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French comic publisher Soleil Productions partnered with Marvel to release in English some of their most popular comics. Sky Doll is among them. I came across the first volume, The Yellow City, when it hit the stands about 3 months ago. But it was yesterday that I got a chance to actually read it.

The story is set in an universe in which religion has almost all the power, based largely on the control of the mass media. There are two papacies: Ludovica and Agape. They used to rule together bringing some form of balance, but there was some sort of conflict (which is not fully explained in the first volume) and Agape is banished and her followers are considered heretic. Then there are Sky Doll, which are nothing more than a bimbo looking robots that are basically enslaved, among others for sexual pleasures. They have been built with technical limitations so they can develop fully their own identities. The story revolves over a particular Sky Doll called Noa. She is not the usual Sky Doll, it is suggested she has an especial connection to Agape, and she has been able to overcome the imposed technical limitations. The other two main characters are Roy and Jahu. They are two missionaries attached to the Ludovica ruling. Early in the episode they get to meet Noa, and unknownglly become Noa’s escape from its owner.

The characters so far are great, very rich and dense. The setup in itself has many, albeit not new, interesting dimensions. The dialogues are impressive so far. The art shines in every possible sense. You can spend several minutes looking at each panel. They are dense and very detailed, but not to the point of detracting from the flow of the story.

Writer is Barbara Canepa and Art by Alessandro Barbucci.

There are two more volumes published in English, and there is a fourth chapter in the making, in French that is, not sure when it would be translated.

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I took the first issue of what it seemed a really cool first episode of a new comic series. The comic in question is “The Core”, written by Johnathan Hickman and art by Kenneth Rocafort. I don’t know much of Johnathan Hickman, but he is the writer of Pax Romana, which I’ve read good things about. I had seen Madame Mirage and I had liked the art, so I remembered Rocafort. It so happens that The Core is part of Top Cow’s Pilot Season campaign. For those unfamiliar with it, as I was, Pilot Season is a series of pilots, and then readers get to vote which comic series gets developed. Along with the Core, there are 5 other comics. You can read about them at their myspace website.

Back to the Core. The Core is a scifi story. It is about a human, Asimov Dedeken, gotta love the name, that gets accepted into an elite task force of beings from other worlds that are part of one of the coalitions that make the Core. Natural resources are becoming extinct in the Universe and that leads them to the earth resources, and thus to humans. Because of the extinct resources this coalition is basically forced into accepting humans as part of them. This has interesting implications in the story.

Great storyline and rich characters. I am impressed as to how much information is in just one episode. This speaks volumes of the writer, gonna have to get some more of Hickman work. The art is awesome!. The layout is fantastic and it manages to follow three narratives in a coherent way.

I hope this gets enough votes to continue. Sure will get mine, though I haven’t read any of the other pilot season.

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Parasyte is the title of a very fun manga series. It is written and drawn by Hitoshi Iwaaki. The plot is more or less an alien species that arrives earth and attempts to intrude humans by taking over their brains. Some successfully accomplish their mission and use the human form to devour other humans in very gory ways. These alien invade human brains through their ears. Our hero, Sinichi, is saved because he was using headphones. The alien attempts to enter his body through his hand but Sinichi is able to stop it from leaving his hand. The alien having little time to survive chooses to settle for his right arm and therefore can’t take control of his human brain. Eventually he names the alien Migi (right) and they develop an interesting relationship, that allows them, for one to save themselves from other aliens, and to destroy other aliens when either Sinichi or Migi are in danger, as Migi is dependant on Sinichi’s health.

At the beginning the alien just devour others, soon the plot evolves into the potential symbiotic relationship, that there are good ones and bad ones, and there are philosophical attempts here and there to use the aliens as a metaphore to explain humans faults and virtues. However these are mostly cliches and nothing deeper than that.

The art gets better in the second book, more focused and detailed. There is also much better character development than in the first book. It seems the author is feeling more comfortable with the characters and the story itself.

The book is kinda silly and childish, but it is a lot of fun to read, especially if you like b-horror type stories. Think Robert Rodriguez or Tarantino, if you like their styles then give it a try.

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version en español

damn… another long time… oh well!…

The Long Road Home is the title of the newest comic series related to Stephen King’s Dark Tower saga. Same creative group behind it than the ones in “The Gunslinger Born” comic series, finished not so long ago. The Long Road Home is almost done, we are in issue 4 of 5, and it is fantastic. It is even better than “The Gunslinger Born”.

For those of you that might be new to the story we are on the trail of Roland’s adventures when he just became a Gunslinger. Currently we are on the story when he first meets and confronts the Crimson King, which depiction is just great. Everything you ever imagined it would be.

At the end of the fourth issue of the series there is depiction of the different mutants, both animals and humans that we encounter throughout the books. What came to mind was the passage in the first book when Jake and Roland are traversing the mountains and get attacked by the slow mutants. The depiction is as terrifying as the description in the book. I had to go back and read the first book again. It was a very satisfying reading experience having the pictures in my head while reading the book.

