The Info Bit

Title: Soulfire #5 (Vol. 4)

Genre/s: Fantasy

Writer: J.T. Krul (Jirni, Teen Titans)

Art: Giuseppe Cafaro (Extinction Seed, Grimm Fairy Tales) & Mike DeBalfo (Grimm Fairy Tales, Tales from Wonderland: The Red Rose)

Colorist: Nei Ruffino (Green Lantern: New Guardians, Birds of Prey)

Letterer: Josh Reed (Shrugged, Jirni)

Publisher: Aspen Comics

Page Count: 23 pages

Price: $3.99

The Review Bit

When we last left off in the long-running series (now on it’s fourth volume), the Samsura, Malakai, and his trusty crew of both magical and technologically-advanced beings had barely escaped death in a fight to reclaim their friend Grace from dark forces that turned her into something other than the beautiful, caring being she once was. Returning back to the Everlands with one member fatally wounded, what used to be Grace soared away to spread Chaos across the world, leaving nothing but tragedy and destruction in her wake.

In this issue, the group of friends (and that jackass Sarin) convenes to figure out a way to free Grace from the Chaos god, Oris, and put the world back together. Conflict flies high and Sarin is evil as usual, Faye doesn’t want technology to “infect” their way of life, and a character from the past shows back up to join the good fight, with no little drama. Some really epic stuff goes down at the end, too, and then one of the most perfect cliffhangers. That may be vague, but I’m certainly not going to spoil anything because I truly think everyone who’s a fan of this series should read it for themselves.

J.T.’s writing manages to capture the desperate, dark tone of this issue, letting the reader really feel the weight of what will happen if Chaos isn’t stopped. While I quite enjoyed the story, I felt that the pacing wasn’t as consistent as it could have been and sped too fast through the battle scene. It’s six pages of close-ups with a lot less action than one would expect from a crew of magical beings trying to defeat some fucked up dark forces. Where it was Krul’s intention to make Malakai such a whiney, pain in the ass for the larger part of this, I can’t really say, but I sure did want to give him a good kick in the shins.

I felt slightly cheated that the series’ regular artist, Mike DeBalfo, only illustrated about one quarter of this issue because I always love his work. Fellow Aspen artist Giuseppe Cafaro stepped in for the first fourteen pages but it felt too soft and dream-like for such an intense setting. The differences in the artwork are too noticeable to pass by. It is also worth noting Lori Hanson and Blond both provided assists to pencils and colors respectfully.

Nei’s work on colors are absolutely phenomenal, per usual. She gives depth and definition to every single image and makes the panels really pop to life. Her color palate only adds to serve the dark feeling that hangs over the heads of the main characters.

The Rating Bit

While there were a small handful of things that irked me, I felt that this was a fairly strong issue to further the story of the long-running Soulfire series, and definitely one that all fans of fantasy should check out next time they’re at their local comic shop. A bit of inconsistency with both artwork and pacing should not deter you from giving this a read, and I don’t think anyone will be too sorely disappointed. I give it a 7 out of 10.

Now, to talk about the actual game itself. Galaxy Defenders is a tactical board game based on 80′s and 90′s Sci-Fi worlds. There will be different missions included with the game. There are two of them posted on their website as part of their beta-release. The missions control what aliens, events, and close encounter cards are used in the initial setup. There are also special events that can game or change the cards being used in the different decks.

Agents

There are five agents in the base game. Each of them has a very different play style to them. To give you an idea of these agents, some of them are:

Agent Mercury the Infiltrator: This agent starts with a blade and pistol, along with having one more speed than the average speed of the rest of the agents.

Agent Titanium the Hulk: This agent starts out with a machine gun and bladed brass knuckles for when he gets into close combat. The Hulk also has the most health and is the slowest agent out of all of them.

Agent Thorium the Biotech: The speed and health to this agent is pretty average but this agent gets to use a shotgun and is the only character with a built in way to heal any other agent.

Agent Iridium the Sniper: This agent obviously has a sniper rifle as a starting weapon but also has a scoped pistol for closer targets.

Agent Chromium the Marine: This agent comes equip with rifle and pistol, along with a reaction ability that allows him to take a free shot at aliens as they pass him.

Each agent has different armor and abilities to help them out and as you advance through the missions you have a chance to gather more equipment to make your weapons better. If you are lucky enough to advance through all the levels of being an agent, you get to flip the character sheet and become a platinum agent. I have not had a chance to see all of the agents advance that far, but the progression is a fun aspect to the game.

Aliens

There are six types of aliens, some in multiple colors, with the basic box having 18 alien minis in it. If you get in on the KickStarter there are plenty more that will be added. Each mission will tell you how many of which alien to put into the alien deck and each card will have a miniature matching it. There is a nice variety in the aliens and on each card, there are instructions on how the alien is to be played when they are chosen by the close encounter card on each of the alien’s turns. There are aliens that will try to get into the perfect position to take a couple of shots with their gun, while others are meant to rush an agent and keep it locked in combat. More aliens can be added to the board when mission cards are drawn. Mission cards can effect the weather of the planet to cause agents to move slower, cause some equipment to not work or make dice rolls become a lot more inaccurate than before, along with other effects. Each time a mission card is flipped, there is a chance for signals to show up on the planet. Each signal represents something showing up on the radar but not completely identified. As soon as the signal moves into line of sight of an agent, it will be flipped. If the signal is an alien, a new alien miniature and card will be added to the play area.

