tpb reviews!

Homeland (Legend of Drizzt, Vol 1) - This is an adapation of R. A. Salvatore's origin-novel of the famous character Drizzt, and also one of my favorite novels-from-when-I-was-younger. So in that I wsa kind of wary of anyone being able to pull off a good graphic adaptation (ignoring the point that the novel takes place entirely in pitch black darkness with characters that see by heat). But, like the bits of the adaptation of Laurell Hamilton's novels I've seen, the lush art and dedication of the writers to stick as close as humanly possible to the novels really does pull it off, I think. There's no way it could have the richness of prose and detail a novel could have, of course, just in that one can only cram so much into a graphic text, but to me it would be a great companion to the novel, like the illustrations in The Dark Tower, in a sense.

First Foursaken (Uncanny X-Men - The New Age, Vol 5) - I got this one because it was small, and featured my favorite artist, Chris Bachalo. The first story was interesting in a short story kind of sense, and began to hint at current incarnations of the characters involved, I suppose. But it completely gives a new villain - something that's supposed to be the opposite of the Phoenix - short shrift, I think they could have gone with the same villain, but described it as something else, and made the story immediately more palatable. The second half of the collection also has nice art, but completely focuses on Storm, who I was never particularly interested in; moreover, it plays upon a Black Hawk Down trope, which while ambitious I think is another case of short shrift. Still, I think this one's worth getting if one either likes Bachalo's art or Storm.

Down the Rabbit Hole (Exiles, Vol 1) - As much as this is billed as X-Men meets Quantum Leap, as I've never seen that show, I have to compare it to an old favorite, Sliders. In terms of comics, it provides for a continuous stream of what-if scenarios, returns of old characters that should be dead (like one of Wyatt and I's favorites of yore, Blink), and original characters that just wouldn't exist in the main setting. So, there's a lot of fun variability and interesting concepts and even humor from deadpan to witty, but at the same time, one already begins to realize that it won't do to become too attached to any of the characters - that same variability leads to a relatively high rate of loss of main characters. Good stuff, though.

-illuminating article on the nature of relaxed versus working muscles

-from Mr Phil, an awesome discourse on pirates

-from Ms Abby, Perry Bible Fellowship - hilarious, I tell you