En español

“The Long Road Home” es el título de la nueva serie de comics relacionada con la saga “The Dark Tower” de Stephen King. Esta nueva serie está escrita por los mismos creadores de “The Gunslinger Born”, que culminó no hace mucho y que ahora está disponible en libro. En la nueva serie estamos en el fascículo 4 de 5, y es simplemente buenísima. Aún mejor que “The Gunslinger Born”.

Para aquellos que no saben mucho de los comics que siguen “The Dark Tower”, básicamente empezamos con la historia de como Roland se convierte en Gunslinger con “The Gunslinger Born” y sus historias con Cuthbert y Jamie (el Ka-tet). Esta segunda serie cubre la historia de ellos volviendo a la ciudad a avisar antes del ataque de “The Good Man”.

En el cuarto fascículo, al final, muestran dibujos de las diferente mutaciones de animales y seres humanos. Los dibujos son increibles. Lo que me vino a la mente fue el primer libro de la serie “The Gunslinger - The Dark Tower I”, y el pasaje de Roland y Jake a través de las montañas y el ataque de los “Slow Mutants”. Tanto así que decidí leerme otra vez el primer libro. Leer el libro con las imágenes de los comics es una experiencia más completa. Los mutantes son tan fascinantes como uno los imagina mientras lee el libro.

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It’s been a while since I wrote about the first three issues of this comic series. I was so disappointed at issue #3 (Sloth) that it took many trips to the comic shop to get the next three issues: Lust, Pride and Envy. Issue seven is still in the making.

As with the rest of the series, issues 4 through 6, are a roller coaster. Being Lust the best story telling and Envy the best art and character development I’ve seen this far. Pride is a bit boring, but not as bad, nothing could, as the story telling of Sloth.

In Lust, they give us a bit of the background on the religious upbringing that is quite consistent with the character we know. The art is good, but the story telling is what shines. We know of his mother and her relationship to his uncle, how the mother pushes him into a world of guiltiness (is that a word?), and how his teenager hormones had something to say about it. But not quite enough, so it all start making sense.

Pride is quite uneventful, a bit of cheese here and there, very cliche, nothing much to say… the art cover, as usual, is great.

Envy is perhaps the best issue thus far. It is actually what prompted me to write about the series again. It is what I’ve hoped the whole series would have been. It goes deep, it shows how John Doe cracks and we understand how he becomes vulnerable to the sin he is guilty of at the end of the movie. The writer, David Mack, found a story that makes sense. The art is very good and compelling. If you are not interested in the rest of the series, at least try this one.

It is said that by the end of the year they are going to put out the whole series in a graphic novel, so if you are reading this and you are tempted to get it, then just wait until the graphic novel hits the stand.

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I recently finished reading Innocence After the Long Goodbye. This novel belongs to the Ghost in the Shell franchise. I haven’t made my mind yet to whether I like it or not. It is written by Masaki Yamada, quite known in Japan.

The novel follows Batou in his search of his lost dog, but really is about the search for the human soul in a world where humans have lost the essence of being and are subsumed more and more into the emptiness of the technology that surrounds them. Bit philosophical isn’t it? so I took it for what is worth. There are irrefutable points in the book about where we are heading with the lack of human interaction. We should not forget that the story does happen in a world where robots are more than common, where most humans have an e-brain and such, so the arguments play well in this futuristic world.

I am not a fan of the story telling in the book. At least the translation, even if accurate, doesn’t seem to hook you in the story itself. The side stories are actually quite good and inventive. They are all interconnected with the main plot so none feel superfluous, which is a very good thing. I wish there were more about some of them. I don’t remember if any of them are followed upon in the Innocence movie, should watch it again soon.

Much to my disappointment the Major doesn’t appear, though she is mentioned constantly by Batou.

All in all I enjoyed it, and I think it does play well with the rest of the franchise.

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This is a new seven issue comic series from Vertigo. Written by Mike Carey and art by Jock. The team behind Crossing Midnite, which I have heard many good things but haven’t read yet. So far two issues out and looks very promising.

It seems that the plot revolves around the idea of that things are not quite as they seem. Most people have its own agenda and nobody is really friends with anybody (especially at the party age). Certain sense of desolation and hopelessness surrounds the characters.

Thus far the characters are a group of roommates/friends that though share the party don’t necessarily care too much about each other. The first issue presents us the very compromised characters of these so-called friends, the climax is a party in which the group gets heavily intoxicated with an unknown drug. Starting from this point a member of the group materializes for the first time, he had been mentioned before but only shows after this drug party. His appearance is explained in the second issue, and we learn thereafter that this new character is actually a non-character that doesn’t seem to really exist but that somehow binds all other characters and gives them a sense of reality and truthfulness. The story seems to be building quite nicely and I am looking forward to the third issue coming soon.

Not a fan of the art. Initially I was put off by the color selection, I think is quite in sync with the mood of the story. Sometimes the male characters are hard to distinguish from frame to frame.

Hope the next issue isn’t a disappointment and it keeps improving.

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Not sure how to start writing about this graphic novel. I’ll start by quoting Mr. Keanu Reeves “Wow”. I just recently finish the second read and I think I got it this time. The first book is what is believed a series of seven, as in the seven capital sins, and thus Luxuria (Lust) being the first one.

