Janine Spendlove, an old friend of mine, published her first novel back in June.

It’s called War of the Seasons: The Human. It’s the first part of a planned trilogy and fits neatly into the YA Fantasy category of books. The Human tells the story of a 17 year old girl named Story who is transported to a different world all by her lonesome and has to overcome great obstacles to save the world.

It’s difficult to find the entire world is hanging in the balance and you can’t even get your own life together.

The Human is a very fun read, very much in the vein of the Chronicles of Narnia or The Hunger Games. It has a very strong female lead, an incredibly well-developed world, a fiendish villain you just love to hate, and above all: a love story that doesn’t actually make you want to gag.

Though it’s a long book (90,000 words or so), I really couldn’t put it down and read it in a single sitting, a rarity for me these days. The world really draws you in and keeps you asking questions about it. And Spendlove has such a rich knowledge of the history of the world she created that it’s just dripping with details behind details you don’t even see. There are elves and faeries, dryads and selkies, trolls and gnomes, and anything else you can think of. And it’s all brought to life through Spendloves charming prose.

It’s destined to be a classic, so I’m telling you all now that you should get in on the ground floor so you can like it before it hits big. The second book doesn’t come out until next year and from what I’ve read of it, I can’t wait until it comes out.

You can order a signed copy from her website, or pick it up on eReaders. I would advise you to do it and see why it’s my Book Of the Week.

Plan of Dissent is the third part of the Umbaran arc and sees Jedi Master Pong Krell once again devising a plan that aims to get all of his troops killed. Instead of dying on the frontlines for nothing, a trio of clones (led by Fives) decide they’re going to take matters into their own hands and come up with a brilliant but risky alternate plan.

Of course they take the idea to Krell first, who dismisses it out of hand. Then they proceed to do it anyway and save the lives of countless clones.

As far as the story is concerned, the episode was essentially a set up for the ending which will lead into the next episode.

And I’ve been talking about Paths of Glory a lot since we started the Umbaran arc and never has it been more prevalent than with the cliffhanger at the end of this episode. Krell is out of control and clinging too much to orders and wants to see these men dead rather than be made a fool of. It’s very un-Jedi like, but that’s what they’re dealing with.

I can see why Dee Bradley Baker had problems with this arc. Watching Hardcase’s fate had me choked up, I can’t even imagine how it must have been to play that scene for Dee.

And while all of that is at the top of my mind, the thing I really want to talk about was the space battle. This might have been the finest Star Wars space battle we’ve seen since Revenge of the Sith. It was complex and intricate, bigger and better than anything we’d ever seen on the show before. The battle was truly breathtaking.

Credit where credit is due: the lighting schemes in this entire arc have been phenomenal, but this episode really pulled out all the stops. The interiors of the Umbaran ships were second to none, but perhaps the best shot I’ve seen this season (and perhaps the entire show) was the Return of the Jedi homage with the clones blasting their way out of the Umbaran supply ship. It was assembled, animated, and lit so well that I had a hard time believing I was just watching a cartoon.

And that wasn’t the only direct classic trilogy reference in this episode. The clones have to bluff Krell just like Han Solo on the Death Star in A New Hope by comlink, and there was some droid odds humour that I got a big kick out of.

I really don’t see how anyone could be complaining about these episodes.

I love these diversions with the Clones and I love seeing how they interact with different kinds of Jedi. And Pong Krell is certainly no ordinary Jedi.

Everything is boiling to a point in the next episode and if it’s a more direct homage to Paths of Glory than any of these others hinting at it, I’ll be happier than I can stomach.

Speed Racer has a pretty storied history in comics. The character first appeared in the Japanese manga Mach GoGoGo which was pretty faithfully adapted into the classic Speed Racer cartoon. Speed’s large popularity in the US spawned a re-imagining in the 80’s taking place in then contemporary times. Later, Tommy Yune and WildStorm had a pretty well-received pair of mini series in the 90’s. Most recently, IDW had a mini series starring Speed that in my opinion is best forgotten. Now, Allegory Media has taken the wheel of the Mach 5 with their interpretation of a legend. Read on to find out how it compares to past efforts!

