Arriving 4/12

Jeff had it right that I'm out of the reviewing game this week (though, Ironically, had he not posted reviews I would have had forced myself to post SOMETHING tonight, just to avoid dead-air. Ladies and Gentlemen: Jeff Lester, His Own Worst Enemy!) (Right now, he's shaking his fist at me, muttering "Curse you, Hibbs!" And he's right, too!)

I'll actually be writing TILTING tomorrow moring. I have No Good Idea, as of this moment. I'm sure I'll wake up tomorrow with SOMEthing, but tonight? Not so much.

I will use this space to be a total old-school gamer, though, and tell you about the Ultima 5 (http://www.uo.com/archive/ultima5/) conversion/expansion for Dungeon Siege by the U5 Lazarus Project -- http://www.u5lazarus.com/

Dungeon Siege and Ultima are, pretty much, drastic worlds apart, and the way this all-volunteer team has adapted Ultima to the DS engine is nothing short of spectacular, frankly. It "feels" like an Ultima, and I haven't "felt" that way in a real damn long time.

u5 was oringally... well, stick figures, basically. So having the fully rotatable 3-D environment to see the Ultima world in is pretty cool.

It took, apparantly, 5 years for the volunteer team to do the conversion, and DS has gone from being a big hit to "oh yeah, that game was kinda fun" -- I'm pretty sure you can buy a retail boxed copy for like $10 -- and the Lazarus conversion is 100% free.

It's pretty much the coolest thing I've ever downloaded from the internet, if you ask me.

100 BULLETS #71 2000 AD #1478 2000 AD #1479 30 DAYS OF NIGHT DEAD SPACE #3 (OF 3) ACTION PHILOSOPHERS HATE THE FRENCH ALBION #4 (OF 6) ALICE IN WONDERLAND #3 (OF 4) AMAZING ADVENTURES OF THE JLA AMERICAN VIRGIN #2 ANNIHILATION SUPER SKRULL #1 (OF 4) ARCHIE #565 ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #169 BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #203 BATMAN STRIKES #20 BATMAN YEAR ONE HUNDRED #3 (OF 4) BATTLE POPE COLOR #7 (wasn't #6 last week?) BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #112 BONEYARD #21 BPRD UNIVERSAL MACHINE #1 (OF5) CABLE DEADPOOL #27 CAPTAIN ATOM ARMAGEDDON #7 (OF 9) CASEFILES SAM & TWITCH #23 CRISIS AFTERMATH THE BATTLE FOR BLUDHAVEN #1 (OF 6) DESOLATION JONES #6 DMZ #6 ESCAPE OF THE LIVING DEAD WRAPAROUND CVR #5 (OF 5) EXILES #79 FABLES #48 FANTASTIC FOUR FIRST FAMILY #2 (OF 6) FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MAN #24 FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #7 GIRLS #12 GREEN ARROW #61 GRIMM FAIRY TALES #5 HI HI PUFFY AMIYUMI #3 (OF 3) JANES WORLD #24 JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #243 LOVELESS #6 MAJESTIC #16 MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR #11 MARVEL ROMANCE REDUX RESTRAINING ORDERS ARE FOR OTHER GIRLS (this is #3 of, I think, 5) (why they can't just call it "#3", I do not know) MS MARVEL #2 NEW X-MEN #25 NIGHT CLUB #3 (OF 4) NIGHTWING #119 NOBLE CAUSES #19 PORTENT #2 (OF 4) SHAOLIN COWBOY DARROW CVR #5 SON OF M #5 (OF 6) STAR WARS BOBA FETT ONE SHOT STAR WARS REBELLION #1 STRANGERS IN PARADISE #81 SUPER BAD JAMES DYNOMITE #2 SUPERMAN #651 TAILS #3 (OF 3) THUNDERBOLTS #101 TRANSFORMERS INFILTRATION #4 ULTIMATE EXTINCTION #4 (OF 5) ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #93 UNCANNY X-MEN #472 WARREN ELLIS BLACK GAS WRAPAROUND #2 WILDCATS NEMESIS #8 (OF 9) X-MEN THE 198 #4 (OF 5)

Book / Mag / Stuff ALEX TP ANIMATION MAGAZINE MAY 2006 #160 ASTONISHING X-MEN VOL 1 HC BATMAN DARK DETECTIVE TP BATTLE POPE COLOR VOL 1 GENESIS TP (wasn't #6 last week?) CHICKEN FAT SC COMICS JOURNAL #275 CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS NOVEL TP DRAW #12 FEMME FATALES FEB MAR 2006 VOL 15 #1 & 2 FORTEAN TIMES #208 FREAK SHOW TP FRESHMEN TP G FAN #75 GHOST OF HOPPERS A LOVE & ROCKETS BOOK HC HARDY BOYS VOL 5 SEA YOU SEA ME GN HELLBOY VOL 6 STRANGE PLACES TP IRON MAN DEMON IN A BOTTLE TP JUDGE DREDD COMPLETE CASE FILES VOL 2 TP KODT BUNDLE OF TROUBLE VOL 17TP LEES TOY REVIEW APR 2006 #162 LITTLE STAR TP MAD KIDS #3 NAMELESS DIRECTORS CUT TP NANCY DREW VOL 5 THE FAKE HEIR GN OH MY GODDESS VOL 2 RTL TP ORIGINAL BONDAGE FAIRIES VOL 1 TP (A) PAST LIES GN PRISM COMICS LGBT GUIDE TO COMICS MAGAZINE 2006 (we got this last week, why are we getting it a second time?) RIDDLERS FAYRE VOL 1 VAULTS OF THE MIND HC SANDMAN PAPERS GN SCHOOL ZONE VOL 1 TP SHOWCASE PRESENTS TEEN TITANSVOL 1 TP STREETS OF DUBLIN SC SUPERMAN ARCHIVES VOL 7 HC TOMARTS ACTION FIGURE DIGEST #144 TOURIST GN TOYFARE MARVEL LEGENDS X-MEN CVR #106 WRITE NOW #12 X-23 INNOCENCE LOST TP X-MEN COMPLETE AGE OF APOCALYPSE EPIC BOOK 3 TP YOUNG AVENGERS VOL 1 SIDEKICKS TP

I don't know what I'm doing with the ASSHAT OF THE WEEK feature, since no one really said anything when I skipped a couple of them. But I do know I have one for you today: Robert Kirkman, ladies and gentlemen. Oh, it's not that that's the latest item shipping this week (there was something with a JUN code, that I only ordered a single copy of) (which is why I stopped reporting them -- Only really fun when it is someone you've heard of, right Mr. Schadenfreude?), it is that, ONCE AGAIN, Kirkman is short-shipping a book to bam out the paperback.

I mean, fuck me blind.

I don't know if Robert still reads the blog (he used to when he was breaking in -- he sent me email once upon a time), but dude, seriously, you can't do that. I don't know, it was like you were thinking that you "had" to have the BATTLE POPE trade out for Easter? But, really, you didn't (and you're going to Hell for thinking you did, young man)

[If you do read the blog still, or someone points you to this, contact me -- I'm pretty sure I can explain to you just how harmful your publishing pratices are.]

Anyway, what do you think about this week's pile o' books?

-B