Category: Comics

Desire: A Follow-up

You know that meme, “how it started/how it’s going”? I’m doing that today, but in text form!

Basically, I just want to take a quick look back at my “24 Days of Desire” feature and see how many of them have been fulfilled. It’s been almost a year now, I should have been able to get everything I wanted, right? Let’s see!

Day 1: Television – This was about me wanting to have cable, and if I recall correctly, it was specifically so I could watch the Chucky series. Well, I never got cable, because that would be stupid, and I still haven’t watched Chucky, because I don’t pirate TV shows or movies any more. Chucky is also on Paramount+, which has other things I want to watch, so I’m thinking about a subscription to that… But probably won’t bother.

Day 2: A better GPU – Ain’t got this. I’ve heard that prices are going down, but I haven’t bothered to look in many months. Besides, I only wanted it to beef up my Quest 2, so it’s right down at the bottom of my priority ladder.

Day 3: Star Wars sequels box set – I haven’t looked to see if this exists, and I don’t actually care enough to check. This was a filler episode, for sure.

Continue reading Desire: A Follow-up

24 Days of Desire (14): TMNT Classics

The other day, I wrote about how I’ll never have the complete set of Mega Man comics because Archie had zero respect for the series or the fans. When it comes to IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, though? Any that I’ve missed out on are totally my fault.

Actually, IDW has done a pretty great job of making sure that their original TMNT series has been easy to purchase in one format or another. Right now they’re releasing them in really nice hardcover collections, and you know that I’m all over those.

Continue reading 24 Days of Desire (14): TMNT Classics

24 Days of Desire (12): Mega Man Comics

In 2011, Archie Comics began publishing a graphic novel series based on the hit video game franchise, Mega Man. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? Features a little blue robot who fights for justice? Has a handful of games across a few different platforms?

So anyway, this Mega Man comic, it’s better than it has any right to be. The Mega Man games have very little in the way of story, so it was impressive that writer Ian Flynn was able to really flesh out a plot and dialogue interesting enough to keep you reading. Even more so since it also felt true to the spirit of the games.

Continue reading 24 Days of Desire (12): Mega Man Comics

24 Days of Quarantine Fun – Day 9: Holiday Reading

I don’t know about you, but I sure as heck don’t have any reading material that’s holiday-appropriate by any means. There may be some good holiday novels out there, but in my experience it’s all sappy dreck. So I don’t know why I thought that this was a good idea.

Oh, wait! There’s a faint glimmer of light in the darkness – comics!

Yep, I’ve pored over all the comics I own (which is not many, but probably still more than you would assume), and I’ve found… exactly one special issue. Well, it’s something!

From Hack/Slash Omnibus Volume 4, we have The Gift of Hack/Slash. Now, you’re probably not familiar with Hack/Slash, and honestly I wouldn’t blame you for it. This is a comic series which -to put it very briefly- is about a duo of vigilantes who hunt down “slashers”, which is a cute way of saying “villains inspired by horror movies”. And also sometimes there are crossovers with actual villains from horror movies.

Truth be told, this isn’t really even much of a holiday special. It’s four pages long and you have to squint really hard to see any holiday-related meaning. It’s all in that cover. And that’s all I’ve got.

I did once win a more holiday-themed novel as part of a raffle prize basket, but I immediately gave it to my mom because it was clearly just shlocky romantic nonsense. And I do not tolerate romance in my shlocky nonsense.

New Year’s Resomolutions

It’s 2015. Last year was a big ol’ pile of crap for me, hopefully this one turns out better. But hey, let’s not dwell on past miseries. Rather, let us look into the future with optimistic eyes.

Last year was the Year of Nintendo 64 here on TE. It was an… experience. Sometimes things turned out well, other times my hopes were dashed quite thoroughly. One time I actually got so frustrated that I pulled a cartridge (that shall not be named) out of the console and chucked it across the room. Ahh… good times.

So with that in mind, here’s this years theme: The Year of Overdue Attention. It’s the year of buying fewer new games, and playing the ones that I already own but haven’t touched at all. This year isn’t about nostalgia, it’s about clearing up a little bit of my hideous backlog.

There are hundreds of games in my Steam library. Many of them unwanted hangers-on that came to be there through Humble Bundles that I bought for other, more attractive games. These are not the games I mean. I’m talking about the ones that have literally done nothing but sit on the shelf and collect dust since I bought them. Cases that have never been cracked open. Discs that have never been spun. ROM that hasn’t been read. Let’s have a look at the short list.

Wii U

  • Assassin’s Creed III
  • Batman: Arkham Origins
  • The Wonderful 101

DS / 3DS

  • Final Fantasy III

Xbox 360

  • The Incredible Hulk
  • Mass Effect III
  • Tomb Raider (2014)

PS3

  • Drakengard 3
  • Ico

PS2

  • Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
  • Siren

PSP

  • Dead Head Fred

This is not the complete list, but rather the ones that I want to focus on. Now, most of these are big, meaty games. Considerably larger and longer than the average N64 game. I do not expect to finish them all. I chose twelve, but I am not holding myself to doing one a month. It’s simply me trying to justify all the money that I sunk into these games, only to end up ignoring them.

Please note that I do have a second resolution: And that is to write and draw at least one comic strip a month. I went over this intent briefly before, and I really can’t flesh it out any more than I already have. Like, this paragraph is already longer than it needs to be. The games are just for me, but the comics are something that I get to share with the whole internet, so I hope that you’re looking forward to them!

And that’s my long-range plan for 2015. Here’s hoping it’s a pretty dry year for video games, because I clearly have way more than I need already.

Comics that aren’t mine

I’ve been playing Pokémon Alpha Sapphire here and there between Zeldas and Smash Brothers, though this time I’m doing it a little differently. I’m playing Nuzlocke-style, which means that I can only capture the first monster I see in any given area, and that any of my pokémon that faint are considered dead and set free.

The challenge gives the game a little extra oomph, as it means you have a finite number of Pokémon to work with, and you don’t get to choose them. Good on this Nuzlocke fellow for coming up with an interesting way to keep the game fresh.

Also, he wrote and drew many comics about his own poke-adventures! They’re mostly about going through the poke-motions with the altered rules, but there are plenty of laugh-out-loud jokes in there. The art is pretty shabby to begin with, but it’s clearly because Nuzlocke is rushing these out the door and not putting much effort into them. They do start to look much better later on.

The only thing that I don’t like? The comic was abandoned only a few episodes into the White series. Things that end mid-story make me sad. But what can you do? Point of this post: Nuzlocke’s Pokémon: Hard-Mode comics were very much enjoyed by me, and they could be enjoyed by you too. Check ’em out.

There are other comics on his site there, but I haven’t read them yet. Investigate at your own risk.