Reviews – Page 5 – ÜberSciFiGeek

Bernie Su’s “Compulsions” — a Web Series with a Dark Side

Everyone has a compulsion, most of us fight them, repress them, and keep them hidden. Compulsions tells the story of three seemingly normal people who instead of repressing their dark desires, act on them as emotional outlets.

Compulsions is a serialized dramatic thriller focusing on the internal dark sides of the leads juxtaposed with their “daily lives”.

Compulsions is the new web series from creator Bernie Su. Launched on November 30th at the popular Cinaspace night club in Hollywood and then online the following day, it’s been a whirlwind week for the creative team behind Compulsions. Unlike the typical web series where you get a new episode sometimes several weeks apart, Compulsions has launched an episode a day with the Season 1 finale, Episode 8, launching tomorrow. The release schedule isn’t the only thing different about this series. It’s not a fantasy, sci-fi or comedy trying to reach an audience that’s already seeking out more of the same content, but a drama seeking a new audience — the horror, drama and thriller fans. A high-quality dramatic thriller, Compulsions explores the lives of seemingly average people with a serious dark side that they juggle with their “normal” daily lives.

Mark is a submissive office worker by day and sadistic torturer by night. With his partner Justine, he kidnaps and interrogates people with very brutal and effective methods. Cassandra repairs computers, something that feeds her voyeuristic nature as she installs spyware that allows her to watch her clients’ personal lives. When Mark brings his work laptop in for her to fix, she discovers more then she bargained for when she takes a peek into his life.

Starring Craig Frank of The Crew and Craig and the Werewolf fame, Compulsions is a departure from the lighthearted and comedic fare that made him a familiar face online. Frank’s understated and natural performance that makes him so funny in his comedic roles translates well to the thriller format. I, for one, have always felt that the over-the-top bad-guy roles were much less effective than the quietly disturbed baddies. Frank plays quietly disturbed extremely well and can make the description of a fashion accessory sound frightening. His calm demeanor as he interrogates his victims is much more intimidating than any screaming, spittle-in-your-face villain would be, and his narrative at some points reminds me of Denzel Washington’s in Fallen.

As voyeuristic Cassandra, Annemarie Pazmino (Sorority Forever, Shoot the Hero, Edges of Darkness) has a Summer Glau-like cuteness and quirkiness. While you should immediately find yourself repulsed by her intrusion into others’ lives, you find yourself empathetic towards her instead. Several of her scenes rely solely on her expressions and non-verbal communication, and she proves to be just as vocal with her expressions as she is with her voice.

Janna Bossier (Skate or Die, The Pros and Cons of Breathing) is Mark’s partner, Justine. While Season 1 is focusing mainly on Mark and Cassandra, we get a pretty grim insight into Justine’s character as she kidnaps unsuspecting victim Sara Flannery (Taryn O’Neill of After Judgment, The Crew and The Office). Her dark side hovers right beneath the surface. She’s got a nonchalance that seems unchanged whether she’s pistol-whipping a victim or sipping wine with her boyfriend.

While Compulsions maintains its mystery (it looks like we’ll have to wait for Season 2 to find out what Mark and Justine are after), it’s a well-acted and compelling story that flows smoothly in its 3 to 5 minute run time and gives just enough information away to keep you coming back for more.

Compulsions also features newcomers Seth Caskey (the upcoming End Result), RC Ormond, Andrew Celmons and Elizabeth Tsing.

You can find out more about Compulsions here:

Compulsions Official Website
Compulsions on Twitter
Compulsions on Facebook

Victorious Mongoose 1902a Concealable Ray Pistol, Miniature Version

The Victorious Mongoose 1902a Concealable Ray Pistol, Miniature Version from Weta is a truly micro-sized raygun, one whose full name is several times bigger than it is.

Woof! Behold — groundbreaking miniaturisation of the modern age. More easily concealable than a pin in a haystack, even the most paranoid gentry can now keep a wave weapon of immense magnitude on their very person without the fear of being outed.

Until now, the Dr. Grordbort line, with its hefty rayguns and an enormous blunderbuss, has had a decidedly masculine air to it. Finally, Weta has seen fit to give the ladies a suitable weapon to wield. The full-sized Victorious Mongoose 1902a Concealable Ray Pistol is small enough to hide in a handbag or tuck out of sight in a garter, but for maximum concealability, the mini Victorious Mongoose is definitely the best choice. Not only can you slip it into a fold of your garments, you can, if sufficiently endowed, wedge it in your cleavage for quick retrieval. The Victorious Mongoose is just so, well, cute… in a deadly sort of way, of course. Cup the pint-sized derringer in your palm, fold your fingers over it, and nobody would ever guess that you have anything held in your hand. It’s no wonder that Weta had to issue the following warning on the Victorious Mongoose’s box:

Do Not Swallow*
*It tastes terrible

Packaging:
Like all the miniature Dr. Grordbort rayguns, the Victorious Mongoose comes in a box that’s shaped like a book. The box’s heavy cardboard is printed with glossy, sepia-toned art plus a photo of the enclosed figurine, and the front of the “book” hinges at the spine, fastening shut with a magnet. The inside of the “book cover” lists the entire Dr. Grordbort’s Infallible Aether Oscillators miniature collection with full-colour pictures. Within the box, beneath a clear plastic cover, the raygun and its stand rest in a molded, flocked tray. Both pieces of metal are wrapped in so much protective foam padding that as you unpack them, some doubt will begin to surface that there is, in fact, a raygun somewhere in there.

Sculpting:
Weta has kept the design of their smallest raygun realistic to its function as a pocket pistol, so it doesn’t have any of the fins and other spiky protrusions that collectors are accustomed to seeing on a Dr. Grordbort creation. The result is a much more streamlined sculpt than usual. There’s still a lot of detail on the Victorious Mongoose, though, especially considering how minimal its surface is. Copper pipes run in shallow loops along the ridged muzzle, one joining up to a tiny pressure gauge on top of the raygun, and there are, as expected, bolts and grooves aplenty. The most elaborate detail is on the hilt, however, which is ornately carved to look like the wooden handles found on fancy Wild West shooters. An embossed vine pattern unfurls from the top of the handle, as well, extending nearly to the raygun’s midpoint.