First, I will admit I am a big fan of Speed Racer. When something is good, I’ll praise it to the nines. If it’s bad like the aforementioned IDW series or stuff like Speed Racer: The Next Generation, you won’t be able to get me to shut up about what missteps were taken. With that in mind, I am very happy to say that Speed Racer: Circle of Vengeance #1 falls firmly into the first camp. A big reason for that is the writing efforts of Tommy Yune. He already has a good track record with the character. In that older story though, he mostly re-told Speed’s beginnings. In Vengeance though, Speed is already an established racer. Speed’s character is a bit brash and cocky, but he’s also got that indomitable will that makes him a character you want to root for. Suffice to say, there is much love for the characters in this tale, and it shows in the strength of the writing. The legendary Len Wein on editing duties is also a huge coup in the credibility department.

It's not a Speed Racer tale without Spritle & Chim-Chim in the Mach 5's trunk!

The art on the other hand… It’s not bad. Far from it in fact. When I first cracked the book open, I was a bit taken aback by Robby Musso’s art. That was mainly because I was expecting Yune as writer/artist. That in no way means that Musso is not up to the task. In fact, as I read on, I came to think of Musso’s style as a tribute to the original Tatsuo Yoshida art, but with a flair all his own. Musso is an artist who’s work was unfamiliar to me before I read Speed, but the consistency of style and pleasantness and fluidity of his work means I’ll be following his career with much gusto. In fact, I’d go far enough to say that sans dialog, the art could easily be used to storyboard an actual episode of the show.

"Unknown to Speed, Racer X is secretly his brother Rex Racer!"

Speaking of which, the comic is actually a retelling of the classic Speed episode The Most Dangerous Race. In fact, the first couple of pages are almost verbatim from the show. It’s the differences that make the book appealing though. We’re introduced to the Car Acrobatic Team, as well as Snake Oiler and Captain Terror, but they’re ever so slightly different from what you may know. Snake is apparently a bishōnen, for instance. The story also delves into Pops’ past and how he met Mom Racer. Hopefully, as the story continues, we’ll get a name for her like we did for Pops in this issue (Pete). The story ends on the reveal of Captain Terror, looking much more horrific than 60’s TV would allow. Because of the story’s divergences from the source material, I really have no idea what’ll happen next, but I am certainly on board for more adventure!

How he DOESN'T have helmet hair is beyond me.

Speed Racer: Circle of Vengeance #1 is available at finer comic shops everywhere for $3.99 and is also available digitally via Graphicly for $1.99

Around Christmas time last year I saw the John Travolta version of the Taking Of Pelham 123. Let’s just say it wasn’t very good, but then I heard it was based on a Walter Matthau movie of the same name from 1974. So when I found it on Netflix Instant I decided to give it a try. I keep a running tally of every movie that I first watched in 2011 and so far this is my ninth favorite movie of the year. Why does this version work better then a remake?

The movie if you are unaware is about a group of thieves who hijack a subway car and hold the people hostage as they demand money for their safe return. This movie is perfect for 1974 as the technology makes hijacking a subway car something exciting and doable. The 2009 version is set in 2009 and with the advances of modern technology it just isn’t believable.

But there is more then just the believability. Walter Matthau plays the station manager and he speaks with the main hijacker who plays the role very cold, distant and cunning. In the 09 version Denzel Washington plays the part Matthau plays with some believability but Travolta plays the hijacker and he plays it a lot goofier, more crazy and zany a villain, not one you would believe could pull off a heist like this. It’s like in the 74 version they looked at real life criminals and Travolta took his source from Dick Dastardly.

The 74 version of this movie is fantastic, an absolute treat and one in which I was glued to my seat. If you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it as it’s just as good today as it was in 74. I rated it 5 out of 5 on Netflix.

One thing that Archie comics has never shied away from is tying into current pop culture. Recent happenings like the Obama/Plain meet-up and the ‘Twilite’ parody exemplify this, but never was Archie Comics finger on the pulse of pop culture like it was in the 60’s. You got “The Man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E.” & The gang forming “The Archies” as a Beatles stand-in among many others. The 60’s pop-parody that has always and will ever be my favorite though is what is now collectively known as Archie’s SuperTeens.

