Comic/Anime/Maga Gripes Dot Com

A place for me to vent my grins and gripes with the Anime/Manga/Comic book industry.

10/26/2008

 Zegapain - I just pulled off a marathon viewing of all 26 episodes of Zegapain. I really wasn't expecting too much since it's a mecha. Most mecha type animes are pretty much the same old crap and I don't usually go out of my way to watch them. I have an English dub of Zegapain and I thought it would make some good background noise while cleaning house.

 (SIDENOTE: in most cases, I prefer subtitles. However, the bad thing about subs is the fact that you have to give the show your undivided attention. It's really hard to clean house or do the laundry when watching subtitled TV. I also like to draw when I watch anime and it's tough to draw and read subs at the same time. Because of this, I do watch a fair amount of dubbed anime. )

 At 1st glance this show was pretty much what I expected. You have your loudmouth high school boy who is sought out by a beautiful girl who tells him he is the only one who can save the world. For the 1st 3 episodes all sorts of strange things happen to our protagonist and as usual, he doesn't go very far in trying to find out what's going on, he just goes with the flow. On another side note, if stuff like this were happening to me, I would have to get some answers right away. I couldn't except an answer like you’ll find out when the time is right. I would tell these people if they want me to continue then I need some answers and I wouldn't budge till I got my answers. That's something that has always bugged me with anime characters, they never really go to any trouble to try to find out what’s going on when the weird and bizarre things start happening. They just accept answers like "you'll find out soon enough". It bugs me.

 Anyway, to make a long story short, this anime turned out too be pretty damned good. The plot was something totally different than what I was expecting. The series leaves the viewer in the dark during volume 1 about what’s really going on although you will probably start to figure it out on your own. In volume 2 your learn the truth about what going on and it really blows your mind. I'm a hard to please anime fan but I really liked this series a lot. If you’re an anime fan and you like Sci-Fi, there is no way you would hate this series. This show is a little deeper than most of the other mecha stuff and it really gets your thinking. Watch the 1st 5 eps and you’ll get hooked.

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 There was some romance in the series but unfortunatly as in most shonen anime, they left the romance part of the show kind of up in the air which is something I truly detest about so many Japanese anime series. I'm sure other fans would have liked a concrete conclusion to the romance and it wouldn't have killed the animators to put it in. I always wonder why they do this so often in Japanese Animation and Manga. It doesn’t ruin this series, but it has ruined other series in my eyes.

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Sept 09, 2007

I just read Thirteen Steps #1 from Desperado Publishing a new ongoing comic written by Phil Hester. I am really excited about this book. It's the best new book I've read since I can't remember. Sometimes you don't know if you really like a new title after just one issue, but not the case here. This book is freaking killer and I can't wait till the next issue. I have a new favorite in my top 5 list. The book is about a fellow with a slight werewolf problem. He joins a secret 12 step program to help him get a handle on his inner wolf. It's actually a 13 step program, hence the title 13 Steps. I know it sounds silly, but it's really not. The guy is a normal guy with a normal life. His mother has a building behind the house and she locks him in it during full moons, but he breaks out from time to time. If you've read Kirkman's Astounding Wolfman, well this book blows Kirkmans away, far far away.  It is in Black and white but the art is nice crisp and clean. Very well drawn. If you don't give this book a try, you will be screwing yourself out of a good read. My other favorite books are Noble Causes, The Walking Dead, Squadron Supreme, and Star Wars Legacy. Thirteen Steps can hang with the best, I promise you!

Sept 09, 2007

I just finished the new Lucha Libre from Image Comics. I really want to like this book. I mean, the whole concept is pretty cool. The art is excellent. The whole thing is something different. However, the story falls on it face after a few pages. Add the $5.99 price tag for only 48 pages and the whole project turns ugly. It started out like it was written for an older fanboy like myself and I was digging it. After a few pages in, the entire story turned into a big pile of silliness and then it became pure stupidness. For some reason I though the book was for mature audiences but after five or six pages realized it was probably targeted to middle school kids of 12 or so.  

The book is published 4 times a year. In a way, I'm glad that I'm not into this book. The story leaves you hanging and I would hate to have to wait every 3 months to get the next 30 pages or so.  The last back story is cute, but it doesn't save the book, not for me anyway. Anyway, my opinions are not law, so you may like this book. It is something different and like I've already said, the overall concept is super cool. There are a few good points to the book even though I make it sound like nothing but rubbish. If your curious, borrow a copy from a friend to check out before you throw down six dollars. I think 6 bucks is way to much for this book. I mean, you can usually pick up 40 page books all the time for only $3.99. It is 48 pages, but the main story is only 31 pages and then there are a couple 1 page shorts a cute backup story about a bunch of kids. There is also a section on Mexican wrestling and some pages on the characters and other stuff. Still not worth $6.00.

