reading is brain food
This whole month has been of suck. I know my journal primarily ends up being wagnst.... I'm trying to not go into so much stuff, but I'm pretty overwhelmed right now.
Also, standing in skuzzy cigarette soup floodwater when you have cuts on your feet is just asking for trouble. Between that and the extreme heat and humidity today I am pretty miserable. I just ran and turned on the TV cause I heard tornado sirens--and this is certainly their favorite weather--but there are no warnings. There have been several newspaper articles over the last few days about the tornado sirens all around here that FAILED to go off when there were tornados tearing through here.
I've been reading Tales of the TMNT Volume 2 today. There have been some good ones, reminding me of the fun adventures and gritty badness tales from the original comics, ole Volume #1. There is so much good stuff here, fodder for discussion and fanfic, and the fan community has not picked this up at all!
Like Ribky! (is that an anagram of Kirby? hmmmmm...) I could read stuff about Ribky all day! I don't want to give spoilers, but DAMN, this is a character we need more tales about!
Okay I will give some spoilers:
*SPOILER BIT, MOVE ALONG IF YOU READ TMNT*
I had a few more characters that I was going to talk about, but now I've lost my train of thought. I really liked the sad story about Don getting attacked by angry Jews thinking he was the thief breaking into their stores. And then he meets the real thief, a Golem, who is still performing the tasks he was given to care for a sickly boy, even though the child has long since passed on. Poor Don has to explain death to the creature. And then what is there for the creature beyond it's purpose?
Ribky, the Utrom.... If you haven't read the original Mirage comics, the Utroms were aliens stranded on Earth, who accidentally were the cause of the Turtles' transformations. Their freaky first appearance in the comics and the 2K3 cartoon was good nightmare fodder. Everything about them is so strange, but I enjoy the fact that they are mostly well-intentioned peace loving creatures once everyone, characters and viewers, get over their strangeness.
Anyway, after the Turtles are sent on a rescue mission where Ribky sacrifices himself to save the TMNT and untold millions, they then find out that he was responsible for the accident that caused their evolvement. And that once this quiet, unassuming entity had learned of their existence, he followed their lives proudly, and viewed them as his children.
And his last request, knowing he would not be returning from this mission, was to get to spend a little time with each of them. It was such a moment of, "If only we'd known!"
*END SPOILERS*
I also finally got my grimy hands on the entire miniseries "Blindsight", a four-shot following Leonardo after he was blinded in battle in Vol. 4. Blindsight was AWESOME. Most of it is graphically stunning, for to portray Leo's blindness, everything he can hear is rendered in white silhouettes against pure black. The layouts of the pages, particularly in the second issue where Leo encounters a spirit in the woods, is very interestingly composed. And I usually despise Jim Lawson's art!
The first one was such a mindfuck, I spent the whole next day going over it in my mind, going "How could they just DO that...Why...OMG...Why are they so cruel--it's just their job and their POV..."
Here's a quote:
"Mike, did you ever wonder...about us? About what our purpose is?"
"I'm not really sure what you mean. I guess we are warriors."
"Yeah, that's kind of what I think, too. But what are we fighting against?"
"And, if that's true, what if I were to take off my swords and cast them off the edge of this roof? Then what would I be?
Am I those swords? Am I simply a weapon?"
That brings up some very good questions, particularly as until recently I was of the theory that Splinter had trained them to fight his bloodfeud and for his use, and cared little for them otherwise. (I'm still not sure.) It was a very big thing when in the City at War story, Leonardo who had always followed Splinter's teachings and orders explicitly, to the point where even his enemies pity him for his blind acceptance, began to question things and their path. And began to move them towards a future out of the cycle of violence with the Foot clan, with or without Splinter's blessing.
The vision Leonardo has in parts 3 and 4 was really good too. "Master, are you giving me drugs?" LOL LOL The whole story where Leo wakes up in a world like feudal Japan, where he has a human wife and daughter(!!!!), and he discovers to his horror that he becomes uncontrollably violent whenever he draws his swords was fascinating. Intrigue follows as his swords are stolen and he is exiled by the daimyo. The whole thing was a very good read, miles above the Brain Thief series that everyone praises that I thought was OOC and terrible.
Oh yes, if you ever wondered what I look like.... *joking* This is by some guy named Beat Eisele who had a screaming hissy when someone posted his work on a blog, so I will just link here. And then post it. :P
http://be-at.deviantart.com/art/GTA-165798277
GIMME THAT CAR!!!!
