Comic Review: Aron Warner's Pariah, Volume 1

Title: Aron Warner's Pariah
Authors:  Philip Gelatt, Aron Warner
Illustrator: Brett Weldele
Publisher: Sea Lion Books
Release Date: 07/24/2012
ISBN: 098361315X





I have to say, if the goal of Sea Lion Books sending me review copies is partially to make me want to own the physical books myself, they're achieving it with a rate that's probably scaring my checkbook. (Not that I don't scare it myself every time I walk into my local comic book store or Barnes & Nobles.) I need this book, just like I needed a copy of the first volume of Storm Born.

Brent Marks, a known Vitro, is desperately trying to live a normal high school life while suffering the slings and arrows of being known as an uber-geek. But, things go from bad to worse when the Vitro community, en-masse, is blamed for a fatal explosion in a military weapons lab and the subsequent release of a deadly toxin. Caught up in a global panic, the Vitros become subject to a groundswell of persecution, as they are declared terrorists and hunted down!


The first issue of the comic was rather slow in revealing its data, and despite the fast pace of the first volume, I'm still left with a lot of questions that haven't been answered. This is to be expected, as you don't give it all up in the first go, but I'm dying to know more about these characters. What exactly are the Vitros? They're smart, but why are they so different? How were they made? Were they really accidental? One of the characters in the series makes an off-hand remark about Vitros being an accident, but somehow I'm not so sure of that.

There's a lot of character introductions here, so you really only get enough to get a basic feel for the more important people. One of my two favorites has to be the super-smart yet somewhat out of touch Franklin, a Vitro that was raised in an unloving and completely isolated environment. As such he has the book smarts yet perhaps not the street smarts to deal with the others. The other favorite has to be the uber-creepy Maudsley, who thinks nothing of manipulating people with nothing but his words... to deadly effect. There's some pretty intriguing characters here and the first issue deals with the brainy Brent, but these two are the ones who truly stole the spotlight and odds are that they'd be the two best characters to watch. If they were real, I'd love to see what an interview with either of them would be like. (Although I'll admit that I'm grateful that Maudsley doesn't exist IRL. That I know of.)

Volume one of this series ends with quite a bang, so I'm glad that I had issue five bundled into my review copy. I'm going to write a mini-review for that, but I'll leave that on the final part of my blog. If you don't want spoilers, you'll want to stop here. If you want to know, read on. Just know that this is well worth the price of admission, and with all of the comics being adapted into movies or TV shows, this would be something that would look good on either screen. Absolutely worth checking out.

(Thar be spoilers, arr!)

Now for the evaluation of issue 5. The first volume ended with our intrepid teens waking to find themselves on an ancient space station. A space station that they soon discover is rapidly deteriorating to the point that they're going to die within five hours if they don't find a way to (if I could quote Tim Gunn) "make it work". This issue has them focusing their superhuman intellects on the task at hand, which is pretty interesting to watch. So far we've seen glimpses of what they can do, but never really any of the actual work in depth. This issue shows us how they might work as a team in the future. The issue is pretty well paced and as a result, is nice and exciting. There's also some great foreshadowing in the artwork by way of a well placed image in the helmet of a space suit (no spoilers on what it resembles!) and Weldele is to be congratulated on this. I'm rather happy that SLB has the same artist doing the artwork, as it allows for more collaboration between the teams and a better understanding of the story than if they'd brought someone else in partway through. (Plus I really dig his style.) Definitely a good followup to the cliffhanger of the first volume.


I know this sounds fangirlish, but this is one of those great indie series that will probably never get the attention it so very much deserves. 




Five out of five stars


(Reader copy provided by Sea Lion Books)

The ponies are coming! Ponified book characters

If you've ever been on the internet for a minute, you've heard of them. The My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic show and its fandom. If you've been on there for a few minutes longer, you've probably seen some of the inevitable ponification of various book characters. Maybe you've even seen custom figures that have been altered. Either way, it's usually a blast to look at.

