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In an effort to catch up and stay current, I’m gonna switch it up a little bit this week and do a bunch of short reviews right off the bat.

Ready or not, here they come...

Gene Simmons’

House of Horrors

Anthology edited by Tom Waltz

Published by IDW, 60+ pages for $9.99

I’ll admit up front that horror comics in general and horror anthologies specifically aren’t my bag as a reader, but so far I’ve liked this series a lot.  Issue 1 was very strong, with at least three stories that stood out in my mind afterwards as both disturbing and thought-provoking.  Chris Ryall’s story about the first manned mission to Hell was probably the best of the bunch, but I also enjoyed Tom Waltz’s story—as I always seem to—and the last story, a really creepy alien abduction fantasy written by Dwight L. MacPherson.  I didn’t think Issue #2 was quite as strong as Issue 1, but it was sexier, and it had a cool food-fetish motif that I dug the most.  And in fairness, the last story, written by Ivan Brandon, was both creepy as Hell and surprising—at least to me.

What this new anthology series really has going for it, however, is its art.  It is exceedingly rare to find an indie anthology of any kind with art that’s decent, but this one is not only decent but actually exceptional throughout.  That, to me, was the best thing about this series.  Not only did we get a bunch of different creepy stories, we got them with a variety of different artistic visions.  Different guys see this stuff different ways, with the result that each new story is a sort of a revelation.  Even when the writer is reaching with his ending, most times the artists here are making it work.

For horror fans, this series is a must.  For the rest of us, I’d say that the first issue at least is worth searching for.  I know that I’ll be looking forward to Issue #3 just to see how well they follow up what has so far been a very solid start.

Cory Doctorow’s

Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now #2:

When Sysadmins Ruled the World

Based on the short story by Cory Doctorow

Adapted by: J.C. Vaughn

Art by: Daniel Warner

Letters by: Robbie Robbins

Cover art by: Scott Morse

Edited by: Tom Waltz

Published by: IDW, 22 pages for $3.99

Heh.  When I first saw the cover for this book, I thought, “Hey cool!  An alien invasion!”  Heh.  Stupid me. 

Which isn’t to say that this isn’t a cool book.  It’s a VERY cool book.

It’s like this: Felix is a hot-shot systems administrator for corporate America.  He’s also a new father.  Then he gets called in for a late-night service call, and the world changes overnight. 

The thing I loved about this book is that it’s a simple, one-shot short about very real people.  No one’s perfect.  Hell, no one’s even pretty.  The other thing I loved about this book is its premise.  What if IT Systems Administrators had to save the world?  That’s great stuff, and not least because the IT/Commo guys are always the first to die whenever anything goes wrong—at least that’s how it is in any organization I’ve ever worked for.  Back in the Army it was something of a running joke.

I should also mention that When Sysadmins Ruled the World also has terrific art.  Really great art!  It’s easily the best thing I’ve read this week, and that’s saying something, believe me.  I recommend it to everyone.  Awesome techno punk one-shot comics are too rare to pass up!  Go get it!

Beowulf #1

Based on the screenplay by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery

Written by Chris Ryall

Art by Gabriel Rodriguez

Colors by Jay Fotos

Letters by Robbie Robbins

Published by IDW, 26 page for $3.99

The credits in this book say that it’s based on a screenplay by Neil Gaiman, and it probably is, but if there’s any unexpected genius here, we haven’t seen it yet.  ‘Course I’m not the biggest Gaiman fan in the world save for the fact that I respect his ability to write successfully in two mediums, but still… so far this project looks a lot like a simple, straightforward adaptation of an already super-famous epic poem.  There’s nothing wrong with that, but I do think it’s a tough market niche given that Michael Crichton’s deconstruction of the same material, The 13^th Warrior, is already out there for the mass market in both book and film.  So I don’t know what I was expecting with this book, but a straight retelling of the classic legend definitely wasn’t it.

With that said, this book is almost certainly the best way to go for readers who want to know about the real, unadulterated version of the story of Beowulf.  And who knows?  There may be a lot of you out there.  And in IDW’s defense, the comic version of this project looks entirely better than the film clips I’ve seen of the same material.  The comic has kick-ass art while I personally think the movie it’s tied to looks like a low-budget Sci Fi Channel made-for-TV train wreck.  That’s no reflection on the comic, however.

