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Showcase: 100 Bullets, The Chained Coffin, and All-Star Superman

November comes to an end at Impulse Creations with another graphic novel Showcase. It’s been a mild month here in Pennsylvania, and hopefully everyone stuffed their gobs on Thanksgiving. Before long New Year’s will be upon us, so get crackin’ on spreading that cheer.

Anyway, to read the full article … well, you know what to do. But here’s a few teasers first. (I hope you like the new look!)

“Brian Azzarello’s 100 Bullets Vertigo series shoves one hundred untraceable bullets and a gun in your hands, arms you with a flawless vendetta, and points you in the right direction.” - 100 Bullets Vol. 1: First Shot, Last Call

“… The Chained Coffin and Others lathers on the ancient spooks and chills …” - Hellboy: The Chained Coffin and Others

“… suddenly we understand how the Man of Steel got so … well … legendary. He experiences the bizarre, pulls off the impossible, and all the while never loses sight of the miraculous life that knits the universe together.” – All-Star Superman Vol. 2

Tags: 100 Bullets Vol. 1, All-Star Superman Vol. 2, Hellboy: The Chained Coffin and Others
Posted in Comics/Manga, Impulse Creations, Reviews, Writing | No Comments »

Pull-O-Rama: November ’09

November’s Pull-O-Rama is now up at the Impulse Creations forums. This time it features reviews of Cinderella: With Love from Fabletown, Berserker #3, The Darkness #81, and Resurrection #5. Below is a quick teaser, but you can read the full article by clicking here.

“Roberson handles Fables with the same spark and color as Willingham, organizing an entertaining and revitalized trip through the pages of our beloved fairy tales.” - Cinderella: With Love from Fabletown

“Berserker #3 grabs you by the innards and refuses to let go.” - Berserker #3

“The Darkness #81 doesn’t exactly sparkle with flawlessness … but at least the issue offers fans a comic both written and drawn by Hester.” - The Darkness #81

“… The suspense that develops with the passing of each issue keeps Guggenheim’s comic on its feet and running.” - Resurrection #5

Tags: Berserker #3, Cinderella: With Love from Fabletown, Resurrection #5, The Darkness #81
Posted in Comics/Manga, Impulse Creations, Reviews, Writing | No Comments »

Holiday Gaming

The holidays are almost upon us, which means sooner or later we procrastinators really need to start, you know, shopping and stuff. December is always a wonderful time of year for gamers—sure, November starts the race … especially on Black Friday … but the real joy comes in the first real snow-flying month (unless you live in California … jerk).

In celebration of our favorite time of year, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at December sales and landmark events in the past seven years—that’s the entire 21st-century thus far according to the good ol’ Gregorian calendar. So sit back and read on, and I hope you enjoy. The full feature is up at RadNerd, but here’s a brief preview:

Developers, publishers, and gamers put down their controllers and join hands for that special time of the year when they break fingers and rush out in a mad stampede to buy the latest and greatest of the tie-breaking holiday season. The winter holidays are as big and influential for the gaming industry as summer is for popcorn movies, and this season will fall in line just like a pixel-decorated, shining … okay, insert your own politically correct object here. Let’s just say Charlie Brown would weep with joy and throw that stick figure excuse for an ornament-hanger in the trash with all the annually recycled wrapping paper. Here are the top December games of the last seven years—because 2000 doesn’t technically count (and no one loves it).

2001

One year in and the holiday season has a bundle of soon-to-be favorites to offer gamers in exchange for their merry good cheer. Of course, it was also a year of new tidings: the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, and Xbox entered the popularly dubbed console war.

PS: I hope you like the banner.

Tags: Holidays, Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox
Posted in RadNerd, Video Games, Writing | No Comments »

Frolic with 3D Heroes and Chocobos This Spring

UPDATE: The official launch trailer for 3D Dot Game Heroes has been added below. Looks like the game also has some Final Fantasy flair (think: orbs), and it ought to give the LEGO series a run for its cube-shaped money.