Round Order

Refresh – Each turn powers and items will refresh and be usable again

Strategy – Alpha Agent (1st player) is selected, if an alien was killed the last round there are chances for promotions by each agent, after four aliens are killed reinforcements will supply a group with items or weapons to help out during the rest of the mission, and you check if you beat or failed the mission.

Battle – This section of the round cycles between agent and alien. First an agent gets the chance to move, perform an action and engage in combat. There are a few special actions like jumping through a window or unjamming a gun that can take up two part of your turn also. After the agent has taken their turn, the aliens get a chance to interact. This is done by flipping one of the close encounter cards to see which aliens will activate this time. Each alien card tells you how to move the alien or if the alien will just attack twice. There is no way to plan for these activations since it is controlled by a shuffled deck of cards. If you are not careful, the multiple alien activations can be very detrimental to the agents moving around trying to complete the mission.

Combat – Combat is pretty easy to get a hang of. Each weapon will give you its range and the number and color of dice you roll. There are two different sets of dice to be used. Green dice and Blue dice. Green dice seem to be paired with the more power weapons and blue dice are a little weaker along with being the color used during the defend step. Each time a hit mark shows up on the dice, the defender will roll one blue dice to try to absorb damage with their armor. There are special abilities on some of the weapons that will remove dice to the defender or that just let you reroll your misses. After you figure out how much damage goes through, you take that many wounds from the agent or alien. If an agent is brought down to 0 hit points, there is a chance they come back if someone can heal them back up. If the aliens decide they are the bigger threat though and an agent with 0 hp is attacked again, the agent is out of the game.

Event – After everyone has gone and the following alien turn has resolved, an event card is flipped. The effects of the event are completed and then signals are moved and added to the board. Then the round starts over from the top.

Once a couple of rounds have gone off, the game moves along at a decent speed. You become familiar with alien’s mechanics and resolving attacks and defense. If you aren’t careful though, there is a chance that the agents will be swarmed by aliens or the party gets split enough that you cannot take out enough aliens to complete your mission. If you enjoy Sci-Fi games or are looking for a tactical game to play with friends to take out some intelligent life trying to stop you from exploring a new planet, this game definitely fits the bill. Either by adding some extra aliens to your stash or just using the cards included in the box, you should have a decent amount of replayability. Aliens will spawn in different orders and on different teleport pads. Missions can be created pretty easily with the number of boards that come with the game and there are a couple of stretch goals that have added even more to that.

With less than a week left, there are still a few spots left to get the game at a discounted price, but if you are considering getting the game in September (date posted on KickStarter) then I would imagine the extras you get with the KickStarter will be well worth the advance payment.

Game

Price: $15

Players: 2-10

Time: 10-30 minutes

Age: 15+

In April Cryptozoic came out with The Walking Dead Card Game. The game is based on the game 6 Nimmt! if you are familiar with that but was easy enough to learn without ever knowing about that game too.

There are 104 walker cards and 6 hero cards included in the game. Each point value has a picture depicting a number of zombies on them. The single point cards only having one zombie and the seven point card having a swarm. The six hero cards are Maggie, Daryl, Rick, Andrea, Glenn and T-dog. Each have an action shot from the show.

There are two different modes or ways to play the game.

Hero Mode

In hero mode each player will get to choose one of the hero cards to start in their hand. Each hero card works the same way so there is they can be handed out at random if wanted. The goal of hero mode is to kill more walkers than the rest of the players by collecting more points worth of walker cards. The points are shown on each card based on the number of bullets printed on each card. Game play is simple enough to learn and to teach to new people. Each player starts with 15 walker cards dealt to them plus their hero card. Then four more cards are lined up in a column. Each player will choose one or two cards from their hand and place them face down in front of them. When everyone has set down their cards you flip them over and follow the rules for placing the cards into rows. Starting from the lowest card, each card is placed next to the closest number that is lower than the card played. So if you played 51 and the cards out are 10, 20, 53 and 100, your card would go next to the 20, as that card is lower than your 51 and closer than 10. If the card is lower than all the cards at the end of the rows, then you place it after the highest card. Once all the cards are placed, you start the next round. When the card is forced to be played on a stack with five cards, your card being the sixth one, you collect the five cards on the table and leave your card as the new starting card. If a player wants, they can place their hero card as the second card when placing two cards down. When this happens, your walker card is placed before any other card regardless of its number, giving you the chance to collect a stack of zombies without it being stolen away by another player. When all the cards are played by each player, the game is over and the bullets are counted up. You can play one time or keep track of your score and play a set number of matches, three being recommended by the instructions.

Survival Mode

Survival Mode plays out almost the opposite of hero mode. You only get 10 cards each and no heros are used this time. Each player will choose only one card but this time the goal is to not be overrun by zombies(to not collect points). The card placement rules are similar to hero mode, except if you play a card lower than all the cards at the end of the row then you have to pick one of the rows to take and place your card as the new starting card. After the ten rounds of playing cards, you count the bullets the same way and either choose single game or multiple games and the person with the lowest score wins.