While Archie as Pureheart the Powerful always seems to get the most attention, I’m a Jughead guy myself. So where the be-beanied one makes the super-heroic scene as Captain Hero, I’m always going to be first in the comic shop to pick up a copy. I got my wish in this week’s Jughead Double Digest #175. Does it hold up to my scrutiny or does Captain Hero’s magic fizzle out? Read on my friends!

If you’re going to do a classic superhero parody, you may as well get a creative team who can play it to the hilt, and with Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz, that’s exactly what you get. These guys have worked together on Marvel comics for years and it shows (in a good way). The artwork is dynamic, the dialog is classic, and the bottom line is that the story is just plain fun to read. Above all else, when I read an Archie comic, I want to finish it feeling like I had a good time. “Captain Hero vs. The Rampaging Rebound” delivers on this promise admirably.

The story itself is one of those time honored tales where there are a bunch of disparate yet related threads that tie up nicely into a bow at the end. I don’t want to give away too much, but we’re introduced to the titular Rebound as well as a new heroine to help Captain Hero on his latest adventure. The Big “e” is a familiar face, but a welcome one, and her adventure is just as satisfying as Captain Hero’s own.

The story’s humor is a bit knowing, playing on familiar superhero tropes, but never in such a way that you feel like you need to be a guru of comic knowledge to “get”. The only thing I had a (very) slight issue with is the depiction of Captain Hero’s powers. He seems to be able to transform every part of his body as the situation requires. It’s a little inconsistent from previous “Hero” stories I’ve read, though I’ll admit I haven’t read them all. I just chalked it up to artistic license, and the fact that the SuperTeens have never been wildly consistent to begin with. I would have liked to see a re-use of the beanie dart gun, though.

So the main story is all well and good, but what about the rest of the book? A nice side-dish of Jughead reprints from all over the character’s publishing history like always. In fact, I would love it if the folks at Archie would include a little footnote indicating where the reprints first appeared so I could place them in time a bit better. At any rate, I must reiterate my belief that the Archie series digests are absolutely the most bang for your buck you can get in comics these days. To someone like me who has a limited budget, and I have a choice between 160 pages of Jughead antics and 20-odd pages of the latest Spider-Man? Well, I love ya Spidey, but Jug wins this round!

Jughead Double Digest #175 is available at any retailer worth it’s salt right now, what are you waiting for, go buy it!

I felt compelled to write a review of this episode of The Walking Dead because I felt like, so far this season, it’s been my favorite and the one that’s come closest to replicating the experience of the comic book. I’m not saying that I want them to just faithfully, mindlessly adapt the comic book, that’s not what I’m saying at all.

Over the years of reading the comic, things happen or are alluded to or are foreshadowed to happen and you just raise your fist in the air and shout, “No!”

That’s what this entire episode was like. Sure, I loved that they’re setting up a whole bunch of stuff from the comic, too, stuff that I love, but this is about an overall feeling of frustrated uneasiness that the comic provided in spades. That entire scene with the zombie in the well (and what happens to half of him) was so terrifyingly creepy and excellent I couldn’t even stand it.

I can’t even stand how much I love that they’re setting so much stuff up, finally, that it feels like for the first time this season things are moving forward in a way they can’t be turned back from. Lori is pregnant. Maggie and Glen are getting together. Is Hershel REALLY storing walkers in the barn?

Jeez, it was so good.

But I also love the X-factors in the episode, also. Will they find the girl? How much of a badass is Daryl? Is Hershel hiding even more than we expect?

I can’t even begin to explain how nerve-wracking this show is to watch if you’re not watching it.

And you really don’t have any excuse to not be watching it, especially since we’re presenting it for FREE with Brewvies and Salt Lake City Weekly every week on the big screen. Seeing this show with a hundred and fifty other drunken fans on the big screen is about the most fun you can have watching the show.

And really, who else choked when they saw Merle in the preview for next week? I think that confirms pretty conclusively that he isn’t The Governor.

Which means that if and when we get the real Governor, he’s going to be a clean slate.

Jedi Master Pong Krell will go down in the history books as one of the least compassionate Jedi generals in the history of the Jedi Order. He’s hard headed and not a very good strategist.

