A Couple Criticizing Comics @acouplecriticizingcomics-blog - Tumblr Blog

Ready Player One out of ten.

So I finally finished reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline a couple weeks ago. Everyone was telling me to read it, but I was already going to read it! So, I finally finished my other books and started it.

----Spoilers ahead----

I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was an okay book. And I get that it was Cline’s first novel. But I just felt that everything just worked out perfectly for the main character. There was some conflict (obviously) but all the plans he would come up with they just, worked. Just too predictable. And for it being such a critically acclaimed book (with a movie deal-btw how are they going to do it??) I expected it to be better. I can completely understand how all the 30-40 year old men like it, I’ll tell ya that right now. I enjoyed the 80s references and the DnD feel it had. Oh and the fact that *SPOILER* one of the characters who has a white male avatar just so happens to be an overweight black lesbian. I applaud your bravery Cline.... Other than that character (which you don’t even find out that she is a woman, or black, or a lesbian until the end of the book) there are, two other "main” female characters. Wade’s aunt (who is a total bitch) and Art3mis. Two. That’s it. Good for Art3mis for being number 2 on the scoreboard and kicking ass, but you know, she’s obviously not as good as Wade (EVEN THO SHE HELPED YOUR ASS WIN ONE OF THE FINAL STAGES, FUCK). And then she obviously falls in love with him in real life. GOD, this book. I just can’t even be serious about it anymore.

Okay, there were good parts that I got excited about and made me want to keep reading but jesus christ it had some problems. Overall I would recommend this book to people who like 80s references and video games.

#ready player one #book review #ernest cline #spoilers #novel #video game

New Story Starts Here - #2 Manga Edition!

Alice in Murderland - Kaori Yuki

I picked this one up off our “Dangerous Ladies” themed display at work. I really like Alice in Wonderland and when there’s badassery thrown in I can’t complain. It’s about a group of people that were adopted into a rich family. Unfortunately the “parents” want the kids to murder each other and the last person standing claims the fortune. It has a healthy mix of fairy tales, Hunger Games and psycho-ness... If you enjoy violence and fairy tale references then check this out! There’s 3 volumes out and the 4th comes out in June 2016.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica - Magica Quartet

If you haven’t already seen the anime, go do that. Right now. I’ll wait. K, you done? Great, now read the manga. It’s so good. It’s somewhat similar to the anime, obviously there’s bits left out and doesn’t have quite the impact that the anime has. It’s still a good story and will give you feels. If you don’t already know the story, it’s about a group of girls who get their wishes granted, but for a price. They turn into magical girls and have to defeat witches. There is a teeny problem with this series as a whole. There’s “sub-series,” meaning there’s different stories within the series? I gotta say, it’s pretty confusing. But if you can figure out if there’s a right order to them, let me know. I’ve read the first one and a few of the others but not in any type of order. Still a great series as a whole.

Claymore - Norihiro Yagi

This is another manga that was on the Dangerous Ladies display, can you tell there’s a theme with me? This is a pretty violent story as well. In this world there are monsters (Yoma) that can pretend to be humans, BUT they actually eat people. The only thing that can kill them are Claymores, half human, half yomas. I have only read the first volume but I was surprised to find out there’s like 27(??) volumes! I know, that doesn’t compare to other manga *cough One Piece *cough* Naruto cough* All in all I would like to continue reading it, just as soon as the second volume comes into our book store.

My Love Story - Kazune Kawahara

I started watching the anime before I read the manga and let me tell you, this is the cutest anime! An oblivious, “ugly” guy falls for a girl who he thinks has a crush on his hot friend, BUT! turns out that she has a crush on him and NOT his friend! If you like cute romantic anime/manga this is the one for you. But, I wouldn’t recommend watching it and reading it because it is literally the same. Panel for panel. Either watch it or read it.

#new story starts here #nssh #manga #alice in murderland #puella magi madoka magica #claymore #my love story #review

Day 14: Wrapping paper

Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode by Mia Ikumi

Yeahhh...we weren’t too sure what “wrapping paper” meant so here’s a cute manga with cute Barbie wrapping paper. They also both have wands so there’s that.

