Comics I Bought: February 28, 2008

I'm back from the comic shop this week and I got 1 new comic plus a hard cover collection:

The Authority Prime - 5

The Young Avengers (HC)

And now for a review of something I've read this week.

"The Eternals" Issues 1-19 and Annual 1 by Jack Kirby

Marvel printed up an oversized hardcover edition of all of Jack Kirby's Eternals in the middle of 2006. That was before I went on my hardcover kick and I was always trying to decide whether to get it or not. Then it went out of print and instead of being fifty dollars it shot up to two hundred dollars. My missing out on it kind of started my hard cover buying habit. Well, that and some cash in pocket.

I picked up these, the original issues, on EBay for about twenty dollars (shipping included) so they were a bargain. I used to have some of these issues as a kid but I haven't read them since my childhood and have never read them all in a row. I get more and more impressed with Jack Kirby's 1970's work as time goes by.

"The Eternals" is Jack Kirby's take on Erich von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods" that was popular in the 1970's. "Chariots" said that all of mankind's ancient myths and religions came from one source deep in the past and attempted to prove that space aliens were that source.

Jack Kirby's "The Eternals" says those same things but Kirby fills out the details in his own imaginative way. The space aliens are called the Celestials and millions of years ago visited Earth and helped evolution along by creating three races: Humans, Deviants, and Eternals. Humans are us, Deviants have unstable genes and are where all of our monster stories come from, and Eternals and immortals with super powers who spawned the tales of ancient gods and heros. That was the Celestial's first visit.

The second time they came to Earth the Deviants tried to kill them. So the Celestials smashed the Deviants. We know who's boss. On the third Celestial visit humans were in charge of the planet and the Celestials gave the Incas some guidance and then split. Now it's time for the Celestials' fourth visit and the beginning of the fifty year judgement. Yeah, they are going to decide whether Earth lives or dies. That is the beginning of the story.

Of all of Kirby's 1970's work that I've read lately "The Eternals" reads most like comics being published today. The story isn't quite "decompressed" but moves slowly because it's so grand in scope. I doesn't take place in the regular Marvel Universe but has since been shoe horned in. We get to know lots of Eternals and Deviants as they all try to figure out to do about the fifty year judgement.

The Deviants want to kick the Celestials' asses but since the Celestials are 2000 foot tall space gods it's kind of tough. They scheme and plan and even attempt a couple of attacks.

The Eternals try to stop the attacks because even though they don't want the Celestials to destroy the Earth. The Eternals think that the Deviants will provoke the Celestials into destroying the Earth sooner. The Eternals don't quite know what to do besides that.

The humans are just getting into the game because they didn't know that the other three groups even existed until the Celestials showed up. There are no super heroes because this is not the regular Marvel U.

The first twelve or so issues deal with this slow moving meta story but there is a lot of action going on so I can't call the issues themselves slow. Then the series shifts focus a little as Kirby concentrates on a few characters an issue. The meta story progresses but at a slower rate. The first year of stories were so filled with new ideas, characters, and situations that things almost had to slow down. But there was still plenty of Kirby action so the comics were never really slow. Strange concept.

All in all I dug this series. When Kirby does a riff on something he makes it his own. A lot of the Eternals are familiar as old Greek and Roman gods but not quite. The Deviants are all strange monsters but are not just monsters. They have a society of their own and are not one dimensional evil beings. The Celestials are probably the most inscrutable characters ever. They are so far above us that we are almost like insects to them. They wear weird armor and helmets so we never even see their faces.

So check out "The Eternals" for some 1970's jack Kirby magic. They don't make them like this anymore.

Choctaw Snowfall

We finally got some snow around here this winter. Well, it has snowed a bit but less than the average winter. It's been pretty cold out but it has warmed up just enough for rain to fall most times when we've had precipitation. We got about eight inches of snow which is a pretty good February storm. I'd call one to four inches a small storm, five to eight inches a good size snowfall, and nine to twelve a whole lot of snow. Anything bigger than that and we probably have a blizzard going on.

