Review | Hugh J. O'Donnell

Hugh Likes Podcasts: Wham Bam Pow!

January 6, 2015

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Hosts: Cameron Esposito, Rhea Butcher, and Ricky Carmona
Presented by the Maximum Fun Network

I really enjoy movie review podcasts. But the podosphere is clogged with them, and most of them, while fine, often boil down to the same thing: White dudes arguing about Star Wars. “Wham, Bam, Pow!” is something a bit different.
Hosted by comedian Cameron Esposito, along with her fiancé Rhea Butcher and Ricky Carmona, it is a movie podcast with nary a dude-bro in sight. The hosts have a different perspective on ‘dick flicks’ like “Interstellar” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” than your typical podcast. In addition to being refreshing, insightful and hilarious, the hosts tackle issues like gender and race representation in Hollywood.
In addition to reviewing a film each episode, the trio discusses movie news and includes segments such as movie snack recommendations and making fictional movie pitches, which are great, although not quite as sharp as Disasterpiece Theatre.
Wham Bam Pow is a smart, funny movie review podcast that will change the way you look at movies. It is a part of the Maximum Fun network, and can be downloaded from iTunes or your preferred podcatcher.

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Hugh Likes Video Games: Bravely Default

December 19, 2014

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Hugh Likes Video Games: Bravely Default
Published by Square Enix
Nintendo 3DS

Bravely Default is a Playstation One or Super Nintendo era RPG that didn’t exist before. It’s old school in all the right ways, with suprisingly deft use of 3DS features.
Why this wasn’t released as “Final Fantasy” is a mystery to me, because it is a beautiful love letter to the series.
“Bravely Default” is a fantasy role playing game following the journey of a sheltered, yet self-composed priestess and her friends. Their goal is to reignite the power of four elemental crystals, saving them from the machinations of an evil empire bent on using they crystals to its own ends. Along the way, they’ll fight enemies by changing classes, transforming from anything to black mages to spear-wielding fighters capable of jumping high into the air. Let me know when it starts feeling familiar.
With absolutely gorgeous designs by Akihiko Yoshida and an engine clearly updated from the DS ports of Final Fantasy III and IV, It certainly belongs in that venerable pantheon of titles. But as closely as it resembles Final Fantasy, there are also touches of Enix’s beloved franchise, “Dragon Warrior.” Much like the Super Nintendo classic “Chrono Trigger,” it is a triumph greater than the sum of its parts, if they’re the sort of thing you’re into, of course.
As old-school as “Bravely Default” is, it incorporates a lot of neat touches that take advantage of the 3DS’s standby and Streetpass functions. At the beginning of the game, one of the main characters’ village is destroyed. By passing other players when your 3DS is in standby, and spending money on work orders, you can rebuild the town, which serves as an investment that really pays off as the game progresses. The shops in the town will create special items that you can buy from traders throughout the game, and will send you free samples based when you rest the game. There are even hidden bosses that can be exchanged and fought via Streetpass. Players can also register friends to assist in battle or give characters bonuses.
The classic style of the game isn’t all great news, though. The game is old-school tough, with lots of grinding and collecting to be done, even with the help of friends and townsfolk. It’s also a very long game, so be prepared to invest some serious hours if you’re hoping to see the end credits.
“Bravely Default” is a master class in classic JRPG design and construction. If you’re a long-time fan of the genre, or you were afraid that Square Enix had lost their touch, this is the game for you. “Bravely Default” is available for the 3DS.

