Bryant Dillon (330)
Favorite TV Show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
I fantasize about getting drunk with Joss Whedon and reading Shakespeare.
I realize the brashness of this statement is slightly jarring, but this is the honest truth. Ever since my little, Whedon-obsessed brain first read that Joss would, on occasion, invite cast members of Buffy to his home for informal Shakespeare reading shindigs, I have desperately wished to bear witness to one of these epically artistic and bacchanalian (perhaps only in my mind) events. Whedon’s latest release, a modernized, black-and-white film take on William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, might be nothing more than a single, concentrated drop of the joyous nectar that is a Whedon Shakespeare reading, but that “single drop” is still one of the most elegant, charming, hilarious, and, of course, romantic films of the year.
While Whistler and his demonic partners may be threatening the world with a rapidly approaching apocalypse, one event has been even more pressing for the heroes (and readers) of Dark Horse Comics’ Angel & Faith series: the potential resurrection of Rupert Giles! With this week’s release of Angel & Faith #22, writer Christos Gage and artist Rebekah Isaacs continue their nearly flawless work on the series and finally deliver what could easily be the most anticipated issue of the season!
SPOILERS BELOW
Tim and Russ are back again in the fourth issue of How I Spent My Summer Invasion, the intergalactic, all-ages comic series written by Patrick Rieger and featuring the art of Mark Sean Wilson, and their out-of-this-world jobs at La Galatique are more crazy and adventurous than ever!
In the days before the internet, when sci-fi fans only dreamed of a vast social network with which to interact, commune, and bicker, one of the most delicious ways to satisfy your science fiction fix was to pick up one of the many hearty, science fiction anthologies available at your local bookstore or library. Many legendary writers have taken part in such collections, and this form of storytelling has also touched several successful franchises, including a good chunk of classic Star Wars Extended Universe anthologies. Well, Villipede Productions is now seeking their place in the stars of the anthology universe with their new and thrilling science fiction anthology, The Glass Parachute!
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 9 #21 was released this week, beginning part one of a new story arc by writer Andrew Chambliss titled ‘The Core.’ Chambliss’ story lives up to its name, featuring heavily on character-driven scenes between Buffy, Xander, and Willow. Benefited by the talented hands of artist Georges Jeanty, this issue easily features the most “classic” Buffy-esque moments that we’ve seen between the core characters in Buffy: Season 9 so far. That said, it also features that “classic” Buffy-esque foreboding feeling that happens right before the @#$% hits the fan.
SPOILERS BELOW
Fanboy and fangirls know Anthony Montgomery best as Starfleet Officer Travis Mayweather of the Enterprise NX-01 (featured in the TV series Star Trek: Enterprise which aired from 2001 to 2005), where he, and the rest of the crew, boldly went where no person had gone before. Well, Montgomery is back at it again, trekking into unknown territory with a bold jump into the all-ages comic book medium as creator of the exciting, new, all-ages graphic novel, Miles Away, co-written by Brandon Easton and featuring the art team of Jeff Stokely (pencils and inks), Jey Odin (pencils and inks), Dawnsen Chen (colors), and Rashad Doucet (colors)!
MINOR SPOILERS BELOW
My fellow comic book sniffers and I are used to reading comics that tell stories that take place in a wide breadth of genres, from the standard superhero stories to sci-fi epics to blood-chilling horror thrillers to many, many other tales of an almost unending variety. Even with the vast options out there in the sequential art medium, it is a rare find to come across a story that’s based in the comic book stores, convention halls, and apartments of Geekdom, itself. SubCulture, a long-time ongoing web comic written by Kevin Freeman and featuring the artwork of Stan Yan, is one of these unique comics which any geek worth his weight in trade paperbacks (or video game consoles . . . or collectible card games . . . or D20s . . . ) will be able to relate to and with the release of the official SubCulture Omnibus by Action Lab Comics, every bit of this examination of the life of the typical American geek is now available in one volume!
SPOILERS BELOW
We’ve finally reached the moment that’s been building since the very first issue of Dark Horse Comics’ Angel & Faith series. With this week’s release of Angel & Faith #21, writer Christos Gage and artist Rebekah Isaacs begin the final arc of the series (unsettlingly titled ‘What You Want, Not What You Need’) and, at long last, begin to provide some answers to the ultimate fate of Rupert Giles.
SPOILERS BELOW
Breakers is in no way your typical graphic novel. Composed of short comics, sketches, doodles, and experiments in sequential art, Breakers has no overarching story or structure. Instead, it is the culmination of a three-week residency conducted by twenty-six comic creators at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, which is located on the Florida coast. Led on a once-in-a-lifetime artistic experience by master artists Ellen Forney, Dean Haspiel, and Megan Kelso, these twenty-three associate artists and their “creative commanders” deliver a volume of collected works in Breakers that reads as an unfiltered, honest, and intimate peek into a truly magical and inspired three weeks in an environment teeming with artistic expression, daily comic creation, occasional shark sightings, and one seriously creepy, naked old dude.
Apocalypses are never a good thing. If the post-apocalypses don't bring on a plague of zombies or marauding cyber-gangs, you're bound to deal with horrors of radioactive mutation . . . or even worse, high school, as is the case with Gori Lori - the first issue of a new indie comic by writer Nick Blodgett and the art team of Batton Lash and SS Crompton.