The supermarkets the night before a predicted snow storm are a sight to behold. Everybody goes shopping and you'd think it was the end of the world. A snow storm rarely lasts more than a day here in downstate NY but by the people shopping for food you'd think everyone was going to be housebound for a month. I try to avoid shopping on those days but I happened to be at the store the night before. I've seen it crazier but it was still a bit of a madhouse. There was a guy with his mother in front of me buying a million cans of soda. He was trying to get his mom to hurry along a little because he was parked in a no parking area. I had no idea why he was parked there. I had just come from the lot and there were spots fairly close. His wanting to rush did add to the crazy atmosphere. Maybe he parked there for the ambiance.

Cleaning up after a snow storm is always a chore. My John Deere riding mower has a plow for pushing snow but the walks need to be shoveled. I got out there shoveling in the middle of the storm because I'd rather clear four inches of snow off of the path twice than eight inches once. I probably cleared five inches than three but who knew when the storm would end? Luckily it was light fluffy snow and shoveling was fairly easy. The second time I cleared the walks the snow was starting to get less fluffy so I'm glad I got to it right away.

Starting the John Deere in the winter can be tricky. The cold drains the battery so I have a charger that plugs in to an outlet and charges the thing. Still I find it tricky to start. It usually takes me three tries with ten minutes of charging in between. I'm mechanically inclined, know how to build things, can take things apart and put them back together, am good with gadgets, but I have no feel for starting up engines. I don't apply enough choke, apply too much, pump one too many times, and I don't know what else. For some reason that part of machinery escapes me.

When I went to start up the tractor to plow the battery wouldn't give me more than one crank. That's unusual. I put the charger on and left it for an hour. Then it again gave me one crank. I put the charger back on for a couple more hours and it again only gave me one crank. Really odd. I put the charger back on and began to test it every ten minutes. It gave me two cranks, then three, and the battery began to hold a charge after another few times. Finally the thing started. Once the battery began to hold a charge I knew it would start but I have no idea why the thing wouldn't hold a charge to begin with.

The snow was the most perfect snow for plowing I've ever seen. It wasn't as powdery as it was a few hours earlier but it was still light yet held together well. Plowing powdery snow gets messy as it flies everywhere and you can only push so much of it as it doesn't stick to itself. It spills around the plow blade. Pushing heavy wet snow is also tough. It sticks together but can quickly build up more weight than the plow can push. Wheels start spinning. But this snow was light and held together well. I could clear it in two passes rather than four. Nice.

The plowing was especially good on the top of my driveway. That's the part where it's steepest and the snow from the road is heaviest. I've gotten stuck up there before in heavy snow less deep than this so it was nice to be able to easily push it aside. All in all the driveway and walks were cleared more quickly with less effort than usual. Not bad I say. I'm still not going out to play in the snow though. I wonder what the Eskimos call that type of snow?

Comics I Bought: February 21, 2008

I'm back from the comic shop this week and I got 3 new comics plus a trade paperback collection:

Grendel Behold The Devil 4 (of 8)

Rex Mundi vol 2 - 10

Ex Machina 34

"Antoine Sharpe is The Atheist Incarnate" (TPB)

And now for a review of something I've read this week.

"Get a Life" by Dupuy and Berberian

I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. It's up my alley. It's a collection of short slice of life stories about a single man in his late twenties. He is a moderately successful writer who hasn't quite found his way in life yet. He lives in a flat by himself and has some friends but no love of his life or children yet.

They artwork is beautiful. Both Dupuy and Berberian draw it and I don't know how they split up the work but it's seamless and very well drawn. The coloring and lettering are also beautiful too. All in all just flipping through it is a very pleasant experience as it is a well made hardcover.

So why did it leave me cold? I'm not sure. I like slice of life stories but I didn't seem to relate to these ones. I didn't find much insight or interesting observations in them. I don't know if that's me or the book though because, damn, it's nice to look at.

I found the lead character a bit annoying and couldn't quite figure out why anyone would be friends with him let alone why I should want to read stories about him. He is quite hum drum and ordinary. Ordinary in a dull way. Maybe my friends and I are big weirdos (eh, we mostly are) but I found all of his friends dull. This book is about a crowd that I, quite simply, would be bored with in real life. So why would I want to read stories about them?

But as I said that could just be me. It took me a while to get through this book but I wanted to because it really is well crafted and pretty. If you like slice of life stories or just well drawn comics check out this book.

Closed!?!

