Greetings!

Oh, Mondays. We have to go back to work, again, sigh. On the bright side though, it’s list time again, yay! As I was walking around in the local Best Buy this weekend, I happened upon the Mark Stephen Johnson comic book film collection. That’s right, someone at Fox has collected the movies GHOST RIDER and DAREDEVIL, and expects people to pay for this crap-tacular collection! While I would like to poop in a bag and try to sell it to Fox studios (it’s pretty much what they did), I must try to focus my into into more constructive channels. So, today I will list 10 comics that I think would make a great movie, in hopes one these get made instead of SUCK RIDER 2. I am so excited about this list, I’m even going to tell you who I think would be my choice to direct and star in my would-be films (I am going to assume that in my would-be movies that the comic book writer would write their own movie). This is going to be a bit long so you only get the first five today, and the second five I will give you on Wednesday.

1) THE WALKING DEAD: Everyone loves a good zombie movie. The hallmark of a great zombie flick is a good survivor story (see 28 DAYS LATER), which is what THE WALKING DEAD is all about, following a group of survivors as they cope with the zombie filled world around them. Imagine Christoper Nolan (THE DARK KNIGHT, MEMENTO) directing with Thomas Jane and Mary Louise Parker headlining the cast as Rick and Lori.

2) HARD BOILED: Frank Miller written comics usually turn into pretty good movies, just look at 300 and SIN CITY. HARD BOILED is about Carl Seltz, an insurance investigator, discovers he is also a homicidal cyborg tax collector who happens to be the last hope of an enslaved robot race. Doesn’t that sound like fun? Tony Scott (MAN ON FIRE, TOP GUN, SPY GAME) would direct the hell out of this. Clive Owen is a little bit pretty, but he could get the character of Carl down pat.

3) STRANGERS IN PARADISE: Before I tell you anything else about the story, let me say this: there is a character in this story who is described as “a blond, busty, bisexual aerobics instructor”. Not sold yet? How about a love parallelogram between an ex-prostitute (Katchoo), the former leader of a street gang (Yousaka), the aforementioned aerobics instructor (Casey), and a Methodist (Francine)? Darren Aronofski (THE FOUNTAIN, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM) is as good as anyone at portraying the broken hearted, so he gets to direct. As for a cast, I’m going with Michelle Williams as Katchoo, James Kyson Lee as Yousaka, Sienna Miller as Casey and Leelee Sobieski (with a dye job) as Francine.

4) WE3: The pitch for this one is easy. ROBO-COP meets HOMEWARD BOUND. Fun for the whole family. I would have Alex Proyas (DARK CITY, THE CROW) direct, and cast any furry animals I wanted.

5) NEXTWAVE: Imagine if the Avengers sucked, and fought with one another a lot. It would be funny right? Such a comic is NEXTWAVE. I think this comic would actually be very well served as an animated feature (Ala THE INCREDIBLES). However, if this was going to be a live action movie, I would have Joss Whedon (SERENITY) direct, as he does an excellent job of balancing humor and action. For my cast I would have Rutina Wesley as Photon, Evan Rachel Wood as Boom Boom, Adam Baldwin as The Captain, Timothy Olyphant as The Machine Man, and Diane Kruger as Bloodstone.

That’s the first five! Come back on Wednesday for the second half of the list. Thanks for stopping in, see you next time.

Good Morning all!

“Come into my time machine, Clarice!”

Today, for our weekly look back into the past let us jump in the DeLorian and set the coordinates to 1992. Yes, that 1992, the year where France got to host the Olympics, Johnny Carson left the Tonight Show, Silence of the Lambs won best picture, and the Rodney King verdict caused riots in the streets of L.A. What a terrifying year! Why would we want to use time travel powers to go here? Well, this is also the year that Image comics came into existence. While some would consider the creation of Image to fit right in with the rest of 1992 in terms of scary, (Rob Liefeld, anyone?), no one can deny the impact that Image comics had on the comic book industry.

Behold die-cut glory!

Image comics came into being because Marvel comics was a stingy beotch. In the early 1990’s, comics were selling like never before. X-men #1 sold over 8 million copies, Spider-man #1 sold 3 million copies. Almost every comic that came out had 12 different, chrome embossed, holographic, super collectible covers. Even comics no one cared about sold well! You could put a holographic cover on a phone book and it would sell a million copies. As an example, BLOODSHOT from Valiant comics sold 1 million copies. Who is Bloodshot? Exactly.

