Reading List: February

After last month’s insane DVD watching sessions, I decided to cut down on the time I spend devouring cool shows on DVD, and instead decided to draw and read more. However, I might return to DVD-watching soon, since I still haven’t the last three seasons of The X-Files, and I recently bought the sixth season of Scrubs. And a friend let me borrow the first one of Dark Angel, which has been sitting on top of my coffee table for almost a month now.
Anyway, this is what I read in February:

Batman: Hush, vol. 1
I decided to reread this awesome comic book by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee. More on this soon.

Dr. Slump, vol. 5
Arale wreaking havoc in Penguin Village again. However, Toriyama is starting to abuse the poop jokes. He should quit while he’s ahead.

Batman: Hush, vol. 2
The second half of this phenomenal series. A must read!

Star Wars: Allegiance
A very entertaining Star Wars book by Timothy Zahn, Allegiance spotlights a bunch of stormtroopers with a conscience, and a young Mara Jade starting to work as the Emperor’s Hand. Highly entertaining.

Dr. Slump, vol. 6
More Arale, more laughs, way too much poop.

The Goon, vol. 1: Nothin’ but Misery
I had heard about how funny The Goon was, and I had been wanting to get my hands on the first paperback for a few months. I finally did, and it blew me away. The story is cool, the artwork is great, the oil-painted covers are amazing, and the dialogue is freaking hysterical. If you like humor and horror, you have to read The Goon.

C is for Corpse
The third book (duh!) in the Kinsey Millhone alphabet mysteries, this is my favorite so far. More on that soon.

Empowered, vol. 1
Talk about hilarious graphic novels! Adam Warren knocks it out of the ball park with this spoof about incompetent superheroine Emp, who, for some reason, always ends up bound, gagged, and half naked. Add a thug boyfriend, a ninja roommate, and an evil overlord who spends his days watching DVDs, and you get a book that will make you laugh until you cry.

Fathom
I decided to reread Michael Turner’s Fathom, and I once again enjoyed it very much. The story is interesting, and the artwork is truly gorgeous. Turner rocks!

Duma Key
I already told you how great the latest Stephen King book is. Read it!

The Goon, vol. 2: My Murderous Childhood
Eric Powell brings us The Goon (and Franky) again in the second volume of the series. Powell has, by the way, earned an Eisner award for the series, so there might be something going on here. Like a terrific book you should be reading!

The Goon, vol. 3: Heaps of Ruination
More Goon goodness, including old friends like The Buzzard, Dr. Alloy, Bruno, and Spider. And orangutans that burst into flames! Hold on --I think those were in volume two. Never mind…

Reaching Paradise Through Intercourse
A cute book written by Sam Drash that compiles American towns with peculiar names. Who would have thought there were towns named (among others) Accident, Bad Axe, Boring, Cashtown, Colon, Cut-n-Shoot, Gay Mills, Hungry Horse, or Toad Suck? Well, they exist, unlikely as it may sound.

En este Blog pasamos de Bardem

Está claro que aquí nos importa poco el amigo Bardem, y casi nadie ha visto la peli. La opción "¿Y si no he visto la película? ¿Merezco morir por ello?" (8 votos, 44%) ha sido las más votada; y a pesar de esto, el tipo ganó el Oscar. La segunda opción más votada ha sido " No. Su actuación está sobrevalorada. Y además Bardem me cae gordo" (3 votos, 16%) . Y sólo un triste y mísero voto tiene la opción "Sin dudarlo. Si no se lo dan es que no hay justicia" (1 voto, 5%); pero bueno: acertó fuese o no justo.

El resto de opciones no tuvieron votos o fueron anuladas por no cumplir las normas establecidas para ser opciones de una encuesta.

Lo que no entiendo es por qué pone "caras", si con lo feo que es el mamón ya asusta.

Rubias vs. Morenas

Este post va dedicado especialmente a mi querido amigo y co-blogueador Nash, ya que hoy es su cumpleaños. Y sin embargo, tengo el presentimiento de que la mayoría (si no todos) de los lectores del que podría ser el blog más leído de la red (si alguien lo leyera) lo apreciará también. No tenéis más que darle al Play y disfrutar del vídeo. Y desde aquí le doy las gracias a mi amigo Óscar por haberme descubierto éste y tantos otros vídeos musicales interesantes. Enjoy!

The War is Over

The hi-def war is over, and Blu-Ray is the winner, while HD-DVD is in a coffin. Now that Paramount has turned blu, all six major studios in Hollywood are supporting Blu-Ray technology, while none of them is going to release anything on HD-DVD anymore. So now that the war is over, you can go ahead and get a Blu-Ray player without worrying about its longevity. Or you could get a PlayStation 3, which includes a Blu-Ray player, and both enjoy hi-def movies and play God of War III when it's released. It's a win-win situation!

Organic #28

Bienvenidos una semana más a Organic, el webcómic que parece suscitar cada vez menos interés semana tras semana. Mientras sobrevolaban la guarida del infame Científico, Koori y Tomatito fueron detectados por anacrónicos sistemas de seguridad, y el mencionado villano encomendó a sus concubinas/guardaespaldas neutralizar la amenaza. Tras recibir sus órdenes de Medusa, un Lagarto francotirador derribó a Koori, que se precipita en este mismo momento hacia su muerte mientras su padre intenta salvarla. ¿Qué pasará a continuación? ¡Esto es Organic, así que tú decides!

Bonus 1: bocetillo de la viñeta en general, y de Tomatito en particular.
Bonus 2: bocetillo de Koori, en una página diferente.

Return of the King

As I told you back in the day, Stephen King’s Duma Key came out a month ago. I bought immediately, but took my sweet time to start reading it. Once I started, however, I couldn’t put it down. Of course I could not.

Duma Key tells the story of Edgar Freemantle, a survivor of a horrible accident that moves from Minnesota to Florida as an attempt at recovery from his hideous wounds. There he meets new people, starts a new life, and discovers a new hobby that will change plenty of things for plenty of people.

I guess it’s hard to make a book sound interesting with such a vague (and lame) summary, but this book is amazing. The story is very interesting, the mixture of reality and art is electrifying, and the characters and dialogue are out of this world. Any exchange between Eddie and Wireman is a brilliant conversation, a true to life interaction, and both characters are solidly built and magnificently fleshed out.

Lots of things in this book reminded me of another King favorite of mine, Bag of Bones, but Duma Key never felt like a rehash or a repetition of Mike Noonan’s adventures. I would talk at length about these elements, but I’d rather not spoil anything for any potential reader.

To sum it up, Duma Key is ridiculously entertaining, and it’s full of heart and chills. The suspense keeps mounting up until the end, and the characters will stay with you for a long time after finishing the book. Will you enjoy it as much as I did? Maybe sí, maybe no.

How to Make a Cover

I have never read Fables. I've read many good things about the series, but I've seen the interior artwork, and I don't realy like it. However, James Jean's covers blow me away, and this is the perfect example. Apparently, he shows the creative process for some of his stuff on his blog, and if you click on this link, you will see the whole process for the cool cover accompanying this post. Enjoy!