Nerdy Nit Picks: Wolverine's Height

This was the funnies image of wolverine I could find

First off, I will say – I MUST say, that Hugh Jackman did a great job as Wolverine.  In fact, I’d say the whole cast and crew did a fantastic job with the first X-Men movie.  I did not think it was possible to make a good X-Men movie at the time, and the results far exceeded my expectations.  A lot of that had to do with the depiction of Wolverine, easily the most popular X-Men character, and one of the most popular characters in Comics.  Wolverine was placed at the center of the action, and he was great, just great.  Cigar Smoking, mutton chopped, grumbly a-hole with a ridiculous haircut.   Sweet metal claws and quick to heal.   Yep, that's Wolverine, and he is awesome.  

But they did get one thing wrong.  Hugh Jackman is over 6 feet tall.  Wolverine is like 5’2”.  He’s a short man, not a tall one.  I know this is nitpicking, but I think it really would make a difference.  In general,  It’s not an often-featured element of Wolvie’s character, but I always thought it was an important one.  His rivalry with Cyclops, for example.  Cyclops is the straight-backed, strapping boy-scout.  Wolverine is the hairy, snarling animal; testosterone incarnate.  Really, his height is about his only disadvantage.

Hollywood likes tall male leads, and there are only a handful of successful leading men under 5'8".   Still, I will admit Jackman was probably a better choice that Seth Greene.  So yeah.  Not a huge deal, they did a great job with those first two movies, when the series was still fresh.  But they did miss that one (little) thing.

-D

Misc Link Post

Calvin and Hobbes

Every so often, I will stumble onto a tribute to Calvin and Hobbes and they are almost always a great read.  This latest one from the AV club is such a one.  While I will always have a certain association with Garfield the Cat, Calvin and Hobbes is, in my opinion,  far and away the best daily comic strip every published.  After reading this article, I thought:  wouldn't it be cool if Bill Watterson quietly released a book of Susie Derkins comics?

Ricky does great fan art but lots of original material as well

Mr. Revenge

While I’m on the subject of comic strips, I’d like to mention that an old friend of mine has started selling his art.  I first met Ricky working at a Movie Theater when I was 19, and he was a fantastic artist even then.  He has since developed his abilities further, and is really one excellent illustrator.  Check out his stuff on deviant art as Mr. Revenge, or look him up on facebook under Ricky Romero.

Tetris

I found a note I made to myself at one of my recent jobs as an Executive Assistant.  It says: "It's not like Tetris per se, It's like two games of tetris at once, and they speed up and slow down erratically."  This was my attempt to describe my job working for two different executives and managing their calendars and travel plans.  I actually think it might be really fun to play two different tetris games at once.  To that end, I decided to look for one, and I found an exhaustive list of Tetris Variants, including one interesting website:  chesstris.

-Dcom

Webcomic Post: Homestuck

I tried to post about Homestuck over a year ago, but I couldn't narrow down my thoughts.  This bulleted list helps. 

Oh, it starts innocently enough...

Things you should know about Homestuck:

• Homestuck is not a video game, it is a webcomic, but it will be a video game soon!  
• Homestuck is hilarious and features a great number of jokes about data structures in the first Act
• It also makes lots of jokes about video games.
• The story is very long and vast and absurdly complex.  More so than any rpg I've played except maybe Xenogears
• Homestuck has really great cinema scenes
• It also has a really good soundtrack
• Homestuck is free to read and all the music is free to listen to.  
• Homestuck is mega-popular with the next generation* 
• Homestuck has a devoted and loyal fanbase and huge catalog of fan art. 
• Homestuck might just be the Ulysses of the Internet
• My favorite characters are Jade, Dave and Karkat and Terezi
• I took my font choice from Homestuck
• Prior to Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures produced Problem Sleuth, which is also hilarious, imaginative and epic.  But less overblown and more lighthearted. (and not nearly as long) 
• Homestuck has recently begun updating again after a year-long pause.  It should be finished by the end of next year.  

Basically, Homestuck is everything the best jRPGs are, but it's not actually a video game.  I recommend it to everyone who likes jRPGs and has a few dozen hours to waste reading it.  Once you get in, it's really tough to put down, even though it will make you sick sometimes when it meanders around for aeons.  Have fun!

-D

*there are some who would call them... Tim?  or 'millenials,' --actually, I prefer Tim, I'm going to call that generation Tim from now on

Feminist Comic Primer

This is what a feminist comic looks like. Pretty cool, huh? 

Howdy folks,  I've decided to post here today entirely to refer you do a different post that I've been enjoying thoroughly.  Over at Comic Book Resources, writer Casey Gilly has compiled fifteen examples of feminist comics and there's a lot of intriguing stuff on this list.  Feminism is increasingly moving into the conversation about video games and other media, and it's not going away any time soon.  I've always loved a good, strong female character, so I welcome it.  

