Miscellany Monday – Happy Memorial Day

Husband and I, along with our PWD, are out on The Beneteau for the long weekend and we still want to remember the men and women who are sacrificed they lives for our freedom and safety!

We-View – DeJa Vu without the Fun

“It’s like deja-vu, all over again.” ~Yogi Berra

Last Wednesday, I wrote a review on Powers: Who Killed Retro Girl and gave it a very good review. I appreciated the banter and the good dialog. So on my own recommendation :-), I purchased Volume 2: Roleplay and Volume 3: Little Deaths expecting the same quality and fun loving dialog.

But, after reading both 2 and 3, I can tell you that my fondness for Detectives Walker and Pilgrim has unfortunately waned.

While Volume 2 is passable with 3 PRADAs, Volume 3 is a solid 1 PRADA.

Going into Volume 2, I loved both Walker and Pilgrim but after Volume 3, Deaths I like Walker less and I don’t like Pilgrim at all.

In Little Deaths, yet another superhero is dead. Olympia, who has a fetish for redheads, mysteriously lays naked in a sleazy, rundown apartment. The superhero’s reputation is soon tarnished by his little black book of conquests and quickies. Woman after woman after woman is revealed to have had an affair with him, a married man, and Walker and Pilgrim are sent in to find his killer.

While the there are some relatively interesting/enjoyable portions in this volume; it quickly becomes redundant, dull, and at the same time the character of Deena Pilgrim becomes downright annoying with her rough language and brashness.

I am being very generous when I give Powers: Little Deaths 1 PRADA.

We-View Wednesday – Taxes

They suck. 0 Crits.

Happy April 15th, everyone!

We-View Wednesday – Sky Doll

“Creationists make it sound as though a ‘theory’ is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night.” –Issac Asimov

As I review Sky Doll, Vol. 1, I am uncomfortable thinking that I might offend a reader (not that we have many, but thanks to those who come back) so be forewarned.

Out of the highly imaginative and one might say twisted minds (totally a compliment) of two Italians, Barbara Canepa and Alessandro Barbucci, comes Sky Doll, a sexy, adult-oriented, sci-fi escapade about a sex robot, Noa who discovers her soul in the middle of a flying car wash.

Set in the futuristic holy city of Papathea, Sky Doll revolves around a society dominated by the Papess Lodovica, who is the center of gigantic staged reality-tv pageants, intended to rouse the populous by displaying her faux stigmata which squirt blood and preforming her supernatural, godly powers which include blasting participating worshipers with lasers into heaven in a blaze of glory.

All the pomp and circumstance of these extravaganzas is made possible through a series of machine-like mechanisms controlled by a tall, lanky, character resembling the stereotypical likeness of Jesus Christ, whose job includes putting on these spectacles as well as sexually satisfying the desires of the Papess Lodovica. He appears discontent and annoyed by his duties but then get more information about him from his backstory (you can find this out on your own, if you wish, I don’t want to spoil it for you).

Noa is unhappy with her created life and in the first panel, Noa looks directly at the reader and speaks to god. She tells god that she is not very happy with his management skills, that there is room for much improvement, and indicates that a suggestion box should be used in order to improve their relationship and “collaboration.” From the image of the suggestion box, we see Noa’s god, pictured as a Jabba the Hut, reptilian type figure, who is neither open to Noa’s suggestion nor respectful of her opinion (after all she is just a sexy robot).

After getting nowhere with her god, she is ordered to return to her job, at the AstroWash, a service that is overrun with space-crafts and flying cars. Noa and her co-workers, other robots, wash vehicles and assist in satisfying needs without “soiling” souls. Disliking her job and wanting more, Noa runs away and stows aboard a spaceship controlled by two missionaries of Papess Lodovica, Roy and Jahu. Unbeknownst to Roy, who believes he is on a diplomatic mission, Jahu has direct orders to destroy a scared fish belonging to the woman of Aqua. This fish is worrisome to Lodovica for it alone perpetuates the women of Aqua enabling them to reproduce without the men.

My Judeo-Christian background, in the form of an angel on my shoulder screamed at the top of her lungs for me to stop reading many times, especially when she saw the Christ-like figure savagely entering Lodovica, while an audience of Sky Doll putti looked on, some covering their eyes (which I wanted to do on a few occasions). However the devil, on the left, pulled me along, making me spread my fingers apart to view one more panel, then another, and another.

I often forgot about the things that made me cringe, and pray for forgiveness for reading when I got to, for instance, the humourous scenes with Frida, a Dame Edna look-a-like who hosts the weekly Papess Lodovica reality shows or when Jahu and Roy bicker with each other.

