The Lousypoet

So I’ve never been a huge Archie fan. I mean, I’ve seen a few of the tv versions, read the strips now and then, but I’ve never been the type to run and pick up an issue of Archie or to give it much thought. But apparently, Archie is going to marry Veronica! I mean, I find it pretty amazing that after 65 years or so, they’re finally having Archie resolve the love triangle that has been the cornerstone of the series.

I must admit, I’m a bit shocked that this was let out of the bag now, seeing as how the issue (#600) doesn’t go on sale until September. It’s very unlike comics to let the cat out of the bag so early. But then, I guess they figure if people know in advance it will ramp up the next few months worth of issues. Besides, it’s comics. Nothing is ever final. Hell, even in life, all too often a marriage isn’t final….

I’m always up for reading a new manga. While I love the art style, I also find the stories so engaging, and often far more original than what comes out of North America. So I was over at Ain’t It Cool News and was reading their latest article on anime. One section featured new toys and statues that were being released, and this particular statue said it was a character from High School of the Dead. The small description of the plot of the series was,

The series follows a group of Japanese high school students caught in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

You know after a bait like that, I just had to do a little Google action. I actually found a website, http://xamayon.org/, that has been doing scanlations of the series. For those of you not in the know, scanlation is the manga equivalent to fansubbing. Fans take scans of the manga, translate it, then insert the english text over top the Japanese. I have to say, these scanlations are fantastic! They’ve really taken some time to make the text feel like it belongs, as opposed to some I’ve seen where they literally just type in Times New Roman text in the bubbles.

So I’m now a big fan. Imagine some of the best known, and best executed, zombie flicks, and now cram them all together, add some really interesting characters, an abundance of fan service (pantie shots, half an issue with the girls in a bath getting “clean”), and some intense, violent, action, and you have Highschool of the Dead.

Literally, this manga is chock full of references to other zombie flicks. They end up at a mansion that has been made a secure compound (28 Days Later), they are now at a mall (Dawn of the Dead), there was even a shot of a convenience store clerk that looked the spitting image of Simon Pegg from Shaun of the Dead!

But what this series has going for it that so many movies don’t, is time. Time to develop the characters, time to move from scenario to scenario in a way that makes sense instead of rushing headlong through the “story.”

There’s all the usual zombie cliches, they can only be killed with a blow to the head, if you get bitten you get infected, and no one really knows, at this point anyway, why this is happening. What is different is that these zombies only react to sound. Which adds some interesting layers to the characters’ movements. There’s also a glimpse into the world response, in which we see military powers conducting pre-emptive strikes so that they cannot be targeted in their weakened state. There’s also a good deal of how people truly become monsters themselves when there’s no longer any need for authority or societal rules. All in all, High School for the Dead is a very engaging read and even though it blatantly rips from other films in the genre, it does so with its own style and pace.

But watch out for the fan service. I don’t know that it hurts the series, I think it’s probably speaking to the whole sex and violence pairing that is seen so often. I suppose it is also the creator’s way of balancing out the scenes of pure carnage and death with scenes of cute girls and their underwear. It brings a slight lightening of the mood to the party, which I suppose aids things when you’re talking about over two years of story as opposed to a single 90 minute film. It might just throw you off a bit though if you’re not used to it.

I highly recommend High School of the Dead. It’s a lot of fun. Head over to the site I mentioned, http://xamayon.org/, where you can download the first 20 issues. Hopefully there will be more, but there is rumour that the series might get a domestic english release, which would see the end of the scanlation projects. Check it out now!

So the big Batman event, Batman RIP, is over. It’s been many a moon since I spent money on a Batman comic, but I’ve never been able to shake my appreciation for the character. Hearing that there was once again a storyline set to replace Bruce Wayne as Batman, my wallet had the itch to visit the local comic shop. I have to wonder why, given that these events are never long lived. Remember back when Bane broke Bruce’s back? How long did that last? A year, maybe two? And funny enough, that series ended with Dick Grayson, the original Robin and current Nightwing, becoming Batman during the Prodigal series. And now, it looks like we’re poised for Dick Grayson to possibly take up the cowl again. Or maybe not… Apparently there is a mini-series coming up called “Battle for the Cowl.” This supposedly pits Dick Grayson, Tim Drake (the current Robin), Hush, Jason Todd (the Robin people voted to die, confusingly resurrected), Damian Wayne (the possible son of Bruce and Talia, Ra’s Al Ghul’s daughter) and maybe even Catwoman, against each other to take over the mantle of the bat!

