Comics and More

Brandi Carlile Brandi Carlile's lastest CD release The Story was recorded almost completely live and boasts collaborations from the likes of The Indigo Girls. This was my first CD from the guitarist/songwriter. It's an in-store play at my Barnes & Noble and I liked what I heard, so I had to buy it. Brandi reminds me quite a bit of the sort of rock music you would hear coming from Melissa Etheridge, although it has a country edge to it that's more apparent in some songs than others, when it leans more toward a Bonnie Raitt sound. One thing is certain about Carlile in the end: she has a damn strong voice. Even when she sings softly, you can almost feel the power behind it. Unfortunately, there were too many of those ballads. I wish she'd showcased that voice a bit more than wasting it on so many slow numbers. She has such command over her art, and such confidence that I believe her to easily be one of the best vocalists working presently, but aside from a handful of ...

Check out the new sidebar links if you get the chance. One you may know, as Sean Collins used to blog on comics before getting a job at Wizard . His AttentionDeficitDisorderly Too Flat is now primarily a horror film blog. Critical Mass is a new blog from my articulate roommate Jordan that focuses on film and music reviews.

The Mysterious Play (Volume 1): Priestess Yu Watase This manga has been on my periphery for awhile now. With my manga pile receding, I took the opportunity to peruse the bookshelves at work and with a recent reminder of this title from Patrick, I picked this up on impulse. I follow Watase's Absolute Boyfriend in Shojo Beat monthly, and while I enjoy it, it's not quite at the level where I feel compelled to buy the volumes, let alone seek out other works from the creator. But comparatively, I like Fushigi Yugi: The Mysterious Play much better. Absolute Boyfriend kind of hits the same note over and over and never really does anything all that interesting, and I also sometimes get confused with the characters, particularly the boys, who all seem to look the same with similar hairstyles. I don't have this problem with many manga, but Absolute Boyfriend is really a problem, especially when a third boy joins the storyline or the "other" love interest takes off his ...

"This week's historic massacre puts mindless mayhem movies like Hot Fuzz in perspective..." - Scott Holleran ( Box Office Mojo )

Ron Marz & Luke Ross Ron Marz, the former Crossgen creator, writes a samurai epic that's easily superior to his attempt at a samurai story on Crossgen's bland The Path . Collaborating with him on the Dark Horse five issue mini-series is Luke Ross, whose art reminds me quite a bit of Greg Land, without looking as stiff and photo-referenced, but much more natural; Very realistic and really just beautiful with scenes of cherry blossom trees and palaces. And credit has to be given to Jason Keith, whose work on the colors served to bring everything together in a great package. The battle scenes in this collection are pretty fantastic, and even though the protagonist and love interest are the boring iconic characters with little personality you'd expect them to be, there are some supporting characters that make the adventures of our hero worth it as he attempts to reunite with the one he loves. The Three Musketeers in particular are playful, fun characters with witty dialo...

Welcome to Manga Monday! This week, reviews of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service and Dragon Head ! Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Volume 2) Eiji Otsuka & Housui Yamazaki The second installment of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service continues to follow a group of five (or perhaps six) individuals who collectively work to grant restless spirits their last wishes through their respective gifts, taking on these spirits as clients who are often able to pay through some means to make their interest worthwhile. This volume of the book is a little different than that of the first, with a story covering the entire book instead of working through self-contained chapters. As it is a single story, the focus falls on certain characters, while others are absent through nearly the entire story. But even if a favorite isn't highlighted this time around, this is an incredibly compelling story that really delves into the motivation of Ao Sasaki, the "leader" of the group if there is o...

Sarah Ellerton The second volume of Ellerton's Inverloch follows the young beast-like Da'kor, Acheron, as his quest for the long lost elf Kayn'dar is in full-swing. While this volume contains more action than the first , it's still mostly dialogue, as Acheron journeys south, following clues, and gaining traveling companions that seem to clash, but make for interesting dialogue nonetheless as the politics of the world slowly unfold through their various outlooks. Among Acheron's new friends are Lei-ella the mysterious Elven thief-catcher, Varden the thief, and Neirenn the mage, incorporating several key roles of a typical fantasy, but thus far, surpassing most in quality with its amazing art and really intriguing plot. This is a fine all-ages fantasy with an epic feel that's sure to appeal to fans of Bone , and is in the upper crust of genre comics being published presently, in a beautiful presentation from Seven Seas. A

One of my most highly anticipated films of the year has opened in all of its glory to a shabby fourth place at the box office , but on the bright side, it's one of the best reviewed movies of the year according to Rotten Tomato's counts, it seems to have longevity since it opened over a family weekend of Spring Break and the buzz is positive, and it's likely to make back its production budget, especially with talk of opening the movies separately overseas, and rereleasing them separately in the US as well to make up for some of its losses. Selling it off of the concept of the "Grindhouse" was foreign to a lot of people - that and using the directors' names to fan the fires was probably a mistake. This is America after all: Are We Done Yet was obviously a shoe-in for the top three, especially given its low rating of less than 10% critical approval and atrocious trailers. But enough of the disappointing financials; In the end what matters is the art - and Gr...

