Comics Grinder

August 20, 2014 · 5:19 pm

Review: THE MULTIVERSITY #1

President Superman of Earth-23 uncovers a threat to all Reality so apocalyptic it will take a team of incredible heroes from across the Multiverse to face it!

Let the above synopsis be your guide. The long-awaited Multiversity has arrived and all you really need to know you learned in grade school. You instinctively knew when a comic book was cool and fun. Say what you will about Grant Morrison but he’s always been about bringing back the cool and fun into comic books. This one feels right on par with the crisp relaunch of “Action Comics,” if not even better.

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Filed under Comics, Comics Reviews, DC Comics, DC Entertainment, Grant Morrison, Multiversity, Superman

Tagged as comic book, comic books, Comics Reviews, DC Comics, Entertainment, Final Crisis, Geeks, Grant Morrison, graphic novels, Pop Culture, superheroes, Superman, The Multiversity

August 19, 2014 · 7:23 pm

Review: ‘The Sky Over the Louvre’ (Louvre Collection)

The Reign of Terror is brought into focus in an unsettling and quite captivating way in “The Sky Over the Louvre,” our third book this week to consider in the NBM ComicsLit collection of Louvre-inpired books. Bernar Yslaire and Jean-Claude Carriere have created a most ambitious book here. The fight for liberty and justice championed by the Jacobins against the aristocracy was threatened by instability. Leave it to one mad zealot, Maximilien Robespierre, to pave the way to slaughter. This graphic novel provides great insight by balancing a story following the broad sweep of events along with intimate portraits.

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Filed under Comics, ComicsLit, Graphic Novel Reviews, graphic novels, NBM

Tagged as Art, arts, Books, comics, Culture, Entertainment, France, French History, French Revolution, graphic novels, Maximilien Robespierre, NBM Publishing, Paris, Pop Culture, The Louvre

August 19, 2014 · 3:43 am

Review: ‘On the Odd Hours’ (Louvre Collection)

“On the Odd Hours” is part of the NBM ComicsLit collection of Louvre-inspired comics. Eric Liberge not only gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the grand museum from the perspective of museum guards. He’s created quite a fanciful story. What if the Louvre was haunted by all its great works and it’s up to one particular guard, in the odd hours of the night, to pacify the spirits?

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Filed under Bande Dessinée, Comics, ComicsLit, Graphic Novel Reviews, graphic novels, NBM, Paris, The Louvre

Tagged as Art, arts, Bande Dessinée, Entertainment, France, Ghosts, graphic novels, Hauntings, Museums, Paris, Pop Culture, Supernatural, The Louvre, The Mona Lisa

August 18, 2014 · 5:06 pm

Review: ‘Glacial Period’ (Louvre Collection)

This week we will consider NBM ComicsLit’s collection of comics with a Louvre-inspired theme. We begin with the book that kicked it all off back in 2007, Nicolas De Crécy’s refreshingly cool look at art, “Glacial Period.” It was such a wonderfully odd duck of a book that the paperback promptly sold out and had been hard to find until now. Just released, “Glacial Period” finds a new home in a bigger hardcover edition. This little gem spurred The Louvre museum to become involved in a co-edition of a series of graphic novels, each a vision by a different artist of the great museum.

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Filed under Bande Dessinée, Comics, ComicsLit, France, Graphic Novel Reviews, graphic novels, NBM

Tagged as Art, arts, Bande Dessinée, Books, comics, Culture, Entertainment, France, graphic novels, NBM, NBM ComicsLit, Nicolas De Crécy, Painting, Paris, Pop Culture, The Louvre

August 18, 2014 · 2:42 am

Seattle Tattoo Expo 2014: Getting Inked

Do master tattoo artists make it look easy? Well, yes and no. There doesn’t seem to be anything easy about the world of tattoos. It’s a complex world. If you ask a seasoned pro what it takes to get into the business, you’re likely to be told that you just have to do it. Everyone learns differently. Maybe it will take someone a year or two to feel that they have some mastery of the needle. My thinking would be that, yes, just like anything else, it’s all about practice, practice, and more practice. There was one artist who strongly suggested the best way to learn is to get tattooed. I said I’d been tattooed. He just looked at me and said, “No, I mean really get tattooed!” And, of course, that said it all. If you want to jump into something in a significant way, you just gotta do it.