The main character is Casanova Quinn, a very good thief, that is a superlative of James Bond in mostly every aspect, except in the confidence when it comes to dominate a given situation, that is only just before the end. Casanova happens to be the son of Cornelius Quinn, the head of a government organization called E.M.P.I.R.E. which is pretty much the Orwellian Big Brother stereotype. Zephyr is Casanova sister and it is introduced as E.M.P.I.R.E.’s best agent.

As one can imagine there are some interesting family tensions in the plot as Casanova is breaking every rule the dad wants to impose.  This is mostly conveyed in the first couple of pages of the first issue, so I haven’t spoiled anything for you.

There are of course the bad guys. Mainly the bad guy is Xeno Newman which main power is the ability to move people in and out of time and space, in a sorta string theory thingy. There is also Seichelle industries, and its main guy Seichelle himself, who has an unique ability to construct robots, and sexy ones I may add.
Without entering in details about the plot itself let me give you a couple of things that happen in the story:

• Casanova explodes the head of a three-women-brain-robot-combination in a staring-without-blinking contest
• Casanova kills a version of his sister (in a timeline), whom in revenge fucks him in a yet another timeline
• There is an island where the “air” is actually infused with an afrodisiac substance that makes everybody really horny - some form of Tijuana place where everybody is aroused, horny and ready to fuck everywhere. Oh and I forgot to mention that there are sex robots being offered for pleasure
• A guy gets his brain blown out for disagreeing with the host in regards to the Beatles genius - ala DeNiro in the Untouchables
• There is another island where supposedly the natives are so violent that the rest of the world has agreed to leave them alone, and yet it is learnt aferwards that the so-called natives are really a group of people that have discovered the very path to evolution and are able to move across time and space at will.
• There is a giant robot war machine hidden in the sea, because nobody told the Chinesse that the third world war was over and they were able to go back to life
• There is a trio of killers - much ala Charlies Angels that are super porn models

and many many more details to a quite complicated story line.

The story is from Matt Fraction and art by Gabriel Ba. The publisher is Image comics and it  came out a couple of months ago.

Here is a podcast  with Matt Fraction about the comic.

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I admit ignorance to the details of the story of the Tower of Babel. That is until recently when I was compelled to read it again a bit more thoroughly. It started because of one of the comics I am currently reading: Testament. This comic is the old testament retold from a parallel story that is undergoing in the present, making the associations to the events related in the old statement as appropriate. With this month’s issue they finish a four-issue arch story (13-16) titled Babel.

The story is quite unique, and I found out, again admitting my ignorance, that the story is part of many religions (at least metaphorically) about the significance and the intent of the tower of Babel. To my fellow ignorants the story is basically that humanity guided by Nimrod united under one language (likely a metaphor) start building a gigantic tower that would reach the heavens to fight with the gods in their environment. Presumably God fearing of the power of a united humanity comes down and confuses the builders by changing their languages so they couldn’t communicate to each other. Then He separates them onto different places in the earth. It is implied that this is the beginning of ethnicities and the such. Thus the tower efforts ceased ultimately causing the destruction of the tower.

If you think the story in itself is interesting I invite you to read the comic version of it as told in Testament. It is certainly unique and the comic medium is perfect to reflect the story of the Gods in heaven and the humans on earth. The story is told as originally “recorded” and in the new current storyline. Though the arch story cotains information that is revealed in previous issues, it is not detrimental to the Babel history itsef.

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A bit back I was pointed out at this comic as being great. The comic at hand is Fell and the issue I was pointed out was #6. I bought it, and it was every bit it was promised to be. Today I’ve read most of the issues available minus #5. Guess gonna have to wait until the graphic novel appears…

The comic is created by Warren Ellis and the art is by Ben Templesmith, the same of 30 night days and it is published by Image comics.
The basic plot is about Richard Fell, a detective that is transfered to Snowtown from a city over the bridge. It is not quite clear why he is transfered, other than something to do with an injured partner. Snowtown is everything you don’t want a city to be, everything is corrupted, vicious, violent, did I say violent?

Then of course there is Fell. An incredible good cop that does everything needed to be done in order to get the bad guys out of the street. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter whether is the guy of the specific crime at hand (issue #4).

The most current issue just hit stand this week. It is issue number 8. It goes out from the normal 9frames / page layout (mostly), it is great!.

In this issue, our hero logs the happening of one night in snowtown. Even though there is a main story, it is background. The issue is about everything that happens at Snowtown in one night. And shit do things happen in one night!. There are so many small stories. My favorite is the guy that steals mannequins for sexual pleasure, the whole story is told in three frames; but it feels complete. Or the short story about the girl that couldn’t open the door to her apt because his boyfriend was being eaten by a boa constrictor, told in two frames. Just genius!. The rest, is a guy that kills his father, a little girl that witnesses the murder of both parent, a guy passing as terrorist to hide the body of a girl he raped and then kill, etc… just in 16 pages. The common thread is so well kept throughout and the art, as usual, is just great.

If you get the chance go to your local comic store and drop $1.99, that’s it, the cheapest comic in the stands right now, the bus might be more expensive.

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