Washing dishes in a restaurant is among the least glamorous of occupations. But not once does Mimi Pond complain or delve into the requisite diatribe on scraping and scrubbing in a perpetual cloud of greasy mist. Time can add a rose colored tint to things, sure, but Pond knew then that she was part of a story worth telling. Thirty years later, here it is, Over Easy.
Nearly twelve years after the show went off the air, guess who’s back flying through space and the futuristic western universe this Spring? Only the best of the best characters in the unending science fiction TV series “Firefly”. QMx continues the Firefly saga in a new role-playing game and I swear by Mal’s pretty floral bonnet, it’s going to be great.
photo courtesy of First Second Books
Every once in a while you’ll read a story that seems to keep converging on itself. In the best possible way. The words are like impressionistic brushstrokes and they come to inform this very rich, and often very beautiful picture. Danica Novgorodoff’s The Undertaking of Lily Chen is one of those books. “The story begins where a young life ends,” the life of Wei Li. Ancient Chinese tradition – and his parents – insist that Wei’s brother, Deshi, must find a young bride to accompany him in eternal sleep. Grieving aside, Deshi’s task is not a simple one. In modern China, demand for corpse brides is high. A journey awaits.
DC’s Batgirl Redesign
Unless you’re the Zack Morris type, high school can be less than awesome. And Two-Shoes, the protagonist of Kenan Rubenstein’s Last Train to Old Town, is no Zack Morris. Whether he’s being shoved into a locker, chided for reading for fun, or told to sit somewhere else at lunch, Two-Shoes remains pretty much un-phased. This resilient little nerd marches to his own beat and Stone, a modern James Dean type who heads a band of misfits, has taken notice.
If you want to purchase a new indie game, it’s pretty easy. You go to Steam or another digital downloading service, buy your game, install, and let the fun begin. However, who made the game? How long did it take? What inspired the developers to create it? GameLoading: Rise of the Indies will be demystifying all of the different variables associated with making an independent game: following different studios and individuals, showcasing the games at industry events such as PAX and GDC, exploring the art style used, and much more:
The Legend of Korra: Balance trailer is released, and the final Avatar season provides another chapter to Avatar Korra’s journey of self discovery and survival.
Light years away from comics that go “thwack” and “pow” is Hope Larson’s Gray Horses, a poetic little book put out by Oni Press. This coming of age tale, an exploration of both the outer and inner aspects of one girl’s journey abroad, is gently executed yet powerfully evocative. Like a diary, due, partially, to its reader’s omniscience, but more so for its soft, dreamy panelscape, Gray Horses is reminiscent – in no way derivative – of Larson’s husband, Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Lost at Sea. There’s more than a bit of magic in these pages.
BOOM! imprint Archaia is doing this cool little series inspired by the Jim Henson Storyteller television series that aired in the late eighties and early nineties. S.M Vidaurri’s The Magic Swan Goose and the Lord of the Forest is the first of four tales in The Storyteller: Witches run. If this is any indication of what’s to come, we’ve got a lot of looking forward to do.
This year’s Boston Festival of Indie Games featured a stellar lineup of developers showcasing their hard work and dedication to making a game they can call their own. We got to sit down with Team Future, the group behind the very intriguing Black Hat Oculus, which is taking two-player cooperative gaming to a new level:
Gamenomics & Comicology 