Category: Features

Amish Otaku, Comics, Features

Big Monkey Comics: Discovering Big Monkey Comics in D.C.

Big Monkey’s business card
Big Monkey Comics

Last week I went to Washington, DC, for a few days to see the brash and lovely indie rock goddess Leslie Feist (who kicked several levels of posterior, for those of you interested), and my nagging preoccupation was what my next AO subject would be. I was staying with my sister, Sabahat, who lives in DC Since I was taking the rail to our nation’s capitol, and Lancaster’s The Comic Store (yes, that’s what it’s called) is conveniently located across the street from the train station, it was my obvious first choice for material. Simple. My train left on Wednesday at 11:34AM (don’t you love how razor-precise Amtrak purports to be?) and I reasoned could get to the comic shop sometime between 10AM and 11AM. There were more than a few priorities standing in my way, though. Staying up late the night before my departure looking for events to occupy my days was one of them. I refused to wander around the L’Enfant planned ex-Federal City with no less than a bagful of instructions. Continue reading “Big Monkey Comics: Discovering Big Monkey Comics in D.C.”

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Amish Otaku, Bubonic Comics, Comics, DC, Features

Bubonic Comics: Aquaman #3

Since Aquaman has gone through quite a few incarnations, let’s make sure you know which one I’m referring to in this installment. This Arthur Curry is Peter David’s long-haired and bearded man of action. Two crucial notes about this issue: Superboy guest stars and the controversial harpoon hand makes its debut.

Speaking of the pointy appendage, all of Aquaman’s friends seem to be rather wary of this decision to don a harpoon where his left hand once was. Aquaman ignores their doubts because he wants to go on the offensive. He orders portly Vulko (remember him?) to make this sawed-off, run-of-the-mill harpoon as close to invulnerable as possible. I sure wish I had tools lying around my home that could make things more invulnerable.

Cut to a scene of dolphins swimming and talking! A typical day, it seems, until the dolphins are caught in a Japanese boater’s cargo net. When they’re dragged up out of the ocean and dumped onto the boat, one of the dolphins opts to fly away (why, Peter David, why???) instead of remaining captive. Smart decision, too, since one fisherman stabs a harpoon completely through a dolphin’s body. I suppose even lowly fishermen have super strength in the DCU.

Continue reading “Bubonic Comics: Aquaman #3”
Charlie Robinson
Amish Otaku, Convention Coverage, Features, The Haven

The Haven: Wizard World Philly and The Life of Reilly

Welcome to “The Haven,” a place where you’re going to learn all about the wonderful world of me. This includes – but is not limited to – my ongoing crusade to redevelop and publish The Life of Reilly as a trade paperback, my thoughts on the Comics Industry as a whole, developments with our little corner of cyberspace here, and probably comments on everything from movies to how I can’t stand my job.

A few promises to start off our new relationship: Continue reading “The Haven: Wizard World Philly and The Life of Reilly”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, Features

Caught My Eye: Scar Tissue Volume One

A page from Scar Tissue
Dial R Studios

Scar Tissue is a small-press comic published by Dial R Studios. Now, when I say it’s “small press,” I don’t mean that it’s small on quality, because it’s quite the opposite.

So what is this comic about? Good question. It’s about a sick boy named Ben who is in a rough place. He’s needed a heart transplant for many years, and the time has come that he either gets one or he dies. Fortunately, one arrives in the nick of time. It comes with a catch, though: it belongs to a recently deceased supervillain named Lord Grundoom. With this new heart, Ben is able to heal more quickly than a regular heart recipient and begins to gain the powers of the late Grundoom. The book, written by Jim Clark and drawn by David Wachter, follows Ben as he comes to terms with these new powers and his struggle with the emotions and conflicts you might assume would occur.

The story is easy to get into. I quickly found myself interested in Ben’s predicament and wanted to keep reading more. Before I knew it, I had read half of the trade paperback. One of this comic’s biggest strengths is its dialog. That was the very first thing I noticed. The interaction between Ben and his brothers, as well as his internal struggles, is spot on. The way the characters interact with one another feels very natural, and it seems like you’re right there with them. There were only two characters that seemed kind of stiff to me, but everyone else could have been people I knew. Continue reading “Caught My Eye: Scar Tissue Volume One”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, Features, Marvel

Bubonic Comics: What If…#40

Free advice for thieves
Marvel Comics

What If…? was a remarkable series in that it always asked the questions us fanboys liked to debate when we would get together. What if Spider-Man had joined the Fantastic Four? What if Captain America had stayed frozen until modern times? These were pressing questions we wanted to see played out.

