Whew. Almost-- almost-- done reading the boards. (Still have the NXE board to work through, shudder.) Still, gonna take a break and make some noise on this board, see if anybody hears me.

Warrior's Legacy is one of my personal favorites of the Eyrie stable. There's a sort of comic-book quality to the whole thing, and I mean the good, fun comic book, not specifically the superhero genre. It's just a whole ton of fun to read; even when nasty stuff happens (like Sakura getting punked), you can reasonably expect that things are going to turn out okay. Plus, the environment of the story gives the authors an excuse to drag in everything from the IMF to Virtua Cop and still leave room for bits like the bit about getting a Street Fighter game made. (I haven't seen things borrowed from other fiction sources as real things and other fiction sources borrowed as fiction sources rub together so closely since the last time I read Gold Digger. If that makes any sense. Like having Virtua Fighters the game and also Virtua Fighters the fighting circuit-- they wouldn't call it that, though, right? What would they call it?)

Anyway. I thought I'd point out two things about WL that stick in my head in an attempt to generate discussion. First, the props: every time-- every stinking time-- I read the bit about the Spanish ninjas in the alley, I am compelled to deliver the Ren Hoek line, out loud, in my best Ren Hoek voice (which isn't very good, but is fun anyway).

As for the reference missed: at the dinner, when Zoner and Gryphon are trying to persuade Meg to get back in the crimefighting biz, there's a bit I don't get, possibly a reference I missed; the text looks something like this...

"Well, think about it."
"(Think about it.)"
"Think about it."

...uh, me no get. Explain? \n_n/;

--Zenigame the up-late Wartortle

>As for the reference missed: at the dinner, when Zoner and Gryphon are
>trying to persuade Meg to get back in the crimefighting biz, there's a
>bit I don't get, possibly a reference I missed; the text looks
>something like this...
>
>"Well, think about it."
>"(Think about it.)"
>"Think about it."
>
>...uh, me no get. Explain? \n_n/;

Information Society's second album, Hack, has a song on it entitled "Think". One of the features of "Think" is a sample of a man saying, "Think about it." Normally, when it appears, it appears three times, once in the left stereo channel, once in the right, then once in the left again.

Many gweeps are InSoc fans.

--G.
strange haircuts, cardboard guitars, and computer samples...
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

>strange haircuts, cardboard guitars, and computer samples...

And Mirrorshades is the official Sylia Stingray theme...

-MegaZone, megazone@megazone.org
Personal Homepage http://www.megazone.org/
Eyrie Productions FanFic http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

>And Mirrorshades is the official Sylia Stingray theme...

Funny, in my head her theme music is Metallica's "Trapped Under Ice".

>>strange haircuts, cardboard guitars, and computer samples...
>
>And Mirrorshades is the official Sylia Stingray theme...

...Which is amusing, since InSoc wrote the song for *another* cyberpunk character -- Molly, from Burning Chrome and Neuromancer.

One of my favorite songs of all time.

My friend Gwen once played a character in a Werewolf LARP that was based on Molly... cute small pale woman with long dark hair wearing black leather from head to toe, with mirrored sunglass lenses glued over her eyes -- she was perfect for the role.

>There's a sort of comic-book quality to the whole thing,

What? Did they start adding artwork when I wasn't looking?

-- Sean --
very defensive of the art form of comics...read this guy's stuff
http://www.thebrokenlink.org The Broken Link 4.0 is live!
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Albert Einstein
"It's not easy being green." -- Kermit the Frog

Sean wrote:

>What? Did they start adding artwork when I wasn't looking?

Whoa there, big fella, stand down them plasma cannons. \n_n/; I hope you were able to determine what I meant, rather than reacting to the precise words I used. Certainly I mean no disrespect to graphic artists or the tools of the trade; it was merely an analogy, with all the inherent flaws. If you have an alternate phrasing that (a) carries the same meaning, (b) doesn't refer to an alternate genre (the first alternate I could think of was pinging old adventure serials), and (c) is not tautological (i.e., "it's an Eyrie thing"), I'm certainly open to suggestions.

Incidentally, doesn't anyone else have some gushing to do? So far I've seen a few lovely explanations from the authors and, um, this. Or is the 'favorite scene' chatter generally held in the general forum and/or overdone this time period?

>Sean wrote:
>
>>What? Did they start adding artwork when I wasn't looking?
>
>Whoa there, big fella, stand down them plasma cannons.
>\n_n/; I hope you were able to determine what I meant,
>rather than reacting to the precise words I used.

I'm reacting to the phrase you chose. I'm not picking on you specifically, but you did hit one of my pet peeves spot-on.

