Venneh

Remember: Jedi is plural. *evil grin*

Jim and I have started Fallout New Vegas at his place. Ultimate edition on the PS3. We've got Veronica as a companion, and we've made it to Mr House. There have been some great bits. However. This game can be counted on to crash or freeze up reliably about once every three hours. We are currently up to six times in the last 24 hours. There's no way that's getting better, is there?

The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood: I first read this in Honors/AP English in high school, and I've reread this on a regular basis ever since. Started this on Inauguration Day, finished it yesterday morning. There's always new details that come out every read in this, which I've always loved. Feels more foreboding than it has on normal reads. Books read: 8

Domino also looks like a fro-less Garnet in terms of her color schemes/outfit designs.

Mayday 2 + 3: Brutally gorgeous spy thriller. Like a lot of the little things DeCampi is doing with sound effects and the way ambient lyrics are woven in to the panel landscape. Can't wait to see how this goes. Black Panther: World of Wakanda 1: Ta-Nehisi Coates plus Roxane Gay plus Yona Harvey, Afua Richardson, and a bunch of minority artists? Oh hell yes. It's a classy touch of world building, and the main bit focuses on the lesbian Dora Milanje I was interested in from the main book. A+, keep on keeping on. Will probably collect on the trade. Motor Crush 2: Picked this up because I wanted some pretty. Right choice. (I will say that the mains here feel super influenced by Steven Universe designs.) Story continues to deepen and be fun. Will probably stick to the trade on this. Single Issues: 11Trades/Graphic Novels: 14Omnibuses: 1

Saga 41: I continue to read this because the boyfriend buys it. Neat bit with Sophie and Lying Cat this issue. Not too much to say beyond that. Deadly Class 25: This series just continues to impress. Wonderful panel layout work this issue in particular, and the writing just keeps getting better. On its way to becoming one of my favorite series. Mayday 1: DeCampi and Parker get to do an awesome spy miniseries, with a heavy dose of trippiness/Parker getting to go all JH Williams III on us. Might pick up the next two issues when I work downtown tomorrow. No Mercy 12: Fun check in with two of our side characters (and by fun I mean translating and negotiating a drug/gun deal). Speed McNeil continues to do amazing work on the art. WicDiv 25: Intriguing interlude and the wind up for this arc. Great use of negative space by Jamie and Matt. Alright then. Let's see where this goes next. The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia: Mary Talbot does a graphic biography of Louise Michel, and her husband Bryan (who you might've heard of) does the illustrations in black, white, and just a bit of red. Awkwardly scripted at times, but beautifully done regardless. Also appears to have got q lot of arts money from Britain to fund it. Single Issues: 7Trades/Graphic Novels: 14Omnibuses: 1

A Red Rose Chain, Seanan McGuire: Finally at the part of the series I haven't read. It's great to see consequences from events of past books happening, to see Toby being put in situations she can't easily punch her way out of (most of this book is politics), and to see revelations on some old side characters (see: one of Toby's allies is trans, and also part of a deposed ruling family from a neighboring kingdom). You can tell that she's getting more conscious about representation as these books go on (especially as they compromise a good decade of her writing career), which is neat to see. The evolution of a writer through her series is always a wonderful thing to watch. The Beautiful Struggle, Ta-Nehisi Coates: Coates writes about growing up black in West Baltimore, his unusual family structure, and his and his brothers' childhoods. Wonderfully lyrical writing, and a quick read - I got through a chapter or two on my daily commute. I saw a criticism that the book othered the black experience too much, and I disagree with that - Ta-Nehisi does make it sound like a mythical experience, but with what he liked growing up, that isn't that much of a surprise to me, and seems like a natural expansion of those childhood D+D sessions. Books read: 7

Finder: Third World: My first experience with Finder. Gives you a nice taste of the world, with a dash here and there of the strangeness (yet familiarity) of it all. Gorgeous color work, the story is wonderfully weird and intriguing, and Carla's art is straight up gorgeous. Definitely worth your time. Single Issues: 2Trades: 13Omnibuses: 1

The Winter Long, Seanan McGuire: Eighth book in the series, and the last of them that I've read so far; everything after this is new. This book is the biggest game changer so far; it reveals a lot about our main and her allies, and someone we'd thought was dead (but through subtle narrative clues that I'd written off as inconsistencies, it was actually made clear she wasn't) shows back up to cause havoc. She's apparently had this book plotted since the start of the series, which I'm impressed at. Probably the biggest turning point in the series so far. Can't wait to read the two new ones. Also, has a nice bit of symmetry in having the title of the first book in the opening quote for this one. Books read: 5