#book photo challenge #books and cupcakes #tokyo mew mew #manga #barbie #wrapping paper #picture #blog #post

Day 13: Favorite character name

Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

#book photo challenge #books and cupcakes #ramona flowers #scott pilgrim vs the world #comic #graphic novels #picture

~Other~ nerdy goodies! #4

Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus Vol 1 (manga)

After only seeing the 2nd volume omnibus of Cardcaptor Sakura I finally found the 1st volume at our bookstore! This manga is about a young magical girl who has to collect Clow Cards that had escaped from a book. I’ve seen a handful of the anime (it’s cute!) and it follows pretty closely to the manga (as most anime does). Obviously it was a lot faster than the anime, which I guess I don’t mind too much but it seems like there’s so much more in the show that you’re missing in the manga. I’m starting to see how ~queer~ a lot of these characters are too! Which isn’t a bad thing! Just good to see when you get used to girl likes boy or boy likes girl. Overall it’s a really cute manga/anime that is for a younger crowd...but screw that, anybody can can whatever they want!

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

This book! SO good. It’s a young adult book about a girl surviving an alien apocalypse trying to find her brother annnnnnd of course there’s going to be a movie coming about based on it. Which I’m actually excited to see. Honestly, I probably would not see it if I hadn’t of read the book. The writing is really good, which is surprising since it’s a young adult book... *Possible spoilers ahead?* I loved how each section of the book is from a different characters perspective. I didn’t even realize that until I was at the end of the second section, which was probably the point...? Rick Yancey wrote each section so fluidly that when all the stories connected in the end it was thrilling to see what would happen next. I also just started reading the sequel The Infinite Sea, that’s how good it is! I definitely recommend this book if you like sci-fi/adventure type books!

Exploding Kittens (game)

I bought this game for Mickey’s birthday. The bookstore we work at has it everywhere so I figured we could try it out. It was made by the guy who does The Oatmeal. It’s a card game where you basically avoid the exploding kittens. If you get one, and can’t diffuse it, then you lose. You win by not exploding. Pretty simple! It’s a fairly quick game. Not too many card variations, although there is an NSFW version that you can combine with the regular version for more cards. It’s a fun game, but like I said it’s very quick. It’s a good game to play while you’re waiting on friends, which is what we did.

-Hannah

#other nerdy goodies #cardcaptor sakura #manga #the 5th wave #rick yancey #young adult novels #books #exploding kittens #the oatmeal #card games #reviews #blog #post

Teen Graphic Novels are actually good?? ~ Baba Yaga’s Assistant

This graphic novel caught my eye because, well, look at this cover:

This is the story about a girl who becomes the assistant to Baba Yaga, a witch who eats bad children (or so they’re told). She’s the story parents tell they’re children to make them behave. IRL she is a Slavic folklore!

I really enjoy Emily Carroll’s artwork. I read Through the Woods a few months ago and really enjoyed how she experiments with her illustrations. So I decided to pick this up and see what kinds of things she did with the art. There wasn’t as much experimenting with this but there was one part that was really clever.

The assistant, Masha, drops a jar of ink. It gets everywhere, and when I say everywhere, I mean literally all over the page and completely destroys the gutters (aka the blank space between panels). The black space then leads into Masha’s memory of being with her grandmother by using the darkness and paint-like brushstrokes, as well as the small circles of light. This is beautiful! I mean, what a transition! We’re then lead back into the present with Baba Yaga wiping the ink away off the pages. Again, we see the circles of light repeating as she lights up the room. It’s fun to see Baba breaking the 4th wall a bit as she wipes the ink off the panel. How’s she doing it? With magic of course!

Overall I thought this GN was a great read. I would recommend this for someone who likes folklore and/or spooky stories!

-Hannah

#young adult #graphic novel #baba yaga's assistant #emily carroll #marika mccoola #art #pictures #review #blog #comic

Day 12: Reading by the fire

Soul Eater Not! by Atsushi Ohkubo

We don’t have a fireplace so this is the best we can do.

#book photo challenge #books and cupcakes #soul eater not #manga #blog #picture #fireplace

Day 11: Coco Tea and a book

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey (I just finished it!)

#book photo challenge #books and cupcakes #the 5th wave #tea #picture #blog

Teen Graphic Novels are actually good?? ~ Amulet

Again, who knew?

Amulet is a story about a girl and her brother rescuing their mother by going on a crazy adventure. There’s robots, talking animals and evil elves!

At first glance I wasn’t that interested in reading Amulet. The cover made me not want to read it (I know, I know, don’t judge a book by the cover but I’m an artist of course I’m going to judge it). It honestly looked a little too childish for me. But I finally picked it up and read it. After the first couple of pages I realized, oh damn, this shit got serious. Maybe it’s not that childish...

Personally, I like the story but the art just isn’t that exciting. But I guess I liked the story so much that I read Volume 2 and am about to read 3 and 4.

So far I definitely think I would recommend Amulet to someone of any age. I feel like your inner child will come out while reading this and you’ll want to go on this fantastical adventure with robots and talking animals.

-Hannah

#amulet #teen graphic novel #blog #picture