Spring holds some pretty nifty things in store for us gamers, two of which are sure to be a hit. Final Fantasy XIII finally (no pun intended) struck a release date for March 9, 2010, but while you’re drooling over gorgeous pixels, you better prepare for a throwback to nostalgic blocky ones.

FFXIII will hit the North American shores only four months after its Japanese debut, and the game will be available on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles—a simultaneous first. Details about the game’s battle system, gameplay mechanics, music, and modes have officially surged the internet. Players can set a line-up of commands in a single turn via a multi-slot ATB gauge, which allows for a string of consecutive attacks or a fiercer pounding by expending multiple slots. The Paradigm Shift lets characters switch roles mid-battle to roll with the ever-changing punches. And as previously described, Gestalt mode transforms summons (Eidolons) into a vehicle/passenger force—Odin changes into a horse, Shiva into a motorcycle, etc. The latter feature sounds a bit odd, but depending on how it’s implemented into the game, it could be pretty cool.

Plus, fans of the English pop and R&B singer Leona Lewis can hear her song, “My Hands,” included in the soundtrack’s mix. “Leona is a natural fit with the game’s powerful themes and strong female protagonist,” revealed Tom Corson, EVP/GM, RCA Music Group. “We’re delighted to be part of this effort, bringing great musical artistry to Final Fantasy XIII which is a riveting and dynamic gaming experience.” You can listen to the track here. What do you think? A potentially perfect fit, or a bit strange for a FF game?

On a later note, Atlus will be importing the pixel-heavy 3D Dot Game Heroes for US release on the PS3 this upcoming May 11 for the hopeful price of $40—especially generous for an import. The game looks like The Legend of Zelda with a touch of Dragon Warrior, which is an awesome combination as far as I’m concerned. Players will explore monster-plagued lands and dungeons and solve puzzles in a quest to save a kingdom from the devastating effects of a 2D to 3D world conversion. Hot damn, sign me up!

Which of these games do you plan on playing?

Tags: 3D Dot Game Heroes, Atlus, Final Fantasy XIII, Leona Lewis, PlayStation 3, Square Enix, Xbox 360
Posted in Video Games | No Comments »

Just Plain Savage, Doc

If you’ve been reading any DC comics lately, you’ve probably spotted the Batman/Doc Savage Special preview at the end—or maybe you picked up the actual issue, which released this past Wednesday. Chances are you noticed something about the Azzarello-penned comic: Batman and guns don’t usually mix.

My latest op-ed for Impulse Creations connects the Bat with Doc and traces the lineages of both back to why Batman and guns aren’t a stellar combination. Here’s a quick preview; click here for the full article.

Batman co-creator Bill Finger once said, “Batman was originally written in the style of the pulps.” Pulp magazines are perhaps best known for their sensational cover art and exploitation style of fiction, which interested readers with sex, violence, and drugs while escaping the label of pornographic or obscene. One of the larger-than-life pulp heroes goes by the name of Doc Savage, a sort of contemporary renaissance man: You name it, he does it. In fact, the nostalgic icon shares a lot in common with the Caped Crusader. Scientists honed Savage’s mind and body to near-superhuman potential, granting him formidable strength and endurance, a photographic memory, martial arts mastery, and considerable knowledge in the sciences. On top of that, Doc was considered a master of disguise and voice imitation. This isn’t a far cry from the ninja-trained Bruce Wayne, and in the beginning, the superhero was more pulp than the hero who we know today.

Originally, Batman carried a gun and showed no remorse about righting evil-doers with armed violence. But it didn’t take long for creators to realize the flaw in their line of thinking: For a hero whose parents were murdered in the heat of gunfire, it doesn’t make much sense for their crime-fighting son to pick up the smoking gun and start wielding it. Logic won over, and Batman’s gun-slinging days faded from continuity.

Tags: Batman/Doc Savage Special, Brian Azzarello, DC, Phil Noto
Posted in Comics/Manga, Impulse Creations, Writing | 1 Comment »