“I’m ultra-cool, cutting edge, AND I sparkle!”

With the massive success of comics came massive profits. This meant that everyone wanted a bigger piece of the pie, including the creators of the books that were breaking all-time sales records. The company making the most money in this comic boom was Marvel. So, some off the biggest Marvel artists, guys like Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane went to their bosses and asked for ownership over the characters they were creating, higher royalty rates and more creative control. Marvel said no, and so seven of the biggest names in comics, went off to form Image. Now, I see the Marvel point of view, these guys are employees, and you are paying them an already agreed upon rate. If they were making books that didn’t sell, they wouldn’t have come in and gave money back. However, if you have a winning thoroughbred that wants more hay, you give the damn horse more hay. So, Image was born and the fun began.

“I don’t look at all like Spider-man!”

When Image comics formed, they changed a myriad of things that had long been a standard in mainstream comics. One of the most important things, in my opinion, was (and still is) that Image was based solely on creator-owned work. Image comics doesn’t own anything, they just publish it. Like we do here at Semantink. They were not the first to do this, but they were the first to make it work on the same level as Marvel and DC. So, each creator can do what they want with their character. Each creator can keep the marketing, toy and movie rights to what they create. No one has do bow to company mandates for a character, or see their brain-child used improperly, or see thousands of kids wearing a t-shirt with their design on it, and not a penny to show for it. Image struck a huge blow for independent creators everywhere, but the company also showed the potential pitfalls of creator owned work.

“Feet are for girls!”

The studio system that Image set up held no one accountable. Titles like Marc Silvestri’s CYBERFORCE suffered from long delays. Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood had no story. And then there was the fact that almost every Image title that came out bore a striking resemblance, both in look and tone, to the Marvel books the creators were working on before they left. These are things that an editor would put a stop to at one of the big two, but in the Image system these problems just lingered. While these kinds of problems would hurt Image down the line, it showed independent creators what NOT to do. In addition, without Image’s studio system, there would be far less diversity in the comic book market today.

Ripclaw has a serious problem when he gets an itch.

Image also revolutionized the way that comic books were printed in terms of paper quality and coloring. Remember how old comics would feel like they were printed on newspaper? Image started using a glossier stock of paper, like what we have today. Image also popularized digital color separations. If you look back at older comics, they would oft times not have synchronized color separation, as it was done by hand. Image was instrumental in creating the better (and more expensive) class of comic book that we have today.

All comics looked like this before Image. Just kidding.

No matter how you feel about what Image produces, you can not deny the impact that they have had on comics. From price, to quality, to creator rights, Image helped to shape what comic books are today.

Hello Semantink supporters! This week I am going to be geeking out on some computer software that is used to create very detailed artwork found in Games and Movies. I’m sure at this point it is also being used for print ads and other advertising. The software we are talking about is from two competing companies that are ultimately doing similar work, Mudbox and Zbrush.

These are the apps most movie and video game studios use to create their 3d content that needs lots of detail.  Zbrush was used in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean to detail out the cool Pirates. You know the one with the octopus face and all the other varients.  Mudbox was created by some guys at Weta Workshop because they wanted to do things Zbrush couldn’t do at the time. One of the first movies where Mudbox’s capabilities were shown off  was King Kong. These applications are so cool because they really open up the world of 3d to the artist. For those of you that have never touched the world of 3d imagine having a digital block of clay in which to sculpt. This is the best way for me to describe what and how these programs work. Much like how a traditional sculpter would start from a solid block of clay so to does an artist of Mudbox or Zbrush start off with very basic shapes. The artist would then take these basic shapes and turn them into some really cool stuff. The only limit is your own imagination. I personally really enjoy messing around in both of these applications. They are pretty easy to pick up and they allow you to produce some cool stuff. Anyone that likes to create art should check out these programs. Of course I could not leave without posting some cool pics of what some really good artists have created. Enjoy the pics and I’ll meet you all here next week. If you want to see more creations follow the links. Mudbox or Zbrush

Good Morning!

