The Archive

Actraiser:  "They won't carry this guy off the field on a stretcher, they'll carry him off in a sponge."

Traditionally most gamers fall into about three different groups. The first are your hardcore simulation players. These guys can tell you why it’s reasonable to buy a $400 dollar flight stick or show off their racing chair in front of a triple display setup. The second are your hardcore sports fanatics. You’ve probably met these people as they are probably the only fuckers to ever own a multitap so their can yell racial slurs at each other playing Fifa and the latest Madden. Then you have everyone else. In an attempt to make a sports game appeal to everyone else, Mutant League Football was created. It wasn’t the first to bridge the gap, but it was the first at being able to run into a landmine during a play, bribe the ref, or kill the entire opposing team.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Comic Primer

Cosmic Marvel got a serious kick in the ass with Annihilation and the subsequent Annihilation: Conquest. Back at Earth, you had the underwhelming Civil War where heroes were pitted against each other over secret identities. Up in space, you had seemingly forgotten and b-list characters rise up, become total badasses, and end up stopping huge armies with scarily powerful enemies. Needless to say that Cosmic Marvel was doing the right thing by comic fans.

The Amazing Spider-Man:  After years of shitting on Parker, a ray of light hits the current arc.

Anyone who has been a fan of Spider-Man has been through some rough times. You have the awful confusing mess of the Clone Saga, Sins Past where it was revealed Gwen Stacy had love children with the Green Goblin, and the rotten cherry on top with One More Day where in an effort to retcon Spider-Man’s history, Peter Parker makes a deal with the devil to save the life of Aunt May who should have decades ago in exchange of forgetting he’s married to supermodel Mary Jane. All in that horrible afterbirth, Dan Slott has been slugging away at Spider-Man with brute force. He gave us some good arcs like American Son, the Gauntlet, and Spider Island. Now with the latest reboot, Slott is injecting something Peter Parker has never faced before. Common sense.

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Starflight:  A journey into roach engineers, strip mining, and space racists.

The ISS Longinus was prepped for its mission of exploring the vast universe while Captain Bossman looked over the personnel files of his brave crew. Stu was going to take his role as Science officer with the android Robocab in control of navigation. Roach, our insect-like Velox engineer, was in charge of cargo and trying to keep the ship in one piece when we inevitably piss off a fleet of warships. Wizliz took the role of our Thrynn comm officer. This reptilian officer will ensure that the elegant languages of the vast cultures of the universe will get translated to mongoloid. This is not Wizliz's fault. It's just that Bossman thinks Class 3 shields and multiple weapon systems on the Longinus are cooler than adequate crew training. Last we have the talking plant Greenpea of the peaceful Elowan race who will serve as the medical officer. It's Greenpeas's job to patch us all up when we fuck up a landing or if crew members get hurt when a fleet of eight murderous Mechan ships decide that our luxury of breathing is being revoked. It is up to the brave affirmative action crew of the Longinus to explore this universe and ultimately save all known life from the cause of the mysterious solar flares that are wiping out vast systems. The brave crew does a heroic job of fucking this up royally.

Saga:  A crazy space opera with talking cats, magic, mutilated ghost babysitters, and breastfeeding.

What do you call a comic when you toss in space opera, family, open sexuality, PTSD-ridden robot things, bounty hunters, crazy ex-girlfriends, gay fish reporters, and an ongoing galactic war? Beats the fuck outta me, but you would get something resembling Saga. With Brian K. Vaughan writing the story and the very beautiful artwork that seemingly came outta left field from Fiona Staples, Saga is the one series that is worth jumping into.

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Andre the Giant: Life and Legend:The man with the biggest body, heart, and bartab has a book that does him justice.

France gets a lot of shit for a country that produced Laeticia Casta, french fries, Jean Reno, and the foundations of American government. Its a safe bet then to say they contributed to the world in an admirable way. However, their greatest contribution came in the form of a seven foot four beast of a man that gave young wrestler Hulk Hogan a run for his money. That's right, people. I am talking about the one and only Andre the Giant. He is probably the greatest drunk to have ever lived; a reputation marred only by his wrestling celebrity. In an attempt to showcase his history and humanity, Box Brown managed to capture it in a minimalistic style in graphic novel format. Piecing together a cohesive narrative from a collection of sources and interviews, Andre the Giant Life and Legend is an awesome look at the legendary man and makes for one of the best comics to come out this year.

Now I need to get Arma.

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I just wanted to shoot people.

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Copperhead:  Sometimes I just want my sci-fi simple and western.

One of the best series out is also one of the most unassuming. If you judge a book by its cover, and you have to sometime by their very nature, Copperhead doesn't stand out amongst the shock inducing cover art that fans are used to. This is by no means a bad thing, but what makes it different also makes it a must read. The cover art is clean and direct compared to the blood splattered, gory, team ensembles, or scantily clad women that we are used to in our weekly releases. Copperhead may be an unassuming title, but it is full of solid writing, pacing, art, and world building that comes together to create something much better without relying on obvious gimmicks.

Blame!

Tsutomu Nihei

I'm sure that I'm not the only one who hits the wall. You start out strong, watching Akira from someone's recommendation. Then you watch Ghost in the Shell. Someone points to Berzerk and then you find yourself vegetating on Dragonball Z fight scenes. You start to examine your life through Evangelion and publicly praise Studio Ghibli's works. You are running full speed when you finally hit it, wondering what the fuck you are doing with your life giving a shit about a stupid high pitched schoolgirl with even dumber problems. But every once in a while, I manage to find some so unique that sets me running again. Enter Blame! which is one of the most unique not only in manga and cyberpunk, but in science fiction all together.