For fun, I'm linking to some of the stuff I've found through my travels:

(Note: I did not create any of these images or figures. When possible, I'm linking to the accounts for the artists via their names so you can shower them with praise and/or money. I've heard that artists like money and praise.)

Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter

These images comes to you from the Deviant Art account of Eris Chaos Goddess.  If you've ever wondered what Jean Claude and Nathaniel (bottom image) look like as ponies, here you are! I have to say, part of me wishes that she'd included Nathaniel's pearl necklace in this one...

This custom figure of Asher comes from marienoire, who did a pretty awesome job. (It looks like she does a lot of custom figures.)


The Last Unicorn

This one I found via a Google image search, but the image name has the artist as "shockowaffel". I know that this seems to have been more taken from the movie version of the book and that Amalthea is already in pony shape, but this is a gorgeous picture.


Harry Potter

All  of these ponified characters come to you courtesy of asdflove on Deviant Art, who has a load of other great pony images!




TinTin

Here we have an image from the Tin Tin books, brought to you by sutakaibagirl!


The Hunger Games

Now we have an image from The Hunger Games, drawn for your viewing pleasure by ToxicKittyCat!



Twilight

Finally we have the Twilight ponies. Here's one brought to you by maikoforev5674 of Bella.

This is a custom of Edward Cullen by trillions. I have to say, it's pretty awesome!

I can't help but link to more of the custom Twilight ponies because well... they're gorgeous! This one is by jupiternwndrlnd. Please someone- throw money at her!! This is incredibly well done on the cutie mark artwork!

For my last image I have a quartet of custom ponies by eponyart, with each pony representing one of the books of the series.




Again, I want to emphasize that I own none of the above images and had no factor in their creation. I just saw them and couldn't help but want to post them on my blog because they were so cool and so the above artists could get some more well-deserved recognition!

Book Spotlight: Pantheons: The Game of the Gods

Aghast at the amount of Austen you still have left to read? Chagrined that you're only a third of the way through Chaucer? Wish that you could read a book that mixes Greek mythology with good old fashioned teenage exuberance?

Well, put down those required reads (for now, anyway) and pick up this latest book in the amazing Pantheons series by E. J. Dabel: Pantheons: The Game of the Gods!

A year has passed since Isaiah Marshall’s father, Zeus, severed his left arm with white lightning in the tournament. During this time, the Indestructible Diamond has been training hard under the mysterious old man who saved his life. Despite his focus and determination, Isaiah has been unsuccessful in his development of his usage of blue-white lightning, nor has he tapped into the other more potent colored bolts, which his father has mastered. 

The Powers-That-Be have forced the teen gods to finally take part in the Fourth Great War. But fearing death, as they have been cursed with mortal bodies, they’ve decided to compete for the Dominion in a new, professional sport called Tasselball: The Game of the Gods.


Seriously, what about this doesn't sound like a whole bunch of awesome?

Luckily for you, you can not only get this book, but also the first book in the series on Amazon right now. You don't even have to wait for shipping- you can get them directly beamed to your e-reader or computer through the magic of the Internet. There's a free preview of both books for your viewing pleasure! For you fans of Brian Jacques's Redwall there's Albino, a story of a mouse that must find the courage inside himself to fight against an ultimate evil.

Check them out today!

Albino
Pantheons
Pantheons: The Game of the Gods

Best. Comment. Ever.

A friend of mine just shared this Stacia Kane quote with me: (click here to see it on Goodreads)

“Readers have the right to say whatever the fuck they want about a book. Period. They have that right. If they hate the book because the MC says the word “delicious” and the reader believes it’s the Devil’s word and only evil people use it, they can shout from the rooftops “This book is shit and don’t read it” if they want. If they want to write a review entirely about how much they hate the cover, they can if they want. If they want to make their review all about how their dog Foot Foot especially loved to pee on that particular book, they can.”

This is quite possibly the best quote ever in relation to readers and reviews.

EDIT:

Just discovered it's part of an even longer blog post by Kane, which is even more full of awesome. You can click on this sentence to go to the blog, but I'm going to repost the entire amazing entry in its entirety.

