was a hay field only 20 years before.
I wish people would let their lawns be taken over. I'll take forest over a mowed lawn any day of the week.
Damn, I was going to ask if the new Iced Earth album was worth picking up... I've heard some decent things. I wasn't aware you liked metal. What genres of metal do you like?
Harley Quinn... damn, I haven't read those. The artwork looks awesome though. I'll have to have a look sometime.
I've listened to a few live shows with the new vocalist Stu Block and he's great. So I knew I'd like this new album.
Genres of metal... hum... I started with an Accept album my band mate lent me one stormy night. I was heading home after a rehearsal while a huricane was raging. The sky was black and lightning ripped through the sky. That night created the perfect music video to the opening chords of Balls to the Wall. I was hooked ever after. Since then I've sampled all sorts of genres. Iced Earth is sort of Power Metal I guess but I'm also picking up the new Behemoth album next month and they are decidedly Death Metal. So I'll check out anything. There's good stuff in every genre I've found.
Harley Quinn's one of my favorite characters after I saw that Batman Animated episode where she first appeared, and I used to read Paul Dini's Gotham City Sirens comic too that was made up of Poison Ivy, Cat Woman and Harley Quinn. That sold me on her as well.
From the blog title, you made me think you picked up an actual laserdisc. Shame on you. ;)
Well, a CD is a laserdisc. It's a small one, I'll give you that.
Damm, Atomic Robo looks pretty cool :O
I love Atomic Robo. I used his head as my Avatar when I had a profile over at comic site iFanboy.com. Kinda looked like this:
He's the man... or machine... yea, he's a machine... but what a thing it is. Doesn't quite sound right... He's some robo!
wait! The independences survived after the covenant war? now that will be confusing given how the covenant themselves are on the vurge of war themselves. Which is odd because I ghought Kilo-five was suppose to help fuel the flames of war within what remains of the covenemant.
I need to get these books.
Yea, they were feeding the flames of Elite infighting in the previous book and now they're involved in investigating a resurgence of anti-Earth, or anti-UNSC, activity on the planets that survived the Covenant War. I'm a couple of chapters into the new book already.