Archives Under "comix" (RSS)
asaji muroi / shintaro kago
12 December 2012 | art, book, comix | 3 comments
two new books from timeless – BIG A3 format and printed on heavy weight “paper” (post card weight) – 32 pages apiece and one image per page printed full page – relatively inexpensive – limited to 200 copies (asaji muroi) and 300 copies (shintaro kago) – buy an extra copy to chop out favorite pages and frame
detective gamecat
11 October 2012 | comix, crime, game | make comment
l.a. noire
wasn’t too interested before but it’s very cheap now, under $20 new, even included the pre-order dlc – so i’m this irritating upright hero cop sucking atrociously at the interrogation truth/doubt/lie guessing game – typically i get 3 out of 10 correct or something lower than the law of averages! – but it doesn’t matter – you still get promoted etc – the game plays itself – there’s nothing for you to do, ‘cept drive from a to b (the best bit of the game – pitifully?!) and go chase after suspects who invariably make a bolt for it (most annoying token “action” bit of the game) – it’s slow and repetitive and pointless – the pointlessness of it highlighted in one case where you have two suspects: the husband and a pedophile – no motive for either – take your pick – both equally “correct”! – what kind of absurdity is that? (tho possibly an accurate reflection of how the legal process works?!) – of course you score more brownie points for charging the pedo, the least likely “perp” – that homicide desk “black dahlia” story arc was just about worth seeing thru to conclusion – but i gracefully retired at insert disc three – visually, at least, it’s an incredible evocative recreation, worthy of my entrance fee – i just wish it was a better game (i just wish it was a game, period, rather than a tech showcase)
the testament of sherlock holmes
very much old school uncool point’n'click – iffy graphix – manual saving – 4:3 format – haha!, the oh-so-superior world of pc gaming comes to the consoles – but despite being an embarrassingly dated adventure game it’s still far and away a more satisfying immersive mystery / crime-solving experience than “la noire” – (tho could be my brit bias again? – if “la noire” was “london noire” it might have appealed to me more?) – it’s a jolly good ripping yarn (albeit farfetched) entailing our unimpeachable sleuth indulging in some increasingly nefarious means to an end – making for some second guessing seat edge gaming and surprises – so, despite shortcomings, an enjoyable game – perhaps i’d have preferred a hint system rather than the panic button supplied for skipping puzzles (not required: “it is simplicity itself”) and pixel-hunt frustration (i did resort to it) – [17hrs 52mins 43secs]
borderlands 2
okay, yes, this isn’t a crime game – altho it does seem to many that it’s the done thing to do to use unofficial exploits, mods and cheats to get all the most bestest and most rarest and most ridiculously overpowered weapons – that render the game a pointless cakewalk – not that the cheaters care about that as they use another cheat to immediately get to level 50, the end of the game, cutting out the sixty hours of gameplay – and then, unbelievably, you get those who then complain there’s nothing more to do (sample quote: “fun while it lasted”!!) – err, why did you buy the game exactly? – oh right, i forgot, you didn’t buy it did you, you fricking downloaded it – depressing – i played it, legitimately, and loved it – just about the most fun you’ll ever have in a game
should be filed under “comix fix” but i’ll add this here (no one cares anyway) – the latest volumes of rick geary’s always excellent “treasury of victorian / xxth century murder” – always excellent, nothin’ more t’say – now have a yen to read some conan doyle actually
chris ware magnum opus
6 October 2012 | comix | 3 comments
“building stories” arrived today – not the easiest book to read in bed! – however you look at it, it is monumental! – superlatives a-go-go – after almost losing faith in the artist/author after his increasingly tired and miserable acme novelty library publications, it is great to be blown away before you even start reading – it’s also insanely inexpensive – a must buy for comix fans
comix ‘n’ crime
23 July 2012 | book, comix, crime | 6 comments
jason’s “athos in america”, tardi’s “new york mon amour”, sacco’s “journalism” – all excellent
“the bus stop killer” currently reading – a lack of uk serial killers since fred west so i got excited seeing this – but it’s a lot of fluff – the uninteresting moron doesn’t need 300 pages – peter sotos’s “pure filth” ordered the day it was released (two months ago) – amazon.jp repeatedly delayed their delivery date, then stopped giving a delivery date, then gave me a new delivery date (getting my hopes up) but failed to deliver again – order cancelled, clearly i’m not going to get the book – sorry peter! (it was kinda expensive anyway) – instead bought “let me take you down” – as you might guess by the title alone, not exactly written with the sympathies of lennon fans in mind – and accused of glamorizing mark david chapman – i’m ok with that, sure to be better than all the lennon sycophants and conspiracy theorists proselytizing – (the tardi book kinda alludes to this case and the john hinckley thing, hence my sudden interest)
comix fix
6 June 2012 | comix | 1 comment
of course i’ve read “ed the happy clown” a few times over already but not for a couple of decades now and not in this re-edited, slightly expanded and annotated (and nice hardback) form – and happy to find a new guy delisle “graphic memoir” – previous culture shock excursions to korea, china and burma have been great – this time he’s invading joe sacco territory with jerusalem – (a new joe sacco book out later this month too!) – (and still awaiting jason’s “athos in america” from amazon)
