Sinister Monday #15

All work and no play, man, all work and no play. But that ends... now. Actually, it ended last week sometime when I caught this horrible cold and took a few days off to recharge. So yeah, work is slowing down so i will have more free time to pour my creative efforts into the inky black void of cyberspace. Who knows, you might be one of whole twos and threes to actually read this blog!

But enough state of the union type things. Life is good. Comics are good. And they should be discussed. Topping off my list of people to talk about is Brian Clevinger. He's a dude i was introduced to in a review of his limited series Atomic Robo. The reviewer mentioned he had a hilarious web-comic called 8-bit Theater which was loosely based around the original Nintendo game Final Fantasy. Not one of those words in the last sentence didn't send tiny thrills up and down my spine. A web-comic featuring characters torn from one of my favorite childhood games? Sold and sold.

8-bit Theater is a bit like Final Fantasy if it was Sealab 2021ed. Characters, settings, and side quests are ripped free of their moorings and exploited in humorous ways. The fact that many of the images are captured directly from the video game itself (thus the 8-bit part of the title) makes it all the more fun. Black Mage, an uber-violent but powerful member of the Light Warriors is merely a cowled robe, a pointy hat and a pair of disembodied eyes floating in between. Yet is absolutely stunning the range of emotions a man whose face you never see can have. Thus i have been reading two or three segments of this epic web-comic which is somewhere in its thousandth episode. Currently I'm in the mid 300s so there is an ocean of fun left in store.

Clevinger's print debut is the aforementioned Atomic Robo. I have scooped up the first three issues of the 6 issue mini and enjoyed every pun. Robo reminds me of the occultish action of Hellboy and nonchalant humor of Nextwave minus the latter's intense fanboy display of comic lore. It is the story of a wise-cracking Robot used to confront all of the unconfrontable oddnesses that afflict the globe from giant ants to mobile ancient monuments full of robot mummies. The jokes are laugh out loud funny (again, haven't had that happen since Nextwave) and there is no intelligence quotient cost of admission. The jokes aren't knowledge based but it is their delivery which impresses. Pauses, absurdities and childish exuberance also help.

So later this week i will definitely be paying a visit to the LCS for the culmination of "Messiah Complex," the middlingation of "Brand New Day" and the almost doesn't suckination of Countdown to Final Crisis. see ya then.