"Oh, man. I hardly know where to start.

I’ve been thinking about this post for about a week now, and still don’t know what exactly I’m going to say. I’m just trying to make sense of some things, basically. So forgive me if this is a tad rambly.

The thing is, I’ve been involved in the online writing/reading community since 2005 now. And in that time things have gotten–in my view, at least–more and more antagonistic and upsetting. I wonder why. This post–this series of posts planned for this week–is my attempt to figure it out, I guess. To express my thoughts and see what yours are, and perhaps to offer a potential solution. And in order to do that I’m going to be very honest, and perhaps harsh in some places, but I’m trying to express my full thought process here. So we’ll see how it goes.

In the past nine days or so the internet–at least the writer/reader part of it–seems to have gone kablooey. Specifically, the writer part of it, in that we’ve had a rash of writers deciding it’s their place to tell readers A) How to review books; B) What is and is not okay to say or think; C) Why their opinion is totally wrong; and D) whatever other ridiculous shit they come up with.

I’m aware of five separate incidents, the latest being a self-published author who, in response to a reasoned but negative review, took it upon himself to leave 40 comments–yes, forty–on the blog quoting the fawning letters he’d received about the book from family and friends. And then many more comments insisting that what he did was totally professional and reasonable and why is the reviewer in question so full of hate, yo? And that’s nothing compared to the others, the writers ranting on their blogs and leaving nasty or argumentative comments on Goodreads and blah blah blah.

Guys…cut it out. Just, seriously, cut it out.

Readers have the right to say whatever the fuck they want about a book. Period. They have that right. If they hate the book because the MC says the word “delicious” and the reader believes it’s the Devil’s word and only evil people use it, they can shout from the rooftops “This book is shit and don’t read it” if they want. If they want to write a review entirely about how much they hate the cover, they can if they want. If they want to make their review all about how their dog Foot Foot especially loved to pee on that particular book, they can.

Why?

Because, and I’ve said this before, reviews are for readers. Because they purchased the book (or it was sent to them specifically hoping they would express an opinion) and so can say whatever they want about it. If you buy a shirt that falls apart in the wash, do you keep your mouth shut about it because you don’t want to hurt the manufacturer’s feelings?

Authors, reviews are not for you. They are not for you. Authors, reviews are not for you."

I love Rich Koslowski!

(sighs) I'm currently in the process of moving to a new location, so that means that I've been having to pack up my huge bookshelf. It's bad since I'm going to have to decide which of my comics and books go into storage and I hate the idea of not having any of them within arm's reach, but good since I've been able to go through and re-discover some of my most favorite series and authors, one of which is The 3 Geeks series by Rich Koslowski. (Click on his smiling face to go to his website!)


While I've so far only read Koslowski's 3 Geeks series, I have to say that he's one of my favorite indie comic artists out there. Not only does he write one heck of an entertaining series, but Koslowski does a great job of depicting many of the comic book fans that are out there. I can easily see parts of myself in both Keith and Allen (some of my die-hard fangirl notions are more similar to Allen's nature than I'd like to admit sometimes). It's also pretty easy to look at some of my fellow comic fans and see how they compare to their inky counterparts. I've seen the general good natured "Keith" types of fans who love to share (and sometimes over-share) their love for comic books, the nerdy and socially inept "Allen" types that can occasionally blur the lines between fantasy and reality, as well as the Jim types who love to proclaim their love for all things drawn and violent. My point for mentioning this is that even if you only occasionally flirt with the comics world, odds are you've seen or experienced much of the actions that go on in this series.


Even if you haven't you would still enjoy this series. In between the biggest and most epic points of a comic book fan's life such as going to your first big comic convention or trying to draw your own comic book, there's tons of average adventures as well. I think that most of us can all remember the first time we realized that we had to get a job to afford whatever it was that we wanted (mine was washing dishes in order to afford my huge library fines). Many of us can also remember trying to figure out the opposite gender and trying to decide what it was that they wanted of us and how to attract their attention. All of that is here and hilariously captured for our amusement, so there's tons of appeal here for a wide audience.