Both games are quick and easy to pick up after the first game or two. I personally like the feel of survival mode more. The game starts off a little slow but after you have played about half your hand, everyone seems to be a little more panicked about which card they are going to play and trying to figure out if someone else will steal the pile before their card gets played on it. Overall its a fun party game for people whether you have seen The Walking Dead or not. I would say the 15+ years on the age is about right because of the strategy and almost bluff like tactics to the game.

Not only is today Free Comic Book Day, Star Wars fans worldwide also have something to celebrate!

I wanted to drop in to give you the skinny on some fabulous clothing and accessories out there that celebrate Star Wars and the mark it has left on the world.

I am sure most of you have stumbled onto Think Geek and fell in love with the online store.

This weekend they have a great sale going on – $20 off $100+ of Star Wars goodies with code MAYTHE4TH

Here are a few of my favorite items at Think Geek

R2D2 Tunic Tank                                   Chewbacca Tunic Tank                        Stormtrooper Tunic Tank

I love these tunic tanks, they are perfect for summer! Any one of these would look great with a pair of skinny jeans, leggings, and and killer heels.

Speaking of leggings have you checked out Black Milk Clothing??

If you’re not familiar with Black Milk please go to their site now. The online only shop has some amazing prints and you’ll be hard pressed to not fall in love with more than one design!

There isn’t just leggings available on Black Milk, they also carry swimsuits, dresses, shoes, and more.

And for us Star Wars geeks, Black Milk has an entire category on Star Wars!!

Black Milk hasn’t announced a May 4th sale but they are definitely aware of the holiday and I wouldn’t be surprised if they announce something soon.

Here are a few of my favs:

Star Wars Montage Leggings

These are hands down my favorite leggings on their site. These are seriously stellar and I see myself purchasing a pair in the near future.

Artoo 2.0 Swimsuit

This swimsuit is hot! Everyone on the beach will wonder where you got this amazing little number!

Death Star Dress

Welcome to the Dark side! I love this dress. Dress it up or wear it casual, either way you will look deliciously evil (and I mean that in the best of ways).

If you’re looking for something a little more personable or OOAK hit up etsy and check out these amazing sellers and their fantastic heels!!

Custom Hand Painted Heels by WalksThatTalk

This takes talent people and this seller did a fantastic job on these heels. Now these are just an example of a pair painted in the past so don’t expect to get an exact replica. This seller is all about OOAK pieces and who doesn’t want a pair of heels that no one else can get?

 Star Wars Wedges by DeckoFab

I love wedges! These take the cake!! I adore the perfect mix of new and old art. This crafter worked out some amazing placement making these shoes a definite must have!

Not a fan of heels, well you’re in luck! I found a great pair of hand painted Toms up for grabs!

R2D2 C3PO Toms by eastbaycalifornia

How can you not like a great pair of causal shoes? And casual shoes staring R2D2 and C3PO? if you don’t you must be nuts. These flats are great!! This seller has other designs to offer and is definitely open to any custom designs!

These are some seriously talented crafters, show them some love!

Enjoy your day and May the Forth be with You!!

Now I’m sure many of you are all excited to swing by your local shop for Free Comic Book Day, but if you live in Southern California, why might you want to swing by Sky High Comics in San Marcos? Well, here’s a few good reasons:

Signings

Mike McKone, the penciler of Teen Titans, Justice League, Amazing Spider-man, Fantastic Four, Astonishing X-men, and countless other titles over the past 20+ years he’s been in comics will be on hand to sign your comics or comics you pick up at the shop! You might also remember Mike as the artist of our old ART-icle series, Confluence in a Sea of Geek. Actor Daniel Curtis Lee (Ned’s Declassified, GLEE) will be on hand for pictures and signings, as will the cast of The Quest Web Series from Comic Booked Studios! You can even meet Rebecca Schnell, our amazingly talented cosplayer and make-up artists, and ask her for all sorts of incredible make-up tips for your next cosplay. Remember to bring some comics to get signed, but don’t worry, we’ll also have some available for sale to get signed if you forget. To top it all off, we’ll also have some additionally lovely Speak Geeky To Me models on hand for photos!

Cosplay & Costumes

There will be 2 separate costume contests in the shop that day. One is aimed at our younger audience (age range of 13 and under) and will begin at 2PM. The other contest, beginning at 4PM will be all ages. Both contests will have great prizes, including a rare and awesome Aspen MLT statue for the grand prize winner of the 4PM contest!

Sky High Sale

Along with free comics you’ll be able to get great deals on the comics and other items you buy! All comic variants will be cover price! Back issue comics will be 25% off their already low price! There are an assortment of incredible comic AND magic grab bags! Trades and Hardcovers will be 15% off! And select Toys and Statues will also be available at incredibly low prices! But best of all? Every purchase gets you a raffle ticket which will give you the chance to win splendid prizes!!! Even better, you can get an additional raffle ticket for every $10 spent in the store!

