Mark's Box - January 2010

I've decided to stick with the Amazon links thing for two reasons. It is easy and no one is reading this stuff anyway.

Dead @ 17 Afterbirth by Josh Howard - One of my all time favorite series continues. Josh Howard is awesome and you should be reading Dead@17.












Moyasimon by Ishikawa Masayuki - A dude can see bacteria. He goes to agricultural school. Hilarity ensues. Who knew that bacteria were so adorable?












Atomic Robo by four names I don't feel like typing - The word all over the street is that Atomic Robo is awesome. So, i decided to find out for myself. The street is right.

Mark's Box - December 2009

I haven't posted anything in awhile, so I'm going to do some quick posts to update what has been in my boxes the past few months.  Also trying out this Amazon Associates thing which will hopefully make oit easier for me to do these posts. Finding decent pictures and reviews can sometimes be a pain. Maybe Amazon can help. So, without further ado....

Criminal by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips - I've been wanting to get caught up on Ed Brubaker's older stuff and this crime series is supposed to be excellent. I've got quite the stack of Brubaker sitting unread on my shelf. Incognito, Sleeper, Criminal. I really need to find some time to dig into this stuff.










The Summit of the Gods by Yumemakura Baku & Jiro Taniguchi - I have basically decided to buy any book that Ponent Mon releases. Especially if Jiro Taniguchi is involved. I'm not particularly interested in the subject matter of this series, but I have yet to be disappointed by a Ponent Mon book. Someone there really knows what they are doing.









The Misadventures of Jane by JHG Freeman & Norman Pett - I am obsessed with all things British, so I couldn't pass up the chance to find out more. Jane was a World War II-era pinup and comic strip character that was very popular with soldiers. Possibly because she always seemed to end up missing some clothing. This was an entertaining read, but not brilliant. A nice peak into the past.

Mark's Box - November 2009

Quite a nice box again this month. A couple items from this box went right to the top of my stack and I've already read them. I haven't touched any of the featured items from last month yet. They are too huge to throw in my backpack for work, but I'll be trying to get them read soon.

Titles from this month that I have mentioned before: Freakangels vol 3, Whiteout vol 2, Runaways vol 9 & 10, Echo vol 3, 20th Century Boys vol 5, Sword vol 3. Lots of excellence there. And now the top three for the month...

Strangers In Paradise Omnibus by Terry Moore - This will surely be one of the top books of whatever year I read it. It is so huge. This is a limited edition, so if you want one you should go order it right now. If you like comics at all, this is for you. This comic has it all. I have read the first 2/5ths of this and I can't wait to sit and read the whole thing through. I think the only place to get this now is at Terry Moore's website.

A Distant Neighborhood, Volume 1 by Jiro Taniguchi - I have been anxiously awaiting this book for over a year. Jiro Taniguchi is one of my favorite manga creators. I heard about this book from the publisher at Comic-Con 2008 and it is finally here. This story is so right up my alley. A 48-year-old takes the wrong train and finds himself mysteriously transported back in time. He is 14-years-old but retains all the knowledge of how his life turned out. Check it out on Amazon.

Fell by Warren Ellis & Ben Templesmith - A few years back, I used to go to the comic book store every wednesday and buy individual issues of comics. I don't do that anymore. Now I buy the trade paperback collections because they are easier to read and store and are often cheaper. This is one of my favorite comics from those issues days, but I only read the first couple issues before I stopped going each week. So, I am really looking forward to more of this awesome book. Check it out on Amazon.

Pile Of Shame - Vampire Update

Weekend is over and I cleared something from my pile of shame! Yay me. I completed one play of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. Too many words in that title, but what an amazing game! It is a pc game from 2004 that really should be talked about as one of the best RPGs ever. I wasn't expecting a long, engrossing, awesome game when I fired it up. I did the little 'answer these questions to select your character type' thing and jumped right in. Totally enjoyed almost every minute of it.

Why isn't this talked about as one of the best games? Well, it was super-buggy and then then the company went out of business. So, the internet did something right for a change. Over the years they have patched the game to make it super-playable. Thank you internet! I bought the game on sale for $5 from Direct2Drive and then patched the game with the latest fan patch from Tessmage.com. Ignore all the digital porn on that site and just download the VTMB patches. Took a bit of time to get all the patches installed and working, but it was totally worth the effort.

I played thru once and there are four other endings possible, so I will definitely be back. If a certain game containing dragons wasn't being released in two hours and forty-seven minutes, I would be playing VTMB right now.

Holy Shits! I just found a totally different mod that will make future playthroughs super excellent. The Companion mod will allow you to recruit and control other characters. Have them fight for you, hang out in your haven, etc. I definitely am glad I played it solo on the first game, but this should make future plays interesting in a whole new way.

Pile Of Shame - Video Game Edition UPDATE

A quick update to my pile of shame. It has not shrunk. It has grown. Two months since I announced my grand plans and they have not happened yet. Shocking. I did spend a bit of time playing some random games as noted previously. I spent the majority of my gaming time playing Football Manager 2009 and World of Warcraft. In the few hours I didn't spend in those games, I was buying other games. Damn you internet and your sales. I did play some Pirates and Railroads, so those aren't really shame games. But I haven't touched Hitman, Hitman 2, Hitman 3, Drakensang or Vampire: The Masquerade at all.