The series is pretty easy to pick up regardless of which volume you decide to get, although I will say that the first volume is Going to the Con. You can still get all of the series at Koslowski's website as well as picking up the final volume of the series, The Geeksville Years. (Although there was a three part series put out a few years ago that takes place before the events in TGY.) Not only will you be able to get your comics directly from the man himself, but he'll also sign your stuff for you.

I think I can safely say that none of his stuff will be going into storage. 'Nuff said.

Manga Review: Sailor Moon and Sailor V, volumes 1

Title: Sailor Moon, Sailor V Volumes 1

Author: Naoko Takeuchi

Publisher: Kodansha Comics

Release Date: 09/13/2011

ISBN: 1935429744

ISBN: 1935429779

If you're a manga fan like me, you've been eagerly awaiting these releases for years. Not days or months, but years. Ever since the now defunct Tokyopop lost their licence to Sailor Moon, this manga has been something that you could only find via eBay or scanned onto the internet. Sailor V never got an official release, so you could really only hope to find an untranslated copy or hope that a scanlated copy got released from someone. Now you don't have to wait anymore. Kodansha has released Takeuchi's most famous work to the English speaking audience.

Art-wise, these books are absolutely gorgeous. One look at the covers should show you that you're in for a treat. I don't have any scans of the new translations, but the artwork has been cleaned up for this reprint. It's been a while since I've seen the Tokyopop translation, so at some point I'm going to have to find a copy to compare it to. (Or look for pictures that people have posted on the net.)

Story-wise, the Sailor Moon volume was stronger than the Sailor V manga was. I'm sort of chalking this up to the Sailor V manga being more of a sporadic release than the Sailor Moon story was. One thing that's absolutely cool about reading the Sailor V manga was seeing how Takeuchi began to brainstorm characters and designs for Sailor Moon as well as to see the gradual change in how the series was presented. Over time the Sailor V manga started changing to show it as a prequel to Sailor Moon. (Sailor V started before Sailor Moon started being made, but continued to be sporadically released while Sailor Moon was running.) It's a glimpse into Takeuchi's thought processes and it's incredibly fun to see which designs made it into Sailor Moon and which ones didn't.

Translation-wise this is much more faithful than the Tokyopop/Mixx translations and fans who have poured over the TP releases will instantly notice a few translation differences. One thing that I couldn't help but notice was that while the translation was more faithful, it's just a little clunky. I loved that there were honorifics in here, but I'd be lying if I said that the honorifics occasionally hurt more than they helped. One such instance is the usage of "Princess-Sama", which just seemed a little redundant and clunky. I have to admit that I'd almost prefer that the honorifics were dropped entirely for flow reasons, although at times they do help to show some character interactions a little better.

This is something that I'd absolutely recommend for any Sailor Moon or Takeuchi fan as well as any fan of shoujo manga. It's worth looking at for the nostalgia value as well as to get a gander at the series that introduced a lot of the American and English speaking audience to anime and manga as a whole. (Sailor Moon was the first television series I watched where I knew that I was watching anime.)

4 out of 5 stars for both volumes

Yay for contests: Hush, Hush and Sea Lion Books!

Hi everyone! My posts have been a little erratic due to school and a little someone called Irene playing havoc with my electronics, but I'm happy to give you some info on a comic that I think is going to be a "must own" for me.

Like Hush, Hush? Well, I know that I do and I'm pretty excited to see that it's getting the graphic novel treatment. I'm also pretty excited to hear that Sea Lion Books is doing a contest so awesome that I'm just going to post what they wrote word for word since I don't think I could do it without giving a huge fangirl squee.

Did you miss out on the signed graphic novel and 2011 books that bite
purse? Well don't be sad for we are doing it AGAIN and this time it's
BIGGGGGGEEERRRRRR and BEEETTTTTTTEEERRRR. In celebration of the upcoming
release! We thought a graphic novel this epic deserved something extra
special!!!