As we close in on the weekend, I thought I would again share with you some comic-related stuff that I have enjoyed of late. Comic-related, you might ask with an arched eyebrow? Yes, comic-related, because I’m about to pimp a video game as well. So there. Okay, so assuming all eyebrows are back to an acceptable level, lets get started:

BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM: A few weeks ago, I blogged about how afraid I was that I would be let down by this game. Happily I was mistaken, this game is just amazing. The game art is very well done and the character designs are very creative (especially scarecrow). The game play is smooth and the story itself is fun. I really just want to go and play some more. If you are thinking of getting a game this weekend, get this one.

IMPALER: If you like an interesting take on vampires, well, first of all you should read MYTHOI. You should also read IMPALER. The 4th issue just came out this week, and this story is a lot of fun, spanning the 1400s to modern day New York. The art is in the style of a younger Jae Lee, and tells the story well.

FILTHY RICH: The beginning of the Vertigo crime line is here! I picked this up last week, just to see what it was all about, as Azzerello + crime= awesome, and it was pretty good. The whole point of the line seems to be making OGNS that are more bookstore accessible, and this certainly does that. The story is nothing that you haven’t read before, but that’s probably a good starting point to work. Victor Santos gives a dark but understandable set of visuals to the project. A solid beginning for Vertigo’s crime line.

That’s all for this week guys, now I’ve got to get back to Batman, my X-box is lonely. Have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping in!

I’ll admit it out the gate, I’ve always been curious about the gothic subculture.  I’ve never been interested-curious, but always why-in-the-hell-do-people-do-that-curious.  A few years back I even dated a “gothic” girl and truth be told, she was a very sweet girl, but couldn’t seem to satisfactorily explain to me why she wore what she wore (she doesn’t dress the scene any more).  So today I still wonder, what it goth and why does it look so stupid?

Mr. Sinister is goth?

So to attack this issue head on I went to the greatest source of truth in existence today: Wikipedia.  “The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in the United Kingdom during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify. Its imagery and cultural proclivities indicate influences from nineteenth century Gothic literature along with horror movies and to a lesser extent the BDSM culture. The goth subculture has associated tastes in music, aesthetics, and fashion, whether or not all individuals who share those tastes are in fact members of the goth subculture. Gothic music encompasses a number of different styles. Common to all is a tendency towards a lugubrious, mystical sound and outlook. Styles of dress within the subculture range from deathrock, punk, androgynous, Victorian, some Renaissance and Medieval style attire, or combinations of the above, most often with black attire, makeup and hair.”

Okay, to recap: Goth is everywhere.  Goth came from London.  Goth’s daddy was Punk.  Goth is diverse.  Goth is influenced by gothic literature, horror movies and bondage/discipline.  Goth = black.  Okay.  Got it.  Unfortunately though, this still doesn’t explain the boys I see walking around San Diego with black pants on (that they’ve obviously stolen from a 10 year-old girl), black make-up, various layers of black blouse and a menagerie of bracelets, necklaces and rings that all have symbols you would find in the Necronomicon.  So, I gues my question now is, why would you chose to look so miserably transgendered?

The elusive “Catfish-Forehead” goth — a very rare find…

For the answer to this, I turn to goth.net.  Now this site is ripe with tenn-wisdom, so I recommend anybody go there for a good chuckle, but I refuse to post the excessive blabber in all it’s entirety.  This is the closest thing I got from the page that directly answers me, “There is no specific thing that defines what you need to do or be to fit into the goth scene (except of course the implied black clothing).”  Okay, so according to goth.net, if you wear black you’re goth.  But we all know it’s more than that, don’t we?

I know that a hundred goths asked, “what is goth,” would probably give me a hundred different answers.  Maybe they are confused and need help.  So, let me describe goth as I see it, but please correct me if I am wrong.  When I think goth (in a positive light) I recall of the use of macabre, or socially morbid tools utilized in a way to bring about the rejection of presumed ideas, thoughts or feelings that may or may not be exposed as mere assumption.  A great example of this is the earlier works of Tim Burton, who directed and produced many films that took icons of terror and made them mainstream (can’t wait for Alice in Wonderland); simultaneoulsy challenging society and reorganizing our perceptions of “proper.”  Hell, I’ll even give you Marilyn Manson who seemed to be the Mtv outcast at first, but rose above controversy when challenged as a cause of the Columbine shootings and replying only by asking parents to talk to their kids.  Are his musical proclivities, way of dress and general dialogue on the edge of socially accepted standards?  Hell yes (well, they were…)!  Though through his own extremes, Mr. Manson got a nation to pay attention to their children and to stop gorging themselves on the idea that their children’s problems were not their own.  Kudos to you, sir.

