I <3 Chris Ware

Chris Ware + Halloween = awesomesauce.

(click to enlarge)

100 Books: Year, Months 8-9

I’ve really been kicking some book ass the last few months trying to stay on track for 100 books this year! (*=favorites)

41. Hellcity by Macon Blair
42. Too Cool To Be Forgotten by Alex Robinson
43. (reread) The Monster’s Ring by Bruce Coville
44. Hatter M vol. 1 The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor, Ben Templesmith, Liz Cavalier
45. Rasl vol 1: The Drift by Jeff Smith
46. Emily The Strange by Rob Reger
47. Funny Misshapen Body: A Memoir by Jeffrey Brown
48. Box Office Poison by Alex Robinson*
49. Scott Pilgrim vol. 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O’Malley
50. The Three Paradoxes by Paul Hornschemeier
51. The Fate of the Artist by Eddie Campbell
52. Batman: The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul by Grant Morrison, Fabian Nicieza, Paul Dini
53. Batman R.I.P. by Grant Morrison, Tony Daniel, Sandu Florea
54. X-23: Innocence Lost by Craig Kyle, Billy Tan, Christopher Yost*
55. (reread) Jennifer Murdley’s Toad by Bruce Coville
56. Angel: Revelations by Roberto  Aguirre-Sacasa, Adam Pollina*
57. The Astounding Wolf-Man by Robert Kirkman, Jason Howard*
58. BOP! [More Box Office Poison] by Alex Robinson
59. (reread) Strangers in Paradise vol 1 by Terry Moore*
60. Amphigorey by Edward Gorey*
61. (reread) Strangers in Paradise vol 2: I Dream of You by Terry Moore*
62. (reread) Strangers in Paradise vol 3: It’s A Good Life by Terry Moore
63. (reread) Strangers in Paradise vol 4: Love Me Tender by Terry Moore
64. (reread) Strangers in Paradise vol 5: Immortal Enemies by Terry Moore
65. The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack by Nicholas Gurewitch
66. X-Men: Magneto Testament by Greg Pak, Carmine Di Giandomenico
67. Fables vol 12: The Dark Ages by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, James Jean
68. Teen Titans vol 4: The Future is Now by Geoff Johns, Mike McKone, Mark Waid
69. The House With A Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs
70. (reread) Strangers in Paradise vol 6: High School by Terry Moore
71. Catching Fire (The Hunger Games book 2) by Suzanne Collins*
72. Uncanny X-Men The New Age vol 4: End of Greys by Chris Claremont, Chris Bachelo
73. Strangers in Paradise vol 7: Sanctuary by Terry Moore
74. Secret War by Brian Michael Bendis, Gabrielle Dell’Otto
75. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
76. New Mutants, vol. 1: Back To School by Nunizo De Filippis, Christina Weir, Josh Middleton

Reread some old favorites (Bruce Coville’s Magic Shop series, Terry Moore’s SiP), discovered new treasures (love Alex Robinson, Adam Pollina, and anything with X-23), and read plenty of teasers that have left me anxiously awaiting their imminent awesomeness (Fables as always, Jeff Smith’s Rasl, and the final Hunger Games!)

Favorites:

Possible future reads?

To see my full list so far for this year, or my list from last year’s challenge, check out the  “Lists of Bookage” tab I added to my page, listed on the upper right under “Welcome.”

suck it!

Feed Me: Cartoon Library and Museum

This summer I started volunteering at The Ohio State Cartoon Library and Museum and it has been amazing! They have such a great collection and I am in awe of seeing some of the original artwork. geekfest!!

If you’re in the Columbus area, be sure to check out the Winsor McCay: Legendary Cartoonist exhibition that will be up from September 15th- December 31st 2009. http://cartoons.osu.edu/?q=exhibits/winsor-mccay-legendary-cartoonist

Also on November 3rd, John Canemaker, Winsor McCay biographer, will be giving a presentation entitled “The Art and Life of Winsor McCay” http://cartoons.osu.edu/?q=events/art-and-life-winsor-mccay

Also be sure to check out this great article in the Columbus Dispatch about the Library/Museum’s huge new building for their gigantic collection! http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/life/stories/2009/09/17/1A_IRELAND_LIBRARY.ART_ART_09-17-09_D1_2RF3BD8.html?sid=101

yay for comics!

