This Week in Geek (17-23/09/07)

Buys

So I went to the store the minute I heard the Doctor 13 story from Tales of the Unexpected was out in trade, more on that below. And on the premise that buying two DC/Marvel trades got me a third one free, I opted for Marvel Visionaries: Walt Simonson's Thor volume 1, which I'd had an eye on for a while. With the Canadian dollar achieving parity with the US' this week, they were kind enough to knock 10$ off the cover price too, without my asking. Third book? The Showcase Presents I said I wouldn't buy : Batman and the Outsiders. Way I look at it: It's got Batman drawn by Jim Aparo, bad comics make good blog fodder, and it was free.

And since I'm the blogosphere's bitch, I threw in the Nightly News trade paperback in there. I've heard good things.

"Accomplishments"

So ok, Doctor 13: Architecture and Mortality. Wow, I haven't read this good a postmodern comic in years, especially one not written by Grant Morrison (though he is a character in the story). Basically, Doc 13 and some other "forgotten heroes" challenge the "Architects" of the universe (the guys who write the big crossovers) for their very existence. It's full of inside jokes, creepy sexual subtext, philosophy and comics blogging. Certainly, the story makes me want to reevaluate Brian Azzarello's 100 Bullets, of which I only own the first trade. And the art by Cliff Chiang? Top notch. Really, this thing rereads itself. Well, with my help. And you know what? I actually left the book open on the last page for an inordinate amount of time. I really did.

In RPG news, played a game of Planescape today, and I'd like to keep that bi-weekly momentum going as much as possible. The story revolved around a quest for three yule logs in Asgard, with the daughters of Thor and some very drunk Vikings as guest-stars. With only half my players able to show up, I thought the scenario (as outlined somewhat in the Planes of Chaos boxed set) was going to be too hard on the characters, but I was sincerely impressed by their negotiating the challenges with wit, cleverness and charm (with some brute force thrown in when need be). Good job guys.

Wish I could have done more this week, but I was real burnt out from work, and had technical problems besides. The latter kept me from making Doctor Who cards yesterday, and the former kept me from everything else. I'm also working on a comic project, but I don't want to discuss it until actual pages are ready. So that's it for me this week, see you... well, tomorrow.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Batman and the Outsiders?!?! Don't say we didn't warn you. Well, actually say it because as you note if you are going to buy bad comics you can always get your money's worth blogging about it.
Siskoid said…
It has another redeeming value: No "GF" on Geo-Force's chest, so noone can call him "Girlfriend" by mistake.

I read the first two issues and though it wasn't THAT bad, wow, that is an incredibly forced way to assemble a team.
Anonymous said…
Heh. I was a Brave and Bold devotee at the time, and read the Outsiders preview in the final issue. You know there's probably something wrong when an eight year old reading about a new superteam thinks that maybe the characters could use more thought.

"Are you sure you don't wanna just maybe team Batman up with Captain Marvel or somebody? They can fight the Manhawks or the Warwheel or something." I still feel like someone's walking over my grave when I remember the panel of Halo asking the old man which parts are his legs.
Siskoid said…
Batman, Metamorpho and Black Lightning are cool. The characters created for the series are high concept duds however. It's like Barr had a list of cool-sounding names, chose a few and built the characters from there.

Katana - I guess she has a sword, and is Japanese. Ya!

Halo: There's this girl and she has halos that give her different powers. We have a Japanese girl already so make her blond. And an alien. And a zombie.

Geo-Force: Didn't start with a name, I'm sure. It was: Let's do a male Terra, but what's his name? Earthworm? Taken. Volcano? Stupid. I know! Geo-Force!

The rest of the series bears this out with lots of forgettable villains who usually have puns in their names or whatnot, and of course, Looker.
Anonymous said…
A comics project?
I vote for a(n) "AG!" revival!

Hehehe
Colin said…
Should I ask how the technical problems are going?
Siskoid said…
You probably shouldn't.

No advancement, but I haven't had time to work on it. It's gonna be another one of those weeks.
Colin said…
Bugger.

I'd offer to do the screencapping again, but my laptop's still out of commission and my home machine doesn't have any decent DVD player software.
Siskoid said…
That isn't actually the problem per se. It's just gonna take me longer than expected because of sound problems, doubling up the work.

But thanks as always Colin.