Paint:
The Victorious Mongoose essentially uses the same colour palette as previous rayguns. Rusty-hued daubs of paint are applied to the raygun’s gunmetal grey and black body to achieve the requisite antique finish, with the copper detailing left bright and clean for contrast, and there are vivid spots of red and white on the dial of the pressure gauge. One new colour introduced is tan, which the hilt is painted with to make it look like wood. The pale brown, dirtied up with a darker wash, highlights the “wood grain” and seasoned cracks in the handle, and really makes the Victorious Mongoose stand out on the shelf next to all the other rayguns. The Mongoose may be dwarfed by its siblings, but it will get noticed!

Articulation:
The miniature Victorious Mongoose has no points of articulation since movable parts are practically impossible at this scale. Their absence doesn’t hurt the raygun’s aesthetic appeal, however.

Accessories:
A stand stamped with the raygun’s name is included, as is standard with all of the miniature rayguns. The one difference with the Victorious Mongoose is that the raygun actually attaches to the stand rather than just resting on it. There’s a pinpoint hole drilled into the bottom of the raygun’s hilt that fits over a peg on the stand’s base, a measure that keeps the extremely light model from being knocked off its display.

At about $49.00 US, the Victorious Mongoose may seem on the pricey side to anyone who’s never fawned over one of Weta’s miniature rayguns in person, but it’s worth every penny. It’s also an open edition, so there’s no need to worry about missing out on obtaining one of these little beauties.

Pearce 75 Atom Ray Gun, Miniature Version

Weta has released a second, bonus raygun for the holiday season, the limited edition Pearce 75 Atom Ray Gun, Miniature Version. The Pearce 75 is unique in that the miniature version was produced before the full-sized one, a reversal of normal procedure at Grordbort Industries. This retro classic harkens back to the days when spacemen wore goldfish bowls on their heads and everything futuristic was decorated with rings, preferably ones that glowed. Shiny!

Order directly through the Weta website.

The Victorious Mongoose 1902a Concealable Ray Pistol, the Pearce 75 Atom Ray Gun, and the Dr. Grordbort’s Infallible Aether Oscillators collection are distributed by Weta, in partnership with Dark Horse Comics. For more information, please visit the official Dr. Grordbort’s website.

Dante Beatrix’s Nigel the Shark

New York City-based company Dante Beatrix is the caretaker of the Maakun Forest, a land populated by a diverse group of animals in the idealistic-yet-scientifically-improbable style of The Swiss Family Robinson (with the addition of a few dinosaurs). This forest evidently borders on the ocean, as well, since one of the residents is a shark. Despite being a natural predator, Nigel the Shark appears to live harmoniously with all his fellow Maakunans and, as his biography reveals, he is quite the culturally refined creature:

Nigel has a taste for the finer things. He’s a connoisseur of all things floating in the ocean. He can talk for hours about the wonderful chewiness of a North Atlantic fisherman’s boot, or the foamy crunch of an Australian surfboard. Nigel is also a devoted fan of opera and considers himself to be quite an exceptional singer. Fortunately for the other animals in the forest, Nigel does most of his singing underwater.

Fans of web series Ask the Sharky, starring a friendly shark from the coast of California who answers viewer questions and sometimes breaks into song, will leap at the chance to snap up merchandise of near-twin Nigel. Nigel appears, so far, on Dante Beatrix’s fashionable little kid backpacks, big kid backpacks, and lunch boxes.

The Nigel Lunch Box has a sturdy woven nylon handle and is made from a heavy canvas material that ensures that this tote will be your lunchtime companion for many years. It’s easy to wipe the entire lunch box down after every use, too, thanks to the canvas’ waxy laminate coating and a durable plastic lining on the bag’s interior. An overall layer of thick padding insulates food while protecting your apple from getting bruised, and since Dante Beatrix products are PVC, phthalate, and lead free, your snackables will be completely safe from any contamination. Nigel’s image, simple and minimalistic as all Dante Beatrix designs, is appliquéd and embroidered to the front of the light-blue lunch box and, in a cute touch, the metal zipper pulls are shaped like little shark fins. On the back of the lunch box is a small zippered pocket that’s just the right size to hold lunch money or a note, and below it is a cloth tag that provides space to write the lunch box owner’s name. The tag also advises you to “Eat your vegetables!” Hmm… it seems that Nigel may have a preference for vegetarian sushi!

Curious to meet Nigel’s friends? The other Maakun Forest inhabitants, featured on little kid backpacks, big kid backpacks, kid’s t’s, lunch boxes, and wheelie bags, are: Percival the Dinosaur, Juju the Ladybug, Rory the Lion, Yuka the Bee, Fei-Fei the Panda, Esther the Bunny, Señor Gomez the Penguin, Dieter the Monkey, Anastasia the Pig, and Alister the Stegosaurus. Until December 7, you have the chance to name the newest character, a brontosaurus, on Dante Beatrix’s Facebook Page. The prize is a wheelie bag of your choice!

The Dante Beatrix holiday sale has started, so use code HOLIDAY15 for 15% off your purchase of a Nigel Lunch Box and more through December 11.

Order now at Amazon.com:
Nigel the Shark Lunch Box

Or order directly through the Dante Beatrix website.

The Nigel Lunch Box and Maakun Forest collection are distributed by Dante Beatrix and its associated Stores & Online Retailers. For more information, follow Dante Beatrix on Facebook.

Message in a Bottle, and My Crop Circle

Message in a Bottle

Oceanography is given a playful spin with Message in a Bottle, a kit that will appeal to science geeks who still appreciate the art of sending and receiving handwritten letters on fancy stationary via snail mail.

The kit’s recycled glass bottle can be tracked by registering it at the official Message in a Bottle website. Mark your location on the enclosed laminated map with the included waterproof pen, then turn the map over and fill in the logbook with your bottle’s registered name and launch data. A greeting message, saying hello in several languages, is printed on this page along with an URL, so when someone discovers your bottle they can look it up at wheresmybottle.com and let you know where it washed to shore. The finder then adds their location to your map and updates the logbook before sending the bottle on its way again.

