Magic Carpet Ride
One of my projects shipped today: Six Arabian Nights, the latest Open Design Project.
As with Castle Shadowcrag and Empire of the Ghouls, I handled the typesetting and layout (in consultation with the author and editor, of course), and I’m pleased with how well the project came together. I hope the patrons are, as well.
Happy Birthday, Naomi!
You are 27 months old today, and you’re a keen observer of aquatic sports (unlike your very forgetful Daddy!) Love you lots, Little Fishie!
Warlord: The Board Game
d/b/a Tomb Board Game» Recruit a Party. Kill the Monsters. Take Their Stuff!
[Clipped from the official site]
Tomb pits opponents against one another in a fast paced board game of monsters, traps, and treasures. After assembling your party from a plethora of random characters in the Inn, you set out into the Tomb. The Tomb is created as the game begins, with each player hiding treasure, traps, and monsters in each crypt, unknown to the other players. Do you remember where you left the chest of gold? Better hope your opponent didn’t put a Pain Eater in the same crypt! No rogues at the Inn today? Hope you don’t run into a poison dart trap! Tomb captures the fast-paced feel of a dungeon crawl without the hours of set up before hand. Just grab your party and go.
Each character brings unique abilities, and with the map changing every game as well as the available characters, no two games will ever be the same.
Aside from the rather shameless copying of the Munchkin slogan, Tomb looks pretty interesting. It’s keen that the game uses the characters and art from the defunct CCG and RPG world of the Accordlands. For that alone, I’ll probably take a closer look at the game upon release.
TV Served on Disc
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Battlestar Galactica: Razor Just what I needed to remember how this show can thrill and unnerve. A well-crafted series of nested flashbacks that explain what happened to Admiral Caine and the Pegasus after the second war – and it’s worse than the reports. Kendra Shaw was a terrific, though short-lived, addition to the crew. |
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Samurai Jack Season 4 This abbreviated season brings Jack’s adventures to an abrupt an unsatisfying end…though the episodes themselves are marvels of illustration/design/storytelling (except for the Scotsman two-parter, which was a tremendous disappointment). The Star Wars-themed episode, along with Jack vs. Ninja, Bounty Hunters, X9 and Jack & the Baby are the highlights. |
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Scrubs Season 6 Elizabeth Banks brings some much-needed sparkle to the show as JD’s latest paramour. The other episodes followed comfortable family sitcom territory – new babies and engagements – enlivened by a funny musical episode. The cliffhanger was so potentially bad that we raced to see the 7th season premiere…and were reassured. |
School is Cool
Here’s a happy milestone for Ben: He’s officially registered for kindergarten!
I walked up to the school with his documents in hand, filled out a stack of school, school board, CLSC and Ministry of Education forms, chatted with the secretary and the principal and went on my merry way.
Part of me can’t believe that Ben is old enough to go to kindergarten in September. What’s more, I’m thrilled that he’ll be going to a mainstream school that has experience teaching kids with autism.
This wouldn’t have been possible without the extraordinary work of his shadows, teachers, ABA therapists, grandparents, uncle and friends & family over the years. Thank you, everyone!
Kids and Games
Ben knows how to play Go Fish with me. Naomi knows how to play Patty-Cake.
Life is good.
Essential DC Comics
DC Comics is promoting a list of 30 Essential Graphic Novels for everyone to read. ***Dave published his annotated version of the list, and I’m following suit. Books I own are in bold. Books I’ve read are in italics.
Quibbles and Caveats: These are only DC titles, most of them aren’t self-contained graphic novels but collections of stories originally published in serial form (this makes a difference in terms of structure and pacing.), and there’s a definite marketing slant towards more recent offerings.
There are also a lot of titles by Jeph Loeb on the list, which is puzzling. He’s produced good work, but he’s hardly the best writer DC has ever seen. Any list that has more Loeb than Moore is flawed.
The List:
- Watchmen – If anything is the Citizen Kane of comics, this is it.
- League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (vols 1 & 2) – Don’t let the silly movie fool you, this is a terrific way of looking at old stories and conventions in new ways. Plus, it appeals to the lit. student in me.
- V for Vendetta – Regrettably, a timeless tale of how power corrupts and begets more corruption. The film only tells a sliver of this story.
- Sandman, vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes – If you only read one Sandman, skip this one and pick up Doll’s House.
- Sandman: Endless Nights – Skip it. This collection of tales about each of the Endless only has one good story – the one featuring Sandman himself.
