Articles
Miskatonic Theatre
When one thinks of the worlds of H.P. Lovecraft, especially one who is already familiar with his works, downtown Manhattan isn’t the first thing that springs to mind. Generally the 20th Century’s master of the weird tale causes people to think of long dead underwater cities, reeking chthonic tunnels and dark clusters of ancient forests. But, if you’re in the city, and are an intrepid investigator, you’ll have head down to Manhattan’s East Village. There you’ll mount the cracked and pitted stone stairs outside of 85 East 4th Street. Once inside you’ll sidle up to a ticket-booth, a glass partition
Last Week’s Comic Book Reviews
Comic Reviews: Week of March 28th Action Comics #899 (DC – writer: Paul Cornell; art: Jesus Merino) I’ll be damned if Paul Cornell doesn’t write the best Superman stories. We haven’t seen Superman in about nine issues, and I couldn’t be happier. Paul Cornell has made Lex Luthor beyond interesting as a lead character. We know he’s a genius, and we know he’s evil, but Cornell reminds readers that Lex is also ruthless and calculating, and just plain awesome. The story so far has centered around Lex’s attempts to control the power of the black rings introduced in “Blackest Night,”
Last Week’s Comic Book Reviews
Comic Reviews: week of March 23 Batman: The Dark Knight #2 (DC — writer: David Finch; art: Scott Williams) Parts of this comic work very well, especially for Batman. The main story involves Killer Croc and Penguin, and while I enjoyed the very . . . painful . . . interactions between Cobblepot and Batman, I was disappointed by the traditional kidnapping plot involving Bruce’s childhood friend, Golden Dawn. It’s reminiscent of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, specifically the Joker kidnapping Rachel Dawes. And while Batman’s interrogation of the Joker in the movie is stunning, here his attack on the
Dare To Enter The Vault of Horror
When most people think of Tales From The Crypt I’m sure they think of the zany Crypt Keeper puppet that frightened throngs of “kiddies” staying up past their bedtimes through the ’90s, or maybe they think of that Billy Zane movie that followed the memorable HBO show in which the aforementioned puppet hosted. However you “slice” it “boils and ghouls,” Tales has had many incarnations over the years after its initial horror comic existence that started the franchise. Before the series was brought to television, another EC Comics series curdled the blood of moviegoers. That film was Vault of Horror.
Massive: Guild Wars 2 – Reinventing a Genre
Most of the recent MMO releases have been as original as vampire movies mired in teenage angst. They seek to capitalize on conventions established by their predecessors. It’s not a bad starting strategy to construct a game that is instantly familiar to the masses. These titles tend to have one or two gimmicks or twists of their own: “Because orcs are so last year, we allow you to play bipedal space otters instead.” This trend has led to stagnation. Players that have tried MMOs in the past and not enjoyed them aren’t suddenly going to become fans. Those that do
Last Week’s Comic Book Reviews
Comic Reviews: Week of March 16th Brightest Day #22 (DC – writers: Johns & Tomasi; artists: Cark, Reis, & Prado) When Blackest Night ended with the resurrection of a troupe of DC’s secondary characters, I think most people were able to see Geoff Johns’ plan. He started with Green Lantern, and then moved on to the Flash. Brightest Day is his attempt to get the rest of his group sorted. Issue #22 is the third to last issue of the series, and unlike 52 (which was a phenomenal read), I’m glad to see all the stories converging for a pretty
Pokemon Black: Gotta Catch ‘Em All!
A few years ago around the block from my house, an old lady was sleeping in her bed when a candle she left lit accidentally tipped over. Her house was consumed in the fiery blaze and having no children and being a widow, there was no one to mourn her passing. The house stood an abandoned, burned-out husk for the next seven years and was without anybody to purchase it. Nobody would inhabit that house. Nature, of course, overcame and the house has became a squatters’ paradise for all manner of beast with four legs or wings, and by proxy,
Retro-Modernism
I know that when I tell you Team Unwinnable loves RPG’s, I speak the truth. From Final Fantasy to Dungeons and Dragons, there is a special place in each of our hearts for those games that filled our childhood (and teens…and twenties…and thirties) with sorcery, adventure and a frustrating chain of disoriented companions. But it isn’t nostalgia that keeps us attached. We don’t sequester ourselves in our bedrooms late into the night, staring with bloodshot eyes at Ultima 3 just to keep the dream alive. No, it’s the innovation, imagination and artistry that keeps us playing, and when SRRN Games
Dwayne McDuffie In Memoriam
I want to write an article on the passing of Dwayne McDuffie but I can’t. I didn’t know him as well as I should have. Comics, the small industry that it is, has its celebrated names like Bendis, Morrison, Johns and Alan Moore. But there are writers in the industry that remain relatively unknown, letting the work speak for itself. And now, looking back on the legacy of Dwayne McDuffie, I see a man who has influenced me tremendously. Looking up his name I see Marvel’s Damage Control, a comic series about the company that rebuilds all the destruction caused
Dream of the (early) 90’s: The Simpsons Sing The Blues
If NPR’s All Songs Considered is to be believed, 90’s nostalgia is now a “Thing.” That’s all well and good, but I think that when they talk about being nostalgic for the 90’s, most people are probably thinking about the mid-90’s, when a puritanical, authenticity-obsessed notion of coolness was in vogue for a few minutes. They tend to forget about the early 90’s, a pop culture epoch so corny it almost rivaled the variety show era of the 1970’s. It was the time of Club MTV, the puppet sitcom Dinosaurs, and Ugly Kid Joe. The Simpsons Sing the Blues was