His strategy is very much like General Mireau’s in Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant war film, Paths of Glory. Like Mireau (played with delicious hatred by George Macready), Krell knows exactly what he wants and he doesn’t care how many men die in the reality of the battlefield to obtain it. I was convinced that the third segment of this episode would begin with him ordering the clones through the frontlines regardless of the situation and that he would order the clones defending the mouth of the gorge to fire to the rear of Rex’s men to prevent further retreat.

Krell is that much of a sonofabitch.

And I really like it.

I think this episode was vastly superior to last weeks, even though we couldn’t have it without the setup provided. And I think Krell himself wouldn’t have succeeded without an equal amount of setup. Krell is commanded by Obi-wan Kenobi to take an air base supplying the capital city as quickly as possible. There are a few possible routes, but he sends Rex and his men right up the middle in a full frontal assault. He might as well have ordered them into a sausage grinder for all the good they were doing against the Umbarran millipede tanks. But the only thing that allowed his plan to work was the fact that Rex and his team had trained under Anakin Skywalker, who had taught them to think much more creatively than if they’d been assigned to Krell from the get go.

It’s very telling that Krell is assigned to this assignment at all. Where’s his army?

Oh, right. He ordered them to their deaths.

This was a very challenging episode for the clones. They’re more than happy to march into battle with a sensible plan, even it means their death. But give them a plan with no sense to it and no chance of survival? See how quickly they rebel.

It’s the challenges of the clones dealing with the fact that they have to acknowledge they were bred to die in the name of the Republic, but don’t want to do it for no reason, that makes this episode so damned compelling.

But even if this episode wasn’t so compelling, it was damn pretty to look at. Every frame of animation that takes place on Umbara is dripping with paint and brushstrokes, every moment able to be framed in a museum. The lighting schemes, the trees, the constant mist, the use of motion, it was all incredible.

I was particularly impressed with the camera moves in the first third of the episode, floating through the battle making you feel like you’re there. In fact, I found myself cringing every time we saw a clone brutally killed at the hands of the Umbarrans… And come to think of it, I did the same thing when the clones shot a wounded Umbarran, too. More than any other episode of the show (and certainly any of the movies) this might have been the most brutal installment of visual storytelling ever committed to film, save Order 66 and the death of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru.

Dee Bradley Baker needs to be congratulated. He voiced no less than a dozen different clones in this episode and each one was unique. He’s really shining in the role and I can’t wait to see how things boil over in this arc.

But there was still fun to be had. In the last third one of the clones lets out a classic line from A New Hope (“I prefer a good fight to all this sneakin’ around”) before stealing enemy ships they have no idea how to pilot. It added a much needed bit of levity to the episode.

Overall, I think this episode is structurally superior to last weeks. We were told the objectives, what was at stake, where and why, very clearly right at the beginning. The clones took action after action to make it happen, escalating the tension and the action as each thing they tried failed to work.

This episode was turned up to 11 across the board and I’m glad we’ve got two more episodes left on Umbara. Especially since I really feel like Rex and his men are on a collision course with Krell. And they’ve foreshadowed a confrontation beautifully, with the fire in Krell’s eyes and Rex clenching his fist…

I like where things are heading and I hope Walter Murch comes back to direct more episodes of the show.

Some of you may have missed this little gem when it came out in mid-July. It’s newly out on Blu-ray and it has lost none of its charm.

I reviewed it back when it came out, and here’s the gist of what the film is about and what I liked from that review:

The story is very, very straight forward. Eeyore (played here quite capably by Bud Luckey, from “Boundin’” fame) has lost his tail and there’s a contest to find him a new one. The prize? A pot of honey that Pooh just needs because he can’t even remember the last time he’s eaten. Owl (played hilariously by Craig Ferguson) steals every scene he’s in, at one point attaching a chalkboard to Eeyore’s backside as a replacement for his tail and then illustrating an entire story on it, still attached to Eeyore. The animation delves into the chalk and
provides a great sequence in the old mold of “Heffalumps and Woozels” or “Pink Elephants on Parade.” It worked stupendously.