On our store tab ( http://store.sealionbookstore.com ) you can purchase the
limited edition Hush Hush graphic novel prologue for $10.00. WE WILL ONLY
BE RELEASING 1,000 COPIES AND IT WILL ONLY BE AVAILABLE ON OUR WEB STORE.
So not only is this an important piece to the contest puzzle but you will
be one of a thousand people to own this piece of Becca Fitzpatrick's
history!!! Keep in mind since there are only 1,000 copies of the prologue
being made we need to limit the number of copies you can purchase. It is
limited to 2 copies per person.

Now here is the fun part! Once you receive the book, take a picture of
yourself with it and email the picture to us along with a paragraph as to
why you should be the next to make a cameo in the next volume of Hush Hush!
In this cameo you will even interact with Patch and Nora. NOW REMEMBER I
SAID THAT I WAS GOING TO BE ENVIOUS OF THE NEXT WINNER!!! WELL HERE IS
WHY! The winner will not only get to interact with Patch and Nora in the
next Hush Hush Graphic Novel, BUT the illustrator for the graphic novel
will also IMMORTALIZE you from head to toe in Patch's arms! Your image
will be held lovingly safe in his arms! How awesome is that!!!

SO LET'S RECAP!!!

1. 1,000 limited edition prologues will be available for sale on
www.SeaLionBooks.com. Limit 2 please!

2. Once you receive the Hush Hush prologues you must take a picture of
yourself with it and post the picture on our FB page with a paragraph in
the comments under the picture as to why they should be the next to make a
cameo in the next volume of Hush Hush!

3. The winner gets an interacting cameo with Patch and Nora in Hush Hush
volume 2, and they get a unique one-of-a-kind poster with Patch holding the
winner in his arms.

4. The limited edition prologues will ship the first week of October.

I'm so excited over this that I could scream. I loved the heck out of Hush, Hush and the possibility of getting a picture drawn of Patch (let alone one of me with him) is pretty freaking cool. (OK, so I'm no longer a teenager, but Patch is far older than I am. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

Click on the beautiful graphic novel cover above for a direct link to the sale page!

Book Review: Beyond the Grave by Mara Purnhagen

Title: Beyond the Grave (Past Midnight #3)

Author: Mara Purnhagen

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Release Date: 08/23/2011

ISBN: 0373210310

I'm going to have to tone down my geekthusiam while writing this review because quite frankly, I thought this book was awesome. It's one of the best in the Past Midnight series so far, in my humble opinion.

A haunting new tale in the Past Midnight series...

I can’t move forward with my life until I know my demons are confined to the past...

Being Charlotte Silver, the daughter of famous paranormal investigators, means my life isn’t like that of other teenage girls. Especially after what happened to my parents. Things changed. I missed prom and deferred my big college plans. But I still have my boyfriend, Noah. He’s everything I could want—if I can figure out what’s up with him. Suddenly Noah is secretive.

I fear it has something to do with what happened to us three months ago. The bruise Noah suffered during a paranormal attack has never completely faded. Now I’ve learned Noah is researching demons. And when he disappears, it’s up to me to find him—before something else does.

If you couldn't guess from my earlier statement, I loved this book. I loved that it was such a quick & easy read. Also great was that we get a deeper look into the character of Bliss, someone that many will recognize as the former Queen of Mean that she used to be in some of the previous books. We get a better look into her character, showing us things that really help explain how & why she's acted like she has in the past. It really was a good look into a character that could stand to have a series of her own eventually. (After you read this book you'll understand why this could work.)

What really impressed me was that there weren't a lot of punches pulled in this book. People who are a little squeamish will probably wince at the ending since it can get a little on the gory side. You also have to have read the previous books in the series in order to really appreciate everything that's going on here. Enough is explained that new readers will be able to keep up but it probably won't be as fun for them as it would for someone who has read the entire run so far.

