testing

testing 1, 2, 3

this looks familiar...

yeah, i know this place. used to come here sometimes. not so much lately. i should try to visit here more often.

ok, so let's pick this up again.

what have i been reading?

well i finished the first trade of young avengers. liked it. s'ok.

ultimate spidey, first trade. liked it a little more. i see what all the fuss is about. i'll keep reading it.

ultimate galactus was pretty good. started very strong and then fizzeled on me. and the changes in the art were very hard to take. some of it was just bad.

agents of atlas was so-so. could go in a nice direction. i'll look out for more of it.

and damn, ive been trying to finish the first hard cover of runaways. fuck that thing was hard to get through. just like everything i read of vaughns, it is ust not for me. i realize that its good. i just dont like his style. nothing grabs me, nothing really excites me. none of the characters make me fall in love with them. its just...blah. sorry bkv. i tried man, really.

so now i dont know what im on to. any suggestions?


is anybody listening to this?

Wondercon coming soon

i know i know i know. i've been pretty distracted lately and haven't read much in a while. just a few late eighties marvel titles. nothing too important to comment on. but wonder con is coming up next weekend. pretty pumped about that. more soon. soonish. i hope.

Ocean 1-6

by Warren Ellis and Chris Sprouse, Wildstorm 2005

Yeah another one by Warren. What can i say, my stack has gotten high.

Must say I really enjoyed this. We have a very cool, very Ellis cast. Very smart, super-cool geeks that save the world. Nathan Kane is a Uniter Nations Weapons Inspector. One hundred years from now, he is called to travel out to Europa, Jupiter's moon, to report on something that has been found under Her shell of ice, in Her ocean. A billion year old, early human species is hidden there, in deep suspended animation. And they have guns. Big fuck-off, world ending ones that can crake planets in half or stellify them.

So that's where the adventure comes from.

But the real treat here is classic Ellis education by way science fiction. He takes real science and futurist ideas and births out new technologies. Nothing here is groundbreaking, but its all really fucking cool. There is a Microsoft-like corporation, Doors, that has a station in orbit around Europa. All of the employees abroad have been given "corporate personalities" uploaded into their brains. They are essentially drones, wi-fi'ed corporate memos directly into their brains. The station manager describes the "web of liquid computer" in his head that hasn't been updated in over a year. Lots of little bits like that.

And then there is the heart that Warren puts into everything he does. Genuinely good people in fucked up situations, trying to save the world so that they can just be normal again. yeah, good stuff. Go get the trade, i'm sure there is one by now.

Ministry of Space 1-3

by Warren Ellis and Chris Weston, Image 2001, 2004

This is a nice little alternate history where the Brits get hold of the German rocket scientists after World War II, rather than the Americans. An ambitious, and only slightly insane fighter pilot, Dashwood, lobbies for the creation of the Ministry of Space. Within a few years, Britian is in space. Just a few more and they have space stations and reach the moon. And then just like that, they hit Mars.

Now the story is good. Not Ellis' best although there are some cool bits. But what sells this little three parter, for me, is Ellis giving us some lovely visuals, courtesy of Weston's very able pencils. Stylish retro-type designs. A very cool mass landing on Mars.

And there are some ugly looks in the mirror as Ellis shows us our dark side. It's worth a read, but borrow it if you can.

4.1

zeroing all data...

wipe complete...

parameters redefined...

clean install...

system stable.


Now then, where was I?

Crash

Processing Insufficient...

Corruption Ubiquitous...

All connections severed...

Recovery Impossible...

Total

System

Failure...