Even though the book uses love, friendship, deceit, morality, sexuality, politics and religion—usual a good combination, to grab the reader, for me the bigger appeal is the artwork itself. Even when the story was intricate and a bit confusing, the art kept me turning the pages. From the candy coloured pop in panels to the more subtle, classical Renaissance palette the art is stunning—each panel filled with little details of architecture, billboards, creatures, gadgets, along with lizard and canine inhabitants—all keeping my attention and drawing me further in.

If you can overcome some of the possible offensiveness and the social commentary, you should definitely check it out. I give Sky Doll a solid 4.5 PRADAs.

NOTE: Sky Doll #4, Sudra is in production in France.

Miscellany Monday – Colour Palette

“Colour is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.” –Claude Monet

I am obsessed with colour as one can tell by my home and apparel. And I am obsesssed with colour and the interesting palettes the colourists choose for comic book art. Having read many comic books, I can say that I have experienced a wide variety of palettes.

If there is one thing that attracts me to a specific comic book, I would have to say that it is the artwork and the colour of said artwork. This weekend as I was flying home from my week-long conference I read volume one of Sky Doll (Marvel) by Barbara Canepa and Alessandro Barbucci. I will review this comic at a later date because there is just so much to say about it, but for now I would like you to experience the colour. Or in the case of Sky Doll; I believe I should type that as COLOUR.

The colours contained in the artwork of Sky Doll ranges from wild 60s psychedelic to muted classical Renaissance and every thing between. Peaceful and subdued, unbridled and exciting are the colours of Sky Doll.

Below is four flavours of Sky Doll along with the colour swatches representing the palette.

We-View Wednesday – Today

Today sucked. That is my official review of the day.

I give today 1 Critical (and I would post the pretty picture of 1 crit, but I can’t, because (a) I’m too busy and (b) GWP made those pretty pictures and she is even busier. Use your imagination!)

Tabletop Thursday – Once a DM…

I always find myself on the “tables” side of the GM’s screen, with the maps and the charts and the dice and the minis and the story.  It’s been that way since I started gaming.  I don’t know how it happens, but every time we decide to get a game of any kind going, I always find myself in the drivers seat.

Don’t get me wrong…I always have a blast doing it.  I mean, what’s not to love?  I’m in control, I’m telling the story, I get to be the bad guy, I get to try and confound the players at every turn.  I can tell I’m doing a good job of it when the players never know who to trust.  It’s a lot of fun, being god.  And I guess I do OK at it, cause everyone keeps asking me to do it.

But for once, I’d like to sit on the “picture side” of the DM’s Screen.  I’d like to invest in a single character, be able to creat a voice and a personality for that one character, instead of acting out every Gollum-sounding goblin and Scottish accented dwarf the players come across.  I need to be a player for a while.

I think there are several things driving me to wanting to play vs DM.  First would be the new D&D 4E rules.  Watching the players learn each others abilities, and then use them to thwart their opponents is just too much fun.  I want to be the one doing the thwarting.  I want to be able to play a Paladin and use an Invigorating Smite to bring down my enemy and heal myself and my allies.  I want to take a character from lowly 1st level up to godlike 30th level, and beyond.  I want to invest myself in a character and feel fear when he drops to 0 hit points and is three saving throws away from leaving this plane for the afterlife.

D&D Home Page – What Class Are You? – Build A Character – D&D Compendium

Secondly, I have been listening to several  D&D podcasts of game sessions.  These players in these podcasts are Scott Kurtz from PvPonline, Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade, and Wil Wheaton of Star Trek:TNG and geek writing fame.  And these guys are having a blast.  They truly are having fun, and that is the type of fun that I really want to experince again.

So what’s a fella to do?  I don’t have time nor inclination to seek out another group.  None of my crew wants to GM, they’re having too much fun, and they don’t have to do any pre-work.  I thought about trying to find an online game, but that lacks the face-to-face interaction that I crave in being part of an adventuring party.

I guess I will just keep on DMing.  I’m good at it, and my players enjoy it.  And maybe convince one of the players to take over for an evening and use one of the Dungeon Delve adventures and let me play that Paladin, even if only for an evening.  Might help to scratch that itch.

Tabletop Thursday – Bonus Post

Currently bidding on a vintage Star Wars boardgame from my childhood on Ebay. I want want WANT this game! All of you other people stop bidding on it for the next 4 hours, please. Thank you.

[Edit: I didn’t win.  No reliving my childhood for me.  😦 ]

Miscellany Monday – Monday Timewaster

Both GWP and myself are really busy today, so we didn’t have time for a proper update.  So instead, I’m going to break out a little Flash-based game called Bubble Spinner.

Don’t click on the link unless you have a bunch of time to waste. [NOTE from GWP: That was hardly a waste of time I got to see JS in an advert before the game began.]

Hopefully have time for a proper Trivia Tuesday post.  Going to work on it over lunch today.