Chewing your tongue is sooo 90s goth…

You see, the term gothic comes from a Roman description of Germanic vandals who ransacked Rome a very long time ago.  The word was renewed in the 19th century to describe literature that filled it’s readers with terror and suspense.  And then, in the 80s, we equate this style with the insurgent punk-rockers who seemed to rise from the gutters and ransack “civilized” society with questions like, “why,” and “how?”  And that brings me to you, the modern gothic.  And I have to suggest that you stop using the word immediately, because you’ve killed it.

Gothic literature. Try some.

You are not challenging anything other than your own mind.  Sure, you may impress your friends every once and a while by learning a big word, or quoting some dead white guy who lived in the 1800s, but be honest…  You’re not “goth” because you’re using morays to challenge the status quo — you’re “goth” because you shop at Hot Topic.  You think you’re being bold by wearing a black corset to the mall (and I’m talking to the boys here), but really, you’re just rebelling against your parents because daddy doesn’t hug you enough, or mommy made you take out the trash.  You are NOT goth.  You are a boy in girls clothing and makeup.  You are noth challenging anything.  You are creating scenarios of segregation in your own mind because, in truth, after all the bitching you do about being an outcast — you love the attention.

Or at least, that’s my opinion.

Well, one nice thing about you little gothic-crazies (suicide girls?), is that you sure are fun to look at.  Here are a few more of my favorites.

Dude, high school is hard enough…

goth zombies.

Goth girls = boobs + confetti hair?

Sometimes you gotta take a b*tch for a walk.

This one is my favorite. All goths should look like this.

And finally, as homage to Tim Burton and Marilyn Manson, a video for your pleasure:

Check out Mythoi — it’s coming out soon…  And don’t forget to comment below, I love your thoughts!

Peace out y’all.

Mr. Wolff

Greetings all!

Normally I am a fairly positive person here on the Semantink blog. I talk about my top ten things, or how great this and that are. This makes sense because i am fairly positive person. However, I would like to talk about something today that irks me. What is it that has caused me irkism you might ask? Well, allow me to tell you. Marvel comics released DAREDEVIL #500 this week. Now, this fact unto itself doesn’t bother me. I like DAREDEVIL, and think its a fine and mighty book. What gets me is the issue #500 part.

Why does the issue number bother me? Because it is erroneous. You see, Marvel (I single out Marvel because I don’t think anyone else does this) will, for various reasons, cancel and then relaunch a title. This relaunched title will begin with an all new, all exciting, first issue of a new volume. However, Marvel then reverts to original issue numbering when a title hits a would-be milestone. Case in point, DAREDEVIL. Bear witness to the Marvel lies:

DD #119

DD #500?

Now, I understand that this is money based. As a business, it’s surely better to have these “milestone” issues, as they are a better seller. What gets me is that there is no mention of what issue number this should be. There is no nod to those completists who might have all 120 issues of Marvel Knights DAREDEVIL. It also ignores the fact that there was a reason that DD got restarted in the first place (before the restart, DAREDEVIL was pretty lame).

Now, Marvel does this with a fair amount of regularity. Check out THE FANTASTIC FOUR:

FF #70

FF 71 or 500?

I understand that this is a nit-picky argument, and that I should just enjoy my comics despite issue number, but this policy just bugs me. It bugged me on Spider-man and Captain America, and it bugs me now. Boo to you Marvel. That being said, DD #600 (or whatever number) was pretty bitchin’.

Okay, I am done ranting, thanks all for stopping in, and enjoy the hump day rant tomorrow!

