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Hugh Likes Comics: Abbott

February 2, 2018

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Abbott #1
Written by Saladin Ahmed
Drawn by Sami Kivela
Published by Boom! Studios

abbott1

The Skinny-A black woman reports on a series of bizarre killings with occult significance while battling institutional racism in ’70’s Detroit.

Abbott is a remarkable comic, with a remarkable first issue. Its most impressive flourish is the sense of place, and its tension, that Ahmed and Kivela bring to the page. They do a standup job of bringing the powder keg of 1970’s Detroit to life. Enter Elena Abbott, a match if there eer was one. A reporter for the Daily Press, she is an unyielding force for truth in a city reluctant to face its own demons. Abbott is under pressure from her bosses and the police after she reported on the killing of a child in police custody. When she investigates a series of gruesome killings with occult significance, she becomes the target of a killer who may bring down both Detroits.
Abbott #1 is a master class of a first issue. In a few scant pages, we’re introduced to the complex world of 70’s Detroit, Abbott, her few allies, and her numerous enemies. Kivela skillfully leads the eye, and colors by Jason Wordie provide a gritty, evocative palate. The panels are interspersed with the text of Abbott’s articles, only giving the reader snippets of phrases. It is an efficient trick to build the world and also raise the tension on the page.
Abbott #1 is the start of a brilliant new series. Pick it up digitally from Comixology, or find a copy at Your Local Comics Shop!

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Hugh Likes Movies: Gotham By Gaslight

January 30, 2018

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Batman: Gotham By Gaslight
Produced by DC Entertainment
Directed by Sam Liu

Batman GBGL

The Skinny: The graphic reimagining of the Batman mythos in the 19th century pits the Dark Knight against Jack the Ripper.

Superhero movies by their nature feature alternate versions of comic book characters. They compress plots that run for moths or years into digestible stories that audiences can enjoy in only an hour or two, without having to rely on previous knowledge of the hero’s adventures. “Batman: Gotham by Gaslight,” the latest direct-to-DVD animated feature from DC Comics, takes this truism a step further.
The dark but lushly animated film reimagines Batman’s one-man war against crime as taking place in the 19th Century, with him taking on none other than Jack the Ripper himself. In fact, the movie spends a lot more time on the case than with the origins of the character, which makes for a much darker and more explicit take on Batman’s world.
The overall effect is more gothic than steampunk, although most of the fight sequences take place on a burning airship, a burning ferris wheel, and a slaughterhouse that, inexplicably, hasn’t caught fire. The story is pretty much what one would expect from a Batman vs. Jack the Ripper story, and it hits all the broad points you would expect well enough. There are a few plot twists fans who haven’t read the original graphic novel might not see coming, but the story is mostly concerned with showing how these pulp characters fit into a slightly more antiquated Gotham City.
I will say that I felt the movie leans a bit too heavily on the Ripper-ology. The viewer is invited along with a few very nasty killings, and we get a good dose of Jack’s vitriol in the form of villain monologue. It all feels a bit voyeuristic, and lands on the other side of good taste in parts. This certainly isn’t the next film to go to after your child finishes watching Lego Batman.
Although this superhero isn’t for kids, older teens and adult Bat-fans may find something to like in this risqué and violent alternate take on the character and his world.

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Hugh Likes Video Games: Final Fantasy Tactics

January 29, 2018

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Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
Published by Square-Enix
Played on PS Vita

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The Skinny:The definitive version of the 1997 Classic that put tactical RPG’s on the map.

Final Fantasy Tactics isn’t the first isometric, turn-based tactical RPG, but it is a milestone in the sub-genre, and a breakthrough hit in The West that lead to the success of later games such as the Disgaea franchise. A stylistic follow up to developer Quest’s “Tactics Ogre,” both were directed by Yasumi Matsuno. FFT mixes the structure of Tactics Ogre with the Job System of Final Fantasy to create a highly-satisfying strategic game. And the depth of gameplay is perfectly set off by a complex, engaging fantasy story of power, betrayal, and warring houses.
Players are thrust into the boots of Ramza Beoulve, the youngest son of a minor but distinguished noble family. He gets caught up in a web of intrigue surround a set of mysterious, powerful artifacts during a civil war, forcing him to choose between protecting his family’s honor, and serving justice.
Twenty years later, Final Fantasy Tactics still holds up well. Its mix of highly-detailed 32-bit character sprites with 3D backgrounds works very well, and has a stylish quality. It doesn’t suffer from the same dated polygonal visuals the way contemporary games like Final Fantasy VII have. The original PSX release still has its flaws, though. The translation was spotty, and a few critical bugs in the game, including one that makes saved data unreadable, hamper play.
These were resolved in the 10th Anniversary PSP release, The War of the Lions. This feels like the definitive version, with a delightfully florid “Game of Thrones”-inflected translation, extra classes, new hidden characters, and animated cutscenes. The new cutscenes feel very much of their time, but the game plays and beautifully. The additions are all fun and do little to break the balance of the game. This is the most widely-available version, as the PSP port was carried over to the PS Vita store, and is available now for IOS and Android devices.
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is the bar by which other tactical games are measured. If you haven’t played it, set aside fifty to one hundred hours of your time. It is well worth the investment.

Podcast: The Screaming Skull

January 28, 2018

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Poster_for_The_Screaming_Skull-600x914

Tonight your hosts, Hugh of HughJODonnell.com, Rich the Time Traveler, Opopanax, and Jurd, find their own skulls screaming.

Click HERE to listen!

And HERE to watch the film on Youtube!

