Resuming transmission...
I told you last week's updates would probably be intermittent. Well, they were, although not for the reasons I initially thought.
You see on Wednesday evening I was floored by a very bad head cold/case of flu (whatever it was, it didn't aggravate my body below the collarbone), and I pretty much spent the next 3 days confined to bed - excluding Friday when I had to drag my bobble-headed corpse into work because of the stupid "No Sick Days on a Monday or Friday without a doctor's note" rule... *grumble grumble*.
Anyway, as my loyal blog readers know, Pfangirl Through The Looking Glass is a one woman show, so there weren't any affiliated guest bloggers to step in and post up some goodies to keep you guys amused towards the end of the week.
I have to admit I felt pretty bad about failing my duties like that. Damn Con Flu brought all the way back from Joburg!
Anyway, I am slowly returning to normal functionality, and I've been writing up a blogging to-do list. Here's what I owe you:
1 x ICON Games and Comic Convention report-back (broken into 2 parts)
1 x Girlz 'N' Games web comic
1 x Bruno film review
1 x Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince film review.
So, yeah, quarantined to my bed these past few days I spent a lot of time watching DVDs, and catching up with some much neglected reading.
I finally finished the Orcs omnibus, over 900 pages later. And yes the ending was just as unsatisfying as I had heard it was, with many loose ends left dangling for the next trilogy.
Really, if the series concept piques your interest - a fantasy adventure where the brutish orcs are heroes instead of villains for a change - just read the first book in the trilogy, Bodyguard of Lightning, and leave it at that. Lightning is actually an enjoyable, stylistically well-written book. Everything after that, however, plays out like a wretched D&D campaign, and in the last book, well, let's just say the orcs botch their dice rolls a lot.
Needless to say, after ploughing through Orcs, I didn't want to jump back into another fat tome, so I decided to take it easy with some graphic novels and collected trade paperbacks.
I've been spreading the word about Eric Powell's award-winning, pulpy series, The Goon for a while now. A very brisk read, A Place of Heartache and Grief is the 7th volume collection of the comics. It's definitely not a good point for a new reader to join the series as the storyline requires a lot of knowledge about support characters and Goon world history. For fans, though, if you ignore a few moments of expected wackiness, it's pretty dark stuff on the whole, as Powell begins the process of upping the stakes in the title character's battle against the dark forces holding his city hostage.
After breezing through The Goon, I got stuck into my single ICON purchase, DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore. As much as I love superheroes, these days I have little interest in following their convoluted, over-complicated story arcs that go on for months and months. My taste in trade paperbacks and graphic novels has swung towards stand-alone tales, and a massive determining factor is writer, not character. And Alan Moore, well, the man truly deserves his reputation as one of the medium's all-time greats...
DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore collects some of Moore's more famous stories from the period 1985 - 1988, when he was happily writing mainstream superhero comics. Among other things this collection features a crossover tale with Superman and Swamp Thing, a couple of Green Lantern shorts, Green Arrow, Vigilante, and, most importantly, the classic Superman story, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? and the seminal Batman tale, The Killing Joke.
Reading the collection, you receive a strong impression that Moore isn't an especially big fan of the big superheroes (not surprising given that he was responsible for the "superheroes with psychoses" epic that is Watchmen). In most of the tales the cape-wearers are reduced to supporting roles. Villains and lesser known characters take centre stage instead. And when the heroes are featured prominently, they're not in their usual, expected forms. Moore's Superman, for example, is well aware of his arrogance, how he has abused the love of Lois Lane and Lana Lang for decades, and actually gets quite jittery at the thought of his own demise. Moore provides some very interesting takes on characters who have become rather cardboard over the years. For comic enthusiasts, DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore is definitely worth adding to your collection.
Next up on my reading list? Something that I've been putting off for a while. Twilight. *gulp* The things we do, the tortures we subject ourselves to, in order to be informed pop culture commentators.