Sept 08, 2007

I just finished the new Steve Niles ongoing comic Strange Cases. This rich guy hires the top four paranormal Investigators in the world to clean up his city of all paranormal and ghoulish activity. If they are successful in the mission,  a 5 million dollar purse will be split between them. I've got to tell ya, I love me some Steve Niles, no doubt! If you haven't read his Alien Pig Farm 3000, your really missing out. The 1st issue of Strange Cases was a quit read and to be honest, I'm not sure if I like it or not at this time. Sometimes it takes from than one issue to see if you like a book or not and this is one of those books. I can tell you that I will be buying issue #2. I feel like I will probably like it. I'll keep you guys informed!

Speaking of Steve Niles, I just finished reading issue #1 of the new 30 Days of Night Red Snow series. I normally like to get all the issue of a limited series before I read them but I was dying to see what Ben Templesmith writing would be like. Ben Templesmith sure has a different style compared to most comic book artists and to me he will always be the ONLY 30 Days of Night Artist. I very much like the whole 30 Days of Night Mythos but sometimes the books get dull. Let me just cut the chase and tell you, Red Snow seems like it my end up being my favorite 30 Days of Night story. Excellent Art and plenty of dialogue. Usually I can breeze through a 30 Days of Night book in just a few minutes but this issue actually took more than a couple of minutes to read. I've got to say that Ben Templesmith has done an exceptional job with this story and I can't wait to read the rest. 

Red Snow takes place in the middle of the harsh winter in Russia close to the boarder during World War II. Issue One introduces us to a village of civilians, some German and Russian Troops, a British Solider, and at the end of the book we meet a gang of Vampires heading to crash the war party. I really didn't know what to Expect from Ben T. but my expectations have been surpassed. 

Aug 15, 2007

I read the Vampirella Revelations Trade Paperback yesterday from Harris Comics. My very 1st Vampirella book ever. Excellent read! The artwork is superb. I'm now a  Vampirella fan. Anyway, this paragraph is not about Vampirella but I wanted to mention it since an article in the back of the book is what got my going on today's topic. The back of the Vampirella Revelations book has an interview with the writer, Mike Carey. Mike has a huge following and has written some of the cooler Vertigo stuff like Lucifer, Hellblazer, and even some of the more mainstream marvel stuff such as the Ultimate Fantastic Four. In the interview, Mike talks about something I feel very strongly about. Mike states that today's writers and readers are into what's called decompression. Not Mike By the way! Decompression is a term used to describe the practice of taking one page of action and spreading it out to take up several pages. Padding if you will. It is suppose to increase the drama of a story. Let me tell you what I think. The only thing that decompression increases is the number of issues a writer can milk a story arc for. A story that one time might of taken up 2 issues is now spread out to fill 4, 5, or even 6 books. So now you pay as much as $18 to read a story arc that's really only worth about $6. If you notice, comics from the 70's and 80's can sometimes take as long as 30 minutes to read a single issue and today you can almost read an entire 4 issue arc in the same time. Go figure!  Decompression is why it's taking 6 issues for the current Mighty Avengers team to fight and defeat Ultron. Hell, the characters spent an entire 2 issues just standing around asking over and over "What do we Do?". I think this decompression is a big bag of turds wrapped up in rotten bacon. If Marvel and Image think that readers prefer decompression, well I'm here to tell no way, not me! Decompression is just a fancy way to describe watered down comics.  

Aug 15, 2007

Man, I tell ya, some of these statues, busts, and action figures coming out are just awful. Lots of them don't look even close to the actual  characters. Don't believe me? Just look at the Zoe's Revenge Revenge Statue on page 467 of the August Previews. Doesn't look anything like her. They even have a full page add showing off how much it doesn't look like her. FYI -  Zoe is one of the chicks from the Firefly series. She's the one whose husband died in the movie. I wonder who will fly the ship if there's ever a sequel.

Did anyone read that free issue of The 99 that was sent to comic shops a couple of weeks ago. It was an origin of the 99 special. I got my hands on a copy. Very colorful cover. I really dug it. It took me a while to read. It certainly wasn't a quick 10 minute read like most of the books I get. It's an excellent read and I urge anyone who likes to read good comics to seek out this free special issue and give it a read. I think you will be quite surprised. After you read it, be sure to check out the background info on the comic.

-Jeffrey