Hugh Likes Comics: Sex Criminals

December 17, 2014

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Sex Criminals: One Weird Trick
Written by Matt Fraction
Drawn by Chip Zdarski
Published by Image Comics

“Sex Criminals” is my jam. A heady combination of character study, an intriguing high-concept premise, and dick jokes, it is one of those books that feels like it was written just for me.
It is the story of Suzie and Jon, two people with the rare ability to stop time when they have sex. Each believing themselves to be unique, they meet each other at a party. As their relationship develops, and they find themselves in a world inhabited only by themselves, they do what comes naturally in a budding relationship: They rob banks. Specifically, one bank. The bank which is foreclosing on the library where Suzie works, which is the same one where Jon works a depressing 9 to 5 job he hates, which is also the place where Suzie’s father died in a random shooting when she was just a girl. So there’s a lot going on there. As they plan their heist, however, they learn they aren’t the only ones with this ability after all, and someone is on to them.
“Sex Criminals” is a beautiful, funny, and especially dirty look at the awkward, sad, and joyous paths of self-discovery. It is also a uniquely affecting look at the early stages of a relationship, filtered through a surprisingly poignant sex comedy. Moving back-and-forth through time and featuring a plethora of ingenious sight gags, this is a comic that rewards careful re-reading.
Zdarski’s art is great, and The Quiet has a beautiful, unearthly look that is fantastic. It works in perfect concert with Fraction’s script, delivering every awkward teenage gut-punch and nonsensical sex joke to life with aplomb. My absolute favorite gag is a fourth wall breaking sequence in a pool hall where a spontaneous dance to “Fat Bottomed Girls” starts up, while the text apologetically explains that they could not secure the rights to the lyrics.
This is a magical, rare comic, which, like a great lover, challenges and moves the reader, but still can make you laugh when you least expect it. “Sex Criminals” is available from Amazon, Comixology, or your local comics shop.

Hugh Likes Video Games: Castlevania, Circle of the Moon

October 31, 2014

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Published by Konami for Game Boy Advance (2001) and Wii U Virtual Console (2014)

Happy Halloween!
In honor of this dark and terrible holiday, I’m writing a bit about one of my favorite games, recently re-released. “Castlevania: Circle of the Moon” was a launch title for the Game Boy Advance. Although well received, it quickly came and went into relative obscurity as later installments in the series came out for the GBA and later Nintendo DS. But it’s still a classic in my book.
Considered a side-story at best, the game’s protagonist is Nathan Graves, an earnest young man in possession of Vampire Killer, the famous Dracula-slaying weapon of the Belmont clan, whose noticeable absence is never actually addressed. He’s out to stop the Vampire Carmilla from resurrecting Dracula and killing his mentor.
Like most of the franchise, the actual story is mostly just an excuse to show you the castle, and this is a good one. Like Symphony of the Night, this is a sprawling open castle which grants you access to new areas as you gain abilities. While it is a bit smaller than the Playstation’s sprawling ruin, there is a nice variety and scope to the castle, which is perfect for a portable adventure.
The gameplay is fun and feels nicely balanced. Nathan has a neat ability to twirl the whip like a shield and block some projectiles. He also has the DSS Cards. These cards, which you collect throughout the castle from certain enemies, act as the game’s magic system. Each effect and element card grants a different ability, giving you one hundred different ones, if you collect them all. These range from shooting fire balls to summoning angels to directly increasing your stats. These abilities are my favorite aspect of the game.
Not everything about the game has aged gracefully, however. The sound in particular has a low-res, monophonic quality that doesn’t do justice to the classic Castlevania music. As a launch title for the GBA, the color palate for the game is a bit dark and muddy. While this is thematically appropriate for the ruin of a European castle, it made the game difficult to see, particularly on the original screen, which was not backlit. More modern devices such as the DS and Wii U tablet handle the display better, but it was a clear step backwards from Symphony of the Night’s beautiful sprites and backgrounds.
If you’re looking for some classic vampire-slaying action without the punishing difficulty of the original Castlevania, I recommend picking up “Circle of the Moon.”
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon is available as a GBA Cartridge (amazon,) or digitally from the Wii U store.