Also, standing in skuzzy cigarette soup floodwater when you have cuts on your feet is just asking for trouble. Between that and the extreme heat and humidity today I am pretty miserable. I just ran and turned on the TV cause I heard tornado sirens--and this is certainly their favorite weather--but there are no warnings. There have been several newspaper articles over the last few days about the tornado sirens all around here that FAILED to go off when there were tornados tearing through here.
I've been reading Tales of the TMNT Volume 2 today. There have been some good ones, reminding me of the fun adventures and gritty badness tales from the original comics, ole Volume #1. There is so much good stuff here, fodder for discussion and fanfic, and the fan community has not picked this up at all!
Like Ribky! (is that an anagram of Kirby? hmmmmm...) I could read stuff about Ribky all day! I don't want to give spoilers, but DAMN, this is a character we need more tales about!
Okay I will give some spoilers:
*SPOILER BIT, MOVE ALONG IF YOU READ TMNT*
I had a few more characters that I was going to talk about, but now I've lost my train of thought. I really liked the sad story about Don getting attacked by angry Jews thinking he was the thief breaking into their stores. And then he meets the real thief, a Golem, who is still performing the tasks he was given to care for a sickly boy, even though the child has long since passed on. Poor Don has to explain death to the creature. And then what is there for the creature beyond it's purpose?
Ribky, the Utrom.... If you haven't read the original Mirage comics, the Utroms were aliens stranded on Earth, who accidentally were the cause of the Turtles' transformations. Their freaky first appearance in the comics and the 2K3 cartoon was good nightmare fodder. Everything about them is so strange, but I enjoy the fact that they are mostly well-intentioned peace loving creatures once everyone, characters and viewers, get over their strangeness.
Anyway, after the Turtles are sent on a rescue mission where Ribky sacrifices himself to save the TMNT and untold millions, they then find out that he was responsible for the accident that caused their evolvement. And that once this quiet, unassuming entity had learned of their existence, he followed their lives proudly, and viewed them as his children.
And his last request, knowing he would not be returning from this mission, was to get to spend a little time with each of them. It was such a moment of, "If only we'd known!"
*END SPOILERS*
I also finally got my grimy hands on the entire miniseries "Blindsight", a four-shot following Leonardo after he was blinded in battle in Vol. 4. Blindsight was AWESOME. Most of it is graphically stunning, for to portray Leo's blindness, everything he can hear is rendered in white silhouettes against pure black. The layouts of the pages, particularly in the second issue where Leo encounters a spirit in the woods, is very interestingly composed. And I usually despise Jim Lawson's art!
The first one was such a mindfuck, I spent the whole next day going over it in my mind, going "How could they just DO that...Why...OMG...Why are they so cruel--it's just their job and their POV..."
Here's a quote:
"Mike, did you ever wonder...about us? About what our purpose is?"
"I'm not really sure what you mean. I guess we are warriors."
"Yeah, that's kind of what I think, too. But what are we fighting against?"
"And, if that's true, what if I were to take off my swords and cast them off the edge of this roof? Then what would I be?
Am I those swords? Am I simply a weapon?"
That brings up some very good questions, particularly as until recently I was of the theory that Splinter had trained them to fight his bloodfeud and for his use, and cared little for them otherwise. (I'm still not sure.) It was a very big thing when in the City at War story, Leonardo who had always followed Splinter's teachings and orders explicitly, to the point where even his enemies pity him for his blind acceptance, began to question things and their path. And began to move them towards a future out of the cycle of violence with the Foot clan, with or without Splinter's blessing.
The vision Leonardo has in parts 3 and 4 was really good too. "Master, are you giving me drugs?" LOL LOL The whole story where Leo wakes up in a world like feudal Japan, where he has a human wife and daughter(!!!!), and he discovers to his horror that he becomes uncontrollably violent whenever he draws his swords was fascinating. Intrigue follows as his swords are stolen and he is exiled by the daimyo. The whole thing was a very good read, miles above the Brain Thief series that everyone praises that I thought was OOC and terrible.
Oh yes, if you ever wondered what I look like.... *joking* This is by some guy named Beat Eisele who had a screaming hissy when someone posted his work on a blog, so I will just link here. And then post it. :P
http://be-at.deviantart.com/art/GTA-165798277
GIMME THAT CAR!!!!