Welcome to Manga Monday! This week, reviews of Alien Nine and Drifting Classroom ! Alien Nine (Volumes 2 & 3) Hitoshi Tomizawa The final two volumes of Alien Nine pick up where the first volume left off and continues to tell the story of a world being invaded by aliens, friendly and otherwise. It is a wacky manga that follows three girls who wear aliens as helmets to help them track down hostile entities at their school, and continues in the direction the last book took, into that of a darker tone that all but consumed these last two volumes. All three of the girls are changed by their roles, whether they're possessed by an alien who makes them act differently, or their body is mutated to reflect the bond with the creatures, the permanent changes the girls undergo all but wipe the "cuteness" from the book and leave things unsettling and kind of depressing. It's a great metaphor for the changes of adolescence and growing up, but the energy of the series overall ...

Michael Avon Oeming & Scott Kolins The new mini-series spun out of Civil War begins with a gathering of heroes. In New Avengers , in wake of House of M , Alpha Flight was slaughtered by a cosmic being. Now a new group of heroes must protect Canada. Omega Flight both makes fun of its several past incarnations and holds up the original team to a legendary status. The gathering of the next generation of Canadian heroes is a direct result of Civil War , and Canadian officials aren't happy with the US, watching its mess spill over their borders. They are forced to act quickly in coming up with a solution to control the superpowered criminals who are invading their country to escape registration and the government cells put into play to track down superheroes and villains alike. Indeed, some of the new members of Omega Flight are themselves superhumans who were once regarded as heroes, who have escaped registration to begin anew in Canada. Among these ranks are USAgent and J...

You should see this movie. It's the best thing to come out of the franchise thus far.

Sarah Ellerton The first printed volume of the hit webcomic Inverloch is really a great all-ages read. It follows a young da'kor (a race of feared wolfish creatures) named Acheron, who by chance meets a young female elf one day and falls for her, promising to help her find the mate she lost when she was young. Acheron sets out on an adventure in a large fantastic world completely unknown to him, and learns the hardship of discrimination, intimidation and choosing your friends and enemies. This promises to be quite an epic adventure ala Lord of the Rings, with some great art from Ellerton that looks like it could rival some of the best Disney character designs out there. There's nothing particularly unique to this story that hasn't been seen in other similar fantasy stories, but I haven't seen anything quite like this in comic form, and it really is suited for the medium under the creator's guiding hand. The story unfolds in a great cinematic fashion that make...

To Terra (Volume 1) Keiko Takemiya To Terra is a fantastic space soap opera epic. It was originally serialized between 1977 and 1980 in Japan, and its creator is considered an important figure in shaping modern shoujo manga. And as To Terra is an important historical manga, we of course have Vertical to thank for publishing the three volume Takemiya adventure. The story follows a few different young men who grow up in a time when people are pretty much manufactured to be perfect citizens and as such, not to question their place. Some humans are developing psychic powers as they are raised by foster parents on a nearby planet, and are seen as a threat to the Utopian paradise planned for Terra, or Earth. These psychic "Mu" are treated as outcasts and executed, although a small number has been gathering where they can not be reached, and they wish to get to Terra, or home, like everyone else. Keiko's art looks influenced by Osama Tezuka, and the story reminded me quite a b...

DVD Releases (Tues, 3/13) Casino Royale Eloise In Hollywood The Holiday I Love Lucy: Seasons 7-9 Shortbus Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 4 (Original Series) Previous Week: IMDb Top DVD Rental: Stranger Than Fiction Billboard Top DVD Sales: Flushed Away My Barnes & Noble #1: The Secret Music Releases (Tues, 3/6) Amy Winehouse - Back To Black Aqualung - Memory Man The Corrs - Dreams: The Ultimate Corrs Collection The Fratellis - Costello Music Hayley Westenra - Celtic Treasure James Morrison - Undiscovered Natalie MacMaster - Collection Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall William Tell - You Can Hold Me Down Previous Week: Billboard Top 200 #1: Daughtry - Daughtry My Barnes & Noble #1: Norah Jones - Not Too Late Comic Releases (Wed, 3/7) American Elf (Volume 2): Collected Sketchbook Diaries of James Kochalka BPRD: Garden of Souls #1 (of 5) Buffy, the Vampire Slayer #1 Complete Invincible Library (Volume 1) HC Emma (Volume 3) Franklin Richards: March Madness New Excalibur (Volum...

Just a couple of short reviews this week with a few manga I'm a few volumes into now...next week: To Terra ! . The Drifting Classroom (Volume 4) Kazuo Umezu . I was getting a little bored with this title, to be honest, but this volume kind of reinvigorated my enthusiasm for the over-the-top sci-fi adventure. In this volume, the monster attacks! Plus....lots of screaming, maiming, etc. that ends on a cliffhanger that truly has me on the edge of my seat for the next installment. A . Death Note (Volume 10) Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata . Death Note is a hard manga to review because it's such a plot-heavy book, but it's always a good read. It's more exciting at this point than it's been for awhile because it seems like things are getting a little out-of-control and any tiny little thing could topple Light from his throne. New characters join the cast, Kira's pursuers are closing in, and we're bound to have another climax soon because the tension is as thick...

