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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!

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 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.

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.

Silent Running (1972): After gushing to my dad about Moon and Sunshine, he recommended Silent Running to me and I loved it! The film is about one man’s pursuit to singlehandedly preserve the last existing species of plants from earth.  Silent Running is Douglas Trumbull’s directorial debut. Previously Trumbull worked as a special effects supervisor on The Andromeda Strain and Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Overall, I think this film is really successful because of the minimalist story, masterful execution, endearing acting, and the psychological exploration of civil disobedience. Although the special effects may seem a little outdated, the story about the Earth’s environmental struggles are as relevant as ever. You can see Trumull’s lasting influence in many contemporary films such as Sunshine (greenhouses), WALL-E (extinct plant life), and Moon (minimalism + robot). Be sure to check out the interview with the director on the dvd! Another brilliant example of great and innovative filmmaking on a limited budget. The robot drones were adorable! (although it kinda freaked me out to learn they were played by four double-amputees).

Star Trek (2009): so I guess I’m a Star Trek fan now (well that’s not true, I’ve always been a LeVar Burton fan, so I guess I’ve always been a ST fan by default). I was a little intimidated at first, not being a die-hard Trekkie (like my mom), but this film brilliantly balances accessibility for new fans as well as not pissing off the hardcore fans too much. So far my mom and I have both seen this film twice in theaters, so it must be doing something right!

Going into this film I thought I would be a Dr. McCoy fan all the way, but Spock totally won me over and the whole Leonard Nimoy thing clenched it. I <3 SPOCK! I’m such a sucker for inner conflict and a Vulcan nerve pinch. The only thing that I thought was really strange was Winona Ryder as Spock’s mother. wtf?? I don’t want to give too much away, but overall this film really impressed me and did a great job of reinventing/relaunching the series for a young audience.

“Dammit, man! I’m a doctor, not a physicist!”

Hater (2009): Hater by David Moody is more horror with a sci-fi twist.  It is the story of Danny McCoyne, an employee of the Parking Fine Processing office, who slowly witnesses the world  becoming overrun with, not quite zombies, but what the media has labeled “Haters,” a person who suddenly snaps and viciously attacks anyone in sight.

I originally spotted the book randomly at the library.  I saw the blood-splattered book-cover in the new releases section and I just had to check it out (check out the great post on Moody’s blog about the evolution of the cover: http://www.djmoody.co.uk/2009/08/03/the-hater-cover-story/).  Reading the little author’s bio on the back of the book I was intrigued to learn that the book had originally been self-published on the Internet, and that Guillermo Del Toro has bought film rights.

Moody cites many influences including Wyndham’s Day of the Triffids, H G Wells’ War of the Worlds, and Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. I definitely see a Richard Matheson influence with the minimal/intimate first-person narration of the protagonist. In contrast to novels like The Stand, I felt that the characters’ reaction to the progressing pandemic felt genuine and convincing. Overall this book quenched my thirst for a great apocalyptic story spiked with HATE.

Little did I know that Hater was the first book in a trilogy (Dog Blood expected out in 2010) and I can’t wait to check out book 2 and the upcoming film.  Follow David Moody on goodreads or on twitter @davidjmoody

District 9 (2009): District 9, in the same vein as Cloverfield and Blair Witch, is a science fiction film presented as a pseudo documentary/found footage.  It is the story about an alien crew that is stranded on Earth when their spaceship stalls above Johannesburg. This film starts out strong, but even though there is always a lot of action, I felt that the second half was a bit disappointing. Overall I really appreciated the balance of comic relief with an otherwise very dark, gritty, and violent film with strong sociopolitical critique.

To me, this film seemed very reminiscent of Romero’s work (Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Toe Tags) with a sort of hybrid character that is able to bridge both worlds and reveal  a redeeming side of the “monsters” to the audience.  I guess my favorite part of the film would have to be the look of the aliens. They had a kind of Doctor Zoidberg meets a grasshopper type thing going on.  Also, the baby alien was adorable!

Be sure to check out my previous post: Summer of Sci-Fi: Part 1 for reviews of Moon, Sunshine, The Hunger Games, and Zot!

19. Night Shift by Stephen King *
20. Cerebus vol 1 by Dave Sim
21. White Flower Day by Steven Weissman
22. Zombie Tales vol 2: Oblivion by Joe R Lansdale, et al
23. Wormwood, Gentleman Corpse vol 1 by Ben Templesmith
24. Blue Pills by David Lapham *
25. Sliverfish by Frederik Peeters
26. Hater by  David Moody *
27. Creepy Archives vol 1 ed. Shawna Gore *
28. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
29. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
30. House of Mystery vol 2 by Matthew Sturges, Luca Rossi
31. The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum
32. Zot!: The Complete Black and White Stories by Scott McCloud *
33. Welcome to Dead House by R. L. Stine
34. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins *
35. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born by Peter David, Jae Lee
36. The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home by Peter David, Jae Lee
37. The Dark Tower: Treachery by Peter David, Jae Lee
38. Tiny Bubbles by James Kochalka
39. You’ll Never Know by C. Tyler *
40. Isolation and Illusion by P. Craig Russell

40 down.. only 60 left to go! yeah I’m starting to think I’m not going to reach my goal this year. But at least I’m pretty sure I’ll beat my 50 book challenge from last year: list of bookage 2008

A pretty good haul so far with new discovered treasures, some unexpected favorites, and a few disappointments. I’ve been meaning to post a review of Hater and the Creepy Archives so stay tuned for some interesting Friday Night Horrorshow posts.