Hey! They closed my go to supermarket! My number one place! That's progress for you. I live in the suburbs where there are lots of supermarkets but they just closed the one that was closest to me. It was also the one I liked the best. It's problem was that it was the smallest supermarket around. That didn't mean it was small but the trend for the last ten years around here has been to build "super" supermarkets. When one "super" is not enough you know we're headed for trouble. Those double super stores are way too big. Getting in and getting out becomes a chore.

The supermarket that closed was a Stop and Shop and they opened a Super Stop and Shop down the street when they closed my store. Ironically the Super Stop and Shop is in the same location where they closed a Shop Rite a year ago because they built a Super Shop Rite on the other side of town. One store's regular became another store's super. Go figure.

I can see why Stop and Shop wanted a super store because the Super Shop Rite does a lot of business. That store is always crowded. Crazy crowded. That's one of the reasons it wasn't my favorite. Another reason is it's sheer size. I'm only shopping for one so I usually pop in for a few items and hit the express line. That's how I roll. It takes a lot more walking around to find things in those huge super stores than it does in a regular super market. Plus when I go to a second store I have to learn new locations for things. Sure things are generally grouped the same in every store but the specifics of walking around are always different. They always hide the apple sauce. Confusion reigns.

Of course traffic plays a part in going to the store too. The store that just closed was easiest for me to drive to. I head down my street, make a right, and in a couple of miles I'm in the parking lot. Piece of pie. The location of the new Super Stop and Shop is not much further away but to get to it I have to go through a busy intersection. A busy pain in the ass intersection I might add. Some intersections are just a matter of waiting your turn but with some you have to wait your turn twice and watch for idiots. This is a watch for idiots intersection. The road was built two hundred years ago (there is a plaque commemorating that this was the intersection where Washington divided his troops after the battle of New York) and even with all the modern improvements it's a pain in the ass. Sight lines are bad, one of the roads is a hill, and the other is a busy stretch of 9W. Who wants to deal with that when you're Jonesing for some clementines?

The Super Shop Rite is a little further away but it's easier to get to. There is a back way and a front way to choose from. Choice rules. The back way takes a bit more time but if there is traffic the front way it's well worth it. If it's anywhere near five o'clock there will be traffic the front way. Last week I attempted to leave the store the front way but had to double back as cars were stacked up at the light ten deep. But at least I could double back. At the 9W intersection there is no choice. You're stuck or you're not.

So now the my number two store is my number one store. They don't get the brand of milk that I like but they make some good cookies in their bakery. Life's a tradeoff. It's a bit of a madhouse in there and I used to like the smaller and quieter nature of my old number one store but time marches on. Maybe someone will open a new un-super supermarket where my old number one store used to be. You never know. But that would be progress.

Comics I Bought: February 14, 2008

I'm heathy again this week and I'm back from the comic shop. I got 3 new comic plus a hard cover collection:

Buffy Season Eight - 11

Walking Dead - 46

Jack Staff - 14

Marvel Monsters HC

And now for a review of something I've read recently.

Thor - "The Eternals Saga"

This trade paperback collects some issues of Thor that first appeared in 1978-1979. I had, and still have, some of them on my shelf. I remember liking them when they first came out (I was twelve) but haven't done much but glance at them in the past thirty years. Has it really been that long? These are from the time when I first started buying Thor off of the stands and it's always a crap shoot reading comics I liked as a kid. Some of them age well but a lot don't.

The first thing I noticed was how dense these issue are. They are written by Roy Thomas who is famous (or infamous depending) for dense writing. I never noticed this as a kid but comics were denser in general back then. This is also one of the first really long stories that I remember. This volume is two hundred pages and the story finishes up in a second volume (which I don't have yet).

"The Eternals Saga" a story with a grand scope. It involves Jack Kirby's cosmic characters "The Eternals", the Greek gods, and the Norse gods. Everybody is a super being or a god. Over the years whenever new writers take over the reigns of Thor they always say that they want to make him more relatable. Too many gods and too much god speak (i.e. fake Shakespearian language). This is the stuff the are referring to.