I'm not sure if this is the last book in the series or not, to be honest. There's a definite "ending" feel to this book & if Purnhagen did decide to end the series, this would be a terrific ending. I hope she continues the series in some form or fashion (whether with Charlotte or with another character) because there's still a whole world here to explore, especially the world of the Protectors, a group of people whose entire purpose is to protect people like Charlotte.

This is definitely one of my top 10 books of the year. If you haven't read any of Purnhagen's previous books, you need to get them & read them just so you can read Beyond the Grave. It's that good. I have to say, this book is making me want to start over at the beginning of the series & re-read them all, including 1.5.

This is a must read for anyone who loves supernatural fiction! Not a teen? Don't worry because you don't have to be under 18 in order to love this book.

5 out of 5 stars!

(ARC provided by Netgalley)

P.S. I read on the author's blog that this has been optioned for a TV series! I'm definitely crossing my fingers that the bigwigs at CBS realize that they've got a good thing here!

Now I need an iPad: Viz releases a manga app!

Hi everyone! I've always thought that we needed more mangas available in ebook format & while this isn't exactly the "manga released for my sony ereader" I was hoping for, it's still a whole lot of awesome.

Viz Media has decided to jump on the app bandwagon, releasing an app that will allow you to download hundreds of volumes of their manga at the touch of a button. So far this is only available for iPad, iPhone, & iPod Touch, although I'm sure it won't be long until this shows up on some of the other products out there. (Or until someone finds a way to upload this app onto their phone.)

As an extra bit of awesomeness, Viz has lowered the prices of some of the first volumes of the offered manga to $2.99, which any manga lover can tell you is pretty dirt cheap.

Not only can you read a ton of their biggest series, but you can also download samples, which is an awesome feature. No longer will you have to fight past the hordes of teenagers that have decided to camp out on the floors in front of the bookstore's manga section. (By the way, this actually happens. I've actually had to step over someone in order to put books away.) Now you can show all of them up by looking up these titles on your phone while you sit in the cafe sipping your coffee. Or on the bus. The sky's really the limit as far as "places I can read manga" goes.

Own more than one i-product? You can bookmark & browse on any of your devices without having to sign up with various different accounts.

While I don't (yet) have any of these products, this gives me a new reason to want one & I can't hope that Viz branches out to the various ereaders. I know that I love reading mangas on my ereader since it's sometimes easier to collect things digitally to save on room. There are some titles I want to collect in paper format but there's just as many that I'd rather have on my ereader to peruse at my leisure. Hopefully this app will show Viz & some of the other publishers out there (for both manga, graphic novels, & "regular" comics) that there is an ereader market to be seized.

(Info taken from Viz's site as well as from the ANN news article)

Read this book: The Lying Game by Sara Shepard

Hi all! After mentioning Nickel Plated in one of my other blogs, I figured I'd mention another book you should read.

More than likely you've heard of Pretty Little Liars, an awesome book series turned tv show. It's one of my favorite teen reads, something I've recommended quite often through work. Well, Shepard has a new series coming out that's along the same vein as PTL, called The Lying Game. It comes out in December & I literally can't wait to read it. I pretty much think that this book & the last book in the Wicked Lovely series are the two top books I'm waiting for this year.

Here's the book synopsis:

Sutton Mercer has a life any girl would kill for...and someone did.

Shortlybefore her seventeenth birthday, Emma discovers she has a long-lost twin. She contacts Sutton, who agrees to a rendezvous, but never shows up. Curious at first, Emma slips into Sutton's life, assuming her identity. When it becomes clear that Sutton is not coming back, that someone made sure she never could, Emma plunges in to investigate who could have wanted her sister gone (a fairly long list, she discovers). Unfortunately, taking over Sutton's life means innocent little Emma has inherited all that bad blood-and then some.

I have to say, I wish books like this were out when I was a teenager. While some might balk at some of the mature themes, I absolutely love that authors have been upping the ante in YA in general. (Heck, I always recommend that the parents read the book along with the kids- it'll give them a lot to talk about together!)

Hopefully school will be kind enough in December that I'll be able to read this right away & post a prompt review here on this blog!