Hugh Likes Podcasts: The Roundtable Podcast

October 16, 2014

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Hosted by Dave Robison, plus guests

ARCHIVOS: Podcasts

The Roundtable Podcast is one of my favorite writing podcasts. There are a lot of really excellent podcasts about writing, both podfaded and current, but The Roundtable is something else. I like podcasts that introduce me to new authors. I like podcasts that delve into the craft and business of writing, helping me to improve my own work. I really like podcasts that are fun, and show a more personal side of my favorite authors. The Roundtable podcast is all three.
Originally hosted by Dave Robison and Brion Humphrey, The Roundtable is a bridge between aspiring and professional authors. They divide the show into two types of episodes: “Twenty Minutes With” interview segments, and Roundtable Workshop sessions. In the former, Dave and a second chair conduct an informal interview with a professional writer. These are always fantastically inspiring and entertaining rap sessions, although they always go at least twice as long as advertised. Theres’ so much goodness in each one that I’d feel cheated if they trimmed it down, though. In the Brainstorming sessions, they bring on a less experienced writer, and help them brainstorm a story idea. These are also great. Not only is it a rarely-seen peek on the creative process, it is an affirmation that perseverance and hard work pays off in an industry that all too often seems governed by luck and chance.
Every second of The Roundtable Podcast is infused with Dave’s vibrant and effervescent personality. Combining a wonderful talent for research and an otherworldly skill for promotion, he introduces each guest writer and host with a flare that is uniquely his own, and relentlessly positive. The show is firmly rooted int the philosophy that with enough effort, thought, and encouragement, every writer can transform their story ideas from dross to literary gold.
I myself have benefitted from taking a story on the show. It isn’t finished yet, but someday I hope to publish it, and be ‘knighted’ by the hosts.
Find The Roundtable Podcast on the web, or subscribe in iTunes or Stitcher.

Hugh Likes Comics: Wolverine

October 14, 2014

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Written by Chris Claremont
Drawn by Frank Miller
Published by Marvel Comics

Love him or hate him, Wolverine is one of the most popular and exposed characters in Marvel’s stable of heroes. And with the publisher set to kill him for a while, I thought it was time to take a look at the limited series that really cemented his character.
It’s easy to see why this comic was so groundbreaking. Right off the bat, it establishes Wolverine as a much darker, more badass character than his taciturn, volatile persona on the X-Men. This is Wolverine in his element, and that means hunting bears and fighting hordes of ninja. After spending some time in the deep woods of Canada, Logan discovers that his letters to his girlfriend, Japanese dignitary Mariko Yashida have been returned unopened, and that she has left the US. Wolverine follows her to back to Japan. There, he discovers that her father, a presumed deceased crime lord, has returned, and that Mariko has been married to one of his lieutenants.
After being rolled by Yashida in a fight which would have killed him if not for his mutant powers, Logan is rescued by Yukio, a hedonistic assassin who is playing games of her own.
“Wolverine” is Claremont writing at the peak of his craft. Unrestrained by the team dynamic and superhero tropes of the ongoing X-Men comic, he really digs down into Wolverine’s character. This isn’t just four-color antics, but a rich, pulpy story about honor, appearances, and the nuances of a world shaded in gray. And being drawn by a Frank Miller just coming into his own as an artist elevates the comic to a classic.
Delivering a gritty comic is harder than taking a cape and rolling in the mud for a little bit. It’s something that has to be carefully structured. The pieces all need to support each other in a way that the reader both can believe and doesn’t expect. “Wolverine” delivers by revealing a deeper, darker world in the periphery of one the reader already knows. It shows a midnight underworld hidden behind an upstanding daylight face. And it does it beautifully. Miller’s Japan is a labyrinth of towering yet indistinct skyscrapers, with scores of ninja hiding in every alley. It echoes and reinforces the script beautifully. Miller echoes seminal Japanese artist Goseki Kojima in this story of corruption hiding within the Yashida clan’s adherence to tradition, and one warrior willing to abandon all pretexts to expose the truth.
In graphic story telling, especially when a writer and an artist are both masters of their craft, the finished product can seem at odds with itself. The words can be sharp and engaging. The art can be beautiful, but they need to work together to properly tell a story like this. Here, Claremont and Miller’s efforts are a synthesis that is greater than the whole of its parts.
The Wolverine is available from Amazon, Comixology, or your local comic shop.