The Secret of Evil, Roberto Bolaño: A collection of short stories found on Bolaño's computer after his death. This explains the somewhat fragmented nature and abrupt endings of some of these pieces. The ones I like the most mostly come at the halfway point of the collection, but it's still a nice quick read. Under 150 pages, and finished in the space of an evening. Books read: 4

I know there's the one explicitly based off of the episode 25 AU, the chibi one, and I think there's somehow another two or three?

The Gene: An Intimate History, Siddhartha Mukherjee: Like with The Emperor of All Maladies, Mukherjee takes a chronological look at the history of our understanding of the gene, and how that's affected the way we look at the world. The book doesn't hesitate to go into the hard stuff, including how genetics gave rise to eugenics in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, and poses ethical questions about the use of genetic testing on fetuses that doesn't give you the answers, but leaves to you to answer, which I really like. He also weaves in his family history to make it personal, but doesn't make it all about him. This is a book I had to take in small doses (usually three chapters at a time) because of the density of the information, and sometimes because of the weight of the material. It's definitely worth the read though. Books read: 3

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji Ikari Detective Diary vol 1: Yup. This is sure a Evangelion spin off with magical beings that can be summoned from jewelry and also a detective story while we're at it. Not anything particularly notable. Jim picked this up for $5 in his recent trade order. Worth about that I'd say. Shutter vol 1: Hadn't followed this at all before now - I knew Leila from her WicDiv guest issue, and I remember hearing neat things about how they mirrored the first issue later on in the run and an Akira tribute cover, but hadn't heard anything beyond that. It's a future with anthropomorphic animals and an adventurer father and the children he fucked up, who are now just trying to navigate their lives. This first volume was intriguing, and I'm definitely interested in seeing where the rest might go. Psycho Pass: Inspector Shinya Kogami vol 1: Another tie in that looks at the past of one of the characters. Interesting setup for the actual detective part of this, art's solid. Again, worth the $5 that was spent on it. Bizarro: DC somehow got Gustavo fuckin' Duarte to do a Jimmy Olson and Bizarro road trip miniseries. The story is fun, adorable, and just an utter joy to read (and includes X-Files knockoffs). They also somehow got Ba and Moon, Sienkiewicz, Cooke, Albuequerque, and many others to do awesome single page splashes. Find this, and read it. It's worth your time. Shadowman vol 3: Aka that time Peter Milligan and Roberto de la Torre teamed up for a supernatural book. The result is as good as you'd expect. Baron also gets props for fucking gorgeous color work on this. No idea what's going on plot wise (I think I missed a volume of plot somewhere), but it keeps on building beautifully. Single Issues: 2Trades: 12Omnibuses: 1

Post here, I think, still counts.

Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service vols 13 and 14: I keep thinking that there's no way that this manga can get more fucked. Vol 13 proved me very very wrong. Some of the most fucked up (and frankly some of the best) stories that they've done here. Vol 14 is split between two political stories (including some politicians who I'm sure Chicago politicans would love to meet and trade ideas with), and a weird diversion where they imagine an American cartoon version of Kurosagi. This is all that exists Stateside for now, but the omnibuses have been doing good enough that they might be picking up new volumes. Hopefully. There's another six or so in Japan currently. A Bride's Story vol 7: Kaoru Mori does a volume set entirely in a bath house, and I died within the first twenty pages. That's about all you need to know on that front. Crazily detailed as ever, and body diversity in the nudes, and what is basically a heavily implied lesbian love story. All hail Kaoru Mori forever and ever amen. Kill Six Billion Demons vol 1: Image collected the first six or so chapters of this webcomic, and I might try to find it on my own and read the rest. The story's fun, but the real draw here for me is the coloring and lettering on the art - I still can't believe this is all one person doing this. Gorgeous and insane. Fate/Zero vol 1: One of those cheap tie ins that they did to get that dank dank synergy money. Art's not fantastic, and the story so far is just the anime beat for beat. Single Issues: 2Trades: 7Omnibuses: 1