New Banner Desgins

I’ve been working on some new banner designs for the sections on my blog and slowly trying to sort and reorganize everything.

New Feed Me: Comics Reviews banner:

Vote for your new favorite Crafty Creations banner:

I like the top one but I keep going back and forth. Let me know what you think.

Summer of Sci-Fi: part 3

The summer of Sci-Fi is still going strong…

Blindness (2008):

This film takes “an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind” to the extreme!  Fernando Meirelles’ Blindness is about the unraveling of a society plagued with an unexplained epidemic of blindness. I’m such a sucker for dystopian science fiction, and this film really impressed me. Gritty, disturbing, provoking, and overall kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. In a time where visual culture bombards our every waking minute, I found this film especially poignant. Of course it seems like I always find out that behind a great film is a great book, so now I really want to check out the 1995 Portuguese novel by Josè Saramago that inspired the film. If you’re a fan of Children of Men (and who isn’t!?) then I highly recommend this film.

Event Horizon (1997):

Paul W. S. Anderson’s Event Horizon is a British sci-fi horror film about a crew of astronauts’ journey to recover a spaceship that mysteriously disappeared for 7 years.  Although the effects are a little dated, I really enjoyed this film and picked up on the horror and science fiction references right away (The Haunting, The Shining, Alien, 2001, etc…).  Since I’m a huge horror and haunted house fan, I loved the idea of a haunted ship, which was even equipped with a creepy naked dead lady in a bath tub and a tidal wave of blood.  Laurence Fishburne is such a badass in this movie! “Fuck this ship!” and the New Zealand dude from Jurassic Park makes an incredibly creepy villain! Overall I loved this film and if you’re looking for a new guilty pleasure, then this is the film for you.

X-23: Innocence Lost (2005):

I bought a few issues of NYX back in 2003, but between switching teams in the middle and collectors making it hard to find and super expensive, I never got the chance to read the first appearance of X-23. I always thought see looked like a badass so I decided to check out her origin story, collected as X-23: Innocence Lost by Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, and Billy Tan. To my surprise, I found out this story made for me! Part WE-3, part Gunslinger Girls this story is super sweet with its combination of government super weapons and young girl assassins. I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Wolverine.. I love adamantium skeletons and he’s pretty hardcore, but I also get sick of him being thrown on every X-men team ever and I enjoy reading comics where he gets shot in the crotch. So I think the invention of a girl Wolverine is ingenious and she’s pretty much my new favorite X-Men character.

For more X-23 check out her very first appearance in X-Men: Evolution on hulu: http://www.hulu.com/watch/84367/x-men-evolution-x23#x-0,vepisode,1

The Omega Man (1971):

Boris Sagal’s The Omega Man, is very loosely based on Richard Matheson’s novel I Am Legend, and is the second film adaptation, after Vincent Price’s The Last Man on Earth.  I think this film started out really well. I loved the opening scene of Charlton Heston speeding around in a hot car (similar to the opening of the Will Smith I Am Legend film) and style and tone seemed pretty dead on. Where this film lost me was with the portrayal of the vampire/zombie plague victims.  When the film stuck to the original story there are some really amazing moments, but when it starts to deviate it just turns into lameville.  Because I’m such a huge Richard Matheson fan, I won’t really be pleased with any film adaptation, and it seems like The Omega Man could’ve been really sweet film, but in the end, I prefer The Last Man on Earth over this.

For more sci-fi reviews, check out my previous posts: Summer of Sci-Fi Part 1, Summer of Sci-Fi Part 2

It’s been a great summer for sci-fi and I think I’ll be able to squeeze in one more round of reviews before classes start. I’m pretty new to the Sci-Fi genre, so if you have any recommendations, please send them my way.