For those of you who get a headache whenever you hear the word 'feminism,'  I think you will be fine with this article.  She doesn't spend time on complex critical breakdown or apply the Bechdel Test to each item on the list.  Instead the writer includes a paragraph or two about the content of each comic book series,  many of which were written by men.   The titles span a range of styles, including coming of age stories, goofy summer camp stories to high fantasy action series and other mixtures and blends.  Gilly pays attention to strong female characters, and rich story content but doesn't hit you over the head with it.  

You can skip right to the list, or you can read Gilly's first page of writing where she summarizes her own relationship to feminism.  She isn't preachy or judgmental, but instead very personal.  She clearly loves comics, but can't ignore that most comics are aimed toward males, adolescent and adult, and a lot of the girl-oriented fare has been lackluster at best.  

I'm happy to say I'm familiar with a few titles from this list, including the Maxx, Death, Locas: The Maggie and Hopey Stories and Hark! A Vagrant.  Of the new (to me) titles, I'm very interested in checking out I Kill Giants, Anyas Ghost, Princeless, Rat Queens and Red Sonja.  And special points to Saga for having an image of a woman breast feeding with one hand and holding a gun in the other.  I've never seen that one before!  

I'll leave you with a few of the more intriguing covers- from which it is easier to judge a book, in the comic world.  

Lumberjanes

-D

Many thanks to Casey Gilly at Comic Resources for this great article.  And for JP Bruneau for referring me to it.    

A tendancy toward the Mundane

Image courtesy of   http://www.improvisedlife.com/2009/09/17/cherish-the-mundane/   -  and definition of Mundane courtesy of google

This is a ramble I wrote probably more than a year ago, but follows a theme that I have been exploring since we started this blog, and am still exploring:  my own interest in the mundane when it comes to video games.

It must be a product of growing older - that's the only thing I can chalk it up to - but my interest in action and adventure has severely declined, and my interest in the mundane has increased.  On this blog I've talked about  Bike Riding, Flying like a Bird and Riding the Train. I notice a similar trend in my preferred comics;  American Splendor, Harvey Pekar's slice of life comic book;  Love and Rockets, Dykes to Watch Out For - even Larry Gonick's Cartoon Guide to History (of the universe).  These works aren't terribly exciting, but I really enjoy them.  

The non-game game is a big phenomenon right now, and it's my favorite.   Proteus, To the Moon, Gone Home, Dear Esther are all big standouts from the last two or three years.  Come to think of it, Animal Crossing is still huge, and it's a highly Mundane game.  And then there's Nintendogs, The Sims, Civilization; Mundane games are nothing new, yet are still making headlines.

Let's take a look at the definition of Mundane, shall we?

mun·dane
  [muhn-deyn, muhn-deyn]  Show IPA
adjective1.of or pertaining to this world or earth as contrasted with heaven; worldly; earthly: mundane affairs.2.common; ordinary; banal; unimaginative.3.of or pertaining to the world, universe, or earth.
Origin: 
1425–75;  < Latin mundānus,  equivalent to mund ( us ) world + -ānus -ane; replacing late Middle Englishmondeyne  < Middle French mondain  < Latin,  as above

Word Origin & History
mundane 
late 15c., from M.Fr. mondain (12c.), from L. mundanus "belonging to the world" (as distinct from theChurch), from mundus "universe, world," lit. "clean, elegant"; used as a transl. of Gk. khosmos (seecosmos) in its Pythagorean sense of "the physical universe" 

[Isn't this interesting?  The second definition is the one with which I am more familiar.  However, the first is not one I'd heard before.  I rather like it.  Earthly, yeah, that works for me.  Heaven is a place on earth, after all.]

James Portnow, writer for Extra Credits, is fond of saying:  'when you're making a game, you're crafting experiences'  This comes to mind for me whenever a game idea pops into my head.  A common feeling I have is that I would like to 'reverse engineer' an experience and see what happens.  Like I had a goofy idea that it would be fun to remake mario bros 1 but give him a cell phone and have the player get calls and texts while playing the game.  Just to play with the feeling of interruption I usually have when I get those calls and text.  It would be like a social media simulator mashup with a platformer.

I've noticed lately I have a tendency toward the Mundane when I come up with game ideas.  Like, for example,  I ride the Amtrak between Sacramento and Davis every work day.  And I spend most of these days staring out the window and watching the scenery go by.  I love it.  It's relaxing.  It's beautiful.  And it occurs to me that I want to simulate this experience with a game.  How boring eh?  And yet...