Hugh Likes Podcasts: Hidden Harbor Mysteries

September 30, 2014

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Produced by Bryan Lincoln
Written by Jay Smith
hiddenharbormysteries.com

“Hidden Harbor Mysteries” is a lost 1930’s radio drama that never existed. Dreamed up by HG World creator Jay Smith, and brought to live by Fullcast podcast-producting powerhouse Bryan Lincoln, the podcast recreates the feel of a radio show with an astounding level of verisimilitude, and touch of weirdness.
Supposedly recorded in 1936, and set in a vision of post-World War II America locked in a hot war with the Soviet Union, Hidden Harbor Mysteries is a pulp serial in the tradition of “The Shadow.” The series stars Veronica Giguerre as “The Femme Phantom,” a crime-fighting socialite with as yet mysterious powers, and features an array of talented podcasters and voice actors including Dave Robbison, Rish Outfield, and Renee Chambliss. With three episodes released as of this review, it is classic pulpy fun, with a few clever nods to the genre.
I will admit that I haven’t listened to Smith’s other projects, but this one has me hooked. The writing is sharp and sly, mixing a modern sensibility with period style. The delivery is also top notch, with great performances by Veronica and Dave in particular. But the real hook here is the presentation. Smith’s writing, the cast’s performances, and Producer Bryan Lincoln’s masterful skills with audio editing software recreate the experience of tuning in to a 1936 broadcast with 2014 technology. It is challenging enough for a fullcast producer to create the illusion that the actors are in the same room. Bryan has managed to do one better, bringing a live on-air both from eighty years ago back to life. This illusion is further sold by the stylish intros and outros, complete with cigarette ads touting doctor recommendations.
Hidden Harbor Mysteries is a classic pulp adventure for the modern podcast listener. Check it out at their website, or subscribe in iTunes.

Hugh Likes Comics: The Infinity Gauntlet

September 20, 2014

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Written by: Jim Starlin
Drawn by: George Perez
Published by Marvel Comics

As a rule, I really don’t like crossovers. They’re messy, over-crowded affairs where heroes act out of character to fit the story, and their endings tend to be unsatisfying piles of continuity. Event full of sound and fury where “everything changes” but at the end of the story, everything is pretty much back where they were. Oh, she might be in a different costume and he might have been replaced with his sidekick, who looks the same except for the cybernetic arm. The status quo remains king.
And then there’s “The Infinity Gauntlet.” This is the one that got it right. It’s a threat that is based off of years of continuity, but clear enough that one doesn’t need to invest a college savings in back issues to know who’s who. It’s a threat that is credible, active, and present, not only for the heroes, but for the entire fictional universe. A threat that is credible enough to not only bring the Marvel Universe together, but also put their backs against the wall.
It also manages to balance character study and knock-down, drag-out, cosmic-level fighting. In the first issue, Thanos, elevated to genuine omnipotence thanks to the eponymous gauntlet, snuffs out half the life in the universe. He does this because it turns out that he’d like to hook up with the Universe’s personification of Death. Death is, naturally, a hot lady, because Comics. Unfortunately, all of his god-like power fails to catch her eye. Having gained unmatched power, and being unable to effectively use it is the core of Thanos’s character, and it is an interesting contrast to the surviving heroes and villains, who are left with the task of fighting a hopeless battle against the Mad Titan.
The climax of the series is a fight where he faces of and wins against first every hero in the Marvel Universe, and then the super powerful Cosmic Forces. It gets a bit metaphysical, but the thread of the story never gets lost, and Perez’s expressionistic art captures it all perfectly.
The Infinity Gauntlet isn’t just a cheap cash in. It is the basis for twenty years of comics storytelling, and possibly the endgame Marvel’s cinematic universe is heading towards. Even if you have no interest in those things, it is the Platonic Ideal of a Marvel comic. A story of superhuman power filtered by the lens of the most human emotions.
The Infinity Gauntlet is available from Comixology, Amazon, or Your Local Comics Shop.

