I should be thankful, perhaps, that my editor over on Comicsnob is in fact a good friend of mine, the site is more of a collaborative venture between the two (and soon possibly three) of us, I have a wide writ and mandate over there when it comes to my chosen topic (manga) ...and that hell, it's just a blog, it's not like anyone is paying us to write it.

Yet. This being the primary sticky wicket, and why we endeavor to put forward a professional face and the best damn articles and reviews we can muster. At any point, this could become a paying (or marginally less draining) gig, and we don't want to explain the archives after the fact; we came out of the gate publishing the site we wanted to publish.

My Editor over there is nothing like J^3 or Perry White. He's not like the tools I dealt with at the college newspaper, either, or anything like myself when I've been forced to serve in that role. In fact, Bob is editor-in-name-only perhaps-- but it was his idea, it's his site, and I'm just a hired pen. To be fair, since I have a login, and can mess with all kinds of things on the site, and write a weekly column and all that jazz, I've represented myself as a "contributing editor" more than once, and without checking with Bob about exact job titles (most recently when I was fishing for an interview with Scott McCloud. The closest I got was the front row in the audience, but that yielded it's own fruit, which was approved belatedly after the fact but that is still one hell of a rush. It's the closest I've come to publishing since the days of newsprint and the aforementioned editorial-tools.)

If one were to consider actual job titles, well,
Bob is the Comicsnob, and I am the Manga Geek, Otaku in residence, and adjutant professor of folklore-mythology-and-why-did-I-enroll-at-a-technical-school-again?-related-topics

(I'm at least as big a fan of hyphenate compounds as I am of parenthetical asides. But regular readers already know I roll like that)

Still and all, the pen-for-hire trope is a handy fiction I impose on myself, to keep to the damn posting schedule. We're aiming for a post a day, apeice, until the end of the month (damn my foolish pride for making that bet) and if I think of the process as a necessary contribution to an outside venture, as opposed to me keeping to a self-imposed blog schedule (as can be seen here on p.a. the past couple of weeks -- not the best motivation) then it would seem that I can in fact produce on a daily basis. For as long as the self-delusion holds.

This whole entry (while I do hope you get some insight from it) is actualy an exercise in procrastination, in point of fact. I should be writing the aforementioned weekly column (posts Monday mornings at 8am) but heck, I'm not sure I've got a ready topic on tap. I'm stalling. My brain usually functions on at least three tracks, and while I'm flooding one track with beer I'm sure one of the other two will dredge something from my subconscious and I'll be able to rattle off seven or eight hundred words before 5 am. (work is at 7)

I did very similar things in college. A's and B's, too, at least in my English, psych, and history classes. (ref: why-did-I-enroll-etc. above)

Eventually, Bob will get around to reading my tabulas, and his reaction may be along the lines of "Matt-Bastard! I knew he'd be pulling shit like this..." but writing skills are one of the last things to go when I'm drinking (judgement... is a different matter, and I've already had to re-write one review, which reminded me most pointedly of that particular lesson) --for an opinion column, though, I just need to line up my varied and sundry little points for the week, link them in some way, and then figure out the jokes -- the dry one-liners that I use to entertain myself, even if no one else gets the references. I mean... there's more to writing than that, but sometimes it's the cake decoration that requires the extra effort, and artistic touch.

Best Web Site Name of the Week
for the week ending 11 February 2007

The Puerile Ramblings of an Incompetent Hack-job Pseudo-journalist

Once again (like the Grumpy Beer Geek) I did a double take, and wondered if I were blogging stuff unconsciously in my sleep. If I didn't know better, "the puerile ramblings" etc. would be a apt phrase (and one I might come up with, say, 1 post out of 100) to describe the crap I'm posting here.