This weekend I will endeavor to clear something from my pile of shame. My World Of Warcraft account is not active. Dragon Age comes out tuesday. So, I have three days to do something about my pile before Dragon Age arrives and consumes all my free time.

My September of Computer Gaming

I am typically a console gamer. These days almost exclusively on the xbox360. This year, I have started to devote some more of gaming time to playing games on the computer. I use a Mac, so gaming isn't that easy. Back in January I installed Windows Vista on a separate partition, so that i could join the rest of the world and play some PC games. It has been a pretty good year. September was particularly eventful, so I've decided to make a little list of the games I played last month.

Football Manager 2009 - Every other year or so, I become completely addicted to this game. I love it so much, but I really have to keep it out of sight or it would take over and not let me play any other games. So I played this and nothing else for about three weeks this year. Then I put it away and will probably return to it again in January.

Desktop Tower Defense - My first tower defense game. It is supposedly one of the better ones. I enjoyed it for thirty minutes or so. I will return periodically, but not something I want to play every day.

Tropico 3 Demo - I played a shit-ton of Tropico back in the day. There is a new version coming out next month that looks like a return to the excellence of the original Tropico. the demo was great. I will definitely be buying this game at some point.

Majesty 2 Demo - I am not a fan of RTSs (real-time strategy), so I was quite skeptical that would like this game which is sort of an RTS. It came highly recommended, so I gave it a shot. In this game you don't actually control any units, which is why I was interested. You build buildings which allow you to build different types of units, but once created the units just cruise around and do their own thing. You can lure them to certain areas. Place an exploration bounty on an area and some unit will want to cruise out there to collect the gold. Declare that you want the wolves cleared out of an area and will pay 500 gold and some hero will wander over to kill the wolves. A nifty idea. The first scenario in the demo was quite fun and short. The second was way to fucking hard. I can't see myself paying $40 for this, but if it goes on sale I will think about giving it a further look.

Prison Tycoon 4 Demo - I have never really played a Tycoon game and this one sounded like it could be fun. It was also on sale for $5, but instead of just buying it I checked out the demo. There was no real tutorial, so I spent about 45 minutes trying to figure out how the game worked. I never really got the hang of it and it didn't seem like it would be as fun as I had hoped. So, I didn't buy it.

Diablo 2 - I've never played Diablo and I keep hearing about its awesomeness, so it was time to try it out. My wife had a copy sitting around, so I installed it and jumped right in. Two hours of clicking the mouse button later, I quit the game. I didn't really have that much fun. If I had played Diablo back in the day I probably would have enjoyed it, but it isn't the type of gaming experience I am looking for right now.

Sid Meier's Pirates - Another update to a game I played a lot as a teenager. Pirates was awesome and this version is awesome too. It was on sale for $5 and I bought it and I love it.

Sid Meier's Railroads - I've never played the computer game version of Railroad Tycoon, so I dropped $5 on this to give it a try. I played it pretty obsessively for about three days and had a super great time. I will definitely be putting more hours into this.

Drakensang: The Dark Eye - An 80-hour, single-player RPG that has been getting solid reviews. I figured I would pick this up eventually. Then it went on sale for $5 and I bought it. Haven't tried it out yet, but it looks like it will be a good time.

World Of Warcraft - It looked like that would be the end of my computer gaming for September, but my son activated his World Of Warcraft account again recently. He was complaining about not having enough gold to get his flying training, so I activated my account to send him some gold. And since my account was now active for the first time in a year, I decided to check in on my characters. And now I've been back playing WOW for a couple weeks. It has been fun getting back in. My son and I spent the vast majority of last weekend cruising around together and we had a blast. I know I am not back in WOW for good, but I will give it a month and have some fun before Dragon Age comes out next month...

Mark's Box - October 2009

Holy crap. This was my biggest box ever. Chock full of awesome. I haven't been reading comics the last couple weeks because I've been reading some non-graphic novels. But this box is making me wish I wasn't in the middle of two books right now. I need to start reading these things as soon as possible.

But first, a quick update on last month's featured titles. Pax Romana = Awesome. Essex County = Still unread. Unknown Soldier = Mildly intriguing, but not for me.

This month's titles that did not make the top three or have been previously mentioned: Pluto Vol 5, Black Jack Vol 6, Black Jack Vol 7, Marvel 1602 (by Neil Gaiman), Marvel Masterworks Avengers Vol 2, Ythaq Vol 2, and more...

Anyone who can spot the connection between this month's featured titles and posts a comment is entered in a contest to win my copy of Unknown Soldier trade paperback volume one.

V For Vendetta by Alan Moore & David Lloyd - A little known early work from an up-and coming talent. Well, maybe not. Alan Moore. Heard of him? He wrote a little book called Watchmen that got a bit of press recently. This is probably his second most 'famous' book and I've never read it. That will change soon. Really looking forward to this one. Amazon link

Promethea by Alan Moore, JH Williams III, & Mick Gray - To kind of quote the wikipedia article: 'Promethea explored Moore's ideas about consciousness, mysticism, magic, écriture féminine and the Kabbalah.' I am not even sure what all those words mean, but it sounds highfalutin and possibly awesome. If anyone can make that awesome, I trust Alan Moore to do it. Amazon link

Tom Strong by Alan Moore & Chris Sprouse - It's got a gorilla, so it must be good. Tom Strong is a tribute to the old-timey pulp comics from Alan Moore. Tom Strong is a 'science-hero' who lives forever or something like that. Should be a groovy read. Amazon link