Where and Other Details

Sky High Comics is located in San Marcos, CA at 625 S. Rancho Santa Fe Rd, San Marcos, CA 92078. That is the Vons parking lot, not far from 78 freeway in San Diego County. The event will run from 10AM to 7PM, with creator signings and contests through out the day. You can call the shop in advance for specific details relating to the event at (760) 471-0649. Free comic books are limited to the selection set aside by Diamond Comic Distributors, ComicsPRO, and Sky High Comics, and will be given out with a small limit per person on a first come, first serve basis. You can find out more about Free Comic Book Day by checking out there website here.

The Info Bit

Title: Charismagic volume 2 #1

Genre/s: Fantasy/Adventure

Writer: Vince Hernandez (Fathom: Kiani, Executive Assistant Assassins)

Penciler: Vincenzo Cucca (Route des Maisons Rouges, She-Hulk)

Inker: Mark Roslan (Broken Pieces, Heroes)

Colorist: Emilio Lopez (Executive Assistant: Lotus, Fanboys VS Zombies)

Letterer: Josh Reed (Idolized, Fathom)

Publisher: Aspen MLT

Number of Issues: 1 (limited series)

Page Count: 20

Price: $3.99

The Review Bit

It has been almost a year since the epic end to Charismagic volume 1 and we are currently two-thirds of the way through the prequel miniseries, Charismagic: The Death Princess, but now Charismagic volume 2 is being dropped on our door steps this Wednesday to continue the story of Hank Medley, his cat Sparkles, and the druid Sudana. The fourth title in Aspen’s 10 for 10 initiative, Charismagic volume 2 is certainly an interesting one and continues the more recent legacy of Aspen titles.

Volume 2 of Charismagic opens up just a short time after volume 1 ended, throwing us right in the thick of things as people return to our world after their time spent in the Void realm in volume 1. Things open in South Central Los Angeles in a comical scene involving a few hardcore ‘gangstas’ exchanging some cringe worthy clichés of trying to get “magic stuff” (but not the kind of magic Charismagic is known for, mind you). Just as things are about to get a little too Boyz n the Hood, LA gets shaken up by the appearance of magical monsters. Cut to our heroes, back in lovely Las Vegas, as Sudana wakes up screaming from a vision of this next to Hank. We are briefly re-introduced to our main characters, though readers not familiar with volume 1 of Charismagic might not call it much of an introduction at all. Sudana tells Hank of her somewhat cloudy vision that something has come to Earth from the void realm as Sparkles, Hank’s cat, defensively enters the room, curious to know what happened. Sudana changes from her skimpy lingerie to a more publicly acceptable outfit just in time for the door to be knocked upon. It is Kenny, Hank’s agent, a young redheaded guy that bares striking resemblance to Superman’s pal, Jimmy Olsen. Kenny helps clear up Sudana vision by turning on the TV to news of monster attacks in Los Angeles.

It is at this point we realize that Serke is responsible for sending magical bug monsters from the Void into Earth, with the aid of Hank’s friends Alle and Hector. Serke was a figure we are growing to know in the prequel mini-series, Charismagic: The Death Princess, and Hector and Alle were Hank’s good friends from volume 1. If you didn’t know that going into this volume, you probably won’t have picked it up in this issue as it is merely brushed over with a single line later on. But now we find Alle and Hector are looking rather evil and doing things that equally fit that appearance.

To try and grasp what is going on, Sudana uses a bit of Earth “magic”, that is the everyday mobile cellular phone, to call the ancient wizard Kon. Kon is another character from volume 1, who also happens to be the protagonist of the prequel series. Kon is accompanied by another character from the prequel series whose appearance might be a bit of a spoiler for those still waiting on Charismagic: The Death Princess #3, so I won’t say who it is. Needless to say, they seem to certainly be plotting something on their own. Kon gives little aid to Sudana, other than to prod her into sharing with Hank the fact that his friends, Hector and Alle, are a part of the attack on Los Angeles. This leads Hank to gather his Vegas friends and head for LA. Hank uses his special magical power of vanishing (teleporting) to bring his friends there quickly, only to have something tragic happen to one of them. To top it all off, Hector and Alle are making their way to a rather dangerous place on the California coastline. From the frying pan and straight into the fire, I’m not sure where Serke is going with his attack on Earth, but things don’t look good for our hero or his friends.

Vince Hernandez writes a fun and funny issue here in Charismagic volume 2 #1. It has a lot of great little humor and one-liners from the supporting cast, and a few interesting twists. If you’ve been following all of Charismagic, you’ll likely rather enjoy this issue. If you’re new to the series, however, it might be rather hard to follow. In fact, if you even just skipped Charismagic: The Death Princess, you might be struggling a bit with who some of these characters are. It really is one of those opening issues that just throws you in the deep end and expects you to flail around until you learn to swim or follow the plot. As someone who has read all of the Charismagic issues currently out, including the Sparkles charity one-shot, I’m even having a little trouble putting all the pieces together. Still, I’m rather curious where this is all going.

On the art end, things are also a little unfocused, with some panels coming off absolutely beautiful well others are somewhat lacking. It’s hard to tell if this is penciler Vincenzo Cucca’s fault or digital inker Mark Roslan’s or some combination of the two. In some panels, Sudana is drawn as beautiful and sexy as if Bruce Timm himself was handling the art. In others, lines are a little thick and Characters seem somewhat undefined. Even the coloring in this issue seems a little irregular, which is odd to see from Emilio Lopez, who is a brilliant colorist. At moments you can see everything that makes Lopez’ colors pop, and in other scenes, like that of the bedroom scene, there are moments things seem a little flat. I will say that such color choices could be his interpretation of the drastic changes in lighting for various scenes, however.