(about the award -- past winners)

[written for and originally posted on Comicsnob.com]

Review: Pantheon High, vol. 1

Published by: Tokyopop
Writer: Paul Benjamin
Artists: Steven and Megumi Cummings

192 (160) pages.
Original Language: English
Orientation: Left to right
Vintage: February 2007
Lettering: Lucas Rivera
Cover Art: Steven Cummings
cover Design: Fawn Lau
Editor: Paul Morrissey
Publisher's Rating: Older Teen, 16+

Rating: 4 out of 5

##

Premise: Demigods face all kinds of challenges. At Pantheon High, the half-mortal, half-divine offspring of all your favorite dusty mythological powers get an education and learn invaluable social skills, though a few bad apples might occasionally attempt to upset the entire natural order and abrogate undue unholy powers upon themselves... Bad Kids! [*wrist slap*] Detention for you!

Synopsis:

...actually, I think the 'premise' blurb just about covers it. And a lot of the fun of this one is figuring out just who you're dealing with (and how their parent's baileywicks translate into high school, as seen through the filter of their scions).

Let's just say that 4 baddies (daughters of Kronos and Loki, and sons of Set and Susano) are making their play, and while it seems like more-or-less innocent pranking to begin with, things soon get deadly serious.

So it is up to our heroes -- one descendant each from the Greek, Egyptian, Norse, and Japanese pantheons -- to work together and thwart the evil scheme. Good triumphs over evil, duh, but there are sacrifices, transformations, and inevitable fan service to consider before we get to a more or less happy ending.

##

Review:

It's the side jokes that make this one so much fun, from Principal Prometheus & Hercules as a Gym Coach, to "Hall Monitor" Heimdahl (I may be one of just three or four people on this continentwho laughed out loud at that last one)

Even if it's all Greek (Norse, Egyptian, Japanese) to you, I think you're going to like this book. Enough explanation is given, in context and as needed, and a fair amount of familiar myth (Greek and Norse) is applied for the important story points. And even if you strip all that away, there is still the underlying plot, where superpowered high school students save the world -- That's one part of this story that I know you'll get.

The book also comes with a whole mess of end notes, which I doubt anyone will reference as they read (at least the first time) though like many other "translation" notes, it's a handy coda to explain a few fine points you may have glossed over on a first read. The extras also include a ten-page preview of Volume 2, which ably shows that this isn't just a one-off gimmick, and that the writer has deeper plans for his characters and this concept.

Good show all around. 4 marks out of 5.

##

and some extra commentary:

It wasn't so long ago that some troll noted comic authority (in a response to my response, etc., on some other post on Comicsnob) accused me of setting up a "straw man" when I called in what I considered to be a few basic readings on myth and storytelling, to counter his contention that perhaps Bob and I hadn't read enough [*cough*] classic comics of whatever flavour to be qualified to comment on other, newer titles.

My point there (that he completely missed) was that comics are stories. Straight up. You can't discuss comics, without looking at the bones of storytelling at some point in the process. (and I think he misused the term "straw man argument" just because he couldn't answer any of my points, but that's a different contention)

A good background on story (which is going to include relevant myth and some basic psych, sorry if your college CW prof didn't get that memo) will always serve you well. And here we have that in spades, my friend-- I'm not saying that you need to be up on all the myths to be able to enjoy this title: it's a fun ride even if you aren't a pantheistic syncreticist with an academic bent and a memory for trivia, someone who not only recognises the basic tropes and archetypes but also how the writer is playing with these forms in this title...

But hell, I was laughing my ass off through about half of it. "A joke that has to be explained is not a joke", but for me and like three other guys, this is the best damn title all year.

Let me just say that I can't wait for February to be over because I'm sick of typing "February" with that extra R and everything

Oh, and the BWSNotWA is not late this week -- I have until Sunday -- but I'll try not to post it this late again.

Best Web Site Name of the Week
for the week ending 18 February 2007

The Daily WTF

A place where IT professionals gather to complain about me. And likely you. They gather to mock, discuss, and occasionally just boggle at the various things that go wrong when perfectly fine technology is placed in the hands of neanderthals. Or at least I think that's what they're doing; I can't follow half of what they're talking about over there...

(about the award -- past winners)

Work Sucked.