Part of the fun of sending a message in a bottle is personalizing the contents. A small memento representing your hometown makes your bottled message more meaningful to its recipients, as will something that reflects your personality and interests. Write your message in the form of a poem, paste a photobooth picture of yourself to the inside of the bottle or, if you’re a sci-fi fan, incorporate the Vulcan IDIC symbol to spread some universal peace. You’ll have a greater chance of a response if your bottle is easy to spot in the water, so decorate with lots of bright colours. Filling the bottle with neon pink and orange pom-pons, or shiny items that reflect the sun, is sure to attract attention. Once you’re done, pop the cork into the bottle, seal it with wax, and toss it into a current that will carry it out to sea.

While waiting for a reply, learn more about the conditions your bottle will be experiencing by reading the kit’s accompanying Message in a Bottle book. This 71-page pocket guide details the history of how people have used and studied water over the ages, shares real-life stories of message bottles, and offers a few other water experiments to try. Philip Richardson, a leading oceanographer from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, contributes explanations of currents, tides, and water-related weather in understandable scientific terms, and offers tips for a successful bottle launch. He also suggests ways to help raise environmental issues and conserve the world’s watery ecosystems. If the aliens of V are willing to travel across the universe to try to steal Earth’s water supply, then it’s surely a resource worth protecting.

My Crop Circle

If you prefer a little more paranormal in your science, then a close encounter with the My Crop Circle kit will really set off your PKE meter.

Create Your Own Natural Phenomenons
Plant It. Water It. Witness It.

My Crop Circle works much like a Chia Pet. You just moisten the dirt-free mat of “alien growing matter”, place it in the desktop growing tray, and evenly sprinkle the packet of grass seed over the surface. Wait a few days for the grass to sprout (while remembering to keep watering daily), then press one of the five included crop circle templates onto the growth. In addition to providing entertaining information on the history, science, and pop culture relevance of crop circles, the 64-page Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Crop Circles guide book has several photos that you can copy patterns from instead, or you can get creative and design your own extraterrestrial templates. Let the grass grow up around the template’s edges, then remove the stencil to reveal your very own miniature crop circle. “…You can be first in your office to cause a controversy, garner widespread curiosity, and freak out your colleagues just a little bit.”

Recommended Reading Level: Ages 10 and older.

Order now at Amazon.com:
Message in a Bottle
My Crop Circle

Message in a Bottle and My Crop Circle are distributed by Applesauce Press and Cider Mill Press Book Publishers, independent publishers distributed by Simon & Schuster.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Deluxe Heirloom Edition

As if an entire novel of brain-chewing zombies attacking the gentlefolk of Jane Austen’s England wasn’t enough, Quirk Classics has brought forth from the belly of Hell the delightful Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Deluxe Heirloom Edition, which promises an astonishing “30 percent more zombies — via even more all-new scenes of carnage, corpse slaying, and cannibalism” than the original Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, co-authored by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.

With an elegant leatherette cover (no, it’s not real leather, but then again, this isn’t exactly real Jane Austen) decorated with curlicues and gold embellishments, and inset with an oval miniature of the skeletal Austenite heroine from the cover of the original paperback Zombies, this handsome edition is sure to fit in with even the most fancy-shmancy of libraries. The Deluxe Heirloom Edition boasts thirteen new detailed colour illustrations (my favourite being the zombie-like Charlotte’s wedding portrait with the dimwitted Mr. Collins) by Roberto Parada, and a satiny ribbon marker that prevents people like me from mucking up such an elegant book by marking the pages with random grocery receipts.

The Deluxe Heirloom Edition sandwiches the remixed novel between two completely new pieces of writing: a Preface to the Deluxe Heirloom Edition by Seth Grahame-Smith, and an Afterword by Dr. Allen Grove, Professor of English at Alfred University. The former provides vital information, like what music Grahame-Smith listened to while writing his literary masterpiece, while the latter provides a very interesting account of the parallels between Grahame-Smith’s reinvention of Jane Austen using popular mixed-media imagery like zombies, and the rehashing of Gothic motifs in Jane Austen’s own time.

The new zombie content of the book is really completely unnecessary in terms of understanding either Austen’s story or Grahame-Smith’s story, but it does provide thirty percent more giggles for the reader. Following in the same format as the original Zombies, The Deluxe Heirloom Edition is spewed-upon and slashed with katana swords, zombies, vomit, and ninjas, while the characters manage to modify their Austenite speeches to get in a good dig or two. So, during the first ball scene, not only does Mr. Darcy cantankerously decline Mr. Bingley’s entreaties that he must go and dance by bluntly saying that it would be a punishment to dance with most of the women in the room, he also adds that “half of them look as if they have been stricken by the strange plague.” This add-on, in addition to being humorous, manages to illustrate Austen’s original critique of the vapid socialites at the ball by comparing them to a bunch of zombies in need of brains.

Careful reading of the text provides a few other choice gems of add-on text peppered amongst the original Austen and original Zombies. In chapter nineteen, Elizabeth doesn’t just dread Mr. Collin’s boring marriage proposal; she briefly considers “killing her cousin to avoid the conversation altogether.” And, boy, wouldn’t the reader love to kill Mr. Collins to avoid the codswallop that comes out of his mouth! As he dutifully concludes his reasons for marrying Elizabeth, Grahame-Smith has Mr. Collins drone about how “nothing remains but for [him] to describe the assortment of meats and cheeses and pies that [he has] selected for [their] wedding banquet.” This seemingly random extension of the original lecture is quite delightful, as it plays up Elizabeth’s violently desperate attempt to interrupt his speech at this point. Jokes against the lacklustre Mr. Collins abound in The Deluxe Heirloom Edition, such as when Mr. Bennet is described as one who “would have preferred being eaten alive by a herd of the undead to the speedy return of Mr. Collins.” Oh, Mr. Bennet, we’re right there with you!

Where whole sections of zombie action have been appended to the original text, Grahame-Smith has at least provided a fresh take on zombie shenanigans, instead of recreating the same battle scene scenarios of the original Zombies. For instance, a Christmas battle has been added to the mix, showcasing how even the holidays can be spiced up with a bit of festive zombie slaying. When the family Hellford (an apt name indeed) approaches the Bennet family home for their annual carolling, the Bennet girls are dismayed to discover that the Hellfords’ singing has been replaced by moaning (or maybe that’s how they always sounded), the whole family having turned to zombies hellbent on sullying the holiday season.

