Chuck's Critiques by Charles LePage

Keeping The World Strange: A Planetary Guide
Edited by Cody Walker
Sequart Research And Literacy Organization

Keeping The World Strange: A Planetary Guide is a worthy companion to Warren Ellis's Planetary series. Planetary was a complex story, filled with large consignments of references to other comic books, popular culture and "real world" events, so a book outlining and explaining those references is definitely welcome. The appendix which lists a suggested reading order for Planetary is worth the price of admission. My only annoyances while reading the essays were the repeated negative references to the 1980s leaders of the U.S. and U.K. For instance, Julian Darias in his essay refers to the 1980s as "a dark time politically in the U.S. under Reagan but even more so in the U.K. under Thatcher." While I understand how politics of that decade influenced comic book creators in both countries, to declare Reagan as "senile" and Thatcher as "mad," only to leave the reader on their own to research the claims, in a book designed to "not only provide analysis for this historically important series but (to) spur readers to be archaeologists of their own fiction" is an error that stands out like a firefly at night. Nonetheless, I highly recommend this collection for anyone who has read Planetary or who is a fan of Warren Ellis.

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Chuck's Critiques by Charles LePage

The Listener
David Lester
Arbeiter Ring Publishers

Per the website for The Listener, "In THE LISTENER, two stories collide: the rise of Hitler and a woman artist searching for meaning in the great art of Europe... THE LISTENER by David Lester contrasts the true story of a 1933 election with the fiction of a political death in 2010." I will concede to enjoying the preview pages and the concept a great deal. This seems to be a perfect theme for a melancholy and mature black and white graphic novel. Given the historical aspect of this tale, I'll be intrigued to find out how accurate the portions regarding Adolph Hitler are.

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Chuck's Critiques by Charles LePage

Egg Story
J. Marc Schmidt
SLG Publishing

Egg Story is a HIGHLY recommended short graphic novel. I guarantee you won't look at eggs, or food in general, the same way again. The novel is able to be both sweet and horrifying as it explores the lives of eggs that discover the world doesn't understand they are sentient. As you might expect, they don't appreciate their place on the food pyramid. I don't have anything negative to say about this story, except, where are some new Egg Stories? This is a reprint of a graphic novel that came out years ago, and something of this quality, a book that shows us the heights comics and graphic novels can achieve, demands a sequel. Perhaps some new sales would encourage Mr. Schmidt? So maybe I should just say, buy this now, on Amazon, at http://www.slgcomic.com/, somewhere! You won't regret it!

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Chuck's Critiques by Charles LePage

Old Soldiers #1 (Of 7)
Kevin Stone
Big House Comics
http://www.bighousecomics.com/

Do you like well-written comics that aren't just another super-hero tale? Do you want stories that are building the foundation of a longer narrative, that don't reveal everything upfront? Then you'll like OLD SOLDIERS #1. There's a boat-load of characters to keep track of from all over the world, but the idea here is to introduce you to all the players and make you want to come back to see what happens next. Overall, OLD SOLDIERS #1 is well written and drawn, and I look forward to seeing the rest of the series.

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Chuck's Critiques by Charles LePage

Time Bomb #2 (of 3)
Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, Paul Gulacy
Radical Publishing.

Time Bomb is a comic heavily influenced by action movies, a twist on all the movies based on comic books. While there is nothing terribly inventive about a reckless gang shooting up nazis, time travel, new world orders, and a virus killing the human race, the writing is agreeable, and Paul Gulacy's art is brilliant as always. If you are weary of superhero titles, you should check Time Bomb out, though the language, violence, and blood spilled definitely make this for grownups only.

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Chuck's Critiques by Charles LePage

BERONAS WAR FIELD GUIDE
Jesse Labbe and Anthony Coffe
Archaia Entertainment

This book is exactly what the title describes: not so much a story as a guide for what I'm guessing will be future stories. It's a little like reading a handbook to a roll playing game. The art is excellent, but page after page of "this is..." grew tiresome. This isn't a book I would read again, though I'd be interested to see a complete story featuring these characters.

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Chuck's Critiques by Charles LePage

MOUSE GUARD: LEGENDS OF THE GUARD #3 OF 4
David Peterson
Archaia Entertainment

Exceedingly well drawn mice participate in a story telling contest. Stories about what? Mice, of course. Katie Cook, Guy Davis, Nate Pride, and Jason Shawn Alexander (with some help from Edgar Allen Poe) deliver tales of courage, wit, discouragment, and sadness, with no need to have read a previous issue to appreciate them. It definitely made me curious to see what the rest of the limited series is like. We never learn who wins the contest, but truthfully, anyone who buys and reads this comic will win.

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Chuck's Critiques by Charles LePage

Free Comic Book Day 2010

My son and I journeyed to Gainesville Florida to check out the two shops participating in Free Comic Book Day 2010, and we were not disappointed. Each store was very different in the way they treated the special occassion, but we left both convinced we had a much better time than we did during FCBD 2009.

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