Good Monday everyone,

It is time for another list, but today we are going under the radar a little. I often talk about how much I enjoy independent comic books, but I spend a lot of blogs writing about big comic companies. So, today I am giving a list of 10 small press/independent comic book publishers that I enjoy. We are talking small here, not Oni press, not Fantagraphics, not SLG. Many smaller publishers are only sold at the local LCS, so you might never have heard of any of these guys, This isn’t a top 10, per se, but 10 smaller guys that I really like. So away we go:

1) Red 5 comics: These guys have a small but diverse group of titles, each of which is very strong, both in story and in art. Their ATOMIC ROBO series was the darling of free comic book day this year, and they are definitely a company on the rise.

2) Law Dog Comics: Law Dog doesn’t put out a ton of titles, but what they do put out is great. These guys do only OGNs (original graphic novels), and each one they put out is highly enjoyable. TERRITORY 51 was a lot of fun, pitting cowboys against aliens, and TOLLS FOR THEE looks very slick.

3) Ancient Squid Media: Three words. Zombies Vs. Schoolgirls.

4) Bad Karma Productions: A newer publisher, these guys have a great energy and great sense of humor. The big title for BK this year is JESUS CHRIST: UNDER THE GUN, where in Jesus goes throughout history righting wrongs.

5) Lobrau Productions: These guys do not put out much work, but have a great attitude. Their company slogan is “Home of  the world’s most mediocre entertainment”.

6) Crispy Comics: Crispy has one of the most innovative marketing/ distribution plans that I have seen, as they release their property, SUPER KAIJU HERO FORCE, as an iphone app. Very creative and very fun.

7) Mad Yak Press: Diversity is the name of the game here, with a large amount of both single issue comics and OGNs across a wide variety of genres. This company has high production values and some very superb stories.

803 Studios: Originally started as a company to sell anthology books, 803 has moved into more comics, THE SCIENCE OF SIX is a great read. The art on TRENCH COATS, CIGARETTES & SHOTGUNS is just beautiful.

9) Archaia Studios Press: One of the bigger guys on the list, Archaia is home to MOUSE GUARD (which has its own RPG) and a wide variety of other titles.

10) Top Shelf Comix: A company quickly moving up in the world. Alan Moore (yes, that Alan Moore) published his latest LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN through Top Shelf, and one of the company’s original properties, THE SURROGATES, is now going to be a major motion picture starring Bruce Willis!

So that’s my list list. Please let me know if I left your favorite small press publisher out.

Thanks for stopping in everyone, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Today I want to look back at the magic year that was 1985. The cold war was in full effect. Gorbachev had a huge, ugly looking birthmark. Back to the future took us all back to the future. And Nintendo taught a whole generation that pipes were a viable method of transportation.

But 1985 brought us more than just ghetto blasters and The Breakfast Club, this year brought us the beginning of the comic book mega crossover. Depending on your view of the inter-company event, this was either a spectacular moment in comic-dom, or the beginning of a crap-tacular cycle of shame that continues to this day. No matter what your feelings on the matter, it was a big deal. This was the year that Marvel comics put out SECRET WARS and DC launched CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.

SECRET WARS: Believe it or not, this event came about because Marvel comics wanted to make some money in the action figure market. According to Jim Shooter (Marvel’s editor-in-chief at the time):

“Kenner had licensed the DC Heroes. Mattel had He-Man, but wanted to hedge in case superheroes became the next big fad. They were interested in Marvel’s characters, but only if we staged a publishing event that would get a lot of attention, and they could build a theme around. Fans, especially young fans often suggested to me ‘one big story with all the heroes and all the villains in it’, so I proposed that. It flew. Mattel thought that kids responded well to the word, “secret” so after a couple of working names bit the dust, we called the story ‘Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars.”

The event was a mash up of every big character, hero and villain, possible, with a thin plot tying it all together. By involving all of their big guns, Marvel made a story that every kid wanted to read. SECRET WARS had lasting ramifications for Marvel, changing the Fantastic four’s line-up (the thing left),introducing new characters like a new spider-woman and Venom (sort of), and most importantly, showing Marvel that great big event books make great big event money. My only qualm with SECRET WARS is that it doesn’t hold up well at all, and when I look upon it, I feel silly for having enjoyed it as a child. Oh, and Venom was basically created because Spider-man had a stupid moment looking for a new pair of pants.

“I used to be alien pants!”

CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS: DC had a very different reason for their crossover. DC already had a licensing deal, but what they lacked was a universe that made sense. For years and years, DC had neglected to clean up their continuity problems, and like a bush that never gets trimmed, their universe was large, unruly, and smelled funny. DC had started to create alternate earths to explain continuity errors in the 1960’s but by ’85 the alternate universes were even more problematic than the problems that they were created to solve. So DC created CRISIS as a way to streamline a universe that was as big and ugly as an elephant. CRISIS was far more mature than SECRET WARS, and involved just about every DC character that had ever been created. The event made the DC universe cleaner and far more accessible to new readers. The only problem I had with this book was that there were dozens of characters I had never seen, and had no connection to.

THE AFTERMATH: The success of both SECRET WARS and CRISIS created a trend that continues to this day. Marvel now has a large event/ crossover story almost once a year, and DC does the same. Without SECRET WARS, we never would have gotten CIVIL WAR or SECRET INVASION (of course we also would never have gotten ATLANTIS ATTACKS either). Without CRISIS we still would be without INFINITE CRISIS, IDENTITY CRISIS, or FINAL CRISIS (but we never would have had to deal with ZERO HOUR). Both companies have refined the crossover process, with DC stories becoming less nebulous, and Marvel events containing more plot. No matter how you feel about crossovers, they are big business and a big deal for those who read Marvel and DC comics, and 1985 was the dawn of the crossover era.

Thanks for stopping in, see you all tomorrow for a brand spankin’ new list!

Hello peoples! Street Fece here with another geek of the week. In this weeks post I am going to talk about an artist in another field. I feel that even though Semanink is focusing on a different form of art style there is still room for appreciation of other artists in the world. This is why I want to introduce you to Julian Beever.

Julian Beever is a great artist that has received a lot of acclaim for his amazing Pavement drawings. Julian works as a freelance artist, based in the UK, creating many different forms of artwork. He as traveled worldwide for commission pieces such as Germany, Spain, U.S., Australia, and Brazil to name a few. To produce his stand out Pavement drawings he uses a technique called anamorphosis.  Anamorphosis is a distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to use special devices or occupy a specific vantage point to reconstitute the image. “Ana — morphosis” comes from the Greek words meaning “formed again.” (“Wikipedia”)Leonardo da Vinci is one of the first people to use this method. I really dig this guys work and it looks like it really trips people out that are walking by. Enjoy some of my favorites from his collection. I encourage you to check out his website for the rest of his artwork.

Greetings all!

As we head into the weekend, I just wanted to share with you some books that I have enjoyed over the last few weeks. You see, for the last few weeks, I had planned to start writing a review column here, but it just wasn’t working. I couldn’t put my finger on why, but the reviews just didn’t sound right. Today, I realized what was wrong, I don’t buy comics I think might be crappy. If a book looks like the suck, I avoid it. So, instead of reviews, which you can find on any number of sights, I’m just going to let you know if I really like a book or not. So without further ado, here are some books that i think have been quite great over the last few weeks:

BLACKEST NIGHT: I don’t normally like the big DC events. I wasn’t a DC zombie growing up, so I feel out of the loop whenever DC chooses to drop every character in their universe on me, which they are apt to do in big events. BLACKEST NIGHT, however, does not fall into that trap. Geoff Johns is rocking my world with the Black Lantern Corps, keeping the story grand but not so nebulous that us outsiders feel disenfranchised. Ivan Reis makes dead guys so cool looking that I reread each issue as soon as I finish. Kudos to the guys at DC for making what has, so far, been a great book.

IRREDEEMABLE: This is the first BOOM! studios book I have ever read, and it is top notch. The basic premise is what if a superman-like character decided he was going to be bad. This story is so much fun. The flashbacks are told in a fun way, and some of the douche bag stuff the main character does is stone cold creepy. Mark Waid is always fun, but this is spectacular. Peter Krause’s art is solid, but not magical. It tells the story well, but it doesn’t blow me away. Still a great book, and worth checking out if you get a chance.

These two books really stood out to me the last month or so as being head and shoulders above the rest, and this was a great month. CHEW, WE KILL MONSTERS, and WAR OF KINGS were all great as well, but not quite as good as these two. This is going to be a regular Friday occurrence, so if you have any books you think I should check out and/or recommend, let me know.

Thanks all, and have a great weekend!