An early extended scene in the book also draws in the foreign contingent, as mysterious Israelites plead with the Bennet girls to come save the nearby village of Shepherd’s Bath. With the majority of the village at Sunday worship, it is left to the Descendants of Moses to procure the zombie-slayers when the church comes under attack from a Biblical plague of zombies. Is Grahame-Smith trying to convey some message about the relationship between religious groups in England? Or did he just want to work in a few more vomit jokes and a town called Bastard’s Hollow?

Other additions to the text include a tear-jerker scene in which a ferocious young zombie is discovered chained in a house by the mother who can not accept that her son is gone, and a particularly fun scene in which a powder mill blows up, expelling masses of the undead into the air in a gratuitous scene of zombie fireworks. And let’s not forget a somewhat naughty scene in which Elizabeth peeps out a window as Mr. Darcy practices his sparring alone in the moonlit garden with no shirt on and a healthy bit of attention paid to his chestnut mane of hair. Elizabeth scolds herself, wondering “what would Jane say” if she were to wake up and find her mooning over Mr. Darcy’s Harlequin Romance novel stances. She is, of course, referring to her sister Jane, but the reader can’t help but wonder what Jane the author might say if she were to rise from her long sleep and see the state of her novel.

One only hopes her first words wouldn’t be a demand for fresh brains.

Order now at Amazon.com:
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Deluxe Heirloom Edition

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Deluxe Heirloom Edition are distributed by Quirk Books (International/US) and Raincoast Books (Canada).

Odd and the Frost Giants

Neil Gaiman’s newest children’s book, Odd and the Frost Giants, was actually first published over a year ago in the UK as a World Book Day selection. In “A Note from Neil,” the author explains:

In most of the world (but not America) they have World Book Day. On World Book Day, in the UK, schoolchildren are given book tokens to buy books with, and a selection of special World Book Day Books are written and published and put on sale. The authors are not paid; the publishers do it for nothing. The idea is to get children reading. […]

I was thrilled when the book became a UK bestseller. I was delighted when my American publishers, HarperChildrens, told me they wanted to publish it in the US, and elated when I learned it would be illustrated by Brett Helquist, whose art I had loved ever since I first picked up The Bad Beginning.

HarperCollins’ version of the book is a lovely collector’s edition. The hardcover is wrapped in dark blue fabric, and the front features art by Brett Helquist. Helquist, best known as the illustrator of Lemony Snicket‘s A Series of Unfortunate Events, does the interior black-and-white line drawings, as well. He’s the perfect choice to illustrate Odd and the Frost Giants, which shares with Lemony Snicket’s tale of the Baudelaire orphans a similar dark-edged humour that’s common to so many stories that chronicle the trials of childhood.

Odd and the Frost Giants is set in Midgard (ancient Norway), and revolves around the titular Odd, a twelve-year-old Viking boy with exceedingly bad luck. Within the first few pages of the book, his father dies at sea, his leg is broken in a tree-cutting accident, his mother remarries into a family that’s less than welcoming to a crippled stepson, and the village is trapped in an unnatural, endless winter. Despite all this, Odd wears an everpresent smile, an enigmatic expression that irritates all of the villagers, except his mother. One day, Odd decides to leave home in search of better fortune elsewhere, launching him on a classic hero’s journey straight out of the Norse sagas. Deep in the woods, he meets a fox, bear, and eagle that turn out to be the Nordic gods Loki, Thor, and Odin, trapped in animal form. Tricked by the Frost Giants, they’ve been stripped of their powers and cast down to the mortal realm, where they despair of ever regaining Asgard, the land of the gods, again. Odd promptly promises the trio that he’ll lead them on their return, and break the Frost Giants’ winter spell in the process. Against all odds, Odd inevitably bests the Frost Giants, reassuring children that being small doesn’t necessarily equate with being helpless or unimportant. Adults (yes, it’s a book aimed at children, but adults will enjoy it, too!) will appreciate that Odd accomplishes his quest not with trickery or blunt force, but with intelligence, wit, and empathy.

Neil Gaiman has frequently written about Norse mythology, most notably in The Sandman and American Gods, but Odd and the Frost Giants is his first foray into this territory for young readers. As such, the gods are considerably more family-friendly than Gaiman’s previous incarnations, which were true to the Nordic legends’ bawdy roots, but adult readers will still be able to detect undertones of the old characters that made the gods of Gaiman’s more mature works so fully realized and enjoyable.

If there’s one complaint to be made about the book, it’s its slim, 128-page length. A World Book Day is limited to 15,000 words, making Odd and the Frost Giants a novelette rather than a full novel. It can easily be read in one sitting, so it seems that just as you’re getting into the story, it’s over. The story is so engaging, though, that you’ll want to start right at the beginning again, drawing the reading experience out. Gaiman also hints that the book has a sequel to look forward to:

Sooner or later — probably sooner — I’ll write another astonishingly short novel about Odd. I want to send him to Jerusalem, where the Vikings went, and further than that. He’s an extraordinarily delightful character to write, after all…

Odd is an extraordinarily delightful character to read about, as well, so it will be interesting to follow him on his continued adventures, wherever they take him, and see if he eventually makes it home again, smile intact.

The Olympians Take on New York in O-Cast

What would happen if the gods of yesterday walked among the men (and women, of course) of today? Thanks to the new web series O-Cast from Bryan Dechart and Anne Richmond, now we know.

O-Cast is a mockumentary web series created by the twelve Olympian gods of Greek mythology to broadcast their new lives as 20-something New Yorkers. Comedy ensues as they combine forces to convince the mortals of their modern relevance and inspire a new generation of believers.

Cleverly written and well-acted, O-Cast is a humorous look at the lives of twelve Olympians who’ve fallen to Earth and hope to recapture their glory days now that they’re here. Poseidon is the mastermind behind the new marketing campaign that takes the form of a documentary that he hopes will go viral on the Internet. He is aided in his quest by the wise advice of Athena and the technical skills of Hermes, who documents the entire endeavor. You’ll find all your favorites of the Greek Pantheon here including Zeus, Hera, Hestia, Demeter, Aphrodite, Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Hades and Hephaestus.

The cast members are perfect in their roles and play their characters believably casual. O-Cast is funny without being over-the-top and has sight gags without being slap-stick. Each of the gods has a behavior quirk (and the occasional one-liner) and, in group scenes, it’s fun to watch the background to see what they are up to. It will be nice to see the characters continue to flesh out and interact with each other, and I look forward to seeing what direction they go with O-Cast.

