Thursday, September 26, 2013

Dernièrepartiedeseptembrecomicchoseix

Ha! Yuss! Told you I'd give that extra entry! And you all thought I'd lied about it. You thought I was insane. But I showed you. I showed all of you! AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!

EHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!


Yes. Quite. Now for the news.

If you were at the last librarything you probably found out the anual Hallow's eve thingummy had been canceled. The good news is that now might not be true. Maybe. I'm trying to rustle up some more support for it, and I've even offered my services to help organise it so it's less of a burden, but it's still up in the air. You'll need to give some support too if we're going to get one I think. There's a page on facebook I've made if you're on there, do join up if you're really interested. The more effort people put in the more likely it is to happen. I think. Maybe.

Next library thing is the 10th of october, and will be dedicated to our fine modern empire of science and industry. To colonialism, invention and England!

Now for the last part in my trilogy, for what it's worth. For the last of all, I'm going back. Way back. To a time when I was actually happy more often than not. This time I'll be looking at:


Asterix

The paper-based semi-telivised cartoon of my childhood. It is fantastic. Read it. If you ever have children, get them to read it too. If you really really need to know it's story, then I can only assume you have been living under a menhir for the better part of two centuries. It's ye olde classical period, and the titular Asterix and his friends, a bunch of French barbarians or Gouls, spend their daily lives having adventures and inevitably beating the snot out of the Romans that occupy most of France. Come on, I thought everyone knew that.

It is a classic in every sense of the word. I don't know what more to say really. It's hilarious and one of the big things I remember from being a young'un. I can only wish that the 2-3 people who read this will have similarly fond childhood memories from it.

I am nostalgic now. Excuse me while I go and sit by myself looking out into the distance, smoking a pipe and grumbling about how things were better in my day.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Комикс книга продолжает тему в рассрочку блога

Ok so maybe I lied about that extra bonus post. Maybe. It might still show up. Probably not though knowing my luck. Have a distraction coconut instead.

....

...


Damnit it's not loading the distraction coconut. Pretend there's one there. It is a very distracting coconut.

Anywhich, the next part of comic book month. This time it's about the other big one I really like. And by big I of course mean cerebral and obscure. This one is:


The Red Star

I will be very impressed if you have heard of this series. Almost no-one does know about it, especially outside the United States. But despite that it is very, very, VERY good, if a little bit weird.

Basically, it follows the adventures of Maya Antares, a military sorceress in the Russian army, in an alternate history where magic was scientifically discovered, categorised, and put into every day use, technology has advanced MUCH more quickly than it did in real life (By the late 1800s/early 1900s they have gigantic steampunk super-trains, by the 1950s at least they have even bigger battleships that float around in the upper atmosphere battling each other with laser cannons and tanks the size of city blocks), and the Soviet Union lasted a lot longer than it actually did, and broke up after bleeding itself white when it invaded Afghanistan (in case you don't know, this actually did happen, but it did'nt do much to end the USSR, which split apart a couple of decades afterwards from largely unrelated economic pressures). After being sent in to quell an uprising in.. well, it's not quite clear where it is, but it was a former republic of this Soviet Union, and it wants independence. Anywhich, after being sent in to put down the insurgency as brutally as possible, Maya and her friends in the army discover the terrible secret behind their (very corrupt) government, and promptly mutiny to save the world from evil.

It's story is in three bits, with the first third of the series covering the past, looking at the aforementioned invasion of Not-Afghanistan and how it affected our heroes, the second covers what happens in during the counter-insurgency, and the third looks at what happens after the big mutiny.

It's very very pretty, with CG-assisted landscapes and objects along with the more traditional pencilling. The narrative's not to bad neither. If you're into gritty war stories or just like to oggle at pretty landscapes and big formidable looking military hardware, I'd recommend it.


Come back next week, where you'll get the last installment of the Septembre arc. Or not, since something will probably happen.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Look! Up in the sky!

Is it an ad? Is it a meme? No! It's Super-Blog! Faster than a speeding viral-video, stronger than a search engine!

Actually it's just comic book month now. I'm not sure exactly why September is comic book month, when Armageddon is in October, the month after it, but oh well. Maybe Comic-con in America is in September and we're just using the date the yanks give. That might be it.

At any rate the whole month is devoted to comics, manga and graphic novellia of all kinds. The next librarymajig is... well, it's in about 45 minutes. I was going to post this the week before, but never got a chance to, so now instead you get a double-dose of bloggey goodness that no-one ever reads. It'll be featuring something to do with the month's theme of course.

At the same time, I figured I'd write about some of my favourite.... errm.... damn, I'm all out of comic synonyms. Where is my team of script-writing faeries when I need them? I leave milk and cookies out for them damnit!

Anywhich, I'll write up about some of my favourites. Starting with my current #1:


Transmetropolitan

I doubt you've heard of Transmetropolitan. Being of Vertigo origin, it's not terribly mainstream, especially outside the United States. But I love it. It's hilarious.

It's the future, and the series focuses on a bitter disgruntled cynical journalist named Spider Jerusalem. If you've heard of Hunter S. Thompson, then he's kind of like him. If you haven't heard of Hunter S. Thompson, google him and tell me about him. I've only ever heard of him, and been told that he's a bit like Spider Jerusalem. Anywhich, Transmetropolitan follows the misadventures of Spider as he writes about and explores the city he moves back to. Exactly which city it is is never mentioned, though it seems to be New York. The city itself is 100% insane, capitalism taken to it's logical extreme. Genetic engineering has made everyone immune to lung-cancer, so most people smoke through 20 packs a day. There is an underground fashion trend that involves grafting alien DNA onto oneself. Popular TV shows include an insanely ultraviolent children's cartoon called 'Anthrax Cat' and what can only be described as Avenue Q meets Sesame St (I also should have probably warned you that it's a farily adult graphic novel series). Common household security includes Ebola dispensers. They've invented amphibious all-terrain sports-shoes. Ads get implanted into your subconcious. And the list goes on. It's a cyber-punk city of sin, full of corruption at every level. It has fun with this too.

It's a bit on the graphic side, but if you're like me and have a sense of humour black as the Ace of Clubs (spades is too mainstream), and a taste for sci-fi, you might just enjoy it too. 

***

That's it for now. T'was much shorter a review than I was expecting, but oh well. Librarything's in less than 30 minutes. If you can't make it then maybe next month.

Awesome blogger away!

Ace Of Clubs

Hi Welcome to the blog of the Mangere Bridge Teen Book Club. We call ourselves Ace of Clubs. We meet once a month, normally on the third Thursday 4.30pm @ Mangere Bridge Library. We talk about books, hang out and have random fun. This blog will tell you what we have been up to, what is coming up and of course lots of stuff about books. All teens are welcome so if you are around come along and join us.