I won’t go into spoilers, especially seeing as how I’ve just read synopsis of the story on blogs and Wikipedia. But let’s just say, I’m not sold on the whole thing. Maybe I’ll pick up the story in trade paperback sometime when I’m feeling wealthy. Until then, I’m interested to see how the resolve the whole issue of who will become Batman. Grayson is the most obvious, but we’ll see. I heard a rumour somewhere that there’s going to be a new Robin, so it might just be Tim Drake. Time will tell. In the meantime, I am interested in reading the 2 part storyline that Neil Gaiman is writing. It’s supposed to be a bookend to the end of the Bruce Wayne era, called, Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Anyway, see you in two years time when the big storyline in Batman is Bruce Wayne putting back on the cowl.

So I was over at Newsarama checking out the latest comic book news. It’s funny how although I can’t afford a comic habit any longer, I still feel the need to see what events are going on in the comic world. I’m quite anxious, for instance, to find out how the whole Batman RIP story plays out.

Anyhow, I saw this article and have to say I really did not believe it at first. I went on to read some of the interview, and upon discovering that this wasn’t some tongue in cheek thing, that it was real and serious, I had to link to it.

Essentially this is a comic that endeavors to tell stories from the Old Testament of the Bible, but set in a manga/mech world. For instance, their first issue has a future David versus a giant mecha Goliath. Man, I have seen various tellings of Bible stories, but this just strikes me as weird. I guess it shouldn’t, I mean how much weirder is it than a bunch of talking vegetables?

So here’s the link. There’s actaully some example pages, which made me feel the art was really weak; I’ve seen better stuff on DeviantArt by people who draw for fun.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090820-MechaMangaBible.html

So I finished Carolyn’s new journal layout over at DeviantArt. Looks pretty cool if I do say so myself (and I do ). It all came together with some inspiration from this layout – LINK. Add in Carolyn’s colour selection, a pic of an asian vase for colour reference and the use of a number of flourish brushes and voila! Mischief managed. You can check it out over at http://a-fire-within.deviantart.com/.

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It’s funny how many hits I’ve received this month, and a number are for search requests for a torrent on Stephanie Meyer’s new book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn. Funny enough, I don’t have anything to help you. In fact, I went to Walmart and ponied up $15 for my own copy. I suggest you do the same if you want to read it. I’m all for the continued publishing of books… Actually, my wife finished it last night. She was unimpressed with the first half, but said it picked up toward the end. I’ve noticed that seems to be the pattern for the previous three, so no big surprise there. The only thing that’ll surprise me is if she actually ends the series there. Can we say “Cash Cow?”

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Something I thought of while up at the cottage. Everyone says things like “unique as a snowflake” but have you ever seen any 2 naturally occuring rocks that look the same. I saw thousands this weekend and I didn’t. I guess rocks just aren’t as appealing as snowflakes when it comes to individuality.

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So it’s been more than my week hiatus on the Lousy Poet. I do have an idea, honestly. It’s just finding the time to draw it to my satisfaction (of course, I could probably have gotten some work done if I hadn’t spent the time writing this blog. But… Meh.).

It does fill me with a certain sense of jealousy to read the blogs of creators that got to be at the San Diego Comic Con. I’d love to go there. It would be even better to go there as a participant instead of just a fan. Mind you, I’d go as a fan too if I had the money and someone to watch the kids for a week

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So peace out and all that. I’ll try to write more instead of the endless WOTD posts.

So I was quite dissatisfied with my website for The Lousy Poet web comic strip. While looking around the net at other web comics, I noticed a site that said it was powere by Wordpress with the Comic Press theme. So I did a little leg work, and let me say, this theme is great! It does so much of the work for me in terms of linking the different strips together and allows me to do some blogs and for people to comment on each of the works.

This will still be my main blogging area. I can’t leave this place behind, especially after cracking the ceiling on 100 posts, but I can atleast keep posts that have to do specifically with the web comic over there (though I’ll probably copy them here too

You can visit the official site for The Lousy Poet comic at http://thelousypoet.com to see previous strips and comment on each.