Richard Sala Richard Sala is one of my favorite cartoonists and with this new title from Fantagraphics (which is also Evil Eye #14 ), we see Sala doing more of what he does best: setting up a creepy atmosphere amid great art and strange characters. There was something very unsettling about this book in particular. I think it had a lot to do with the clowns, which are generally creepy, but are used really effectively as scary antagonists here, grabbing at people and slinging little girls over their shoulders in bags. The noir atmosphere is thick here in an abandoned town where people hide and cower in fear of the clowns coming to take them away, with the exception of a handful of teenagers loitering around the local amusement park. And then there's our protagonist, Judy Grood, whose initial appearance in the book (with the publishing information) is of her saying " Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" in her car, as it's broken down. And that's kind of who she is in a nutshell...

DVD Releases (Tues, 3/6) Borat Fast Food Nation Hawaii Five-O: Season One Let's Go To Prison Moonlighting: Season Five Northern Exposure: Season Six Peter Pan Sabrina, the Teenage Witch: Season One Stargate: Atlantis: Season Two South Park: Season Nine Previous Week: IMDb Top DVD Rental: Babel Billboard Top DVD Sales: The Departed My Barnes & Noble #1: The Secret Music Releases (Tues, 3/6) 300 Original Score Air - Pocket Symphony Arcade Fire - Neon Bible Duncan Sheik - Greatest Hits: Brighter Gary Allan - Greatest Hits Kelly Sweet - We Are One Korn - MTV Unplugged Mary Chapin-Carpenter - The Calling Relient K - Five Score & Seven Years Ago Ry Cooper - My Name Is Buddy Sevendust - Alpha Previous Week: Billboard Top 200 #1: Norah Jones - Not Too Late My Barnes & Noble #1: Norah Jones - Not Too Late Comic Releases (Wed, 3/7) Authority: Under New Management TP Backstage Prince (Volume 1) Bomb Queen III #1 Daredevil by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson Omnibus (Volume 1) HC Da...

Until the Full Moon (Volumes 1 & 2) Sanami Matoh . I was really excited to read this manga because it has an awesome premise. I just happened to stumble upon it when I was researching werewolf comics for a Halloween post last year, and there it was at a used bookstore a few months ago just begging to be picked up. The story follows two young men: one is your normal super sexy self-assured vampire, David. The other, the main character of the two-volume manga, is a half-vampire, half-werewolf named Marlo. Unfortunately for Marlo, he's recently undergone some strange changes... During the full moon, instead of changing into a werewolf, he changes into a beautiful girl! His parents are reasonably upset (about the wrong things) and go see a respected doctor, David's father, Doctor Vincent, where the doctor's playboy son falls for the woman... Now, that premise is fantastic in my opinion. Great manga material. Unfortunately, Sanami Matoh doesn't play up the most interest...

With this week's issue #24, an era ends as series creators Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona say goodbye and head on to other projects. The good news, of course, is that Joss Whedon is taking over writing chores, but still, it'll be strange reading the series under someone else's hand. If you look back to the initial issues of Runaways , you may not have been very impressed with what you saw. But beginning with volume two of the book, Adrian Alphona really honed his craft and produced some beautiful art. The few fill-in issues that appeared during this second chapter of the Runaways' lives didn't really grab me, so it'll be interesting to see if the new artist, Michael Ryan, can capture what made this title special under Alphona's reign. Either way, I'm expecting something exceptional with Whedon writing, whether it's different or not. Here's a little catch-up in what's gone down in the title up through the final issue of Vaughan and Alphon...

DVD Releases (Tues, 2/27) Conversations With God Filmation's Ghostbusters: The Animated Series (Volume One) A Good Year The Return Stranger Than Fiction Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny Previous Week: IMDb Top DVD Rental: The Departed Billboard Top DVD Sales: Cinderella III: A Twist In Time My Barnes & Noble #1: The Secret Music Releases (Tues, 2/27) Hanson - Walk John Denver - The Essential John Denver Matt Wertz - Everything In Between Otis Taylor - Definition of a Circle Previous Week: Billboard Top 200 #1: Norah Jones - Not Too Late Comic Releases (Wed, 2/28) Comics Journal #281 Essential Peter Parker: Spectacular Spider-Man (Volume 3) Exiles (Volume 14): New Exiles Firestorm the Nuclear Man: Reborn TP Jack of Fables (Volume 1): The Nearly Great Escape Love Roma (Volume 5) New Avengers (Volume 5): Civil War Premiere HC Showcase Presents: Green Lantern (Volume 2) Spider-Woman: Origin TP Theatrical Releases (Fri, 3/2) Black Snake Moan Wild Hogs Zodiac Previous Week #1: Gho...