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Filed under Seattle, Seattle Tattoo Expo, Tattoos

Tagged as Art, arts, Body, Body Art, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Pop Culture, Seattle, Tattoos

August 14, 2014 · 3:49 am

Interview: David Ury and ‘Everybody Dies: A Children’s Book For Grown-Ups’

David Ury and “Everybody Dies: A Children’s Book For Grown-Ups”

Daivd Ury is really onto something. Who is David Ury? you may ask. Most likely, you’ve seen him around, getting throttled, axed, murdered, or most notably, having an ATM fall on him in AMC’s critically-acclaimed “Breaking Bad.” Yes, he’s one of those character actors that you like but might not know unless you’re looking in the right places. Ury has definitely been working hard. You can catch his hilarious collaboration with his alter-ego, Kevin Tanaka, right here:

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Filed under Books, Children's Books, Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2014, Death, Illustration, Interviews

Tagged as Art, arts, Books, Breaking Bad, Children's Books, Comic-Con, Death, Entertainment, Humor, Illustration, Interviews, Pop Culture, Television

August 12, 2014 · 10:19 pm

Robin Williams, RIP

They always say of the greats that they make it look easy. Robin Williams was a master at what he did. It is a facility that could be taken for granted. And now his best work lives on and speaks for itself.

I was just revisiting “The Fisher King” and it is a humbling experience to see Robin Williams with the news of his death still ringing throughout. The iconic mannerisms are there, the ones we could take for granted. Oh, that’s just Robin Williams being Robin Williams. But there is only one Robin Williams and now he’s gone. Now comes the time to revisit his work and appreciate his talent.

It always happens this way in these situations. We enjoy such a talent. We begin to take it for granted. And then one day, we turn a page, and realize it is the end of an era.

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Filed under Comedy, Entertainment, movies, Robin Williams

Tagged as Art, arts, Comedy, Entertainment, Icons, Movies, Pop Culture, Robin Williams

August 11, 2014 · 3:09 pm

Comic-Con 2014 Interview: Charles Yu

Charles Yu is the author of the novel “How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe” and the short story collections “Third Class Superhero” and “Sorry Please Thank You.” In 2007, Yu won the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award. When discussing Yu’s work, Italo Calvino comes up as does Douglas Adams and Kurt Vonnegut. What strikes me is Yu’s flair for a natural and casual humor mixed in with philosophical musings and various games with language and narrative. You can read my review of “How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe” right here.

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Filed under Charles Yu, Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2014, Fiction, Interviews, Sci-Fi, science fiction, Time Travel

Tagged as Books, Charles Yu, Comic-Con, Entertainment, Fandom, Fiction, Interviews, Novels, Pop Culture, Random House, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Time Travel, Writers, Writing

August 11, 2014 · 6:24 am

Book Review: ‘How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe’ by Charles Yu

“Most people I know live their lives moving in a constant forward direction, the whole time looking backward.”
― Charles Yu, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

There is a very strong contingent of sci-fi fans who take issue with Charles Yu’s time travel novel being true science fiction. Well, how about if we all just take a deep breath and relax and just call it fiction. Does that work for you? To get caught up in the sci-fi is not the right approach. Take, for instance, Stephen King’s “11/22/63.” The sci-fi in that book amounts to a very simple “portal,” you walk through a door and that’s it. For the hardcore crowd, well, one of the greatest, if not the greatest work on time travel, Jack Finney’s “Time and Again,” also employs a simple process to get on with the time travelin’. That’s not to say Yu is happy to settle for a magic door because, in fact, he goes all quantum physics on you in his own way. So, let’s revisit “How to Live,” which was recently reissued in print and is also now an e-book.

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Filed under Book Reviews, Books, Charles Yu, Random House, Sci-Fi, science fiction, Time Travel

Tagged as Books, Charles Yu, Entertainment, Fiction, Pop Culture, Publishing, Random House, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Space-Time, Time Travel

August 5, 2014 · 6:41 am

Comic-Con 2014 Interview: Gene Yang and THE SHADOW HERO

It is an honor and a privilege to interview Gene Yang, known for “American Born Chinese” and “Boxers & Saints.” And now he and Sonny Liew offer you “The Shadow Hero.” With all the unpacking, literally and figuratively since Comic-Con, I finally share with you this interview. You really can’t say enough about Gene Yang. He has opened up a great path for others to dare to follow. Yeah, he’s that big of a deal.

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