Graphic Novel Review: The Engineer: Konstrukt
This is the second review from my Archaia haul from C2E2. (For more on that, see my review of Archaia’s The Killer.)
I’d call it a fair bet that Brian Churilla and Jeremy Shepherd, the creative behind The Engineer: Konstrukt, are big fans of Mike Mignola and Hellboy. It’s all over their work, from the art and design stylings to the irreverent humor that infuses the moody landscape of the story. And, like some many comic creators who pull heavy inspiration from Mignola, I’d guess they are tired of hearing about it. But you’ve got to call it like you see it.
That said, the art of The Engineer is fun stuff. While Churilla’s line work may take some obvious cues from Hellboy (and also perhaps from Eric Powell’s The Goon), it doesn’t wallow in that same shadowy minimalism. There’s some strong, dynamic layouts here. Crazed movement is rendered energetically, and expressions are amusing and varied. If anything, there’s that particular sense of playful fun to the action that’s usually seen in “all ages” titles from Marvel and DC. (At one point the protagonist even dons a suit that makes him look like Mister Freeze from the DC animated run…)
Read MoreGraphic Novel Review: The Killer Volume One
In early 2011, the Loop & Hoodie gang roadtripped to Chicago for the second C2E2 (Comic Convention & Entertainment Expo). While the Wizard World Chicago Con has become entertainment and b-lister celebrity-centric, the new C2E2 event holds most of it’s focus around comics. However, Wizard has a proven track record with retailers and, after disappointing sales at the inaugural event in 2010, C2E2 didn’t attract as strong an outing of hucksters. Which means the con smelled a little better, of course, but it also meant my convention habit of buying large quantities of super-cheap trade paperbacks was significantly hindered.
The Colodin Project and Classic X-Factor
I picked up a pretty massive stack of trade paperbacks at Chicago Comic Con 2009 – those $5 bins (and cheaper, late Sunday) provide a nice way to fill holes in your collection or try out books you might have passed by at full price. Marvel books are particularly plentiful (because of their overprint policies, I presume). I also snagged some indie books from creators in artist alley. So here it is 6 months later and I’m still wading through my to-read queue. Here’s a couple I’ve read in the last couple of weeks:
Read MoreFirst Moviegoer Experience of 2010: Up in the Air
Though I’m very much a film appreciator, 2009 wasn’t a great movie year for me. I just didn’t make it out to the theater more than a handful of times, and several of those were disappointments on one level or another – Terminator: Salvation and Nine (the animated one), for instance, and the exceptionally boring Extract. Yet, it’s funny that two of the primary cast members* of Extract are supporting actors in the film I saw, and enjoyed immensely, today.
Kindness and Generosity at Red Robin
This afternoon, my wife (@wendybuske) and I were dining with my sister, Cathy, and her husband, Jack, at the Red Robin restaurant in Edwardsville, IL. We don’t often get a chance to see Jack and Cathy outside of holiday gatherings, and they don’t get a chance to escape from our hometown very often.
We were celebrating Jack’s 25th year of living with a kidney transplant (he is the longest living kidney transplant survivor in America). They don’t dine out often, so we thought a burger place with a fun twist would be a good destination. Our server, Gentry (cool name!), asked if we were celebrating an occasion, so we told her about Jack.
Read MoreMarvel Annihilation and the website in development
The new website has been up for about a week now (though I haven’t promoted that fact yet). I haven’t had a lot of time to work with it, but have been filling in some content areas here and there. There’s still a lot of empty spaces to drop stuff in – the filler feature headlines are a tad vexing – but I’m getting there.
Watching traffic trickle in, though, it’s funny where I’ve gotten some random search engine views from. I moved a bunch of old blogs over to this site (stuff I done on Blogger and MySpace in the past), a few which mentioned movie celebrities. Apparently dropping a Kelly Clarkson or Hugh Grant reference in a blog pulls immediate metrics.
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