Your Train Commute Is About To Become Awesome

I would drink with this guy any day of the week. Or all of them.

If you were born in the 1980′s and you have yet to read any Scott Pilgrim, then I urgently (yet still gently) want to push you in that direction – the right direction. Yes, I know there’s a movie coming out soon (Aug. 13th), and while the early reviews look to be positive I don’t know a thing about how the film will turn out. The books on the other hand I know for certain are gold. Sure, they’re undeniably dorky, but it is still just such a satisfying experience from beginning to end that when you finish one volume I promise you will be looking for another. It won’t take very long to see Scott Pilgrim is the kind of guy who wears his heart on his sleeve… he is also (at times) incredibly slow-witted when it comes to girls, but when he has to fight for what he loves, man this guy fights. When you throw in real life situations (relationships, crappy jobs, rent, ninjas) explained through jokes referring to Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog and X-Men, it doesn’t get any better than this.

Here, let me point you in the right direction: Volume 1, Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life, is cheap as hell on amazon right now. Totally worth it.

Three Words: Mice with Swords.

Salutations, Papernauts!  I am here to pose two relatively simple questions to you:

1.  Have you read any of the Mouse Guard series?

2.  If you haven’t, why aren’t you reading the Mouse Guard series??!

If you are into grand adventures, political intrigue, freedom fighting, Cute Overload and a touch of general badassery, then you are really missing out if you’re not reading Mouse Guard.

That owl is missing an eye. SPOILER ALERT: He had two earlier in this book. MOUSE BADASSERY!!

Why would you want to read a book about mice?  Didn’t this series win the 2008 Eisner Award for “Best Publication for Kids”?  I hate kids’ comics, Hannah, stop trying to pull a fast one on me.  Au contraire, mon amis. … Continue Reading

Free Comic Book Day!

FREE = AWESOME (usually)

Get ready, comic book fans and yet-to-be comic book lovers:  This Saturday, May 1, 2010, is Free Comic Book Day!  To find out if your local comic book shop is participating, go to the Free Comic Book Day website and search for your location. … Continue Reading

An open letter to James Cameron

She will find a way to your heart, and it will probably involve punching.

Hey James,

It’s me again. Yes, the same guy who hasn’t cared about really anything you’ve worked on since Terminator 2. Ok, so Avatar was huge. Smashed all kinds of box office records, revolutionized film making as we know it, and as of today’s news, is the fastest selling Blu-Ray DVD ever (like there won’t be a special edition out by the end of summer). Congratulations.

I don’t give a crap about all of that. When the hell are you making Battle Angel?

… Continue Reading

What A Long Strange Trip Its Been

I wish I had a time machine...

Sometime long ago it seems I picked up a small volume from Oni Press because the cover caught my eye. It was Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life and I was hooked. The art style seemed plugged into my nerd reference/video game fueled/indie sensibility brain and nested there. I had recently been dealing with some family tragedy and this small volume made me smile and laugh and proceed to pass it out to my friends (first going to my fellow astronaut Shaka). Luckily I was a little late to the Scott Pilgrim game (hey I was a broke college student when the first one came out and then I was living in Korea…cut me some slack) so I had a couple more volumes to pick up.

What followed was an experience that hooked into the nerd zeitgeist and the general malaise that comes from being in your early twenties and all of a sudden facing a world that isn’t as safe as you may have once believed. The characters were great and the art was amazing. Wallace is probably one of my favorite roommate characters ever. I finished the next three volumes like hot cakes. I went out and started buying Oni Press releases and discovered Queen and Country and Local and a ton of other insane and awesome things. In some ways Scott Pilgrim turned me back into a comic book nerd (I also rediscovered my love of Vertigo titles around then). Then Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe came out and it was bittersweet. By far the most mature and serious volume of the comic, it was also one of the most interestingly told. Most of Scott Pilgrim’s fights and antics take place in the background as the relationships around him change (and not always for the better) as his friends grow up. Alas it was also the penultimate volume, and I knew the journey was soon to be over.

Today the folks over at Oni Press announced the final volume’s release date. So take out your pens and mark this down: July 20th. I’d just like to salute the people over at Oni for giving comics out of the mainstream a platform to find success, and Bryan Lee O’Malley for creating a world and a character that has provided me and my friends with laughter (and sometimes a little sadness) over the past couple of years. Three beers to you ser.