- Fables, vol. 1: Legends in Exile – Similar to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in that it takes literary characters and places them in a new genre and context, but is a very different beast. I’ll be slowly picking up the rest of the series.
- Superman for All Seasons
- Superman: Birthright
- Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
- Batman: Arkham Asylum – The strangest possible retelling of Alice in Wonderland. Cool when first published, this look at Batman and his rogues gallery hasn’t held up well over the years.
- Batman: The Long Halloween
- Batman: Dark Victory
- Batman: The Dark Knight Returns – Breathtaking. If you only read one thing by Frank Miller, this is it. (In fact, that’s a solid recommendation all around).
- Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again
- Batman: Year One – Well, you can read this one, too. Started the whole trend of reimagining the origins and “rookie seasons” of heroes.
- Batman: Hush, (vols 1 & 2)
- Kingdom Come – In the future, heroes aren’t heroic. Superman comes out of retirement to change all that…unheroically. The painted artwork is gorgeous, Captain Marvel has never been better, but the apocalyptic overtones are a little overdone.
- Identity Crisis
- JLA: New World Order – Grant Morrison’s revival of the JLA restores a sense of wonder to superhero fights and abilities.
- Green Lantern: Rebirth
- Crisis on Infinite Earths – The best thing about DC Comics were its multiple earths with multiple versions of all the heroes. Twenty years ago, the editorial department had the very bad idea of collapsing those multiple worlds. At least it produced a good story…despite the reliance on a character called “Psycho-Pirate.”
- Transmetropolitan, vol 1: Back on the Street – Spider Jerusalem is an angry gonzo journalist of the future, railing against future atrocities by governments and society. That’s a lot of outrage over fictional problems, and it cuts the legs out from under this series…unless you’re sixteen and angry, and need more things to be angry about.
- The Quitter
- Hellblazer: Original Sins – The John Constantine series starts off too slowly. The one tale that tells is all is Dangerous Habits.
- Y, the Last Man, vol. 1: Unmanned – This is a great sci-fi read. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
- Kamakaze Kaito Jeanne
- Sword of the Dark Ones
- Ex Machina, vol. 1: The First Hundred Days
– If The West Wing featured super-powered characters, this would be it. A fine political story about a former superhero turned Mayor of New York in a mundane world.
The Replacements:
I think this list needs three more works by Alan Moore (Tom Strong vol 1, Top 10 vols 1-2, and Saga of the Swamp Thing), two works by James Robinson (The Golden Age and Starman: Sins of the Father), Warren Ellis’ Planetary, Superman: Red Son (finding a good Superman story is hard to do) and, per ***Dave’s excellent suggestion, Kurt Busiek’s Astro City: Life in the Big City.
Scene with Ben
Ben didn’t want to go to daycare this morning. After much fussing, he stomped down the stairs and stood on the porch. I put Naomi in her car seat and then went back to get him.
He was sitting on the front step, looking dejected.
“Ben, what’s wrong?”
Ben answered in the quietest, saddest voice I’ve heard. It was almost a whisper. “Daddy, I’m frustrated.”
“You don’t want to go to school, Ben?”
“No.” He paused. “I want to see ‘Bena.” (That’s his teacher from last year. She teaches in an adjoining room. Ben is still very attached to her. The feeling is mutual.)
“Okay, Ben,” I answered. “Want me to carry you to the car?”
Ben stands up. He gives me a little smile. I pick him up. “Thank you, Daddy. I’m okay.”
I give him a squeeze. “I love you, Ben.”
“I love you, Daddy.”
And, off we went.
Dear Quebec Government,
If I choose to pay extra, voluntary fees to my children’s daycare so they can benefit from extra events such as in-house puppet shows, magic shows and weekly music sessions, then kindly LET ME!
Go find another way to waste my taxpayer dollars instead of trying to take away the programmes that have helped Ben in the course of his autism therapy, have taught Naomi how to dance, and inspired creativity in all the other children.
How dare you threaten to diminish the qualityof my children’s education? Isn’t it enough that you don’t consider Ben and Naomi worthy of the same level of subsidy support as children enrolled in fully public daycares…daycares that don’t offer nearly the same quality of education? Why should they suffer?
You’ll be hearing from me again.
Angrily yours,
steve
2008 Is Looking Up
Three meetings with three different clients over the last two days, and about five projects in progress or on the horizon.
Time to stock up on coffee and get to work!