Of course, that is why we call it "work", but there you go. Oprah-fuelled unreasoning demand for a currently unavailable book title, on top of the usual weekend crap, on top of whatever it is in the water supply that is turning the local populace into book-craving zombies who have no idea of the title or author of the book but still insist that we booksellers should be able to locate multiple copies of this phantom text based merely on their desire to see one (not necessarily to purchase it, per se; they have to see it first) and you can perhaps understand why I started drinking, heavily, just as soon as I escaped and made my way home.

So.

Beer. It's good stuff. Cheaper than Prozac.

I've bought myself a few precious hours as well, with a stopgap post (well, it's still a weekly feature) over on Comicsnob.com. Monday is the day for my column, so I have to cough up 1000-1500 words, just as soon as I can think of a topic (and hopefully in the next 24 hours) but right now sleep and an upcoming 8-hour shift at work seem like higher priorities.

Mmmm... sleep. The beer isn't helping me there; as soon as I switch from vertical to horizontal, I know I'm going to zonk out. There is so much to write though. Not just this (which is just filler; I mean, I hope it eventually develops a point somewhere before the end but I'm writing it more out of obligation than a burning desire to blog this evening) but stuff for the comic website, and looking at a bigger picture, I've got both my non-fiction project and at least one of the damn novels that I should be contributing to. Soon. Sooner rather than later, methinks. "Don't delay passion" and all of that.

One thought that is creeping up on me, moreso the past two weeks than previously, is that I should be writing fiction, now, and that even in a rough draft stage I could be putting it up on the blog. I don't know which project would show up here, but it could be anything. My past fits and starts have been a proof-of-concept, I know a couple of shortcuts for the links to make a reverse-chronological blog serve the needs of a serialized novel, and I've proven in that past 4 weeks or so that, yes, if needs be I can post every day, dammitt, though it may not be in a timely fashion.

It's overpriced, and while a throwback functionally is still a bit of a luxury item, but I think I may end up buying a Neo. I need a single-funtion laptop that will permit me to write, but by design restricts me from wasting time browsing the web or checking email. The Neo is a fancy typewriter--well, a basic word processor--but it has a battery life of a month or two on a few AA's, and features a fullsize keyboard with enough flash memory for a couple hundred pages of text. It sounds ideal, I mean, if I actually use it to write and it's not jsut some novelty that gathers dust. (that's a matter of motive rather than materiel, but there you go)

With a lot of my mental effort being diverted to the comic blog, I feel that my tabulas is being slighted (I never had the same reservation when I was just ignoring my blog... odd, that). I'd like to do more for this site. We'll see what I come up with this month or next.

Who knew that a throw-away entry tag would eventually become a search heuristic? Web trawls, indeed: today's google fishing lure is "punish my liver". Let's see what we caught.

- A nice article over on thisisby.us
- the AnonymousCoworker
- scrotum.dk
- a t-shirt. (been there, done that, etc.)
- and the...

Best Web Site Name of the Week
for the week ending 25 February 2007

Malfunction Junction

...which also happens to be some sort of web comic. bonus! (this was particularly juicy google-bait -- I also snagged at least two other winners, which buys me a little lead time to write comic reviews, or um, sit around the flat punishing my liver.)

(about the award -- past winners)

[Review originally written for and posted on Comicsnob.com]

To Terra, vol. 1

Published by: Vertical
Writer & Artist: Keiko Takemiya

344 (338) pages.
Original Language: Japanese
Orientation: Right to left
Vintage: Original series 1977-80. US edition February 2007.
Translation: Dawn T. Laabs
Production: Hiroko Mizuno & Shinobu Sato
Cover Design: Chip Kidd
Publisher's Rating: None given. Like many publishers, I'll err on the side of caution and say 13+

Rating: 4 out of 5

##

Premise: A bit of Logan's Run, a bit of Tomorrow People, and a whole heaping helping of space opera played out 3000 years in our future.