More than anything, this film is fun and funny for people of all ages. I saw it with my 8 and 9 year old and we three were all laughing hysterically throughout. They came up with a perfect mix of humour and charm that appealed to everyone in rapid fire succession.

Again, the animation was gorgeous, the film was funny and beautifully rendered, the voices were top notch, and it was just a great, easy way to spend an hour and a half in the theatre.

And the film has only grown in its fun. There’s something to be said about seeing this film on home video instead of the theatre, going a long way to recreate much more of the nostalgia I had with Winnie the Pooh in my youth. The weekend the Blu-ray came in, I curled up on the couch on a Saturday morning, huddled under a blanket with my kids, and we watched it all over again. We laughed even harder and being at home somehow made it even more charming.

On Blu-ray, it looks better than Winnie the Pooh ever has before and makes me want to revisit the classic feature as well.

If you have kids, you owe it to yourself to pick this movie up. If you don’t, and you’re just a fan of Winnie the Pooh who was wary about this new version, I assure you, there is nothing to worry about.

TTFN…

It’s fascinating to see how the far pendulum swung from last week. In The Darkness on Umbara, the title might not be referring to the light and weather conditions on Umbara. Anakin, Captain Rex, and their men are stationed on Umbara, a dark and lonely planet that has fallen to the Separatists. Tasked with taking the capital back, they’re clearly outmatched, but Anakin comes up with a plan that is sound and most likely going to work.

But Anakin is called back to Coruscant by special request of the Supreme Chancellor and Captain Rex is left with a commander in the interim, a Besalisk named Krell. Krell is the same species as Dexter Jettster from the film Attack of the Clones and is pretty much the exact opposite of Dex. Dex is overweight, cuddly, and lovable, Krell is athletic, mean, and unapproachable.

For clones in Anakin’s command trained to embrace their individualism, they bristle under Krell’s no nonsense, short-sighted approach. He clearly has no regard for the clones or their individuality, even refusing to call Rex by his name, instead referring to him only by his number. I also found it very telling that when Anakin departed, neither he nor Krell wished the Force be with the other.

I’ll be honest, the first third of this episode was very, very pretty, but I found it unsatisfying. It was strictly by the numbers, story-wise. The scenery was beautiful though, there were shots of the clouds of Umbara at night as the Republic gunships swoop into battle that were so exquisite and painterly that I couldn’t contain myself. But, like George Lucas says, “A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing.” I really feel like we got launched into A Bridge Too Far without a segment of setup to tell us how important taking the capital of Umbara is to the war effort. It seems to go off about as well as Operation: Market Garden, but I don’t have any of the context.

But none of that matters because we’re given Krell. The specifics of the battle don’t matter so much because we’re treated to incompetence by higher ups on the highest order seen this side of Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory. Krell is willing to sacrifice all of his troops in order to do things exactly as he commands.

One wonders how close to the edge of the dark side of the force Krell performs his balancing act. He seems to truly hate the clones, which is not a quality that should be prevalent in any Jedi. Even the one that falls the furthest to the Dark Side, Anakin, still treats his clones with the utmost respect. Krell literally reprimands them with a raised voice after they retreated from an active minefield and a three hundred and sixty degree Umbaran assault.

I’m impressed with the animation and the lighting in these episodes. The environment isn’t something that we’ve ever seen in the Star Wars universe, the cartoon, movies or otherwise, but it feels so comfortably at home in the universe.

I can see where this arc could be heading that would lead Dee Bradley Baker to be uneasy with his performance. I have a sneaking suspicion that the clones might ultimately be responsible for Krell’s fate, but will it be for the benefit of the war?

Overall, this episode turns into a great war film, echoing movies like A Bridge Too Far and Paths of Glory. And if you haven’t seen either of those movies, you really, really need to. Next week’s episode, The General (directed by Walter Murch) seems to play up the war movie elements even further, with Krell and his men being tasked with taking out an air base.

I just want to point you guys to the trailer of “>A Bridge Too Far, also. It’s fantastic and you should all watch it.

It’s that time of year to renew your EA Sports subscriptions. It has been slowly increasing over the years, $30, $50, and now $60. Is FIFA12 worth the scrapes on your knees that you’ve gotten working to afford this game?

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