Blue Exorcist: Fight Hellfire with Hellfire!

I read Blue Exorcist, Vol. 7

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which as free comics).

Even April Fools Reads You

It's April 2012! Welcome to I Reads You, my blog about the things I read: mostly comic books, comics, and related books. Sometimes, I’ll write about or link to other topics: typically books, politics, and entertainment.

I’m Leroy Douresseaux, and I have another blog: http://www.negromancer.com/. I also write for the Comic Book Bin (which also has smart phones apps and comics).

All images and text appearing on this blog are copyright © and/or trademark their respective owners.

Rosario+Vampire: Season II: The Dark Lords

I read Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 8: The Secret of the Rosario

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps and comics).

X-Men and Iron Man Anime Series on DVD in April 2012

IRON MAN ANIME & X-MEN ANIME Explode onto DVD April 24th

Each Set Includes 12 Episodes From Each Series and New Bonus Features!

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Marvel Animation release the IRON MAN ANIME and X-MEN ANIME on DVD April 24th. With 12 episodes and bonus features in each DVD, bring home the action and adventures of Iron Man and the X-Men in the classic anime style. Guided by New York Times best-selling author Warren Ellis (Iron Man: Extremis, Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis) and produced by Madhouse for Marvel Television and Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan (SPEJ). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the distributor.

The IRON MAN ANIME stars Adrian Pasdar (Heroes, Castle, Profit) as the voice of Tony Stark. The set contains special bonus features:

· Re-Imagining Iron Man explores the plot and themes of the anime series.

· 21st Century Hero: The Technology of Iron Man introduces fans to Tony Stark’s high-tech suits and gadgets.

· Special Cross Talk round table discussion with the creators of the Iron Man and Wolverine anime series.

· Voicing Tony Stark, an interview with Japanese actor, Keiji Fujiwara.

The X-MEN ANIME features the voice of actor Scott Porter as Cyclops (The Good Wife, Friday Night Lights, Caprica). The set includes:

· Re-Examining The X-Men takes viewers behind-the-scenes of creating X-Men’s mutant tales.

· X-Men: A Team of Outsiders provides an in-depth exploration of Marvel’s most heroic and infamous mutants.

· Special Talk Session round table discussion with the creators of Marvel anime's X-Men and Blade.

IRON MAN ANIME: Tony Stark arrives in Japan to help implement hisgoal of world peace by building the Arc Reactor, a carbon-neutral power plant, that once operational will be able to provide limitless (thus free) energy to the world. Set to retire his Iron Man persona, and about to mass-produce a line of Iron Man armor known as “Iron Man Dio,” Stark’s plans are derailed by a series of high tech Mech monsters. Zodiac, a top secret organization funded by theterrorist group A.I.M. is out to disrupt the Arc Station, steal the Dio armor and put an end to Iron Man. The Armored Avenger’s fight is only just beginning.

X-MEN ANIME: The X-MEN are reunited following the death of a teammate and are summoned by Charles Xavier to Japan following the abduction of Hisako Ichiki. There, they confront the U-MEN, a lunatic cult that steals and transplants mutant organs to further strengthen its own army, and the battle for justice is on. Discovering a series of bizarre occurrences in the area they X-Men investigate only to be confronted with a terrible truththat will force them to confront long buried secrets.

Broadcast Year: 2011 (G4)

IRON MAN ANIME and X-MEN ANIME are rated NOT RATED. The DVD sets each have a total run time of approximately 288 minutes. Artwork and digital clips are available for download at www.sphepublicity.com. Visit Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on the Web at www.SonyPictures.com.


ABOUT SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is a Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) company. Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based SonyCorporation. SPE’s global operations encompass motion picture production, acquisition and distribution; television production, acquisition and distribution; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; worldwide television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of entertainment in more than 142 countries.Sony Pictures Entertainment can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sonypictures.com/.

ABOUT MARVEL
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of over 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media overseventy years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing and publishing. For more information visit http://www.marvel.com/.

Sakura Hime: A Woman Without Nails

I read Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura , Vol. 7

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has free comics).

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan: Echoes of the Past

I read Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Vol. 8

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has free smart phone apps and comics).

