Warren Ellis' Desolation Jones: An Appreciation

I am going to talk about Desolation Jones today. What is Desolation Jones? I hear you asking. Simply, it was a six issue mini-series published by the late, lamented Wildstorm Comics in 2005, written by Warren Ellis and with art by J.H. Williams III. We're not going to talk about the follow-up that Ellis was unable to finish in this and focus on the mini that was completed. If you click the link above, you'll find out how to buy it through Amazon.com, hopefully earning some affiliate credit for me.

First off, if you are a fan of the Burn Notice television show and you like comics I think you should check out Desolation Jones. The high concept of this comic is similar: spies broken by their jobs, or unable to interact normally with others because of agency experiments, are given a choice...die or move to Los Angeles. Yes, an interesting choice. However, in this comic Los Angeles is a secret open-air prison for former intelligence agents to are too important to kill but in too bad of shape (mostly psychologically) to still undertake missions regularly. Behave and stay within the city limits of L.A. and the former agents can continue to live.

Enter Michael Jones, former MI6 operative and survivor of the Desolation Test. I don't want to go into the Desolation Test in too much detail because the unveiling of it, and it's effects on Jones, are an important part of the story. Let's just say that, from what is revealed it wasn't a pleasant test, not that many things called Desolation are often pleasant. After the test Michael is give the choice by his government: we kill you, or you move to America and L.A. Michael chooses life (much like in the Wham song) and moves to Los Angeles, where he sets himself up as a private investigator to the former intelligence set. Some of this sound familar?

The story of this miniseries is an investigation into Hitler porn that Michael is hired to undertake. In true noir style, however, it quickly turns into much more. While well-written, keep in mind that Desolation Jones is not always a high minded comic. After all, this is the comic that gave us the quote "Everything goes better with bukkake." As Ellis often does in his comics, this story is a weaving of the high brow and the low brow. One of Ellis' throwaway ideas in this mini (which was going to be expanded in the unfinished follow-up) is the concept of supermodernism. Within the narrative of the comic, Ellis has Jones describe the concept as "The fact that we don't build places just to live in anymore. We build places to go through. To wait in. To be transient." As an aside, with my game designer hat on, Supermodernity is something that I think all game designers should learn something about. It is a fascinating concept that I think could inform a lot of designs in modern/SF worlds.

Jones is a detective very much in the Sam Spade/Mike Hammer mold. I don't think that the choice of the name Michael for the character is entirely coincidental. Jones solves this mystery with a mix of brutality and logic (even though Jones says repeatedly that he is not very smart) that would have fit well into any 30s L.A. noir story.

Williams art in this miniseries is on the cusp. This book was done in between his work with Alan Moore on Promethea and before he worked on the Seven Soldiers material with Grant Morrison. In Desolation Jones you can see glimpses of William's upcoming work on Seven Soldiers and Batwoman as well. This mini is very much a snapshot of an artist who is just about to come into his own, and his collaboration with Ellis on this really brings the characters and the world to life.

This comic is not for everyone. I will admit that. The themes are very adult, and there is a lot of violence and brutality in the book. It is, however, two creators that are really on their game, coming together and creating something bigger and better than what they could have done on their own. If you like crime stories, espionage stories, detective stories, noir, or even mild science fiction and you are willing to read it as a comic book then this is the miniseries for you. But mostly, I think this should be a required reading for those who are fans of Burn Notice and are looking for a comic book to fill in the time before we get new episodes. By the way, Burn Notice fans, let me know if anyone else thinks there is a commonality between the characters of Robina and Fiona.

New Year, New Game Indie Bundle

Because not just the big boys want you to play some new games this New Year, a group of small press and independent publishers and designers have banded together like a Justice League of Independence to offer to you some of their games and supplements at a reduced price. Why? Because they like you, and they want to get their stuff into your hands. While everyone else is speculating about D&D 5e today, we want you to pick up some neat new games that are not undergoing edition wars.

I should mention that my Open Core game is part of this bundle, but that is one of the reasons why you should pick up this bundle.

The bundle goes live shortly after this post goes up, so don't be surprised if some internet glitch causes a problem with the link below. Just take a deep breath and try again.

Here is what will be the link for this Bundle: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/prodPuct_info.php?products_id=98293&affiliate_id=1082

And now, some PR fluff to entertain you with, since I know that the link above is all that you really care about... (Have you clicked it yet?)


New Year, New Game Indie Bundle!

Looking to get your game on with some fantastic titles? It's a New Year and we have some great new games for you that scratch a variety of gaming itches from small press, independent publishers and designers. 