The Norse gods have always been unique because of Ragnarok. That's the term for the end of the gods. It all comes crashing down and the gods die. What is odd is that the gods know it's coming. It's all outlined in prophecy. Since Thor is all about the Norse gods Ragnarok is on their minds. They don't want to die. Running through the narrative is the story of Odin (Thor's dad who our day of the week "Wednesday" is named after - "Woden's day") trying to stave off Ragnarok. That really comes to a head in the next volume as this one has more Eternals stuff going on in it.

This is a well crafted book. The art is by a few people with the main guys being Keith Pollard inked by Chic Stone. It takes a while to read but I enjoyed that fact. Comics aren't made in this style much anymore but it seemed fresh to me. Maybe it's that "everything that's old is new again" thing but this book didn't seem in the least bit dated or old fashioned. It was exciting and that is not nostalgia talking.

It could be that the new "decompressed" storytelling is about twelve years old now (I consider it to have started with Warren Ellis' "Storm Watch" in 1996) and is looking rather long in the tooth these days. Much like in popular music, despite what singing style is in vogue, standards from a past era can always pop up and be hits. I think Marvel and DC are discovering they have old "standards" now that are not just the "historic" issues (Amazing Fantasy 15, Fantastic Four 1, Hulk 181, Giant Size X-Men 1, Dark Knight Returns) but are the well told tales by the solidly talented artists and writers of the day. This could be one of those late 70's standards. Give it a read.

It's in Me Hand Part 2

I've been sick all week. My head is still spinning. I didn't even get to go to the comic shop. Good thing I wrote most of this before I went down.

I'm going to continue my story about the worst "out of the box" experience ever for an electronic item that I've purchased. My new Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) Star Wars Special Edition hand held game console.

The first problem I noticed upon opening the package was this: no memory stick. When I first put the PSP on my Amazon wish list, back in September, it was a special edition because it came with a game and a one gig memory stick. My friend had purchased the Daxter special edition PSP before Christmas and it indeed came with a one gig memory stick. I went back and checked the Amazon description and a memory stick was no longer mentioned in the rather lengthy write up. Damn! Fooled me. They must have taken the memory stick away after Christmas.

The problem with having no memory stick is that I couldn't save a game. I could start all the games I wanted to but I could only play as far as I could get in one sitting. That's not how games are designed these days. Even the original PSP came with a little memory stick for just that purpose. I already dropped $200 bucks on this thing and now I needed to spend more. Annoying.

I checked around some local stores and the cheapest price I could find was at Staples. About $35 for a two gig stick. Fairly pricey. You see the PSP uses a Sony proprietary "Memory Stick" that is more expensive than SD or flash memory. I thought I could do better than that and went home to check the internet. Turns out that Staples had a pretty good price on that stick. But luckily with a little looking around on Ebay I was able to score a four gig card on Ebay for $45 shipping included. Much better but it was a week until I got my stick.

The second problem was that, despite some nice reviews, I really didn't care for the Star Wars game. I had read, but forgotten, that the PSP didn't do first person shooters (FPS) very well. This is because modern console video game controllers have two analog joysticks. In FPS games one analog stick controls where you go and the second controls where you aim your gun. The PSP only has one analog stick. In the Star Wars game it controlled where you went but you could only shoot in the middle of the screen. There is no joystick available to aim with. They tried to get around this by using another button as a "lock on target" button but I didn't find that very satisfying. Couple that with not being able to save the game and it make for a bad video game experience.

The third problem was the software interface and such. The PSP was made to display pictures, video, and surf the web. I'm a Mac guy and have been working on Apple computers for well over a decade. Apple makes nice user friendly software and recently I bought an iPod Touch that is a joy to use. Not so the PSP. The software is a bit clunky and not very intuitive. I had problems getting it onto my wireless network but I worked it out in the end but just try to get video working on this thing.

I'm no novice when it come to video and computers. I have all sorts of programs, codecs, and add ons to make video play on my Mac. I've got an El Gato Turbo hardware add on that just makes Mpeg4s. I regularly use four software programs that format and compress video. They all have settings for the PSP and still all the test video I converted didn't play on the thing. Some did and some didn't. Why? Who knows?

The PSP is also supposed to display photos. That shouldn't be too hard, right? I dropped about a hundred jpegs onto it and it displayed about ten of them. The rest were a no go. Turns out that if the photos are too big it won't display them. It would have been nice if that was documented somewhere in the manual. Even Sony's website was little help. I finally found the jpeg info I needed on some unofficial PSP site. Bad support and I had to get things going on my own.