Leroy Douresseaux Reviews: A GAME OF THRONES: The Graphic Novel: Volume 1

A GAME OF THRONES: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL, VOL. 1
BANTAM BOOKS/RANDOM HOUSE

WRITER: George R.R. Martin
ADAPTATION: Daniel Abraham
ART: Tommy Patterson
COLORS: Ivan Nunes
LETTERS: Marshall Dillon
ORIGINAL SERIES COVERS: Alex Ross, Mike S. Miller
ADDITONAL ART: Michael Komark
COVER: Tommy Patterson with design by Charles Brock, Faceout Studio
ISBN: 978-0-440-42321-8; hardcover
238pp, Color, $25.00 U.S., $29.95 CAN

Born in 1948, George Raymond Richard Martin is best known as George R. R. Martin, the bestselling science fiction, fantasy, and horror novelist. Martin was also a writer and story editor on the mid-1980s revival of The Twilight Zone and was a writer on the 1980s CBS television series, Beauty and the Beast.

Martin is currently a hot commodity because of the HBO television series, “Game of Thrones,” which is adapted from his A Song of Ice and Fire series of high fantasy novels. The first novel in that series was published in 1996 and is entitled, A Game of Thrones.

Last year, Dynamite Entertainment began producing A Game of Thrones, an original comic book adaptation of the novel (not the TV series). The adaptation is expected to run over 24 issues of about 29 pages per issue. The writer responsible for adapting George R.R. Martin’s prose into comics form is science fiction and fantasy novelist, Daniel Abraham, who sometimes collaborates with Martin on fiction. The pencil artist for A Game of Thrones is Tommy Patterson, who has drawn comic books for Boom! Studios and Zenescope Entertainment. Alex Ross and Mike S. Miller are among the artists drawing covers for the series.

Bantam Books has collected the first six issues of the comic book as A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel: Volume 1. This initial story arc focuses on the House Stark, the northernmost of the fiefdoms that owe allegiance to King Robert Baratheon, who resides in King’s Landing. Located in Winterfell, House Stark is headed by Eddard Stark and his wife Catelyn with their sons: Robb, Brandon, and Rickon; two daughters: Sansa and Arya; and Eddard’s bastard son, Jon Snow.

King Robert is coming to Winterfell to bestow an honor upon Eddard, one he cannot refuse. Meanwhile, Robert’s conniving wife, Queen Cersei, Jamie (her slutty brother), Tyrion (her other brother who is a devious dwarf), and Robert and Cersei’s vainglorious son, Prince Joffrey, begin causing chaos in the House Stark – everything from murder and attempted murder to crass manipulation and conspiracy.

Meanwhile, there is another vainglorious royal, Prince Viserys, heir to the fallen House Targaryen, which once ruled all of Westeros. Viserys sets in motion a plot to reclaim the throne, and the first move in this plot is to make his sister, Princess Daenerys, a prize to win the army of a swarthy barbarian chief.

Not being familiar with anything related to A Game of Thrones, I didn’t expect much of this graphic novel/hardback collection, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Unlike many mainstream comic books, A Game of Thrones is not a colorful, kinetic adventure filled with superheroes, large fight scenes, and a slavish devotion to continuity. Although this is fantasy and has an involved internal mythology, the character drama drives the story, more so than genre trappings and elements.

This comic book is basically a soap opera with a large-scale cast, but is set in the world of medieval fantasy. I have not read the original novel, and I am still impressed that Daniel Abraham is able to make so many characters interesting and intriguing. Normally, my eyes would cross from trying to keep up with all the machinations and the numerous subplots, but Abraham makes it clear and straightforward.

I think that Tommy Patterson is a good artist; he can certainly draw, but his storytelling is inconsistent. He draws some scenes with an awkwardness that is inappropriate for those scenes – such as the fight scene between the children in issue #5. Considering that this fight leads to recrimination and execution, Patterson’s composition of the fight lacks dramatic impact. For the most part, however, compositionally, stylistically, and graphically, his art creates an attractive world for A Game of Thrones. Although I mostly avoid anything with his name on it, I really liked Mike S. Miller’s cover art for issue #4, with its fine art quality drawing on Jon Snow and his direwolf.

For years, I always hoped that some publisher would take the opportunity to adapt a novel to comics, but also have the patience to produce the adaptation over a long-running series. Over the past few years, Marvel and Del Rey have ventured to do so. I consider A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel: Volume 1 to be the reward for my patience.

As a bonus, The Making of A Game of Thrones is a large section at the back of the book that offers a generous selection of art and text explaining the production of A Game of Thrones the comic book series. Readers that like to see comic book pencil art will find themselves quite satisfied.