Ring in the New Year with 14 PDFs, 10 complete game systems to bring to your table.  The New Year, New Game Indie Bundle also features 1 print and play board game, a guide to conventions and several gaming supplements!

Pick up a new source book for your current system? Grab a few movie tickets and some popcorn? Why not get yourself and your group over $60 worth of games for just $30.66? Hours and hours of engaging and though provoking fun and new game systems to explore.

Hollowpoint from VSCA Publishing

Deluge from VSCA Publishing

Toys for the Sandbox: Apothacary from Occult Moon

Mi Gato se Incendia! (My Cat is on Fire!) by Benjamin Gerber

Argyle & Crew: Adventures in the Land of Skcos and two new scenarios by Benjamin Gerber

Mirkmoot’s Magical Accouterments for Creatures Great and Small by Benjamin Gerber

Shadow, Sword & Spell: Under Pashuvanam's Lush from Rogue Games, Inc.

Conventions for the Aspiring Game Professional by Jess Hartley

Instant Antagonist: The Creepy Cottontail from FR Press

Open Core Roleplaying System Classic from Battlefield Press

Toypocalypse from Top Rope Games

Old School Hack by Kirin Robinson

Kicking Historical Asses from Machine Age Productions

Homicidal Transients from Left of the Moon Games


Total Site Price:                         $50.75
Bundle Price:                             $25.16
Savings off Total Site Price:     $25.59

Go Play Something New!

My Top Three High Traffic Posts Of 2011

Of the posts that I made last year, three of them rose to the top to be my highest traffic posts for the year. I've never done a post like this in the past. Is this just a big for more traffic? Maybe. My commentary on each follows the link.

The highest traffic post was my repost of the start of the Speak Out With Your Geek Out movement, from over the summer. I like what became of SOWYGO, even if it was a bit rocky at the start. I have to say that I didn't like the fact that a male geek getting "slut shamed" for being a geek (and a championship Magic player) tried to get turned into something for women to be proud of being geeks. Everyone should be proud to be geeks, and I do not like the growing trend of ignoring what happens to men online. Yes, women have bad things happen to them..but I don't think the existence of one bad thing negates the existence of another. As geeks we need to start being nicer to each other...men and woman alike. Kudos to Monica for getting this off the ground and turning it into an event for everyone.

My second most popular post of the year was my post about the D&D With Pornstars people: Fear & Loathing In Gaming: D&D With Pornstars. Controversy (and naked women) gets clicks, apparently. In a way, these two posts are intertwined. There's been a lot of talk this year about gender issues in gaming. Many of them are right on the nose. We do need more women in gaming, honestly we need more people in gaming period. However, I come out on the side of this issue where I think that any coverage of gaming in the mainstream press that doesn't equate it with suicide or Satanism is a good thing. Really, we could use more mainstream attention. Who cares if the people being talked are porn actors? A lot of people online. Many people have spent a lot of time and Twitter and blog posts going on (at length) about how bad for the hobby this article was. Poppycock. I wish I had as much gaming as these people do. I wish most of the "commentators" on this issue had as much gaming as the D&D With Pornstars people, because then they would be more like to be gaming instead of bitching. If you come across this issue of Maxim at a store (not that I condone Byrne stealing of magazines or comics....pfft) or a library (What? I'm sure some library carries this magazine), I really recommend checking it out and actually reading the article.

Oh, I still hate the photo I took.

My number three article has neither naked women nor controversy involved in it. While it's a good post, I'm not sure if it belongs with these other two posts. :) Number three was my review of the OpenQuest RPG, a pseudo kind of sort of retro clone of the old Runequest games put out by Chaosium. It quickly turned into one of my favorite games of last year. If you haven't checked it out yet, you really should. Click that link, read the review, and pick up a copy today.

So, those are my top three traffic generators for the year. Are they my best posts? No, probably not. The SOWYGO post is just a copy and paste job. I am proud of my other two posts, however. I think the writing is good in both. Opinion writing isn't easy. You really need to have more than just an opinion. Anyone can have an opinion. What makes opinion writing good, and what makes people want to read it, is having an informed opinion on something (which means doing some thinking and some research) and backing up that informed opinion. There's a lot of "I think this because I do" writing that goes on among the so-called commentary on gaming online. That's rubbish writing at best, and overly sensationalistic at best. We need to move past that and strive for a level of professionalism in our commentary and blogging about gaming. That should be a New Years resolution for a lot of online gaming commentators.