But I guess at some point the idea men at Marvel had to run out of ideas, and WHAT IF…? #40 addressed a question no fan could have ever possibly wondered or cared about: What if Storm of the X-Men had remained a thief?

Seriously. They filled an entire issue answering this lame excuse for a question. Hmm, what if Storm remained a thief? I suppose she would probably steal things. That is what thieves do … or is it?!?!?

Well, I’m sure you’re sweating over what becomes of Ororo Munroe; I know the Watcher is, so let’s get going. Continue reading “Bubonic Comics: What If…#40”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, Features, Marvel

Caught My Eye: Blade #10, New Avengers #31, World War Hulk

Blade vs. Spidey, Round 1, Fight!
Marvel Comics

Blade #10

First off, we have BLADE #10. Blade has been a great series from the very beginning. It’s written by Marc Guggenheim of the Civil War issues of Wolverine as well as the latest writer on Flash. The art is drawn by long-time comic legend Howard Chaykin.

I’d like to start out by saying that this series is the first comic I read the Wednesday it comes out. That’s not because I’m some hard-core Blade fan, but simply because it’s just that good. I have very limited knowledge of Blade outside of the three movies and short-lived television show. That being said, I had no trouble getting into this series from the first issue.

Guggenheim has an interesting way of telling the story in each comic of this series. With few exceptions, each comic is a done-in-one story that is self-contained but has over-arcing elements that give the long-time reader something to look forward to in the next issue. One of the most impressive aspects is that you get three timelines in each issue: where the story begins, a glimpse of his long past that has relevance now, and where the story ends. This might sound like it would be hard to follow, but I assure you it is not. Continue reading “Caught My Eye: Blade #10, New Avengers #31, World War Hulk”

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Amish Otaku, Features, Kosher Kuts, Manga

Kosher Kuts: King of Thorns

Survival horror is a genre that seems to be rather underrepresented in manga. Moviegoers and gamers have had their fill over the past few years with moderate success. The trick has been to balance a semblance of a story with enough thrills and chills to make it enthralling. Yuji Iwahara’s King of Thorns brings this unappreciated story type into the light. Is it a B-grade horror flick or a blockbuster page-turner?

The story begins in the present as a virus called Medusa has begun to spread among the human populace. As the name suggests, the virus causes the infected people to slowly become paralyzed and brittle, like old stone statues. A number of people who have been infected are put into cryogenic stasis until a cure can be found. When the group awakens, the laboratory they resided in is in ruins and covered in vines. They quickly discover that the world is down one human race and up one prehistoric dinosaur race. The survivors take it upon themselves to figure out what happened to the world while they were asleep and find a cure for the virus that is slowly taking over their bodies.

Continue reading “Kosher Kuts: King of Thorns”
Joshua Goldberg
Amish Otaku, Features

Eastern Culture: Manga and Anime Culture Part 2

That was the question I asked nearly six months ago when embarking upon my independent study with my advisor, Dr. Richard Reitan, a professor in the history department at Franklin & Marshall College. Since then, I’ve been conspicuously absent from the pages of Amish Otaku. About a month ago I graduated from F&M College, moved out of my apartment (with help!), began graduate school, and found out more about Sailor Moon’s blonde hair and blue eyes than I was expecting. (It’s the last of these that I’d like to share with all of you, the awesome readers of AO.)

Essentially, there are two reasons why many anime characters have Caucasian (that is, Western European) features – and why that doesn’t seem to bother Japanese audiences. My final paper ended up being more than forty pages long, and if you’re interested in reading it, please drop me a line; I’m more than happy to oblige. In the meantime, however, let me boil it down for AO. Continue reading “Eastern Culture: Manga and Anime Culture Part 2”

V.E.
Amish Otaku, Comics, Features, Marvel

Caught My Eye: New Warriors #1

Sofia in New Warriors #1
Marvel Comics

For all of you who are not in the know, Marvel Comics recently had a huge crossover by the name of Civil War. Basically, the New Warriors were hotshot young heroes and made a bad choice when they went into a battle they couldn’t win. That mistake cost them their lives as well as the lives of many civilians. Since then, all heroes must register their identity as well as their powers to the authorities.

This new incarnation of the New Warriors is rebelling against the current system and continuing the job of putting the baddies behind bars. From what’s been released so far, the premise is about this new team trying to make up for what the previous team did and trying to redeem them to a degree, since they were made out to be the scapegoats (or martyrs.)

Now that we have the backstory done, on to the good stuff! Continue reading “Caught My Eye: New Warriors #1”

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