Stuff n' Things
Apr. 30th, 2004 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinanjuInvader Zim arrives! ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
snippy and I reserved two copies of the new Invader Zim DVD last week (one for Twoson, one for us). I just got a call from the video store that the release was moved up and the DVDs are in! So we'll have to go get them very soon.
Looks like we'll be buying a new car tonight.
There's a gaming club in Vancouver, snippy discovered via the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
damnportlanders community. "The Lucid Dream Machine" is located in downtown Vancouver, and open til 2 a.m. (or so) every night, possibly later on weekends or when busy. From the description, it's mostly aimed at computer and console gaming--they have like eight X Boxes and several Playstations and whatnot on premises, networked and connected to the net. But they also have boardgames and even the occasional D&D game, apparently. I wouldn't mind finding a place to play games occasionally--and not just in front of my computer. There's a game club here in Portland, too, devoted mainly to tabletop figure gaming--but the space is in an attic of a warehouse building. Hot in the summer, cold in the winter, cramped and often crowded (or empty); if I didn't know better, I'd think the landlord doesn't really want them there, but isn't quite ready to throw them out. Anyhow, TLDM charges either hourly rates ($3/hour for console games, $2/hour if you have your own controller; $1/hour for boardgaming), or if you like the place apparently you can pay a monthly fee. I may have to check it out.
I just bought the hardback edition of Ultimate Spider-Man #2* and Ultimate X-Men #1 collections. First there were the regular comics; then they get compiled into comic-sized paperbacks; then there are the hardbacks. Several comics make a paperback, and two paperbacks make a hardback. The hardbacks cost about $2 more than the two paperbacks would if you bought them separately, and for that you get all the same stories, plus a little bonus material and it's a bigger volume and hardback. No contest. I used to buy comics buy the bagful back in the day, but eventually rising costs and dwindling interest drove me out of that market.
For years I'd occasionally pick up a comic and look at it, but mostly I either didn't care or couldn't follow them anymore. Changing styles of art (and lots more airbrushing) meant more confusing--to me, anyhow--page layouts rather than the easy-to-follow panels that I was used to. Plus the multiplication of characters, different versions of characters, multiple titles for each hero and the accumulated backstory had become overwhelming. I'd been gone too long to have a scorecard in my head, so I was lost.
But the relaunch of several titles in the Ultimate line, retelling the stories for contemporary origins (Spider-Man is again a newbie hero, a teenager who gained his powers just recently in the 2000s, not the 1960s) was just what I needed to rekindle my interest. I could start reading them anew. Characters and plots can be recycled--but I am not expected to know who they are now; they're introduced afresh. Good writing helps, of course. Spider-Man is damn funny, of hysterical, as are the reactions to him from other characters--Daredevil's impatient tight-lipped annoyance with this teenage nuisance, for instance.
I'm still not buying the actual comics--too much money for too little product, in my opinion. But the collected books are well worth it to me. I'm having fun again.
*I've got Ultimate Spider-Man #1 from the library, so I'll actually buy it later on.
snippy and I reserved two copies of the new Invader Zim DVD last week (one for Twoson, one for us). I just got a call from the video store that the release was moved up and the DVDs are in! So we'll have to go get them very soon.Looks like we'll be buying a new car tonight.
There's a gaming club in Vancouver, snippy discovered via the
damnportlanders community. "The Lucid Dream Machine" is located in downtown Vancouver, and open til 2 a.m. (or so) every night, possibly later on weekends or when busy. From the description, it's mostly aimed at computer and console gaming--they have like eight X Boxes and several Playstations and whatnot on premises, networked and connected to the net. But they also have boardgames and even the occasional D&D game, apparently. I wouldn't mind finding a place to play games occasionally--and not just in front of my computer. There's a game club here in Portland, too, devoted mainly to tabletop figure gaming--but the space is in an attic of a warehouse building. Hot in the summer, cold in the winter, cramped and often crowded (or empty); if I didn't know better, I'd think the landlord doesn't really want them there, but isn't quite ready to throw them out. Anyhow, TLDM charges either hourly rates ($3/hour for console games, $2/hour if you have your own controller; $1/hour for boardgaming), or if you like the place apparently you can pay a monthly fee. I may have to check it out.I just bought the hardback edition of Ultimate Spider-Man #2* and Ultimate X-Men #1 collections. First there were the regular comics; then they get compiled into comic-sized paperbacks; then there are the hardbacks. Several comics make a paperback, and two paperbacks make a hardback. The hardbacks cost about $2 more than the two paperbacks would if you bought them separately, and for that you get all the same stories, plus a little bonus material and it's a bigger volume and hardback. No contest. I used to buy comics buy the bagful back in the day, but eventually rising costs and dwindling interest drove me out of that market.
For years I'd occasionally pick up a comic and look at it, but mostly I either didn't care or couldn't follow them anymore. Changing styles of art (and lots more airbrushing) meant more confusing--to me, anyhow--page layouts rather than the easy-to-follow panels that I was used to. Plus the multiplication of characters, different versions of characters, multiple titles for each hero and the accumulated backstory had become overwhelming. I'd been gone too long to have a scorecard in my head, so I was lost.
But the relaunch of several titles in the Ultimate line, retelling the stories for contemporary origins (Spider-Man is again a newbie hero, a teenager who gained his powers just recently in the 2000s, not the 1960s) was just what I needed to rekindle my interest. I could start reading them anew. Characters and plots can be recycled--but I am not expected to know who they are now; they're introduced afresh. Good writing helps, of course. Spider-Man is damn funny, of hysterical, as are the reactions to him from other characters--Daredevil's impatient tight-lipped annoyance with this teenage nuisance, for instance.
I'm still not buying the actual comics--too much money for too little product, in my opinion. But the collected books are well worth it to me. I'm having fun again.
*I've got Ultimate Spider-Man #1 from the library, so I'll actually buy it later on.