They’ve got a great interactive website with what seems to be a fair amount of involvement and direct interaction between the cast, crew and the fans. Be sure to check out more about O-Cast here:

O-Cast Official Website
O-Cast on YouTube
O-Cast Facebook Fan Page
O-Cast on Twitter
O-Cast God Blog

VIZ Signature Presents Motoro Mase’s “Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, Volume 3”

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, Volume 3

What would it take for you to find inspiration in the little things in life, to appreciate the world and its people for its beauty?

Volume 3 of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit by Motoro Mase (artist for Heads) follows two totally unrelated characters in two different stories. One is a high school dropout, the other a con artist, and the thing the two have in common are papers they receive from “The Ministry of Health and Welfare” notifying them of their deaths in 24 hours.

Why would the Ministry of Health and Welfare do that? To promote how precious life is and how important it is to be a productive, active member of society. Ironically, some of those served dead papers are productive members of society: “All citizens undergo national welfare immunization in the first grade. Because of a nanocapsule in some of the syringes, 1 in 1,000 young people will die sometime between the ages of 18 and 24.” This method of “improving society” would never be accepted in our world and, as exemplified in the first story of Volume 3, things could go very wrong.

Takimoto Naoki is a depressed, anti-social, self-harming young man. His mother, Kazuko, is a workaholic politician with a one-track mind: to win the election, no matter what it takes. His father, Nobuhiko, is a soft spoken gentleman who helps out with Kazuko’s campaign, though it’s questionable whether he truly supports her. Through flashbacks, the reader learns that Naoki was neglected by Kazuko throughout his childhood, resulting in his suicidal behaviour. The delivery of his death papers come as a shock, but not as much as Kazuko’s reaction to her son’s impending fatality. As the book warns, youths who receive death papers execute their “despair in unpredictable ways.”

The other story follows Iizuka Satoshi and his sister, Sakura, and is much sweeter. This is shown by the familial relationship of the Iizuka siblings, who were orphaned when they were children because of a car accident. Sakura also lost her vision, which led to a reliance on her brother. Satoshi doted on her and continues to dote on her; the story picks up with Satoshi announcing his purchase of an apartment so that he could be a full-time caregiver for Sakura. The joyful occasion comes to a bittersweet ending after Satoshi is served death papers. Unlike Naoki, Satoshi makes the best of his last 24 hours on Earth in order to make sure Sakura is cared for.

Furthermore, the light/dark difference in the storylines is reflected in the amount of black ink used on the pages. Naoki’s story is much darker both in nature and colour, and the artistic style is much more frantic, the panels much more crowded, especially when the reader sees Naoki in his room. Satoshi’s story is littered with full panels of cherry blossoms and other wonderful scenic views.

Other than the death papers, the only shared element of both stories is the letter carrier, Fujimoto, an employee of the Ministry of Health and Welfare whose job is to physically deliver death papers to the chosen few. The brilliance of the Fujimoto character is allowing the reader to see both sides of the coin: he struggles with his own morals about the national welfare system. It would be interesting to see how much he has changed between Volume 1 and Volume 3: did it affect him more at the beginning? When we meet him in Volume 3, he is more seasoned and his boss seems to think so too. But as the stories unfold, especially in the second one, Fujimoto still questions his own actions.

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, Volume 3 (224 pages) is written and drawn by Motoro Mase, and is published by VIZ Signature. It will be available for purchase at your favourite book stores and online retailers on November 10, 2009. It can also be purchased directly through the publisher here:

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, Volume 3

Previous volumes are also available direct from the publisher or at your local book store.

Looney Labs Updates the Classic “Chrononauts” Time Travel Card Game

Chrononauts

What would have happened if President Lincoln had survived that fateful night at the Ford Theater, or if President Kennedy hadn’t been struck by the magic bullet fired from the Texas School Book Depository? How different would history be if other key events, such as the Titanic sinking or Sputnik launching, were suddenly altered? In the newly updated re-release of the classic Looney Labs game Chrononauts you are a time traveler from the future entrusted with the task of preserving the timeline.

There are three ways to play: the standard game, Solonauts and Artifaxx.

In the standard game, each player has a unique identity and secret mission that they must achieve before getting to return to their future. Twists and turns of events prevent major events that can cause paradoxes that will either help you or prevent you from achieving your goals. Too many paradoxes can cause the collapse of history as we know it.

The 32 timeline cards cover events from the 1865 Lincoln assassination to the 1999 Columbine Massacre. Your mission may require you to get the Nuremberg Race Laws repealed in 1942 or it could be as simple as collecting historical artifacts such as the Rongo-Rongo tablets of Easter Island that were burned by missionaries in 1865 or the lost Ark of the Covenant. In addition to the 32 timeline cards, there are 14 ID cards (who you are in the game), 10 mission cards (goals you must achieve to win the game) and 84 Chrononauts cards including Artifacts, Inverters (undo or redo a historical event), Timewarps, Gadgets, Patches (repair history without necessarily returning events to the original timeline) and Actions (things you do that effect the destruction or reparation of the timeline).

While some events or artifacts are historically sound, other events you must instigate or artifacts you must retrieve are a little tongue-in-cheek. For example, if you’ve prevented John Lennon’s assassination you might be able to retrieve The Beatles’ reunion album, The Purple Submarine, or if you are one of the giant mutant cockroaches from a far distant future, you might like a Videotape of the Creation of the Universe (World War 3), on Betamax no less.

The standard version of the game is for 2 to 6 players and our average game time was about 45 minutes.

When playing as a Solonaut, instead of each player being a Chrononaut with his own agenda, you must get eight Chrononauts back home in a single pass through the deck. You remove the artifacts, gadgets and missions from the deck and then play through the remainder of the deck until either you get all eight of your characters home or you run out of cards and lose.

Artifaxx is a fast version of the game for 2 to 4 players. Because it is less complex, it’s also a good game to play with younger players. You sort out all of the Artifacts, Actions, Timewarps and Missions and put aside the rest of the deck. Players take turns drawing one card and playing one card until someone achieves their secret mission.

Gameplay is similar to Looney Labs’ Fluxx games but far more structured. You really have to pay attention to the information on the cards because they contain certain “If ___, then ___” scenarios. It takes a few rounds to get the hang of, but is easy to learn and fun to play. Not only will you laugh at the mayhem you cause mucking up the timeline, you might just learn a thing or two about history as well.

Having moved from state to state or school to school at key times, I ended up only getting U.S. History in the 4th and 12th grades, so I have to admit that seeing the dates connected to the events was educational for me. We had a lot of debates about historical events while playing, about both history the way it happened and the way it could have happened if key events had gone differently or not occurred at all. It is a more complex game than other Looney Labs offerings I’ve played, but no less entertaining.

Want to make your playing deck more interesting? Try the new The Gore Years and Lost Identities expansion packs, or go way-way back with the Chrononauts: Early American deck.

Available December 4, 2009, just in time for Christmas, you can pick up a copy of Chrononauts through Looney Labs or Amazon, or find a retailer near you through Looney Labs’ Store Locator.

The Righteous Bison: Affordable Raygun Technology

Righteous Bison

Weta has released a new raygun from the steam- and atom-powered laboratories of Dr. Grordbort, the Righteous Bison Indivisible Particle Smasher.

This honorable bovine could be the horn in the side of your most bothersome foe! It’s true! The Righteous Bison can bore a fist-sized hole through 17 yards of cheese, on tight beam, or put a zeppelin-girthed aperture in your uncle’s munitions factory (should he choose not to drop those charges). And all this without permanently damaging the family trust!

This latest collector’s model is a first for Weta in that it’s made of plastic rather than the metal normally used in its high-end line of rayguns. When Weta was asked why they chose to make this raygun model out of plastic instead of the usual material, they answered:

It wasn’t an easy decision to make a gun out of plastic, but we did it with one very specific purpose — to give cosplayers and other fans a gun they wouldn’t be too terrified to stick in a holster and take to conventions or Halloween parties or… you name it. We will definitely continue our range of high-end, limited edition guns — this is in parallel to the high-end guns and the miniatures.

ÜberSciFiGeek recently received an e-mail from Weta that proclaimed, “Guess what? Our first ever Righteous Bison review sample goes to you!” Huzzah, what luck! Practice targets were immediately picked for “review purposes”, then given a sporting head start before the zapping commenced.

Packaging:
The Righteous Bison doesn’t come in collectible packaging, like the miniature and full-size edition rayguns cast in metal. Since it’s meant to be handled, not left on a shelf, fancy packaging isn’t really necessary. The packaging still does its job admirably, though, with typical Dr. Grordbort style and humour: the cardboard box is covered in glossy, full-colour artwork, and a seal on the box’s cover reads “Kicking Protons in the Groin Since 1887”. For collectors obsessed with keeping things in mint condition, the top of the box, a flap held in place by velcro tabs, opens up to reveal a Righteous Bison-shaped, clear acetate window that allows the raygun to be displayed without removing it from its packaging. The inside of the flip-up lid features a poster-style catalogue of the entire Dr. Grordbort’s Infallible Aether Oscillators collection to date. For raygun enthusiasts more interested in playing than displaying, the box opens at either end to allow the liner tray to slide out. The cardboard liner has a second, moulded plastic tray on it that the raygun rests in, the whole lot secured together with wire twist ties which are wrapped in a thin foam to ensure that they don’t leave any unwanted marks on the raygun’s plastic surface.

Sculpting:
Despite a massive bulk that would give the more compact Star Trek phasers “size envy”, the Righteous Bison weighs only 2.6 pounds — less than half of the comparably sized metal rayguns’ weight — light enough to comfortably tote around on lengthy convention days. A tactile work of art, it’s just as intricately designed as the metal rayguns, save for the lack of wire-thin protrusions which malleable metal makes possible but would likely snap off a hard plastic casting. Like any plastic model, the Righteous Bison has seams running its length, but they’re so cleverly incorporated into the design of the raygun that they’re barely noticable. Scratches and dents, which at first appear to be manufacturing flaws, are actually subtle additions that enhance the raygun’s “distressed” look. Given Weta’s history of creating props for films such as The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia, it’s no wonder that the Righteous Bison looks like it comes straight from a movie set. Safety Note: Prey… er, friends and family… tend to startle violently when they find themselves at the convincing business end of the Righteous Bison, so proceed with caution. “Firing” from a distance greater than arm’s reach is highly recommended for your protection and, more importantly, the preservation of your precious raygun.

Paint:
It’s the paint job that really makes this piece shine. The raygun’s gunmetal grey, copper, and black painted finish is exceptionally clean and looks very much like real metal, so much so that it wasn’t at all evident from the pictures on the Weta website that the Righteous Bison was plastic until that info was revealed in the product description. Not only has the expertly applied paint captured the look of metal, it has managed to recreate the weathered, slightly rusted look that the metal rayguns are known for. Even the red and white pressure gauges on the sides of the barrel look aged. No self-respecting steampunker would want to be seen brandishing a spotless, fresh-from-the-factory weapon (or anything else that looked like it was under fifty years old, for that matter), so kudos to Weta for retaining the antique aesthetic for its new style of raygun!

Articulation:
The Righteous Bison’s one moving part is the trigger, a delightfully unexpected detail that gives the raygun an added touch of realism and functionality.

Accessories:
Being a one-piece design and play piece, the Righteous Bison comes with no attachments or accessories, and doesn’t include a stand or case like the metal rayguns. If you really want to display it out of the box, though, Weta offers an attractive Universal Gun Stand for pre-order which ships at the beginning of next year. There’s a small, square hole at the bottom of the Righteous Bison’s handle that fits a matching rod on the metal stand, and the stand’s circular base is stamped with the Grordbort Industries logo, the same design that the Righteous Bison is based on. Another Weta item that complements the Righteous Bison is the Dr. Grordbort’s Satchel. This roomy, hand-made canvas bag with multiple pockets holds an impressive amount of gear and swag at conventions and cosplay events.

Dr. Grordbort's Satchel

An open-ended edition priced at $99.00 US, the Righteous Bison is a steal, especially considering that the full-size metal rayguns run several hundred dollars each. If you have any steampunkers and retro sci-fi fans on your holiday shopping list, this unique gift will light up their brass goggles.

Order directly through the Weta website.