Bottom line: If you want Beowulf, this comic is definitely the way to go.  And truthfully, I’d be willing to bet that this’ll be a great project once it comes out in Trade, particularly for fans of historical fantasy.

Forgotten Realms

The Orc King

Written by R.A. Salvatore

Published by Wizards of the Coast

The Orc King is Wizards of the Coast’s newest Forgotten Realms hardcover and the latest book featuring their cash cow character Drizzt, the infamous goodly dark elf ranger.  Author R.A. Salvatore rose to prominence with Drizzt, who started life as a classically conflicted “lonely ranger” dedicated to protecting those he does not understand, only to fall into what I’ve personally come to think of as the Tom Clancy trap.  Sadly, after over two decades of growth and change in Salvatore’s fiction, Drizzt and company had become boringly unbeatable, overly well-adjusted super heroes.  However, in his new novel Salvatore breaks the paradigm.  He starts by leaping forward a hundred years, shattering the status quo and showing his hero again conflicted and ill at ease with his environment.  That start breathes new life into the series, sweeping away in one breath all that’s old, stale, or largely irrelevant.  With that beginning, Salvatore is then able to get past some of the series’ long-running (and by now painfully overwrought) conflicts, allowing him to introduce new characters, new issues, and new themes.  It’s a change that’s long overdue, and it makes for the best Drizzt-fiction in quite a while.

For me, this novel works largely because Salvatore has given his villains interesting things to do.  This forces the heroes to react—heroically—so that by the end of the story, we’re not only not sure whether or not the good guys have won, we’re actually well aware that they were damn lucky just to have escaped with their lives.  In fact, I think Salvatore is at his best when he’s writing for the bad guys, and with that in mind, part of the fun of this particular book is that its bad guys actually kick ass.

The Orc King is a fun ride and to my mind the best Drizzt book in at least a decade.  Fans of the Realms will no doubt enjoy it and enjoy what it’s leading up to.

Stray Voltage

Before we get into this week’s Stray Voltage and the of late obligatory commentary about the Tennessee Titans, you’ll need to watch the highlights of last weekend’s game vs. the Houston Texans on NFL.com.  Because this won’t make any sense unless you know that the Titans were winning 32-7 against the Texans going into the 4^th quarter, only to give up 29 unanswered points heading into the final minute.

Go on, I’ll wait.  It’ll take you less than three minutes, and it’s quite exciting.

*foot tapping, impatient humming*

Okay, you’re back?  Did you see what I’m talking about?

Anyway, the Tennessean’s Paul Kuharsky held a little contest at the end of last week that had me not only listening to the game on Sunday but also taking notes:

Whether the Titans win or lose Sunday in Houston, plenty of die-hard fans will be left with questions they want answered.  We hope we hit most of those after the game and at Jeff Fisher’s Monday press conference.  But I thought I’d make an offer to give you a direct connection to Fisher after he’s had a chance to review the game film.  So the person who posts the best question here (please register and post it, then feel free to email it as well) gets a direct line to Fisher.

After his press conference on Monday, once the cameras stop rolling, I’ll ask your question.  I’ll share what he said Tuesday in the hour-long lunchtime chat at tennessean.com/sports that starts at noon.

So this was my chance.  My one shot to ask Coach Jeff Fisher a question.  Hey, I live in Connecticut; these opportunities are not to be passed up.  But sadly, the best thing that I could come up with was this, which I don’t think did much to endear me to the Coach:

"What are the odds of us seeing Michael Griffin in the starting secondary now that we've had a team PROVE to us that the Titans are just way too vulnerable to the deep pass?"

You may remember Griffin, the Titans’ first round pick from earlier this year.  He’s a former safety from the University of Texas, now playing at cornerback and leading the Titans on special teams.  He had no less than six tackles on special teams on Sunday and despite the controversy of his not filling a so-called need position for the team in year when he was drafted, he now looks like a really good pick in the first round.  At this point, I’m more than willing to buy into the idea that he was the best pick available at the time—easily.  In fact, the only rookie who’s made a bigger impact so far in the League has been Minnesota RB Adrian Peterson, and Peterson was taken a good eight picks or so before Griffin.

Which just proves once again that Mel Kiper is an idiot. 

And he’s short, too.

Hey Mel, when’s Robert Gallery’s bust getting delivered to Canton?

(Heh.  I never get tired of that joke.  But anyway, I digress...) Unfortunately, the simple fact is that I didn’t ask a very great question.  In fact, there were two problems with my question.  First, it wasn’t really one question, it was two.  “Why has Tennessee given up so many long passes this season?” and “When will we start seeing Michael Griffin in the starting secondary?”  Asking it the way I asked it left too much wiggle room, as you’ll see.

The second problem was that my question was the obvious question[1]. 

But Kuharsky asked it anyway (And thanks!  That was awesome!) then sent me the following email:

You were the big winner, but I hardly hit a home run in getting an answer from Jeff. Take a look at Jim Wyatt's most recent blog. I've been a big proponent of Griffin at safety and can't understand their determination to keep him at corner and on the bench...

Here's what Fisher said:

"We're using Michael in several defensive packages and there is probably a good chance he'll be involved in some sort of defensive package. We've already had him involved in several."

So there you have it. 

Did we learn anything? 

Yes, we did. 

*sigh*

I’m no journalist.  So much for my one shot to ask a really great question.

On another front, my wife’s 40^th birthday is this weekend, so God Willing, we’ll spend most of the day tomorrow on the trail on our new mountain bikes.  We’ve blocked out the time and gotten a babysitter, so now all we need is a little clear weather and some pasta for carbo-loading.

For the curious, we ended up getting a pair of Gary Fishers.  I got Sally one of the chi-chi women’s models—in baby blue—along with a tandem trailer, so that our daughter Hannah can go riding with her whenever time permits.  I got myself an Advanced along with a baby seat for our youngest daughter, Emma. 

Not that we’re taking either of our kids with us tomorrow, but we have taken them out for a family ride, and it was AWESOME!  I’ll post some pictures next week, when and if I get around to taking some.

I was gonna do a piece on the economy this week, but lately it’s been both depressing and confusing.  Housing prices are going down at the same time that the dollar is going down, which has the multiplicative effect of making us all a lot poorer in two ways at the same time.  On the upside, the falling dollar is making it harder for the cut-rate exporters of the world to export to the US at below-standard-of-living prices, and that’s ultimately a good thing, but it’s had the short term effect of putting the Asian stock markets in the crapper along with everything else, meaning that it’s hard to know where to put your money now to ride out the storm.  Luckily, Sally and I just spent all our money on new mountain bikes, but if I was Paris Hilton, I’d probably have a problem.

If you’re wondering, I’ve been find myself pretty bearish on the intermediate term economy of late, even though my personal investments seem to be holding up okay… so far.  But the sad fact is that the Fed seems determined to cut rates again in an effort to shore up the housing market, and that’s likely to lead to both inflation and even more erosion of the dollar in the long term.  And that sucks[2].  It’s the kind of no-hard-choices democracy that has led to banana republic-type governments all over Central and South America.  Hell, the Federal government is even talking about guaranteeing some kind of massive, ostensibly private securitized asset to bail out the sub-prime lending sector, and that’s a thing that really ought to be illegal.  It’s certainly a Hell of a bad idea.  Those sub-prime bastards are the ones that by any measure caused most of the immediate problems.  People, they DESERVE to lose their money![3]

Or, to put it another way, the only way that most young people are ever going to be able to afford a decent house is if housing prices fall.  Thus, we’ll all be a lot better off in the long run if we let the market run its course and let housing find its own natural bottom—no matter how much that costs the big investors of the world.  After all, those folks are supposed to be smart enough to take care of themselves.

On the upside, Fox just launched the Fox Business Network, which is apparently short on business news but long on gratuitous tits and ass.  I’ve not gotten a chance to watch it yet, but I’ve always thought that stock market reports ought to be given by topless, lipstick-lesbian swimsuit models.  No?  I mean, is it just me, or did MTV miss an opportunity here?  Instead of “A Chance at Love with Tila Tequila,” how about, “A Chance at Recession with Tila Tequila”?  At least then, the average American would probably start paying attention.

And that’s a little bit on the economy.  Are you happy now?

So there you have it—another week of indies and random thoughts.  I hope it was good for you, too.

Until next week, stay safe.

***

Dan Head is a utilities analyst and freelance writer.  You can learn more about him and his work on his ComicSpace Page or by visiting the Friday Mad Science forum at AwesomeStormJustice.com.

To get your comic reviewed here, email Dan at dan@paperbackreader.com.