Character designs in this issue seem a little basic for non-key characters. The bug monsters could just as easily be Annihilus’ army from Marvel’s Annihilation, not seeming very magical or creative. The same could be said for the new character known as “Dealer”, who looks about as generic as a vegas background character could get. But Cucca keeps up a great job on facial expressions, which really helps define the mood and tone of the character’s words. The action and framing also are rather solid, though at points it does seem to come at the cost of the characters appearance. The art consistently does the story justice throughout its pages, but just seems inconsistent in quality. This is especially true when compared to some of the beautiful character studies done by Cucca in the back of the issue, which all look rather brilliant. In fact, Cucca even provided an absolutely astonishing Special Reserved Edition variant cover to the comic that shows what the artist is capable of. All the Charismagic volume 2 covers look nice, but the interiors just have to be scrutinized a little, especially when compared to the stunning interiors of all other Charismagic issues.

The Rating Bit

In the end, Charismagic volume 2 #1 is a fun read that is particularly great if you’re fans of the Charismagic characters and curious what happened to them after volume 1. However, it gets a little spoilery by jumping ahead of the release of Charismagic: The Death Princess #3, and might not be the ideal jumping on issue for new fans. The story seems to be missing some details so far, but these will likely all be explained in time. The big hit is that the art is just not fully on par with previous incarnations of Charismagic. Still, the issue is enjoyable and easily earns itself a 7 out of 10 with its low cover price of only $1 for issue #1. Check it out for yourself when Charismagic volume 2 #1 hits stores this Wednesday, May 1^st.

The Info Bit

Title: Jirni #1

Genre/s: Fantasy/Adventure

Writer: J.T. Krul (Soulfire, Teen Titans)

Penciler: Paolo Pantalena (Epoch, 1001 Arabian Nights: The Adventures of Sinbad)

Colorist: Brett Smith (GI Joe, Homecoming)

Letterer: Josh Reed (If it has lettering at Aspen, this guy likely did it)

Publisher: Aspen MLT

Number of Issues: 1 (limited series)

Page Count: 20

Price: $1.00

The Review Bit

It’s the end of April and Aspen has released its third 10^th anniversary title under their 10 for 10 initiative. This month’s new #1 issue for only $1 comes to us from writer J.T. Krul and artist Paolo Pantalena, with a bit of an Arabian twist on the old female lead fantasy tale. I must point out, as it is the tenth anniversary of Michael Turner’s Aspen MLT, Turner was often known both for his beautiful artwork and his amazing comics with strong female leads. Therefore, it is great to see 10 years after the company was founded and almost 5 years after the beloved founder’s passing, Aspen is still producing comics with a similar trend of beautiful artwork and strong female leads.

Jirni #1 is an epic fantasy adventure set in world quite unlike ours, with different looking beings and magic abound. It is almost like if Disney or Dreamworks created an Arabian fantasy adventure, but a lot sexier. The story opens with a group of wild, cannibalistic brutes carving up a man and his family over a cooking fire. The man’s daughter screams for him as the brutes take pride in their work. Suddenly, a beautiful and buxom figure in purple appears; sword out and slashing away at the brutes. This is our protagonist and narrator, Ara. Ara makes quick work of the cannibals while exchanging quips and showing her fine sword skills. As she frees the young girl, who we come to find is named Nylese, it is already too late for the rest of her family. Nylese sits cupping her father, as he tells her to continue East with his dying breath. Ara, the valiant warrior and honorable fighter that she is, is unmoved by this scene as she piles up the bodies for pyre, but offers to take Nylese East with her, as it is the direction Ara is heading. Ara reveals her story to Nylese as she undoes whatever power makes her large and purple, returning to a normal human-esque female figure. It seems Ara is a princess, from a land thousands of miles to the West, whose mother was captured. Now Ara is in search of her mother, to bring her back home.

A short flashback to Ara’s youth gives us a greater insight into Ara’s character and relationship with her mother. This also leads as a great segue to the introduction of the comic’s villain. Back in present day, hidden in the Sonori Desert, a gargantuan elephant-like creature carries a large litter of sorts on its back. The elephant-like creature and its driver are stopped enroute through the desert by a sizable gang of thieves, who board the litter to steal its contents. Inside, however, is more than just riches, as a wealthy looking man sits beside what appears to be Ara’s mother, Luna. The thieves demand everything and the wealthy man scoffs, offering them a small bag of coin to be gone. When the thieves prove greedier, the man reveals himself to be a powerful sorcerer, named Torinthal, with a more powerful D’jinn enslaved in a lamp. Letting this genie of sorts out, the D’jinn massacres the thieves before taking a moment to show a hint of sorrow and longing. Torinthal quickly returns the D’jinn to its lamp, to Luna’s nagging displeasure, revealing herself as just as much a slave to the sorcerer as the D’jinn is. In the end, fans are given the smallest of answers to several of their questions hidden subtly in these final few pages, but are left with many more questions that the series should later answer.

