Here we are again, this time with a working monitor! Third time really is the charm, I guess. And now that I can finally stare at the screen without getting a low-resolution-induced headache, it’s time to ramble on and get caught up. This rant isn’t as timely as it would’ve been a week ago, but my indignation hasn’t waned in the slightest. Food geekery is, as they say on the Internets, SRS BSNS.

On a recent episode of the food challenge series Man v Food, