All Hallows Eve

I wasn’t expecting to dress up this year but boredom got the best of me.  You see, we were going to meet up with another family and go trick or treating.  I start getting the kids ready for a 6pm departure at about 4:30pm.  It doesn’t take that long to get them ready contrary to what every Sunday morning church departure has taught me.  At 5:30pm we make the call to see if the other family is ready and they tell us 6:30.

 

I had an hour surrounded by face paint and an imagination.  The easiest thing, I think, is a zombie.  15 minutes later, I am done with make up and bored again.  In my mind, I associate Black Lantern’s with zombies.  Not a huge leap and I wonder what the black lantern symbol is.  I check it out on google and my first thought is that I could draw that pretty easily.  So 20 minutes later I am standing there with a black lantern symbol on the chest of my black leather jacket. 

Of course no one knew that I was a black lantern.  I did get compliments on my face paint though.  One person asked what the symbol on my chest was but didn’t know what a black lantern was and probably didn’t know what a green lantern was either. 

"The blackest night falls from the skies,
The darkness grows, as all light dies,
We crave your hearts and your demise,
By my black hand— the dead shall rise!" –Black Lantern Creed

Sluggy Freelance

I may have spoken of this strip before, but the current storyline is worthy of some promotion.

If you have never read Sluggy before (http://www.sluggy.com), then hopping in on the current storyline will lose you quick. Fortunately, Pete (Abrams, creator of Sluggy) has the entire strip archived on the website. You can go all the way back to the humble beginnings of one of the characters summoning Satan on his computer and the only way to get him off was windows. The strips quickly progress from Joke a days to ongoing story arcs that satire everything from x-files to Harry Potter. Oh, and the art gets better.

The current storyline is weaving together a lot of things that have been left hanging and building for several years. The strip is 11 years old, and some of these threads go back pretty far. Pete is nice enough to use reference links that take you back to older strips when he is referencing one of these loose threads.

The characters are what this comic is about. Torg and Riff are awesome and play off of each other perfectly. Zoë is wonderful and I have a crush on her even though she isn't real. Gwynn is a character that you love to hate and the characters do to, but deep down everyone really likes her. Bun-Bun is a switchblade wielding, anthropomorphic mini-lop bunny with an attitude and the skills to back it up. Kiki the ferret can lighten up the most intense situation. The cast is well written and play off of each other perfectly. Oh, and gasp, they grow. Yes, the characters develop and grow. They learn lessons and sometimes do bad things. They make sacrifices and sometimes act selfishly.

This strip is worth the two days it will take you to get through the archives and the minute a day it will take to follow it. Pete just keeps doing it better year after year, and I usually can't wait to get my next Sluggy fix. I check it first thing when I get to work and it starts the day off right. What are you waiting for? Get over there and check it out.

Book Reviews

Caves of Steel (Robot City)

Isaac Asimov

Really good book that mixes the genres of mystery and science fiction.  This book takes place in the far future and the Earth is at its limits.  Man now lives in a completely enclosed eco system, in caves of steel you might say. Due to population, jobs are scarce and robots are feared for taking what little jobs there are.  Centuries ago people migrated to space, but due to eradication of disease and hence no immunities, migration was stopped.  Some "spacers" came back and live in a city right outside of New York, and one them was murdered.  Elijah, a New York plain clothes police detective, is partnered with R. Daneel, a robot from space town, to solve this murder. 

This book explores racism and classism as well as popultion management and robotics.  It is a quick and easy read.  I have never sought out who-dun-its, so I can't really say how it measures up there.  Asimov doesn't disappoint.

 

Hellboy, Vol. 1: Seed of Destruction

Mike Mignola

This was pretty good.  Hellboy is mainly an action adventure comic full of wit and sarcasm with a touch of x-files thrown in for suspense.  I really like the artistic stylings of this book.  The story isn't ground breaking but is very entertaining.  You just can't help but cheer for Hellboy.

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