J.T. Krul has thought up an amazing sounding world in the pages of Jirni, that seems like an incredibly interesting Arabian version of Red Sonja (which Krul has written for in the past) or another such fantasy adventure title featuring a strong and sexy female lead. However, the part that makes this story so great and unique extends beyond the Arabian themes and mythology, and actually has to do with the character of Ara herself. In just the few pages we’ve had with Ara so far, she seems to have more character than many other sexy female comic leads currently on the market. While still rocking the scantily clad armor and big weapon so many men and women love about this genre of comics, Ara has a little extra depth given by both her ability to transform and the flashback provided by Krul. The flashback featured Ara as a young, naïve, and wide-eyed girl who seemed easily excited by the world. Furthermore, her relationship with her family is hinted at in a way that seems to heavily contrast how she is presented as an adult. Krul perfectly captures the voice of a young girl in the younger Ara’s dialogue, and in the same paints it quite different from the adult dialogue and narration of Ara, which is hardened and almost cold.

The characters introduced so far in Jirni all seem rather interesting, with a strong bit of life, to which we can thank J.T. But in the same, we cannot talk about them without mentioning their absolutely beautiful designs by Paolo Pantalena. Pantalena provides absolutely breathtaking artwork throughout the book, with sexy and nubile women, strong and muscular men, curious and almost frightful fantasy races, and the type of weapons that your Dungeons & Dragons’ group would kill for. It has been some time since I’ve seen such a shapely female lead look this good in the interiors of a comic, and not just on the cover (though if you get a chance to look at the Bluerainbow Online variant Pantalena did for Jirni #1…that is just a whole lot of “WOW!”). Then you look at the opposite end of the design spectrum where Pantalena has created such innocence in the younger Ara, or bone shattering masculinity in the D’jinn, Anjaha, who looks like a more bad ass version of DC comic’s Doomsday, and you are further awe struck. Even Pantalena’s paneling looks good, with strong choices of tall and large panels that show off the characters, and great panel dividers done in smoke or hair. One of the only criticisms you could really give Pantalena on his art is that his panel backgrounds are often empty. But this is easily ignored thanks to the stunning figures in the foreground and the great coloring of Brett Smith. Smith is really on his A-game in this comic, with everything just looking magnificent and vividly colored. It actually reminds me of Peter Steigerwald’s coloring of Soulfire volume 1.

Beyond even the art, the whole team truly came together to make this comic look wonderful. The design work of Mark Roslan, Peter Steigerwald, and Josh Reed is notable just looking at the logo and credits page. Furthermore, Josh Reed designed some lovely caption boxes and really put Dreamer Design’s font to good use with a style that looked very befitting of the Arabian themes in Jirni. This is honestly one of those comics where it looks like everyone pulled their weight and then some making the project just shine.

The Rating Bit

Jirni #1 is a stunning opening issue for a comic that looks to be just great. It doesn’t break any boundaries or attempt to alter the medium in any way, but it is just a good old fashioned fantasy comic done to seemingly the best of everyone’s abilities. It looks great, it reads fun, and it could be handed to just about anyone for their enjoyment, comic fan or not. With the opening issue only costing a $1, there is absolutely no reason not to go pick up Jirni #1, and we confidently rate it a mighty 9 out of 10.

Packaged in a nice, long black box, opening the Ouya felt more like opening a tablet or mobile phone than a video game console. That said, it probably works better considering how mobile this console is. The device itself is tiny and could easily fit in the palm of your hand, taking up no space on your entertainment center. Honestly, the cables that come with it almost weight more and take up more space. But don’t judge it by its size alone, as it has some pretty impressive specs:

• Tegra3 quad-core processor
• 1GB RAM
• 8GB of internal flash storage
• HDMI connection to the TV, with support for up to 1080p HD
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth LE 4.0
• USB 2.0 (one)
• Wireless controller with standard controls (two analog sticks, d-pad, eight action buttons, a system button), a touchpad
• Android 4.0
• ETHERNET!

The controller is a little unique, yet in the same very familiar. It truly isn’t that far off from an Xbox360 controller, but it does have two removable panels where you can insert AA batteries to power the wireless controller. And this controller truly is wireless, lacking even the option to plug it into anything. Much like the Xbox 360, it has 2 analog sticks, a d-pad, 4 lettered buttons on the right of the controller, a console unique button (much like Xbox’s X or the PS3′s PS buttons), and 4 trigger buttons. Oddly, the trigger buttons just feel awkward and I find myself not wanting to rest my fingers on them like I would any other modern console controller. They’re angle towards one another creating a unique valley between them. The controller also has a bit of heft to it, which is unexpected, yet still feels rather fragile. I almost can hear things shaking around in it, and combined with the removable panels that doesn’t make me feel like this would be a kid friendly controller. Still, it does the job and is familiar enough that I was able to operate it just fine once the system was turned on.