I have no real reason to surf the web on my PSP and it's a good thing I don't. The web browser is clunky and viewing web pages is a chore. Sites aren't really modified for the PSP so it's not a particularly good experience. My iPod Touch does web browsing a whole lot better.

Here is an interesting thing. I haven't bought a case for my PSP yet. I'm not planning on bringing it anywhere and just want to keep the screen clean as it sits on the end table next to me. I was putting a micro fiber cloth on top of the screen as it sat there but it still had dust on its screen every time I picked it up. Recently I bought some lint free white gloves for handling photo negatives. I now put the PSP inside one of the gloves as it sits there. It works great. There is no dust on the screen when I pick it up.

All in all the PSP was such a frustrating out of the box experience that I almost returned it. But I kept calm, spent more money, found a couple of cheap (and better) games, and now I'm happy with it. I still haven't figure out the video end but who cares. My iPod Touch does that better anyway.

It's in Me Hand Part 1

The Giants won the Super Bowl and I'm exhausted. Imagine how the players feel! Meanwhile here is a little something about my new PSP

I've been a video game player ever since I was a kid when my family got an Atari 2600 home video game system. Ahhh—the days of Space Invaders. I don't play as many games as I used to in the heyday of the Nes, Super Nes and the Genesis but I've had plenty of systems. I even was one of the few who had an Atari Jaguar (AvP ruled). I currently play my XBox 360 for laughs and giggles.

I've always had a special fondness for the handheld systems. Ever since Matel Electronic Footbal. I preferred the more advanced (ha) Coleco Electronic Football but I played my neighbor's first and it was Matel.

Handhelds have always been way behind the technological curve compared to the console systems (the ones you hook up to your TV i.e. XBox 360) but their appeal is that you can take them with you. And there is an intimacy in a handheld game that you don't get from a console or a computer. It's right there in your hands and in your face.

I have also found that since the handhelds can't wow you with shinny spinning graphics like the consoles can there is more emphasis on actually making good games. Gameplay rules on the handhelds where graphics rule on the consoles. There is usually a different and wider variety of games to be found on the handhelds. Tons of quirky little puzzle and strategy games abound.

Over the years I've owned many different varieties of Nintendo Gameboys, a Sega Game Gear, an Atari Lynx, two NeoGeo Pocket Colors (had to trade cards with myself in Cardfighters Clash), and probably a couple of others that I can't remember right now. Currently I have been jamming out on the latest variation of the Gameboy: the Gameboy Dual Screen (DS). It's pretty neat. It has two screens, one being a touch screen. Games are played with a stylus as well as buttons and there is a wide variety of interesting games. The touch screen and stylus have made for a new type of game that can only be found on the DS. Good stuff.

I also like the Nintendo DS because it's rugged. There is nothing precious about it. It has one screen on the top and the touch screen on the bottom and is hinged in the middle. It folds up on itself so that both screens are inside and well protected. It uses cartridges rather than a disc so the games are rugged too. You really can toss the thing around a bit with no harm done. No protective case needed.

On the other hand Sony's hand held system: the Playstation Portable (PSP) is a delicate thing comparably. It's a beautiful looking machine with a nice big, well lit, and pretty screen. The graphics are much nicer than the DS but you're not tossing the PSP around at all. They sell all sorts of screen guards and protective cases for it and if you're going to haul it around you better get one. It feels like if you drop it once it's going to break. That might not be the case but who wants to find out. Definitely a more precious object.

The DS had been enough for me for the last couple of years so I never got around to buying a PSP. I've wanted one but they're not cheap ($170 or so) and I hadn't been able to save up my money and get one until now.

I first put the PSP on my Amazon wish list back in September. Sony was coming out with some new special edition packages of the PSP and I like special editions of video game consoles. I like them for no other reason than they are a little different from the normal ones. That's all.

I picked out the Star Wars special edition one because it was white (rather than the standard black) and I wanted to try the Star Wars Battlefront game. I'm not even a Star Wars fan but the game got some good reviews and I wanted to play a first person shooter (FPS) on the PSP. My PSP was delivered and I cracked it open. Worst "out of the box" experience ever! I'll tell you about it next week.