What Is Techno Again?

Pilot: Return of Bruce Wayne

Caveman Batman! Pirate Batman? … Erm, Londoner/demon hunter (???) Batman? Find out whether Bruce Wayne’s trips through time will be the sticker price.

Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne #1 kick-starts the first of six trials Bruce Wayne must face before coming home to Gotham. Grant Morrison and Chris Sprouse’s Stone Age story, which was teased in previous Batman issues as Bruce Wayne painted familiar symbols on torch-lit walls, follows an amnesiac Bruce as he scrambles together pieces of his lost identity.

Read the full article at Impulse Creations.

Tags: Batman, DC, Return of Bruce Wayne
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Review: Wednesday Comics

Good Lord, this comic is massive. When a coffee table book of Wednesday Comics arrived on my doorstep, I was baffled. First of all, let me tell you that I looked absolutely ridiculous reading this thing. Secondly, it was good as hell. I highly recommend it. It costs fifty smackers, but it’s worth (nearly) every page. Check out my review at OneMetal:

Despite the dozens of publishers pushing extensive catalogs of superhero and indie titles onto the market today, it’s rare for a comic to break the mold. DC’s lavish Wednesday Comics is that book: a coffee table hardcover that packs fifteen twelve-page comics and two one-page specials onto massive, vibrantly colored sheets. It asks a hefty price, but the over-sized edition marks a perfect introduction to a diverse range of talent and superheroes, especially for inexperienced readers dipping their toes into comic book waters.

Wednesday Comics, which was originally released in a weekly rather than monthly format, shapes its stories like traditional American newspaper comic strips, with the various comics divided into weekly segments. Small groups of creators each handled individual strips over the series’ launch, allowing readers to indulge in a buffet of art and writing styles. Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso (along with colorist Patricia Mulvihill and letterer Clem Robins), for instance, maintained the Batman strip, a classic detective tale with a dash of noir romance. Wednesday Comics benefits most from the quality its unique approach demanded from those involved. Artists were forced to rethink their usual formula, bending their artwork to fit a Sunday comics layout. Meanwhile, writers were forced to keep each strip concise and action-packed, a satisfying design that typically calls for a cliffhanger at each finish.

Plus, the art looks really, really good on mega-gigantic pages.

Tags: DC Comics, Wednesday Comics
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Review: Yippee Ki-Yay Moviegoer

Two thumbs up for movies! Who doesn’t love ‘em? Well, I guess old school reading elitists, and people who despise Hollywood idiocy … okay, I’m not making a very convincing defense of movies, but I do adore them, generally speaking. And so does Vern, Ain’t It Cool News writer and long-time moviegoer. Recently he put together and shipped off to Titan Books a new paperback that collects over eighty film reviews and essays.

Moviegoers, hold that popcorn; cinema lovers, be kind and pause; amateur and professional film critics, move over because the Seattle familiar and internet scribe popularly known as “Vern” has once again entered the literary arena, widening the scope of film studies with his intense and utterly entertaining new book.

Two years after publicizing Seagalogy: A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal, Vern returns to Titan Books to channel his energy into another instant hit: “Yippee Ki-Yay Moviegoer!”: Writings on Bruce Willis, Badass Cinema, and Other Important Topics. The frequent Ain’t It Cool News website contributor packages more than a love for ’80s action movie icons like Bruce Willis and Clint Eastwood into his roughly 400-page monster, a lovechild of his movie career that spans film generations and traces genre and actor legacies. Always insightful, Vern groups his eighty-plus reviews into thematic sections, dedicated to such topics as the warrior code and masculinity, society, the near pornographic (or downright disturbing), summer blockbusters, and various other oddball trends. Sifting through little known or foreign gems (several of them still only available on VHS) and then grazing more mainstream classics, Vern’s collection offers a well-rounded film education: He focuses his attention on such titles as Enter the Ninja, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Knightriders, Brokeback Mountain, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Zoo, The Gingerdead Man, and Yojimbo, to name a handful.

Read the full review at OneMetal.

Tags: Titan Books, Vern, Yippee Ki-Yay Moviegoer
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Showcase: Days Missing, Wake the Devil, and All-Star B&R

Satisfy your graphic novel fix with this month’s Showcase, newly posted on the Impulse Creations forums. The article features reviews of Days Missing, Hellboy: Wake the Devil, and All-Star Batman and Robin: The Boy Wonder.

“… The stories never feel restricted to its sci-fi genre despite the overarching phenomena.” - Days Missing Vol. 1

“Mignola binds these stimulating elements into one hell of a book … By the time readers notice the terror that has been wrought, they’ll be chained to the crossroads, caught between a bleeding Iron Maiden and Rasputin’s vengeance.” - Hellboy: Wake the Devil

“… Simply classic … The first volume boldly demands its place on your bookshelf.” - All-Star Batman and Robin: The Boy Wonder Vol. 1

Tags: All-Star Batman and Robin, Days Missing, Hellboy, Wake the Devil
Posted in Comics/Manga, Impulse Creations, Reviews, Writing | 1 Comment »

Announcing Side Project #1 …

[visit coffee-drunk love]

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