Comic Cover of the Week: Ramayan 3392 AD #1

Virgin has launched their comic book line at a great pace. I don't normally read Indian-based stories, but I currently read The Sadhu, and have started to read Devi. The fledgling company has released a new series, Ramayan 3392 AD, which is basically a "retelling" of India's greatest legend.

This version of the epic tale couldn't have started off better than having none other than an Alex Ross cover painting! The cover has such dynamic action, that you can't help yourself but pick up this book off the shelf. This is why Ramayan 3392 AD deserves this week's Comic Cover of the Week!

8^B


Tags: Comics Comic Book Virgin Comics Ramayan 3392 AD Alex Ross

New Comics for this Week

New comics for the week have arrived, and my interest list is pretty big compared to previous weeks:

Automatic (On my pull list):
Amazing Spider-Man #535
Eternals #4
52 #21
Action Comics #843
Batman #657
Justice League of America #2
Teen Titans Go! #35
Wizard Magazine #181

Stong Interest:
Blade #1 (Re-Order from last week)
Civil War: X-Men # 3 (Re-order from last week)
Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #3
Ninja Scroll #1
DDP Quarterly 25 Cent Issue
Ramayan 3392 AD #1
The Sadhu #3

Mild Interest:
Captain America #22
Civil War: Frontline #6
Ultimate Spider-Man #100
Red Sonja: Monster Island One-Shot

8^B

Tags: Comics Comic Books

Wiggin' Out!

Ok, It's been a while since I posted anything here. I just want to let you know that I'm still alive, it's just I've been distracted and having fun with my new Digital Audio Player (DAP), the Sansa e250. Well it's not technically new, since I bought it earlier this year, but I just haven't busted it out of the shrinkwrap until a couple of weeks ago, since I did not want to start using my new one until I found a decent case for it (I've been using my wife's cheap DAP in the meantime).

Well, Best Buy had a 5 piece traveling set for the Sansa on sale, and I went ahead and bit the bullet and purchased it. The Sansa is a nice little player. Music, Video, Photos, FM Radio, and Recording all for only $149 (at least that's how much I paid for it at the time. It's probably cheaper now). I also bought a 1mb Micro-SD card for it, to up the storage memory to a total of 3mb.

As much as the music lookup services are fast and convenient, I've found them to be innaccurate as well (mostly typos). Being the total anal-retentive that I am, I have been manually tagging all of my music files these past couple of weeks. I've also been ripping some of my CD collection to .mp3s, and burning my online music purchases to CD and back to .mp3 (I refuse to utilize either the ACC or the WMA format).

In addition to all the ripping and burning, I've been scouring Google for good album art images for my music. I've been trying to find the bigger versions of the pics and resize them down to 200x200 which is aesthetically just right for my Sansa. So far, I've been able to find most of the images online. The only ones I haven't found are for some of my older Beethoven CDs (I ended up taking the pictures myself).

This DAP has also got me on a music buying binge! I've been browsing MusicMatch and iTunes online, and hitting the B&M stores (just in time for Tower Records' $9.99 CD sale!).

It has been an addicting and fun experience!

8^B


Tags: Music

New Comics Thursday

With the past Labor Day Holiday, the New Comics Releases has been delayed one day to Thursday (today). Here's my interest list:

For Sure (On my pull list):
Uncanny X-Men #478
52 # 18
Detective Comics #823
Nightwing #124
Outsiders #40

No Doubt (Strong interest):
Mystery in Space #1
Beowulf #1
Lone Ranger #1

Uhhh, Maybe (Mild interest):
All New Atom #3
Nitrogen #1
Snakewoman #2

8^B


Tags: Comics Comic Books

I Received My Guichuan Today!

I received the latest Pirates promotion in the mail today! The massive 10-master, Guichuan, is truly one big ship! All of the pictures of the Guichuan I've seen on the 'net were solo pics, with no pics to compare it against other ships, so I was surprised to notice that the ship arrived as a set of oversized cards! The image above shows the comparison with a regular Pirates card.

As for stats, this is one costly ship at 30 points! You'll be bringing this guy only for the huge naval actions. When you do bring her out, she's a competent gunner with average short rangers and above average long rangers. When it comes to abilities, the Guichuan is pretty powerful as a hauler, with the abilities of Ghost Ship, Junk, and Treasure Ship.

In addition to the ship, we also receive a crew card, The Headhunter, a special version of the crew originally found in the Pirates of the South China Seas set. This version of the vile crew member has a specific ability tied to the Guichuan, Headhunter's Domain.

