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R.I.P. Stan Lee

The great and iconic Stan Lee has passed away at the age of 95. Tributes have pored in from other celebrities as you can see below.

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Print comic books still thriving

Despite the threat from digital comic books and online comics, traditional print comic books are still thriving. CNBC reports that sales of print comic books grew to an estimated $835 million in 2014 from about $675 million in 2009. That’s a very healthy increase.

  

Batman vs. Darth Vader

Wow! This is pretty badass and it’s a fanboy’s wet dream . . .

I have to say I’m impressed with this epic battle with both Batman and Darth Vader going tow to toe – science vs magic. Very cool.

  

“The Art of War” Merges History with Science Fiction

Image Courtesy of Kelly Roman

Roman’s “The Art of War” is set in a near future where the Chinese dominate the American economy, as well as that of most of the rest of the world. This title is built on political and economic intrigue. However, even if you are not the economic/political intrigue type, there should be plenty of action and gore to keep you interested. The title is illustrated by Michael DeWeese in black and white with red highlights, to give the classic violent black and white comic look to great effect. True to its namesake, this graphic novel is laced with Sun Tzu’s sayings throughout (For those of you who skipped that day in school, Sun Tzu was a warlord in medieval China. He was widely regarded as a tactical genius and compiled his knowledge in a book of sayings titled “The Art of War.” There, now you are caught up.) The protagonist of “The Art of War,” also named Kelly Roman, is seeking to avenge his brother, who was killed in mysterious circumstances while working for a Chinese corporation.

It is not the setting itself is not that makes “The Art of War” unique, but the fictional events that lead up to the creation of that distopia. In the novel, China takes over the United States through economics, not military invasion. This has the result of devastating the country side and killing civilians through starvation and lack of medical care rather than bullets and bombs. Only major economic centers (such as New York) are spared the devastation due to their usefulness to the invading Chinese corporations. Through malicious investing through corporate proxies, the Chinese government is able to seize control of American food supplies, health care, military forces, and other key assets.

Additionally, as a result of the Chinese economic invasion of the United States, corporations remain the only functioning institutions in society. They conduct their own semi-religious services, bury their employees in private grave yards, and dole out marital discipline on employees and violent attacks on competitors without fear of legal repercussion.

Great science fiction presents either a utopian or distopian vision of the future; this is as equally true in comics as it is in film or prose. In tying a medieval Chinese warlord with a corporate CEO, the author is making a clear statement regarding the ruthless nature of corporations. In addition to criticizing corporations for being heartless entities being concerned with nothing else but profit, (Which has been done by other authors.) Roman makes a powerful statement about the future of war. In the author’s vision, the future of war will be at least partially economic. While there are political disagreements over the issue, the possibilities of Chinese economic or militarydomination sometime this century are certainly being discussed. In closing, what makes “The Art of War” most intriguing is the plausibility of its scenario.

  

“Pathfinder” Comic is OK, Except for Terrible Writing

“Pathfinder: Dark Waters” is an adaptation of the Pathfinder role-playing game (which is a form of Dungeons and Dragons). Typically, Dynamite does an excellent job adapting story lines from other media forms into really enjoyable comics. However, with “Pathfinder: Dark Waters” they fell short.

The title is not without merit. The art is quite good, and the pages are action packed. The second half of each issue provides everything needed to play the story from the first half as a D&D adventure; this includes dungeon maps and character sheets for each character featured in the story. While this format is an innovative way to present a role-playing setting, such an approach  does not lend itself to good writing.

For those of you unfamiliar with Dungeons and Dragons, the players typically follow a preset plot and interact with various characters in that plot. This typically does not lend itself to incredibly well polished story telling, but that is made up for in the game-play experience. “Pathfinder: Dark Waters” is written like the transcripts from a D&D game and leaves very little for non-role playing readers. The dialog consists of a cascading stream of exposition focusing on introducing characters or explaining the character’s actions. Such writing would not be a problem if the comics were exclusively marketed to D&D players or were given out free with merchandise. However, if Dynamite expects readers to continue to buy this comic, they must improve the quality of writing.

  

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