Chrononaut Cinema Reviews is presented by http://skinner.fm and http://hughjodonnell.com, and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.

Hugh Likes Fiction: Star Wars: Canto Bight

January 26, 2018

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Star Wars: Canto Bight
Written by: Saladin Ahmed, Rae Carson, Mira Grant, and John Jackson Miller
Published by Del Rey

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The Skinny: A collection of four loosely connected novellas set in the Star Wars casino-city of Canto Bight, as briefly seen in The Last Jedi.

In the latest Star Wars film, “The Last Jedi,” we get a very short glimpse of the casino city, Canto Bight, a playground for the rich and powerful play while the rest of the galaxy fights for survival against The First Order. But aside from the message that nobody good profits in wartime, and a delightfully destructive chase sequence, we spend little time there. Del Rey has released a novella collection focused on four stories of gamblers, tourists, servants and criminals that call Canto Bight home, and it is a delight.
The best of the four is “The Wine in Dreams,” by Mira Grant. It follows the self-described greatest sommelier in the galaxy, Derla Pidys, as she attempts to buy a rare bottle from a pair of sisters claiming to be from another dimension, all under the nose of a dangerous night club owner who will do anything to get it.
These four stories are very much in the vein of the new Expanded Universe. You won’t see any familiar faces from the movies in these pages, but they do a magnificent job of transforming a galaxy far, far away into a living, breathing place rather than a backdrop for Our Heroes’ Adventures. They also serve as a light, quick introduction to the writing of four excellent authors. You can find Star Wars: Canto Bight on Amazon, or in person at your local independent bookstore.

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Hugh Likes Comics: X-Men: Grand Design

January 24, 2018

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X-Men: Grand Design #1 & 2

Written and Drawn by Ed Piskor

Published by Marvel Comics

The Skinny: Ed Piskor X-plains the X-Men.

“X-Men: Grand Design” is a comic with a very ambitious goal: Straighten out the tangled history of Marvel’s X-Men, and do it in such a way that it tells a coherent, interesting story. But if anyone is up to the task, it is indie comics creator and the man behind Hip Hop Family Tree, Ed Piskor.

Piskor’s distinctive style feels somewhat strange applied to Jack Kirby’s designs, but the book goes all in, even being printed on a thicker, more rough paper for that truly indie feel. And this book does indeed cover plenty of space, opening in the dawn of the Golden Age and following Charles Xavier through the foundation of the X-Men and their Silver Age adventures. It does a great job of feeling both cosmically important, and personally intimate. There’s so much crazy backstory, retcons, and downright bizarre editorial decision-making in X-Men history that this book exists at all is an accomplishment. That Piskor pulls it off so effectively is a coup.

The first issue really only gets as far as the founding of the team, but it sets a solid continuity in a few simple strokes, and it makes The Phoenix a central figure going back to origin, which is  a good retcon. Issue two covers the team’s Silver Age adventures up until Giant Size X-Men #1, and does a bit more work retconning the original run into a cohesive whole that is appealing to a modern sensibility.

X-Men: Grand Design is available online from Comixology, and in print at Your Local Comics Shop! If you want a crash course, or just would like to see a different take on characters you’ve loved for years, its well worth a look!

Podcast: CCR42-A Shreik in the Night

January 21, 2018

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CCR42

Tonight your hosts, Hugh of HughJODonnell.com, Rich the Time Traveler, Opopanax, and Jurd, get the scoop on Ginger Rogers playing a reporter who isn’t really a reporter but I guess is?

Click HERE to listen!

And HERE to watch the film on Youtube!

Chrononaut Cinema Reviews is presented by http://skinner.fm and http://hughjodonnell.com, and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License

Podcast: “Ears to the Ground” on The Melting Potcast!

January 19, 2018

hughjodonnell Free Fiction, Freelance Hunters, Podcast, Uncategorized , , , , Leave a comment

Hey Freelancers!

Have you heard the latest Freelance Hunters story, as presented by the ever-extraordinary Melting Potcast crew? Well wait no longer, and click HERE!

When the town of Corn Hall is reported missing, the Freelance Hunters grudgingly return to investigate, but nothing can prepare them for what they find there.

As always, thanks to August, Erin, and Theo for another great performance!

Want more Freelance Hunters? Follow me on Patreon for early chapters, short stories, news, and more!

Podcast: CCRC34: Dungeons & Dragons S1E5

January 14, 2018

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CCRC34

Tonight your hosts, Hugh of HughJODonnell.com, Rich the Time Traveler, Opopanax, and Jurd, wonder just who’s running this game anyhow

Click HERE to listen to the commentary

And HERE to watch along on Youtube!

Chrononaut Cinema Reviews is presented by http://skinner.fm and http://hughjodonnell.com, and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.

Thanks for listening to this podcast! If you enjoyed it, please share it! You can also support Hugh on Patreon!

 

Podcast: Nostalgia Pilots Episode 11

January 11, 2018

hughjodonnell Nostalgia Pilots, Podcast, Uncategorized Leave a comment

Welcome to Nostalgia Pilots! This week, Hugh, Jurd, and Jason watch Gundam Wing Episode 11: “The Whereabouts of Happiness!”

Click HERE to listen!

In this episode: Lady Une sashays into the most unlikely of assassination attempts, Zechs demonstrates his keen understanding of plot, and Qatre and Duo chill in a quiet desert town. Plus: Relena gives dubious fashion advice, and everybody in this party is an old creep.

If you’re in the US, you can watch along on Crunchyroll!

Next week, Wu-Fei is great at boats!

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