Once you get your Ouya plugged in and setup to a network it instantly wants to do an update. The update is actually rather amusing, filled with funny little lines about what the update is supposedly doing, such as “tasting the rainbow” or “maximizing the fun” or even “organizing bits”. But once the update is installed and the system reset, you will have to resync your controller and sign in/create a user account. From there you find the Ouya main screen, which seems like a bland version of most modern console’s main screens. Your options on the main screen are:

Play – Where you can play games or use apps you’ve downloaded

Discover – Where you can download games and apps

Make – A section designed for game developers that we can’t really do much with as users

Manage – Basically your settings section

As the console doesn’t come with anything pre-installed, but does have a decently sized internal hard drive (compared to file sizes), we decided to start downloading anything that sounded interesting. As the console isn’t “officially” out yet, there aren’t that many options, but there are still a good couple dozen. The highlight of these current games and apps is Final Fantasy III. This is a high-definition port of the Nintendo DS remake of Final Fantasy III, and it looks quite nice. To play the full version you’ll have to purchase it for $15.99, but you can play a fair bit for free. The game looks beautiful and is fun to play with a full controller on a console. But unfortunately, it still is a little glitchy and doesn’t really like the Ouya’s onscreen keyboard like the other games do. Still, it is a fun experience for fans looking to relive this classic Final Fantasy game.

Another game we instantly fell in love with is King of Booze, a drinking game you can playing with friends on your console. It has some interesting ways to make you and your friends drink while also providing a BAC test to make sure you “don’t over do it”. Then there is Tune In, their streaming radio app, which allows you to listen to radio from around the world, even while playing other apps/games on the Ouya.

Many of the games are very basic console like games that aren’t anything extraordinarily new, but tend to be innovative still for their concepts. Games like Organ Trail, a zombie spoof of the classic Apple 2 Oregon Trail game. There are FPS, adventure games, racers, and more. We’ve yet to have time to play them all, but there is enough to keep us busy for a short while. The great part however is developers have only had this console for a short while, so there is sure to be plenty of great content on the horizon. Fans of Twitch TV can already download the app and stream Twitch on their actual television, and Vevo and others are on the way.

Would I say Ouya is ready to replace big name consoles like Playstation or Xbox? Not at all…atleast not just yet. But the affordable price tag, very transportable size (you could carry this to your friends house in one hand, no problem. Hell, you could practically put it in your pocket!), and almost limitless options for what might eventually end up on the system certainly make it worth looking at. When the console sees official release later this year, it might actually give the big boys something to worry about.

The Info Bit

Title: Star Wars: Legacy #1 Prisoner O/T Floating World    

Genre/s: Sci-Fi

Writer: Corinna Bechko (Fear Itself: Homefront, Betrayal Of The Planet Of The Apes) & Gabriel Hardman

Art: Gabriel Hardman (Agents of Atlas, Planet of the Apes: Cataclysm)

Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg (X-Factor, Barrack the Barbarian)

Publisher: Dark Horse

Number of Issues: #1 (on-going)

Page Count: 22

Price: $2.99

The Review Bit

In 2006, Dark Horse launched Star Wars Legacy, a title that would take place 129 years after the Battle of Yavin (ABY) and would center on former Jedi student turned smuggler/pirate Cade Skywalker, a descendant of Luke Skywalker. Now, after the titles immense success and incredible story of the first volume of Legacy (50 issues with a 6 issue limited story tie-up), Dark Horse brings us the next chapter in the Legacy Universe, this time focusing on the descendant of the Solo family.

Set 138 years ABY (After the Battle of Yavin, the battle taking place at the end of Star Wars IV, for non-Star Wars geeks), and shortly after the events of Star Wars: Legacy – War, the Triumvirate (consisting of the Jedi Council, Imperial Court, and the Galactic Alliance) have sent Imperial Knight Yalta Val and his crew on a peacetime mission to the Carreras system in the outer rim. While trying to navigate through the dense Surd Nebula their ship is attacked, forcing them to make an immediate emergency landing on an unknown planet. After crash landing on the uncharted planet, Yalta Val’s Stormtroopers investigate the perimeter only to be cut down by what can only be a Sith. The Imperial Knight hears the commotion and comes to investigate himself, only to also be jumped by the Sith. During the fight Yalta Val is knocked to the ground, as the Sith raises his lightsaber to deliver the killing blow, he is killed from behind….by his Sith apprentice. The student has become the Master. The story moves forward to later in the day and we see the comm droid that was being prepared by the ships crew to act as a beacon in the nebula, checking for survivors, finding none. What it does find is Yalta Val’s lightsaber, but no sign of his body, what is the fate of the Imperial Knight? As the comm droid leaves the uncharted planet and enters space, it is shot down by an unknown party.

We jump ahead one week, to the Carreras system where we meet Ania Solo, who works as a junk dealer. After thwarting an attempt at 2 junk haulers to rip her off, Ania discovers a fairly intact comm droid. Ania takes the droid to a friend, a Mon Cal named Suak, to check it out. While investigating the droid, they open a compartment and find the lightsaber inside of it. Ania sees this as her chance to get off the rock she finds herself and decides to try and sell the lightsaber. The only problem is no one wants anything to do with it, or the trouble it will cause, so they cause trouble for her by alerting the authorities, which starts a chase through the city streets ending with Ania killing a member of the Carreras security force.