The Righteous Bison and the Dr. Grordbort’s Infallible Aether Oscillators collection are distributed by Weta, in partnership with Dark Horse Comics. For more information, please visit the official Dr. Grordbort’s website.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

From the depths of the sea (or the shelves of the bookstore, as the case may be) comes Quirk Classics’ newest addition to the Jane Austen bookshelf: Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Following in the blood-strewn footsteps of Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, author Ben H. Winters joins forces with Jane Austen to produce a “tale of romance, heartbreak, and tentacled mayhem,” as the back cover informs us. As the narratives of these two authors join together readers find themselves immersed in a world in which the mysterious Alteration has caused all manner of sea critters to fight against man, the ocean one big steaming soup pot of ill-tempered bouillabaisse.

Significantly more extended from the original Austen text than Zombies, Sea Monsters achieves a type of Gilligan’s Island-meets-the-English-countryside, as Norton Park, estate of Sir John Middleton, is transformed into a windswept archipelago off the Devonshire coast, with Norton Cottage situated on the charmingly named Pestilent Isle. The rolling English hills, woody forests, and pastoral views of the original text are replaced with a smoldering steam-venting mountain, hostile plantlife, mysterious chanting Island natives, and tiki torches. Oh, and let’s not forget the chowder of sea life waiting in the softly lapping waves to sting, maim, and eat their corseted enemies.

Sir John Middleton gets a boost of interest as a middle-aged adventurer, a daring world traveller with a collection of sea treasures, which includes his wife Lady Middleton, her coldness and aloofness quite logically explained by the fact that John Middleton stole her away from her native island in a sack. Likewise her mother, Mrs. Jennings, and sister, Mrs. Palmer, were taken back to England like so many souvenirs. One could, if one were inclined to analyze Sea Monsters in a literary way, interpret this as a dig against the English way of colonizing. Just saying.

At the invitation of John Middleton comes the family Dashwood — mother and three sisters — to live at Barton Cottage, where they are soon swept up in a sea of social activities, games, pirate-themed parties, and romantic confusion. Staid Elinor hides her feelings from the proper Edward Ferrars when the news of his engagement to Lucy Steele hits her like a rogue wave, while passionate Marianne finds herself between the gold-digging Willoughby (his insignia in Sea Monsters is comprised of shovels in the formation of a “W”) and the fish-faced Colonel Brandon, who, by a sea witch curse, seems to have found himself sporting a full beard of tentacles. Which only plays up that “judging by appearances” thing. And Margaret? Well, she’s gone a bit cocoloco in the jungle of Pestilent Isle.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters employs a similar formula to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. But instead of zombies, ninjas, and katana swords, Sea Monsters is liberally watered with sea monsters, pirates, and driftwood sculptures. And all those social dinners and good eating of the original text become an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet, as the Dashwoods and their friends attempt to eat their enemies whole, filleted, and with a dab of butter.

But why sea monsters? Well, why not? There’s a fair bit of gloomy English rain in the original novel anyways, so it’s not that much of stretch to have Marianne saved by the dashing Willoughby from a malevolent octopus instead of saved from the rain and a bit of a turned ankle. And it’s all in good fun when a jellyfish of ogre proportions suddenly launches itself out of the ocean and puts a bit of a damper on the beach party by swallowing and dissolving one of the party guests.

Furthermore, the cantankerous sea serves as one big aquatic metaphor for the delicate social fabric of Jane Austen’s England. When Elinor and Marianne go to town, they go not to some mundane English city, but to an Atlantis-type world known as Sub-Marine Station Beta. Here, as the action of the novel heats up, our heroines are literally trapped by social convention; not just surrounded by gaping mouths as on Pestilent Isle, but fully and completely submersed into the stew of social stings and bites in a glass-domed underwater city. Floundering to keep the gossips and the vengeful circus lobsters at bay, Elinor and Marianne are nevertheless swept into a tidal pool of deceit and misunderstandings.

The army of ire-filled water beasts are also a perfect foil for the unmentionable aspects of English society. It is no accident that aquatic attacks occur at the most socially awkward moments. While Lucy Steele blethers on in her typical ignorantly blissful fashion of her secret engagement to Edward Ferrars, the lovesick and mortified Elinor fights off the two-headed Devonshire Fang-Beast. And when Elinor, Lucy, and Edward are later trapped together in the same room, forced to make pleasantries in a most awkward way, their writhing emotions are mirrored by the death thrashes of a servant outside the glass dome who is eaten by a particularly toothsome anglerfish while trying to fix a filtration unit. While Lucy prattles and Edward and Elinor blush, the servant’s pleas for help become “a rather embarrassing violation of decorum; Elinor and her guests studiously ignored him, and his increasingly insistent thrashing became the background to the ensuing uncomfortable exchange.”

As the visit to Sub-Marine Station Beta lengthens into weeks, the flurry of intricately hidden truths slowly comes undone, just as the dome itself is undone by the persistent tappings of a posse of swordfish. The spiderweb of cracks spreads throughout the dome like the whispery echoes of repeated gossip, the dome glass finally shattering in one spectacular explosion of truth by a particularly mythic narwhal and a gruesome bull walrus.

But the adventure isn’t over yet! Escaping from the dome, our heroines and their party must sail across the dangerous seas, outrunning the Pirate Dreadbeard and his cronies. And then there is the big catalyst of the story: the part where Marianne sits in wet grass, gets sick, and finally has a change of heart towards Colonel Brandon. Only it’s so much better when she goes to a swamp to ruminate, gets eaten alive by malarial mosquitoes, and is left in a delirium of pecking parakeets… oh, and finally has a change of heart towards Colonel Brandon.

In fact, everyone’s happiness is much grander with sea monsters. Elinor’s standoff with Willoughby is at gun point when she mistakes him for the Pirate Dreadbeard, Colonel Brandon retrieves Mrs. Dashwood for the ailing Marianne and slays the pirate, Edward is released from his engagement to Lucy, who is actually a sea witch, and Pestilent Isle is actually one giant, cranky sea monster!

Like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters concludes with a Reader’s Discussion Guide, meant to make one ponder the deeper meaning of Sea Monsters as well as snort with laughter. In fact, these questions really emphasize what this literary marriage of Austen and crotchety tunas is all about. One can take the novel to a new level, as outlined in question 2, and ponder the metaphorical link between monster attacks and painful personal setbacks, or one can, as outlined in question 10, try to name other works of Western literature that feature orangutan valets who are slain by pirates. Really, it’s all in how you read the book.