So I’m going to post this one because a lot of people seem to be coming here in search of the Evangelion Re-take manga.

This manga was created by fans of the show, so it’s a doujinshi, not a cardinal part of the story. That said, it is a brilliantly executed fan manga. The story fits well with Eva and actually adds to the end of the show as opposed to taking away from the original story (something I find happens with fan fiction sometimes). The characters stay true to their intended forms in the original anime/maga and the events seem plausible.

I loved this manga because it re-ignited my love for evangelion, still one of my all time favourite anime. Many moons ago, I uploaded zip files of the manga and posted it. Well, so many people came to get the (rather large) files that it blasted my bandwidth quota and I was left without email or webpage access for the better part of a month. So, I took them down. I just couldn’t (and still can’t) afford the download space to handle all the requests. It appears that there are still some torrents of the series to download. Aside from that, I can’t help too much. Sorry

If you are a fan of evangelion, do see if you can find them, they are worth it!

So I was over at Mania.com a few days ago and I was reading an article about the predicted recession of comic sales. As the article pointed out, there are some trends that seem to have returned to comics that echo the days of the nineties, just before sales hit a massive slump. One of the topics was how large and convoluted story lines are making a comeback. One of the stories they used as an example from the nineties was the fiasco known as the Clone Saga that occurred over a year in all the Spiderman comics.

At the time, I was only an occasional reader of the Spiderman titles. Something about the story intrigued me and for the entirety of the series (and its aftermath) I was glued to the various Spiderman titles.

For those who don’t know, the Clone Saga was a very long winded storyline that revealed the Peter Parker we’ve all known and loved for the past 2 decades or so, was in fact a clone, and that the real Peter Parker, assuming he was a clone, had been wondering the countryside under the assumed name of Ben Reilly.

When Ben Reilly hears of Aunt May dying (she ended up surviving obviously) he returned to New York. Through various twists, he takes on the persona of the Scarlet Spider and eventually, after Peter Parker decides to retire as Spiderman to stay with MJ and their unborn child, Ben becomes Spiderman.

The reveal that Peter had been a clone sent most fans, especially long term ones, into a rage. It became quickly apparent to Marvel that they needed to undo what they had done, so they came up with an extreme plan. It was decided that only one villain could be capable of messing with Peter so much, that being the original Green Goblin. And so Norman Osbourne was resurrected. In a final battle with the Green Goblin, Ben saves Peter’s life, and is killed himself. The rapid decomposition of the body reveals that Ben was in fact the clone all along. Peter soon becomes Spiderman once more, and the writers, in a hurry to get rid of the baby, have it stillborn (or was it? There is some debate with how the story was ended. Maybe that’s been resolved in previous years, I stopped reading shortly after the death of Ben Reilly).

So, here’s what I’m thinking. If Marvel was looking to restart Spiderman, they could’ve done it with far less agony. They could’ve introduced the character of Ben Reilly. It should’ve been left that he was the clone. Plain and simple. Him taking over for Peter could’ve occured after Peter’s baby was born. Here’s the scenario;

Peter and Ben team up to take on a new (and please Marvel, interesting) foe. Eventually a beaten, just got out by the skin of his teeth, Peter Parker returns home. He looks into the nursery and sees his little girl. He realizes that with great power comes great responsibility, but that there is no greater responsibility than raising his daughter. And so, he retires, handing the reigns over to Ben. I think fans would’ve accepted it a lot more. We also didn’t need all the side mini series like Spiderman: The Lost Years and such that were just attempts to flesh out Ben and to grab more of our hard earned bucks. Ben should’ve been introduced and grown as a character in the Spider books. There was no reason to get crazy with the clone saga thing. There certainly was no reason to make Peter Parker the clone.

I liked the character of Ben Reilly. It was fun watching him fight old Spidey villains while a)trying to figure out what to do and b)Trying to not let on that he was a different guy. There was something fresh and exciting. It was just introduced horribly and Ben became a martyr in order for Spiderman to be put right. Maybe I’ll flesh this story out sometime and make something more extensive of it (me? Fan fiction? Probably not )