Today I review a new first-issue comic published by Action Lab Comics, called Action Lab: Dog of Wonder (yes, that title was intentional). I first saw this book when Action Lab Comics appeared at my local comic shop for a promotional event, and I spoke with Vito Delsante, the co-writer on Action Lab #1, who is a really cool guy. Anyway, the comic’s pretty fun and adorable and you should read it.
More book reviews are coming, so stay tuned!
In not-book-review news, there’s a new sketchcomic just for patrons called, “Julia.” The version patrons are seeing now is actually the new and HEAVILY revised draft of this old story idea. So if you want to read it, go pledge on Patreon.
In today’s episode I review the new title by Image and Top Cow Comics, Switch by Stjepan Sejic, a creator I am a big fan of!
In case you haven’t heard of him (which would be surprising because he’s kind of a big deal), he created the webcomic Sunstone and did art for lots of comics in the mainstream, like Witchblade and even a brief stint on Rat Queens. Continue reading “Review Day Tuesday: Switch”
It’s another Review Day Tuesday video blog. Wheee!
In today’s review, I talk about In Real Life by Cory Doctorow & Jen Wang, and its take on economics and its effects on gamers.
If you’re interested in reading more things by Cory Doctorow, check out his Boing Boing page, and if you want to read more work by Jen Wang, read Koko Be Good and check out her website.
Let me know in the comments if you liked the review or, even better, what your thoughts were on the book!
Game Boss: The Final Form is an anthology I picked up at (surprise) Swarm Con.
Now, despite the title, not all of the stories within the anthology deal with video games. That may come as a surprise to you, because it sure surprised me.
As I read this, it occured to me that all of the stories, while not always dealing with video games, DID deal with a common theme: Transformation of the self, usually through a struggle, surprise, or sacrifice.
A page from “Flesh” by Lea Faske.
And to be fair…this anthology handles these themes very, very well.
There are too many stories for me to break this review down to review all of them, like I did with SIX. However, all the stories stand out for a variety of reasons.
The ones that stood out to me the most were “Flesh” by Lea Faske (pictured above), “No Parking” by Mad Rupert, and the first story that appears in the anthology, “Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow” by Ngozi Ukazu (fyi, she is the sweetest and coolest lady). These ones have the strongest art as well as the most interesting takes on the idea of “transformation,” ranging from straightforward shape shifting to transforming your world view to an emotional transformation through the sacrifice of another person.
A page from “No Parking” by Mad Rupert
As for the art, that’s also varied. The art styles range from the hyper realism of Yunfan Zhou to the bold-lined, Steven Universe-esque cartooning in “The Quest” by Gerardo Alba. If you want some fantastic visual variety in your comics anthology, this is the volume that will satisfy you.
A page from “Way to God” by Yunfan Zhou
Have you read this anthology? What did you think about it? Let me know in the comments!