Synopsis:

The first 'book' tracks 14 year old Jomy Marcus Shin on the verge of adulthood -- maybe a bit before or a bit after, but around the time of their 14th birthday, all teens will be summoned by Universal Control for their Awakening, when they leave their foster parents and the life they knew behind to become adults -- or at least to start their final training.

Not all teens get approved. There are mental stability tests, and tests for ESP powers.

Well, maybe you can guess the next twist: Jomy is one of the "Mu", a mutant strain of humanity with psychic abilities. Not that Jomy seems to have a power he can control, but he has the potential...

After Jomy's saga, we change tracks, gears, and venue and the story follows Keith Anyan, a young human who has been Awakened and is now undergoing training on a space station to become one of Terra's Elite. (as the name implies, they're the folks who run things.) Keith has a rival, Shiroe, a new student with remarkable skills but a bit of an axe to grind. Shiroe's constant questioning begins to chip away at Keith's perfect facade, but it is only after these two character's stories--Jomy's and Keith's-- start to collide that the real plot begins to thicken.

##

Review:

If you're the sort of person who follows these things, there was a bit of an internet controversy (translation: argument over nothing) regarding how To Terra was being classified and marketed. There was some early buzz that this was a sci-fi "girls" comic, and of course any number of online pundits decided to weigh in with their "learned, considered" opinion that the manga was nothing of the sort, while others would defend the categorisation, and it devolved as things on the net usually do to the point where the issue being argued is no longer applicable to the original circumstances. It's immaterial, but here, have some.

However we'd care to class the manga, it's rather decidedly scifi, and also worth reading.

The vintage is 1977. (That's the same year Star Wars came out, which is just a bit of a coincidence, because there's nothing Star Wars-ish to be found here, but if it helps put To Terra into historical context for ya...) So the art is definitely Old Skool, and reminds me of Leiji Matumoto [wiki] in the character designs and the space setting. (You know, if one has to be derivative, there aren't all that many better role models to pick...)

This isn't a bang-pow space opera with corruscating lasers, noble-savage aliens from a warrior culture, and handy damsels to be in distress as the story needs them. This is going to be a bit more work for your average reader.

It's a dystopian future (in keeping with other 70s scifi) with an earth that is a polluted, burnt-out mess and a number of space colonies that are just barely hanging on. Life (human life) isn't making much of a go of it, and only careful management is keeping Terra alive -- though so far my take on it (we haven't actually seen Terra yet, and with the way this series is set up, we may never) is that Earth is a giant park, set up for conservation purposes but not actually a part of society as a whole.

It's a bleak future, but that makes the light of our characters burn that much brighter in the surrounding dark. It's rare that I find a scifi comic worth recommending as a comic, let alone as scifi, but here in To Terra it seems we have both. 4 marks out of 5, with a lot of potential for future releases -- A series to watch, and to read.

the afternoon coffee is starting to wear off, this evening's beer is starting to kick in-- into this careful interplay of chemicals, I have perhaps a golden hour in which to write insightful commentary on any number of subjects.

...what first came to mind was beer, coffee, and my personal consumption habits -- which I found so damn compelling in this state that I am in fact blogging it but my actual task for tonight is a 5by8 [local stash and the full listing over on comicsnob]

So I better get writting before beers 4 and 5 decide that since there isn't any caffeine left in the system, they can go ahead and start kicking my ass into droswy beer-fueled nap-time

I've found a bar with draft Guinness, an excellent menu, a smoker-friendly atmosphere (where no one complains about my pipe) and-- score! --free wifi that doesn't require registration or log in or that randomly times me out. It's nice.

In fact, I just read & reviewed a manga sitting at a table roughly 15 feet from the Guinness tap. (the review is over at the usual place for the curious) This is perhaps a most dangerous combination, in that it allows me to pander to five or six vices simultaneously (...they also have this really good apple-crumb-thing, served hot with vanilla ice cream)

It is in fact about a mile from my front door, and a bar that I've reviewed before. So yeah, a dangerous combination all around. I may be spending my vacation here.