Favorites:

Possible future reads?

to see months 1-3 check out my previous blog post and to read my reviews of these books and other books that I did not include on this list check out my goodreads page: http://www.goodreads.com/profile/katchoo

Also if you’re interested in the 50 Books A Year Challenge, join goodreads, friend me, and together we shall rule the galaxy as father and son.

Moon (2009):

Moon is director Duncan Jones’ (aka David Bowie’s son) debut feature film.  I first heard about/became interested in Moon when I saw that it got a 9/10 on bloody-disgusting.com a few months ago, and once I saw the trailer I was completely sold.  People that know me or have read some of my past reviews probably know that I am a sucker for minimalist stories with 2 characters in one room (such as Hard Candy, Blair Witch, Open Water, I Am Legend, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Raymond Carver, etc…) so this love combined with my love for creepy robots, government conspiracies, unreliable narrators, and great soundtracks = LOVED IT.  Overall this movie kept me guessing and it didn’t give me the obvious or what I expected, which I think made some people disappointed, but I found it more ballsy. I highly recommend this film and can’t wait to see the next film in the Moon series!

For more about Moon check out this interview http://bit.ly/45KYQ4 and follow Duncan Jones on twitter @ManMadeMoon

Sunshine (2007):

Sunshine presents a film about a crew aboard a spaceship heading towards the dying sun with a mission to save humankind. Similar to my love for Moon, I always find myself drawn to stories with isolated individuals that ask those ever present philosophical and psychological questions of what it means to be human.  Questions about morality, ethics, insanity, loyalty, formation of a social contract, etc… are all present in this film. On top of that, the film was visually brilliant and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Visually and thematically there are moments throughout the film reminiscent of Kubrick’s 2001, Alien, and even Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination. Overall I think it’s pretty safe to say that any Danny Boyle movie with Cillian Murphy in it is made of win.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008):

My friend Lindsey (check out her blog: http://apocaknits.wordpress.com/) recommended The Hunger Games to me and I loved it! As you can tell from my previous reviews, a dystopian/battle royal story is right up my alley, and I always love a book with a female badass, so this book totally rocked my face. It’s like Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” meets Lord of the Flies meets Battle Royale and it is EPIC! I don’t want to give too much away but I can say that this book totally sucked me in and I could not put it down. The second book of the trilogy, Catching Fire, is scheduled to come out in September and I CANNOT WAIT to get my hands on it.  I’m really not good at this cliffhanger ending/waiting anxiously for the next book and I can see myself diving over people and punching babies to get a hold of book two.  Go read this book now! well maybe read my review of Zot! first, and then go read it!

Zot! The Complete Black and White Collection by Scott McCloud (2008):

I dabbled in comics throughout my childhood, but it wasn’t until high school that I really got hooked. In an art class my freshman year of college, my professor handed me a copy of Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud and I was in complete awe.  Last year, I finally got to meet my hero in person when he and Jeff Smith presented a conversation at the Wexner Center for the Arts.  At that point I had only read his more historical/theoretical comics, and when the mammoth 576 page Zot! collection was released in 2008, I was excited to finally read some of Scott McCloud’s fictional work.

What I enjoyed most about this collection is seeing the progression of his beautiful art (towards the end of the collection there are some amazingly beautiful hyper detailed panels) and reading his cute anecdotes between story arcs throughout this giant collection.  What I admire about Scott McCloud is that he’s not afraid to experiment and this collection has a little bit of everything (ranging from the fantastical futuristic superhero to the everyday down to earth teenage romance, from the ultra-philosophical villains to the questioning of sexual identity, from the super detailed art to the abstract/digital).  My favorite arcs in the collection would have to be “Planet Earth” and “The Season of Dreams.” I don’t want to give anything away, but I’d have to say that they are some of the best stories that I have ever read!

At the end of the collection, Scott McCloud said that he’s thinking of working on a graphic novel next, so I am exceedingly anxious to read his next work.  For more Scott McCloud, check out his website/blog scottmccloud.com or follow him on twitter @scottmccloud.

“I think that at the heart of most genres is the desire to escape to a new world every bit as convincing as this one, yet safely removed from this one’s daily pain, while at the heart of most progressive narrative movements is the desire to meaningfully reconnect with that pain, or to strip away the illusion entirely and rethink the nature of the creative act itself.” -Scott McCloud

In honor of SDCC, Google featured a DC superhero Google Doodle by my favorite comics artist JIM LEE!

behold the awesomeness:

Earlier today, Jim tweeted: “Go to google.com to see an image I drew JUST for Google for SDCC.It will be the single most viewed image I have ever drawn!200 million hits+”