When the weather was better, I rode my bike to the train station on the American River Bike Trail.  And I had similar feelings.  I love the scenery I love the way the foliage surrounds me and I sometimes feel like I'm going through a tunnel of greenery.  And I want to make this into a game setting.  I don't really care.  Probably an RPG.  I just want to simulate the experience in game format.  I guess I'm just oriented toward games, mostly 8 and 16-bit RPGs.  Probably FF VI more than any other.

There's a theme with these two ideas:  they're both travel-based.  What I enjoy is the relaxed pace of moving forward, and the great scenery.  Essentially my idea is for an 'on-rails' kind of a game.
As an aside:  I've heard people say  more than once that the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings are essentially travel novels.  That works for me.  Makes sense.  I like it.  While the LOTR movies had hours and hours of extended action sequences, the feedback I tend to notice regarding the books was 'Tolkien sure likes to spend a lot of time describing things.'  The man appreciated the little details, and lately I find that mundane details are what I'm looking for in games, rather than roller-coaster excitement.


-D


PS:  I never played Pokemon Snap, but I wonder if it fits in with this idea.  Originally, when I heard about that game, I remember thinking "what a stupid game.  I'll never play that"  "bo-ring" and other, admittedly, immature thoughts.  Granted, I hadn't played any Pokemon games at the time, so I didn't really have interest. I didn't even know how badass squirtle was yet.  Perhaps I will have to watch out for it to pop up on  half.com.

Yep, there it is, five bucks.  Once called 'the best game ever' by my friend Orangeleecy.  One of these days, I'm going to check it out.

The Art of Storytelling- Cutscenes: Ninja Gaiden

Ninja Gaiden had the best cutscenes of the 8-bit era.  I feel confident I can make that statement and have it go unchallenged.  And hell, if there are better cut scenes out there, I'd be glad to watch youtube videos of them.

I recently read a book called "Reinventing Comics"(2000) by Scott McCloud.  This book was the sequel to "Understanding Comics." (1993)  Both books are fantastic, and I recommend them to anyone with even a mild interesting in the subject;  I got my copies at my local library.  In these books, McCloud talks about the future of comics, and how technology will influence the design of comics to come.  He spends a few panels talking about the possibility of including sound and animation in comics, which I've seen before.   

However, McCloud doesn't seem to realize that video game cut scenes were already doing just that.  And, to tell you the truth, I don't think I've seen it done better.  Animation and sound in comics tends to annoy me, but cutscenes work just fine.  Perhaps it's because the comic 'panel' takes up the full-screen, so there isn't a weird contrast when placed next a still panel.

The link I included up top is to a video of all the cutscenes from Ninja Gaiden. While it's fun to view the cutscenes in sequence, there is definitely an element lost.  In Ninja Gaiden there are cutscenes before and after ever level.  Or Stage.  Whatever.  It is very consistent.  By having it framed against the game play, there is a feeling of a continuous story flow.  The high-action scenes are the game play.  The talking is done in the cutscenes. 

I think in later games, especially after FMV moved in, a lot of it was just done for flash.  There wasn't a clean and understandable flow from one scene to another.  Abes Oddysee, for example, has some of my favorite cut scenes ever, but they are few and far between, and seem inconsistent in their placement.  FF7 was acclaimed for its cutscenes, but I think they suffered from the same problems of inconsistency, and varying quality.  

What video games have your favorite cut scenes?

Link Dump

My full review of LIMBO is pending me completing the game again.  In the meantime, here's a bunch of links to video-games and video game related items:

Magical Game Time:

I just got linked to this comic and I am now a fan.  It's a wonderful blend of humor, imagination and nostalgia that is very close to how I feel about the video games of my childhood.  The artist has a similar taste to mine, based on the games he chooses to reference.  The art is rough, but very expressive.  

Today I die:

Video games as poetry. I really enjoyed playing this game. Today I die is one of the first truly independent games I played during my recent phase of indie game playing.  Free to play, in-browser.

Eversion:

This game is a simple platformer, doesn't take long to beat. It's a rough game, not a big show, like Braid or Limbo.  But this game really gets its concept across, and it is totally awesome.  I highly recommend it.  Actually, I think this was the first indie game I played.  Free to download.  $5 on Steam for the HD version.  

Abobo's Big Adventure:

I've already mentioned this one in a previous post.  But I thought I should include it while I'm posting free online games.  This game is a silly, violent and clever tribute to NES games.  Lots of fun.  

Cave Story:

Cave Story is utterly charming. I think this is the best Retro Game I have played.  It isn't the first indie game I played, but it is probably the best and most complete.  Beyond simple nostalgia, the game has some clever and well-implemented mechanics and plenty of those little touches that make a good game into more than the sum of its parts.