In all, for 12 game packs of Davy Jones' Curse and some shipping and handling, you get a cool ship and crew. It's worth sending in those packs!

8^B


Tags: Gaming Pirates Pirates of the Spanish Main

New Comics for Wednesday

I received my New Comic release list from my LCS pretty early this week! Here's the books I'm looking forward to:

"I've got you now!" (on my pull list):
52 #17
Action Comics #842
All Star Superman #5
Justice #7
Teen Titans Go! #34
City of Heroes #15
Wizard Magazine #180

"Stay on target..." (Strong interest):
X-Men: Fairy Tales #4
Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #2
Athena Voltaire: Flight of the Falcon #1

"I've got a bad feeling about this..." (Mild interest):
Trials of Shazam #1
Battlestar Galactica #1

8^B


Tags: Comics Comic Books

New HeroScape Sightings

For a game that promotes its non-collectibility factor, HeroScape's figures and terrain sets are certainly very hard to find. Whether its Hasbro's spotty distribution, or simply the game's popularity, yiou're lucky if you can walk into a Walmart or a Target and find these sets on the shelves. I was lucky last week to find a boatload of new (and old) stuff!

At my nearby Target, I was able find all sorts of Wave 5 figure sets. Also on the shelves are the Thaelenk Tundra terrain sets and the Raknar's Vision: Heroes of Lindesfarme figure sets. I picked up the Tundra set (I'm a sucker for terrain sets), and will return later to pick up the figures (if they're still there).

At the nearest Walmart, they didn't have any of the new sets, but they did restock on Wave 1 figures galore! I was never able to get the Heroes of Bleakwoode figure set, and I was not going to pass up this opportunity, and got two of these. I also got two sets each of the Grut Orcs and the IX Roman Legion, a set of Snipers and Vipers, and a Heroes of Laur set. What was even cooler was The Road to the Forgotten Forest was clearanced at $15.00 a pop! I got all of this and placed them on layaway (except for the three RTFF), since my wife would kill me if she saw me walk into the house with all of this shit.

There were no castle set at either location (cry), but the Walmart had the ID sticker on the shelf, so it's coming. As much as I hate Wally World, I'll have to stake out the store for those castle sets...

8^B


Tags: Gaming HeroScape

All Quiet on the Pirates Front?

Yeah, its been several weeks since I last posted Pirates stuff on the blog. Am I no longer playing the game? Have I lost interest? On the contrary; I've actually been pretty busy when it comes to Pirates. So what have I been doing Pirates related?

Data entry: As you may know, I'm writing a quick and dirty database for my Pirates cards. At the moment, I am populating the database with card entries. I haven't completed the inventory portion yet, I'm just entering all of the info on ships, crew, and treasure based on the cards that I have (about three long card boxes worth).

Modular gaming board: My interest in creating modular gaming boards goes back before Pirates, back to when I used to collect and play Warhammer Fantasy. Once I got out of that hobby (it's just too damn expensive), the idea to create modular gaming boards dropped out of mind. It wasn't until I was recently browsing through some gaming terrain websites that the concept of creating a modular game board for Pirates came to mind. Why not? I asked myself. So, I've spent the last couple of weeks brainstorming, designing, and gathering materials for my new "project". I'll keep you informed with how well (or bad) things go.

8^B


Tags: Gaming Pirates Pirates of the Spanish Main PotSM

Comic Cover of the Week: 52 #16

Wow, two weeks in a row where 52 takes the Comic Cover of the Week! With this issue, the artists at DC utilize light and shadow in a very effective way. Also, the poster in background clues us in to who Renee Montoya and the Question are facing against. With the flowers in the foreground and the weapons ready to fire by the characters, a bit of irony is thrown in for good measure. Those guys at DC really know how to make great covers, and it just gets better every week! Kudos to them!

8^B


Tags: Comics Comic Books DC 52

New Comics for this Week

Another week of new comics is arriving tomorrow, and no annoucements of any major cross-over event books being delayed today! (jab, jab) I got my list of new arrivals for tomorrow, and here is my interest list:

Is the Sky Blue? (On my pull list):
Eternals #3
New Avengers #23
52 #16
Batman #565
Justice League of America #1

My Glass is Half Full (Optimistic interest):
Heroes for Hire #1
Birds of Prey #97
Wonder Woman #2
Sadhu #2

I'll Pay You Next Tuesday... (Mild interest):
Flash #3
Warlord #7

8^B


Tags: Comics Comic Books DC Marvel Virgin