Order now at Amazon.com:
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters are distributed by Quirk Books (International/US) and Raincoast Books (Canada).

Enter the Lost World of the Warlord — Mike Grell Returns with New Tales from Skartaris

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For many comic book fanatics it was Stan Lee or Jack Kirby who stole their hearts and made them life-long fans. For artists, the likes of Georgia O’Keeffe or Salvidor Dali influenced their love of art. For me, my comic book and artistic muse was one and the same: Mike Grell.

Like any other kid, I read any comic I could get my hands on but my favorites were always the high fantasy stories like Turok, Son of Stone and Conan the Barbarian. When Mike Grell introduced The Warlord, it brought about a resurgence of fantasy when the rest of the comic world was being over-run by mutants. Arion, Lord of Atlantis, Arak, Son of Thunder and other fantasy titles became mainstream finally, rather than relegated to independent publishers like Richard and Wendy Pini’s ElfQuest.

Mike wasn’t just drawing loincloth clad men wielding swords though. He was drawing incredibly detailed human figures at a time when other characters were becoming more loosely drawn. When other comics began relying on flashy ink, his comics would still look great in black and white. He wasn’t just drawing comics, he was creating art. As well as being a wonderful artist, Mike Grell was a great storyteller. The Warlord didn’t rely on just his fantastic art but compelling stories set in an Edgar Rice Burroughs or H. Rider Haggard-like other world. A blend of classic science fiction and fantasy, The Warlord followed the adventures of Lt. Col. Travis Morgan, an Air Force pilot shot down while on recon over icebound Russia. As he brings down his aircraft, he crashes in a land of eternal sunlight where magic and monsters still exist.

Based on the Hollow Earth theory (and Grell did his homework on it), Skartaris exists at the center of the Earth. The theory is that most planets are actually donut shaped with holes at the poles and a molten sun-like core at the center. The opening at the poles is gradual, spanning some 500 miles and thus is undetectable as one enters the center of the earth. This theory explains freshwater flows that should have been salty and grassy plains that should have been icebound that were found by Admiral Bird on one of his journeys to the poles. It also explains the phenomenon of Water Sky where the sky at the poles seems to mirror the surface of water and broken ice. It also explains why so many planets that are devoid of water appear to have polar ice caps: It’s the glow of the inner sun showing through the polar openings. Whether you think the theory is hogwash or potentially true, when you enter the lost world of Skartaris, it is a fact that Morgan deals with every day.

Introduced in a D.C.’s 1st Issue Special #8 in 1975, The Warlord premiered in its own series by DC Comics in 1976 and ran through 1989 with 133 issues. Grell prolifically worked on other titles such as Green Arrow: Longbow Hunters, Aquaman and his original series Shaman’s Tears and Jon Sable (which was published as a novel, was a short lived TV series and is still in development for a film adaptation). 1992 saw the brief return of The Warlord in a 6 issue mini-series. Continuing to be popular, a new series began in 2006 sans Grell. This new story was “reinvisioned” and upon opening the first issue, I literally cried, I was so horrified. Everything I loved about Grell’s Warlord was sorely absent. I guess I’m not the only one who felt that way as the new series was short-lived. It ended after only 10 issues and is largely regarded by fans as a bad dream that never really happened.

At 2008’s San Diego Comic-Con, while talking to Glenn Hauman over at the ComicMix booth (whose SABLE poster caught my eye), I was informed that Grell was coming back to the series as writer and cover artist. I was so thrilled, I ended up talking about how Grell had influenced my drawing style growing up, that his artwork inspired me and taught me how to draw, etc. For as long as I can remember, Mike Grell has been influencing me artistically, especially when trying to learn to draw again after a car accident robbed me of the ability. After hearing my story, Grell’s assistant (who had been sitting at the table listening to the discussion) sent me straight over to meet Mike, whom I had been unable to see all week due to other obligations. I had my first truly fan-girl moments as I stood teary-eyed and silent, looking through his portfolio (original hand-drawn art!) while listening to him tell the story of how The Warlord came to be published. After meeting him and his wife (and getting my First Issue Special #8 signed), I think my head was spinning. It was the perfect ending to my Comic-Con experience. Not only had I gotten to meet my hero, but I had learned that The Warlord was coming back.

Finally, it’s here. Issue #1 of the new The Warlord premiered in April with Mike Grell writing and doing the covers. Artists Joe Prado, Walden Wong, Chad Hardin and Wayne Faucher did a fine job with the artwork in issues 1 through 6. While not as beautiful as the work done by Grell himself, it did a much better job of capturing the essence of his work than previous artists did with the original series after Grell’s departure or in the 10-issue nightmare from 2006. With Issue #7, which is currently at your local newsstand or comic book shop, Grell returns as writer and illustrator. You can see some fabulous samples of his un-inked pages at his website to get a taste of what I mean about how amazing his art looks in black and white.

Unlike the 2006 relaunch of the series, this story doesn’t try to reinvent the character but rather picks up today and revisits the world we left behind in 1992. While some long-time fans will still have questions lingering about secrets and events from the past, new readers will not feel like they are on the outside looking in. The story picks up from the point of view of Alysha, a paleontologist who discovers a frozen dinosaur in a cave at The Roof of the World in Tibet. After bringing a special team in to secretly study the specimen, they discover something else in the cave: a portal to the lost world of Skartaris. Through the events that unfold after this discovery, Alysha gets a brief recap of the original storyline and Grell very craftily eases the reader into the history and events that shaped the success of the original run of the series.

The introductory storyline wraps up neatly at the end of the first 6 issues and a new storyline begins in issue 7 with Grell completely at the helm. The storyline is, as always, well told and intriguing. Grell has a knack for exploring moral ambiguities and flaws in his creations and his characters are not the polished and perfect heroes you see in many other publications. As a result, his stories are more interesting, his characters more compelling and real. While the wonderful storytelling makes me read through the story quickly to devour every moment, the artwork and layout gives me pause and sends me back through the issue to study each panel for details and imagery that tell the story even more completely.

I’m absolutely thrilled by the new The Warlord and hope this new series has the longevity of the original run. You don’t have to have read the original series to be able to get into this, but for those of you who missed The Warlord first time around, you can check out Showcase Presents: Warlord Vol. 1. This new, quality paperback includes reprints of the 1st Issue Special #8 and issues 1-28 of the original series.