I enjoyed this book immensely; I have been a huge fan of the Legacy Era since its inception and have been anxiously waiting for this volume to start ever since it was announced. It’s a great thing to have such an open timeframe to play in; you don’t have to fit a story in a mold where you know what comes after, so anything goes. Bechko and Hardman have done a great job in stepping into the scripting shoes of Ostrander and Duursema and telling a new story in this universe. There is so much story here; I can’t wait, especially to find out about Aina’s lineage to Han and Leia. I enjoyed Hardman’s pencils, it was simple and I felt that they did their job of visually capturing the story, particularly when there is no narrative. Admittedly I did have some problems with Rosenberg’s colors; I feel that some scenes were far too darkly shaded. There were definitely some panels that overall looked fantastic. Well lit, soft natural colors, then others where it was just far too shadowed to the point where I felt it took away from the pencils. I will say some shadowing looked great, particularly in the panel where Ania activates the lightsaber for the first time…gorgeous.

The Rating Bit

Again, I really liked this book, and am eagerly looking forward to this title’s future and what it has to offer. I give this issue of Star Wars Legacy volume 2 a 7.5. I think my problems with the coloring keep this from getting any higher of a rating. I recommend this book to any Star Wars fan. Issue #1 is in stores now and issue #2 will hit shelves April 24^th.

The Info Bit

Title: Dead Man’s Run #4

Genre/s: Fantasy/Adventure

Writer: Greg Pak (X-treme X-men, Incredible Hulks)

Penciler: Tony Parker (Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, Warhammer 40,000)

Colorist: Wes Hartman (Gears of War, Pirates vs. Ninjas)

Letterer: Josh Reed (Soulfire, Idolized)

Publisher: Aspen MLT

Number of Issues: 4 (of 6)

Page Count: 20

Price: $3.99

The Review Bit

From the writer of well-loved Marvel books such as Planet Hulk, World War Hulk, and X-Men, comes an interesting and action-riddled take on a concept that is fairly well known to all of us—Hell. One of Aspen Comic’s most thought-provoking series to date, Dead Man’s Run is back after far too long of a hiatus, but easily the series best issue yet.

To recap for those of you who haven’t read this series before (or have just completely forgotten what happened in the past seven months since the last issue was released), the young cartographer Sam Tinker has been plunged into the depths of the seven layers of Hell in order to bring back his innocent sister, Juniper, from the horror that awaits. Accompanied by a gang of misfits sentenced to the fiery depths (a murderous house wife, a Chinese warlord, an engineer from ancient times, and an archeologist who speaks to demons) Sam treks through the Dante-like world in order to find his little sister and escape.

In this issue, they escape to the fifth level –that frankly looks like Narnia at first—where they find rooms and rooms full of children, terrified by their own conscience. Some have lost a doll, some have yelled at their parents, but all have sentenced themselves to this terrible place because they feel guilty. The most heart wrenching part of this is about half-way through the issue when one of the main characters finds his son there, who died only moments after he did. He died trying to protect his father’s land with the rest of the warriors, but fell from his pony, what he refers to as “A dog’s death.” The father, having been forever changed by this statement, regains his soul and vows to keep watch over these lost children until they are able to escape once and for all.

Sam is finally reunited with his sister, Juniper, and things are looking up. Just as they think they’re going to get away, however, things take a turn for a worse and she is lost again to the depths.
Who will fall behind? What member of the gang will betray the group? And will Juniper ever escape with her soul intact? To find out, we recommend picking up your own copy of Dead Man’s Run #4.

Greg Pak does an exquisite job of creating an entirely new take on the famous Dante’s Inferno by incorporating the concept of the seven layers of hell with a very modern twist. He provides both an action-packed storyline that has enough depth to rip your heart out and stomp on it every few pages, just when you get your hopes up. He makes the characters—despite their sins and flaws—very relatable. There are enough “what the fuck” moments to almost make this feel more like a ride at Halloween Horror Nights than a comic book, but would you expect anything less from the guy who wrote Planet Hulk?

Artist Tony Parker fills every page with acid-trip-like visuals that pull you into this wild ride of a story. The art is very different from what typically comes out of an Aspen book, but that’s in no way to call it bad. The portrayal of the characters reminded me very much of the TV series Archer, in a way, but with a lot more depth and detail. With the monsters this guy creates, one has to wonder if he’s on some sort of awesome, scary drugs.

The colors from Wes Hartman add even more depth to Parker’s already bad-ass imagery. They are a slight changed from previous series colorist, David Curiel, but perhaps for the better. Using mostly darker colors and red tones, he somehow manages to make every room look distinct rather than blurring all into one. The abrupt transition from the dark cavern they were fighting their way out of in the beginning to the Narnia-like place was astounding—like walking out of a dark theater and into a snow storm.

Josh Reed has out done himself on lettering in the issue with intricate word-boxes and sinister-looking fonts in just the right places.

The Rating Bit

Now really, I would like to give this a ten out of ten because of the fantastic job the team has done on it but the long stretch between the third and fourth issues have been a bit of a pain. We all know that Greg Pak is a busy guy, but for a series as great as this, I would hope that the issues would come out a bit closer together. So in the end, I give Dead Man’s Run #4 a still impressive 9 out of 10. This is a series that is certainly worth picking up.