The usual rules apply. Feel free to comment, but if you can't say something nice...don't say anything at all. I reserve the right to publish, or delete any comments that I feel belong on my blog. If you don't like that, then post to your own blog.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Review

A couple of days before Christmas, I went to see the new American version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (TGWTDT). I'm not going to call this a remake, since it was an adaptation of the book, rather than a remake of the Swedish movie (which I have not seen).

I read the book of TGWTDT back in August, and I have been looking forward to this movie since I heard it announced. Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara both do a good job of looking like the characters that I had in my mind as I read the book, Craig pulling off an admirable Blomkvist and completely making me forget about James Bond.

The filming of the movie, the cinematography, captured the brooding environment of the book. Much like in the movie Fargo, they managed to make winter a character in the movie, making you feel the cold and isolation that the characters must have felt. Blomkvist wandering about in a couple of scenes, his hand held out with his cell phone while trying to find a signal really captured this isolation.

Mara does a turn as Salander that is award-worthy. She manages to bring to life the quiet desperation and sometimes torturous existence of her character. The scenes where Salander's new "guardian" shows her how they can "work together" are particularly chilling to see brought to life on the screen.

The music of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross made great measures towards the feel of the movie with their score. The music would often weave in and out of scenes, as characters moved through physical spaces or used electronics. The title sequence cover of Led Zepplin's Immigrant Song (with vocals from Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who also did the music from 2009's Where The Wild Things Are) will go down as one of my favorite songs of 2011.

There were a couple of subplots from the book that were dropped from the movie. The subplot dealing with Blomkvist's relationship with one of the Vanger "sisters," as well as the subplot of Millennium's ongoing financial and legal battles, were both dropped from the movie. Admittedly, this was already nearly three hours of screen time but I really think that the plot of Millennium's trials and hassles would have really added to the overall feel of the story, not to mention making you happy for the end that Wennerstrom comes to in the movie. That conclusion seemed a bit too speedily wrapped up, maybe because of the fact that we lost the Millennium subplot.

Regardless, TGWTDT was an excellent movie. It drew me into its fictional world early on and kept me engrossed in what was happening, even though I already knew what would happen from reading the book. I recommend this movie to anyone who likes detective/investigative stories, or to any geek who wants to see a well-made movie and wants to escape from the doldrums of genre movies.

Culture Bully's 2011 Mashed

File this under Music and Mashups. Culture Bully has posted their 2011 Mashed compilation. You can find it here. This incredible production from The Reborn Identity (one of my favorite producers) kicks off the compilation.

The Reborn Identity - Cosmic Lifeforms (Florence + The Machine vs Carbon Based Lifeforms) by The Reborn Identity

Best of Bootie 2011

Here is Bootie's Best of Bootie 2011 mashup compilation. This is the continuous mix version. They also have an unmixed version with the individual tracks available.

Best of Bootie 2011 by bootie

Downloads and extras can be found at the Best of Bootie 2011 page. 

Fear & Loathing In Gaming: D&D With Pornstars

OK, this is another one of my opinion pieces. :)

In Review: Marvel's Defenders #1

I will admit that I'm not a Marvel fanboy. This is the first Marvel comic that I have bought since Agents of Atlas was cancelled. Mostly it's a taste issue...the currently in vogue style of storytelling at the House of Ideas isn't what I am interested in when reading a comic book.

That said, I have been a huge fan of the Defenders since I was a kid. I found The Defenders not long after I discovered The Avengers. For me, the appeal of The Defenders has always been that they are the weird and creepy super-heroes, tucked off in a dark corner of the Marvel Universe. This feeling is the foundation on which this incarnation of The Defenders is built. I'm pretty sure that the last book written by Matt Fraction that I read was his run on Iron Fist (who is a character in this book as well). This issue, to me, had a similar tone to those issues, more than just because Iron Fist is a member of this new version of the team. I liked that feel in Iron Fist, and so far I like that feel here in The Defenders.

The Defenders rolls out of the story of Marvel's latest big event, Fear Itself, but so far I have found that reading that event is not necessary for this book. This first story, The Defenders are brought together by The Hulk to deal with a menace from that book that he is responsible for. "Imagine all of my rage...and power and strength and hate -- imagine it taking a shape," is how The Hulk describes this menace to The Silver Surfer.

The portrayals of The Silver Surfer and Doctor Strange are probably most likely to be sticking points for some long-time Marvel fans. The Silver Surfer is shown at his most alien in this issue. I like that. It is nice to see a comic book alien being portrayed as being, well, alien for a change. This isn't just some guy in silver body paint, this is an inhuman, near-cosmic entity that just does not see the world in the same way, or interact with it in the same way, as his more human companions.

