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12.07.03 by Dindrane @ 9:11 pm  Story: Story and Art by: Yu Watase Published by: Viz My Verdict: Buy it. Miaka Yuki thought she was a normal junior-high student, stressing more over her high school entrance exams and what her next meal will be than anything else. But Miaka has a weird experience in a library: she opens a book and is magically transported into the story, The Universe of the Four Gods, where she is hailed as the priestess of Suzaku, the deity of the realm of Konan. Based upon the medieval China, a war is brewing, and Miaka must help the people of Konan by gathering the seven legendary warriors of Suzaku. When Miaka gathers the warriors and summons Suzaku, she will also be granted one wish, which she plans to use to pass her exams in the real world. Categorized as: Comics and Reviews
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12.07.03 by Widge @ 7:10 am   Story: Written & Art by Craig Thompson My Verdict: This book is why comics exist. Craig is a young boy who, along with his brother, suffers through growing up with fundamental Christian parents who use both the fear of God and the fear of a literal hole in the wall called The Cubby Hole to keep the kids in line. Craig is also a young man who looks back on his life with his family and with his brother and how they've grown apart. He's coming to terms with his art, his faith and falling in love for the first time. This book is so good it hurts. Thompson has managed to capture teenage uncertainty with a clarity that literally made me ache with recognition--because I've been Craig. Oh sure, I managed to luckily miss some of the abuse, but I've exchanged those mix tapes, I've done unique art for love, and I've kept my own version of the blanket in the title. I've also spent long hours trying to figure out exactly what God wanted from me and why the things that seemed to be perfectly natural were only supposed to bring me eternal fire and damnation. So I can vouch for the fact that this is Craig's story, but he's tapped into what it was like--so much so that the experience of reading the book has left me shaken and this review probably will wind up making no damn sense at all. Categorized as: Comics
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12.07.03 by Dindrane @ 5:00 am  Story: Written by Neil Gaiman Contents: All 3 issues of the limited series, plus Death Talks About Life My advice: Own it. You there! Yes, you... the one hiding behind the guy in the red shirt. You don't know who Death and the Endless are? Sigh. Okay, here's the deal: Gaiman created the Endless for his series, The Sandman. Basically, these siblings are all personifications of universal forces: there's Destiny, Desire, Dream, Death, Delirium, Destruction, and Despair. Death, with whom we are interested here, is a young, beautiful, perky little goth-girl with whom you'd really like to hang out. Once every hundred years, Death walks as a human among us, to remember what it's like to be alive. Categorized as: Comics and Reviews
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12.07.03 by Widge @ 2:09 am  Story: Written by Warren Ellis Notes: Contains issues 37-42 of the series and a introduction by director Darren Aronofsky Published by Vertigo/DC Comics. Spider's lost his gig at The Word, forced out by the sinister forces that are amassing against him. However, you can't keep a good journalist down--at least not one this popular. So Spider seeks out a new venue for his rantings: The Hole, a guerilla news source that can't be stopped because it can't be tracked down. He's got other problems as well: his body may give out before he can finish what he started. Having already read the final issue of this series, it was a grateful relief to go back and check out Spider's adventures more than two years away from the closing I just left. It's also refreshing to note that my previous comments about this series still ring true: it didn't wander off and get lost somewhere (100 Bullets) or completely lose its balls (Preacher). It rocked till the end. And I discovered that probably some of my favorite Transmet stories are included in this trade. "Business," a heart-breaking and unflinching look at child prostitution; "There is a Reason," regarding the mentally ill who find themselves homeless; and of course, the titular story in which Spider urges his readers to remember the cities as they are, the constantly in-flux living filthy organisms that they are. Categorized as: Comics and Reviews
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11.21.01 by Tobias Clutch @ 1:25 am  Story: Written by J. Michael Straczynski Published by Marvel My Verdict: Spider-Ham. Yes, I bought Marvel's much-ballyhooed "handling" of the World Trade center disaster within the pages of Amazing Spider-Man. I'm sure they intended for this issue to be a somber, touching, uplifting, and--ultimately--inspiring look at the tragedy. It's a shame that the book is none of those things. What is it, then? Categorized as: Comics and Reviews
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