Comic books and comics are not a genre. Comics are an artistic medium. Saying something is "like a comic book" would be absolutely meaningless to someone who hasn't grown up on American superhero comics and other comics genres that follow the conventions (overmuscled heroes, exaggerated action, etc.). I don't have anything against the superhero genre; I love superheroes, especially when the work gets outside of the bounds of adolescent male power fantasy: Busiek's Astro City, most of Waid's work on The Flash, Alan Moore's masterpiece Watchmen (the damn thing won the Hugo), Kevin Smith's run on Daredevil and current run on Green Arrow. But there's been so many wonderful comics works done over the past century that have nothing to do with superheroes: Maus: A Survivor's Tale, Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise, all of Alan Moore's non-superhero work (From Hell springs to mind), The Sandman. And that's just in America; take one look at Japanese manga and tell me that any of it can be so easily pigeonholed as mainstream America thinks it can be. I've read Japanese crime drama comics (Sanctuary, Strain), historical action comics, cyperpunk comics (Masamune Shirow's entire body of work), over-the-top martial arts comedy (Ranma 1/2), and many other genres, and the only thing they all have in common is that the writers' and artists' names happen to be Japanese.

Again: comics, and comic books by extension, are an artistic medium, not a genre. Calling something "like a comic book" has all the inherent meaning of saying that something is "like a novel" or "like a movie" or "like a painting"; in and of itself, it doesn't mean anything.

-- Sean --

http://www.thebrokenlink.org The Broken Link 4.0 is live!
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Albert Einstein
"It's not easy being green." -- Kermit the Frog

>I love superheroes, especially when the
>work gets outside of the bounds of adolescent male power fantasy:
>Busiek's Astro City, most of Waid's work on The Flash,
>Alan Moore's masterpiece Watchmen (the damn thing won the
>Hugo), Kevin Smith's run on Daredevil and current run on
>Green Arrow.

James Robinson's Starman is on my list, along with his mini The Golden Age, and of course Waid and Ross's apocalyptic (no pun intended) Kingdom Come. (Watchmen isn't; I read it a couple of years ago and didn't really grok where the hype came from. It's not bad, but I guess I didn't Get It.)

In a more comedic vein, Peter David's Young Justice is fun too. The sheer number of pokes at the comics industry he gets into an average issue makes it worth the price of admission...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

>James Robinson's Starman is on my list, along with his mini
>The Golden Age, and of course Waid and Ross's apocalyptic (no
>pun intended) Kingdom Come.

I agree with all of these. I could also point out Marvels, Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Girl, and Waid's run on JLA (which I believe is ending next issue, with the end of the current (brilliant) story arc). Grant Morrison's run on JLA had a lot of slam-bang action, but lacked in character development, and was a bit disappointing after his excellent work on Animal Man and Doom Patrol. (He's going to be writing one of the X-Men titles -- I believe X-Men itself -- starting next month, with Frank Quitely doing the artwork. Hopefully it'll be up there with his better work.)

And did I mention The Authority? If I didn't, I should have. Warren Ellis' run on Stormwatch was good, and The Authority was mind-blowing (even if Ellis' politics are a little scary).

> (Watchmen isn't; I read it
>a couple of years ago and didn't really grok where the hype came from.
> It's not bad, but I guess I didn't Get It.)

I didn't think you would, honestly. Now that I have a better idea of what you like, I wouldn't expect you to Get It. Just like how there are some things that I admit are good, but don't do a damn thing for me. Can't think of any off the top of my head, but I've said that about stuff in the past.

>In a more comedic vein, Peter David's Young Justice is fun too.
> The sheer number of pokes at the comics industry he gets into an
>average issue makes it worth the price of admission...

Young Justice is a wonderful romp every month. I've had nothing but fun in every issue I've read. There's two TPB collections; one just titled (last I saw) Young Justice, and the other YJ: Sins of Youth (which has a real fun premise: all of the YJ regulars and the other teenagers, like the Star-Spangled Girl of the JSA and Damage of the Titans, get aged to adulthood, the JSA (except for the SSG, obviously) are all reduced to 6 - 8 year olds, the JLA all become teenagers, and a mixture of all of the above happens to the Titans, with only Nightwing, Troia, Tempest, and... okay, I'm blanking on the fourth one right now... unaffected; the bulk of the story is team-ups between a youthened hero and his or her aged counterpart: Kid Flash and Impulse, Superboy (Kal-El) and Superman (Kon-El), Wonder Girl (Diana) and Wonder Woman (Cassie), etc. Lots of fun.).

And, of course, I have to plug The Flash. Geoff Johns is as good as Mark Waid, though he's a very different writer. His first story arc, Wonderland, was okay, but his second one, Blood Will Run, was fantastic, and really captured the heart and soul of Wally and his story. I encourange anyone out there to hunt out the issues; it's a four-parter, so it shouldn't be that hard. Also, a new penciller who has a very good, very distinctive style (and I wish I could remember his name) started at the beginning of the story arc, and the book is worth the price of admission for the artwork alone; Johns' excellent writing is like a bonus. (Kind of how I feel about just about anything Alex Ross does.)