Hugh Likes Comics: Dragon Ball

August 25, 2014

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Hugh Likes Comics: Dragon Ball
Written and Drawn by Akira Toriyama
Published by Viz/Shonen Jump

Although it is a big part of my own path through comics, I haven’t talked about manga in this space. Manga, broadly speaking, refers to Japanese comics, or occasionally comics drawn in a Japanese style. These comics have a visual language all their own, enjoy vast popularity the world over, and one of the best loved of these is “Dragon Ball.”
Spanning over forty volumes, spawning four long-running animated TV shows, a vast collection of movies, and enough merchandize to sink a container ship, Akira Toriyama’s “Dragon Ball” is a full-fledged cultural phenomenon. Originally a goofy, cartoonish Sci-Fi retelling of the Monkey King legend, this is the story of Son Goku, an incredibly strong, perfectly innocent child as he travels with teenage prodigy Bulma to gather the Dragon Balls, seven mystical stones which, when brought together, will grant any one wish. Along the way, he becomes the greatest martial artist in the universe, and saves the world a few times, to boot.
With its beyond epic length, the thing I find really interesting about Dragon Ball is that it so completely documents the evolution of Toriyama as an artist. His style is very round and iconic, and at the beginning of the comic, much more rooted in sophomoric humor. It certainly isn’t what you’d expect from the martial-arts action story it becomes. While Toriyama never completely lets go of his comedic side, the series becomes more and more of an action comic as the tale unfolds, until we reach halfway through and it becomes “Dragon Ball Z.”
With its focus on space adventure and over the top martial arts, DBZ is what got translated first. It appeared in incomplete forms on American and Canadian TV in the 90’s. And I fell in love with it. But now I think I prefer the original stories about Goku’s childhood. The adventures are more fun, more playful, and less reliant on gimmicks and ‘power levels’ to keep the tension high. “Dragon Ball,” by contrast, remains delightful and ridiculous throughout, including a cameo crossover with his earlier work “Dr. Slump,” in which just about every character tries to squeeze into a panel for a fourth-wall breaking cameo.
“Dragon Ball” comic is particularly a comic of its time and place, but like its protagonist, it mixes goofball humor, iconic visual style, and thrilling action in perfect amounts with a perfect garnish of child-like whimsy. Go pick up a copy, and be a kid again for a few hours.

Dragon Ball on Amazon.com (Affiliate Link)

Dragon Ball on Comixology.com

Hugh Likes Podcasts: Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men

July 21, 2014

hughjodonnell Review Leave a comment

As regular readers of this blog may know, I am somewhat fond of comic books, and I also enjoy comic book podcasts. This is a relatively new one, but it is already one of my favorites. Hosted by Dark Horse Comics editor Rachel Edidin and her husband Miles Stokes, the title says it all for this one. This weekly, hour-long show attempts to shed some light on one of the most convoluted and complex franchises in modern comics, the X-Men, starting from Giant-Sized X-Men Number One right up until the present day.
Rachel and Miles take a breezy, tongue in cheek look at the history of the comics, and they both celebrate its heights and condemn its excesses, with appreciation. It is clear from the start that they love these comics, even the ones they know are ridiculous.
The show opens with a scripted bit examining a particularly thorny bit of cannon, such as X-characters frequent habit of dying and coming back to life, lamp-shading the week’s topic. This is followed by a forty-five minute or so discussion of that topic. They recently covered the famous Dark Phoenix Saga in two episodes that is a great place for new listeners to begin.
The podcast reminds me of the now defunct Tom vs. The DC Universe podcast, but rather than simply reading and reacting to one issue, they cover and critique an arc or particular topic.
Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is a delightful look at the Marvel Universe from two witty and engaging hosts who really know their stuff and celebrate it without putting it on a pedestal. They also release a weekly visual companion with panels and fanart from the latest episode. I recommend it for New Fans and Uncanny X-Perts alike. Listen for yourself at RachelandMiles.com/xmen

Hugh J. O'Donnell