While I (surprisingly to myself) liked the new take on Doctor Strange, I'm not sure that everyone is going to like Hipster Doctor Strange. Hipster you say? When asked about his choice of reading material at one point Doctor Strange responds with "It is something very old and rather frightening I'm afraid. I don't think you'd know it." Yes, Doctor Strange read that old book before everyone else, and probably has a copy of it on vinyl as well. The good Doctor is also introduced in a post-coital scene that has been talked about in a negative manner in a few blogs already. Really, it didn't bother me all that much. Back in the day, Doctor Strange was always shown as one of the more sexual of super-heroes, with he and Clea in states of undress and seemingly interrupted during sex more than once in a comic. So, Doctor Strange having a hook-up, or using his "spooky old conjurer" status (as Namor calls it at one point) to try to pick up women is not really all that big of a stretch to me.

I have to add that I like the way that Fraction approaches the unnaturalness of Doctor Strange in this book, as well as his approach to magic. In some pre-publication publicity, Fraction mentioned that he wanted to give Doctor Strange a sort of William S. Burroughs quality in his "been there, done that" approach to the weirdness of the world. So far, I think it is successful.

The story is nothing spectacular, just your standard "let's get the band together" first issue for a team book. Geoff Johns should look at this story as an example of how to actually get all of the characters on the cover together and into the book. There is a lot of Marvel Universe esoterica in this issue, particularly the stuff with Wondagore Mountain. There isn't a lengthy exposition on it's history in the Marvel Universe, which could be good or bad. I think most comics these days assume that the reader will have more than a passing knowledge of continuity and that there aren't going to be many uninitiated readers picking up a book as there might have once been. There is just enough explanation to justify the story.

I think that, all in all, this was a fairly successful first issue that made me want to pick up the second issue when it comes out. I would have liked a bit more of an introduction to the new Red She-Hulk. If I didn't already know about the character it wouldn't have been obvious that she was long time Hulk supporting character Betty Ross. Also, neither Namor or The Silver Surfer were given much introduction as it was assumed by the writer that these characters would be known to readers already. This is probably the most negative that I had about the issue: do a better job of introducing the main characters. I really think that this issues (particularly being a number one) could have used a few more pages of story to get the cast introduced.

This leads me directly to my main negative. There's too many damn advertisements in this issue. Eight pages were given over to ads for other Marvel books (mostly X-Men books) and I think that half of those could have been cut to give a couple of more pages of background on the characters.

However, for me, the positives outweigh the negatives and I enjoyed this book. I will definitely pick up number two and hope that this book finds enough of a readership to keep it on the stands in this rough comics market. The Defenders has been, at best, always a fringe title and I hope this version finds its way.

Epic Snowball Fight For Freedom Begins

 Comic Creators Participate in National Human Trafficking Awareness Day

(December 1, 2011, Columbus OH) Comic Creators For Freedom announced today that the prep work for their third annual fundraiser against Human Trafficking Awareness has begun. Each year comic creators (web and print) collaborate to create an image that is available in both digital and print formats. This year’s theme is the “Epic Snowball Fight”. Poster prints will be available from all three fundraising campaigns. As always, the image will be available digitally in exchange for donations.  The donation drive starts on January 9th to coincide with National Human Trafficking Awareness Day which is January 11, 2012. The drive ends Friday January 20, 2012. The official website for the drive is www.comiccreatorsforfreedom.com. Artists who wish to participate must submit artwork by the end of the year and can contact organizer Lora Innes at comics4freedom@gmail.com.This years returning artists already include  Danielle Corsetto (Girls with Slingshots), Crystal Yates (Earthsong), Scott Christian Sava (The Dreamland Chronicles), and Thom Zahler (Love and Capes).  

This annual drive has raised over $15,000 to the cause with over 100+ creators helping in the event. Organizer and award winning creator, Lora Innes states, “ Human Trafficking has reached seriously dangerous proportions and it is one of the top 3 crimes globally falling right under drugs and guns. 80% of victims are women and 50% are kids.  This is movie level evil and it’s happening right now. Comics are often about heroes of all shapes and sizes and the ordinary person doing the extraordinary.  Be the hero in this and participate in the drive.”

A special podcast for the event is available at http://tgtmedia.com/podcast/ep193-comiccreatorsforfreedom/. 100% of donations are being split between Love 146 (www.love146.org) and Grace Haven House (www.gracehavenhouse.org).
Friend us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Comic-Creators-For-Freedom/318481431502342
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/Comics4FreedomFor more information visit www.comiccreatorsforfreedom.com

I Love Living In The Future!

Just a quick test post to show that I can blog from my new tablet. Once I get used to the keyboard, I may use this for blogging all the time.