-- Sean --

http://www.thebrokenlink.org The Broken Link 4.0 is live!
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Albert Einstein
"It's not easy being green." -- Kermit the Frog

>Young Justice is a wonderful romp every month. I've had
>nothing but fun in every issue I've read.

>and a mixture of all of
>the above happens to the Titans, with only Nightwing, Troia, Tempest,
>and... okay, I'm blanking on the fourth one right now...unaffected;

Arsenal. The trick is to grab the original five, and subtract Kid Flash. That leaves Robin->Nightwing, Wonder Girl->Troia, Aqualad->Tempest, and Speedy->Arsenal.

Personally, I'm reading Thunderbolts, JSA, and Robin, but I'm thinking of dropping Robin.

Peter Eng
--
Take your backing boards, and your mylar bags, and your slabbed comics, and shove them through your alimentary canal in reverse. I'm reading these.

Sean wrote:

I'm reacting to the phrase you chose. I'm not picking on you specifically, but you did hit one of my pet peeves spot-on.

Fair enough; everyone has their hot buttons. (Ironically enough, I got a bit defensive in my response because one of my hot buttons is setting off flame wars; ever since the time I inadvertently provided fuel to start a religious flame war in the attempt to comfort someone who'd received poor treatment from a self-proclaimed Christian, I've been kind of nervous about anyone taking my words seriously enough to get steamed over. So if I don't think my views are that important, why do I post? I'll get back to you on that.)

So, obviously my analogy isn't the best. I really am open to suggestions, preferably ones I can use to tell folks who haven't read WL what to expect. Any suggestions?

--Zenigame, who has no clever tag this post

>So, obviously my analogy isn't the best. I really am open to
>suggestions, preferably ones I can use to tell folks who haven't read
>WL what to expect. Any suggestions?

Well, you didn't ask me, but I'll answer this question anyway. I tend to think of WL as, first and foremost, a pulp adventure story, like The Shadow, Doc Savage, and their ilk. Two-Fisted Tales of Action and all that sort of thing. Or H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines (which is actually a Victorian adventure novel, and so predates pulp a bit, but it has much the same flavor).

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

>
>Well, you didn't ask me, but I'll answer this question anyway. I tend
>to think of WL as, first and foremost, a pulp adventure story,
>like The Shadow, Doc Savage, and their ilk. Two-Fisted
>Tales of Action and all that sort of thing. Or H. Rider Haggard's
>King Solomon's Mines (which is actually a Victorian adventure
>novel, and so predates pulp a bit, but it has much the same flavor).
>
>--G.

That's kind of the feeling I got as well... sort of a cross between John Woo meets video games and the old pulp serials.

And I'd have to say that my fav scene to date was both A) the setup for the fight with guilie, and the crate with nothing in it.

___________________

Vaughn doesn't know I exist. I guess this explains why the rest of reality keeps ignoring me as well. >_<

>So, obviously my analogy isn't the best. I really am open to
>suggestions, preferably ones I can use to tell folks who haven't read
>WL what to expect. Any suggestions?

I actually meant to include a suggestion. I'd say either a pulp adventure style, or a high-powered, cinematic buddy film, mixing elements of Hong Kong-style action with "fun" elements of Hollywood cinema. In fact, I'd probably say that WL is the most overtly cinematic Eyrie project, deliberately over-the-top and fun. (I think I've mentioned before, several times, that it was WL that got me into reading EPU to begin with.)

-- Sean --

http://www.thebrokenlink.org The Broken Link 4.0 is live!
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Albert Einstein
"It's not easy being green." -- Kermit the Frog

"Bruce Lee and James Bond: together at last."

-Craig
Need something to read?
http://www.wpi.edu/~perko

>"Bruce Lee and James Bond: together at last."

"only fool, fight man with PPK!"

Xervis
AKA
The Chrono Shifting Trigger

If death is only the begining, then
what is the end?

Me

>
>...uh, me no get. Explain? \n_n/;
>
>--Zenigame the up-late Wartortle

While we're on the subject of things that some readers didn't get...

...what does "S.I.G." mean?

Send In Gryphon?
Shot Is Go?
Surrender, Inferior Gatchaman?

Peter Eng
--
Probably, all of those are wrong...

>While we're on the subject of things that some readers didn't get...
>
>...what does "S.I.G." mean?

"Spectrum is Green", the standard radio acknowledgement of the brave men and women of SPECTRUM. It's a reference to (IMHO) the best of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Supermarionation series, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/