Chimes at Midnight, Seanan McGuire: And now we have another escalation of the series, in revealing that one of October's main enemies is a pretender to the throne, goblin fruit as a legit drug, and the restoration of the rightful heir. Good first book for the year. Hagseed, Margaret Atwood: Part of the Hogarth Shakespeare remixes project. An artistic director of a play festival in Canada, with a dead daughter, is exiled, and uses a theater course of prisoners staging the Tempest to get his revenge against the ones who stalked his career. About as meta as you'd think it'd be, and well done. 300 pages total, breezed through it on the bus ride back down here. Definitely worth a read - maybe not at full retail price, but still worth it. Books read: 2

Faith 7: I missed a few issues in between here, but Jody Houser is basically getting to write Spider-Man here, and you can tell she's having fun with it. Ninjak 23: Out this Weds. Feels like some ideas that Matt Kindt never quite got to do for Mind MGMT, but it's still fun. Art is a bit eye rolly at times on the T+A front, but it could be a lot worse. Single Issues: 2 Trades: 2 Omnibuses: 1

Have at it kids.

Played two demos last night while the internet was down at my place. -Nier: Automata: Never played the original (yeah, I know Dubs, if you can find me a physical edition for under $40 that would be great). Liked the camera angle changes (normal was shiftable, but there were points where it shifts to platformer and bullet hell angles), combat was fairly easy to wrap my head around, and the two characters we were introduced to were fun. -World of Final Fantasy: It's basically one of those tower stacking games plus RPG plus chibi FF characters plus Pokemon. When this is inevitably deeply discounted, I'll probably buy it. Not at current prices though.

What Did You Eat Yesterday 11: My first comic of the new year. Continues to be a combination of cooking comic, adorable domesticity, and an examination of gay life in Japan. Always a treat when a new volume comes out. A Bride's Story 6: That time that Kaoru Mori decided to draw a several issue battle for most of the book and somehow gets even crazier detailed. Like, we usually end up cursing Kaoru Mori's amazingness several times in a volume. Tokyo Babylon omnibus 2: And this is the volume where some stories just straight up left me sobbing. Plus the ending, which is merciless. CLAMP does some crazy ass shit, and you can see them starting to come into their own, style wise. Definitely worth your time. Trades: 2 Omnibuses: 1

Kubo and the Two Strings: Laika doing one of their most beautiful films yet, and one of their better written original ones too. Definitely worth a watch if you find it. (They could've used some Japanese-American actors in more than bit roles, tbh, but this can't be perfect.) plus, gorgeous cover of While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

Just finished Pokemon Moon. Am incredibly impressed with how they were able to riff on existing game mechanics, add in new ones, and still keep this series fresh after twenty fucking years. Story was probably one of my favorites so far, way more sci fi than they've gone in recent games. (Although if we bothered to communicate about the Mohn in Poke Pelago, I'm pretty sure we could've avoided 90% of the bad things that happened, lol.) I've finished the main game, still in post game. Final team was Decidueye (got a Rowlett in Wonder Trade), Palossand, Lunala, Primarina (my starter), Raichu, and Exeggutor. Ninetails, Arcanine, and Tsareena were also in heavy rotation. Also, nothing like being able to scritch your haunted sand castle and your ridiculously tol palm tree dragon and feed them.

Happy birthday man!

Ashes of Honor, Seanan McGuire: Technically a breather book after the escalation of the last few books, but manages to make what is essentially chasing down a missing child interesting by adding the twist that she can teleport and also open the roads to the older locked parts of Faerie. Also, brings in a romance that doesn't feel like a rebound after the events of last book, and that you were kind of expecting all along. That she manages to keep momentum and character development for not just our main cast but also side characters going across six books is incredibly impressive. Summer in Orcus, Ursula Vernon: Ursula's been releasing this as a serial over the last few months, and it wrapped up today. Her take on the portal fantasy stories, and honestly, an incredibly well done one. Reading these updates on Tuesdays and Thursdays has honestly been one of my favorite things of the last few months, and any story that centrally features Baba Yaga (and knows her well) automatically has my attention. Add in punny creatures, some straight up Lynchian horror at times, and Vernon's wonderful imagination, and you have a story that's been a comfort especially in these last two months. Conveniently, it's all up here: http://www.redwombatstudio.com/portfolio/summer-in-orcus/. Go forth and enjoy it. Books Read: 75

She's gone. Fuck this year.