You see on Wednesday evening I was floored by a very bad head cold/case of flu (whatever it was, it didn't aggravate my body below the collarbone), and I pretty much spent the next 3 days confined to bed - excluding Friday when I had to drag my bobble-headed corpse into work because of the stupid "No Sick Days on a Monday or Friday without a doctor's note" rule... *grumble grumble*.
Anyway, as my loyal blog readers know, Pfangirl Through The Looking Glass is a one woman show, so there weren't any affiliated guest bloggers to step in and post up some goodies to keep you guys amused towards the end of the week.
I have to admit I felt pretty bad about failing my duties like that. Damn Con Flu brought all the way back from Joburg!
Anyway, I am slowly returning to normal functionality, and I've been writing up a blogging to-do list. Here's what I owe you:
1 x ICON Games and Comic Convention report-back (broken into 2 parts)
1 x Girlz 'N' Games web comic
1 x Bruno film review
1 x Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince film review.
So, yeah, quarantined to my bed these past few days I spent a lot of time watching DVDs, and catching up with some much neglected reading.
I finally finished the Orcs omnibus, over 900 pages later. And yes the ending was just as unsatisfying as I had heard it was, with many loose ends left dangling for the next trilogy.
Really, if the series concept piques your interest - a fantasy adventure where the brutish orcs are heroes instead of villains for a change - just read the first book in the trilogy, Bodyguard of Lightning, and leave it at that. Lightning is actually an enjoyable, stylistically well-written book. Everything after that, however, plays out like a wretched D&D campaign, and in the last book, well, let's just say the orcs botch their dice rolls a lot.
Needless to say, after ploughing through Orcs, I didn't want to jump back into another fat tome, so I decided to take it easy with some graphic novels and collected trade paperbacks.
I've been spreading the word about Eric Powell's award-winning, pulpy series, The Goon for a while now. A very brisk read, A Place of Heartache and Grief is the 7th volume collection of the comics. It's definitely not a good point for a new reader to join the series as the storyline requires a lot of knowledge about support characters and Goon world history. For fans, though, if you ignore a few moments of expected wackiness, it's pretty dark stuff on the whole, as Powell begins the process of upping the stakes in the title character's battle against the dark forces holding his city hostage.
After breezing through The Goon, I got stuck into my single ICON purchase, DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore. As much as I love superheroes, these days I have little interest in following their convoluted, over-complicated story arcs that go on for months and months. My taste in trade paperbacks and graphic novels has swung towards stand-alone tales, and a massive determining factor is writer, not character. And Alan Moore, well, the man truly deserves his reputation as one of the medium's all-time greats...
DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore collects some of Moore's more famous stories from the period 1985 - 1988, when he was happily writing mainstream superhero comics. Among other things this collection features a crossover tale with Superman and Swamp Thing, a couple of Green Lantern shorts, Green Arrow, Vigilante, and, most importantly, the classic Superman story, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? and the seminal Batman tale, The Killing Joke.
Reading the collection, you receive a strong impression that Moore isn't an especially big fan of the big superheroes (not surprising given that he was responsible for the "superheroes with psychoses" epic that is Watchmen). In most of the tales the cape-wearers are reduced to supporting roles. Villains and lesser known characters take centre stage instead. And when the heroes are featured prominently, they're not in their usual, expected forms. Moore's Superman, for example, is well aware of his arrogance, how he has abused the love of Lois Lane and Lana Lang for decades, and actually gets quite jittery at the thought of his own demise. Moore provides some very interesting takes on characters who have become rather cardboard over the years. For comic enthusiasts, DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore is definitely worth adding to your collection.
Next up on my reading list? Something that I've been putting off for a while. Twilight. *gulp* The things we do, the tortures we subject ourselves to, in order to be informed pop culture commentators.
Comments
Have fun with that.
Oh, and good to have you back. Hope you're all better soon.
As for Twilight, you know what? I'll live with the challenge. Even if it's dumb I'm sure it's a breezy read. And at the moment the thought of anything 500 pages+ in length makes me feel nauseous. No traditional sword and sorcery fantasy for a while now, thank you.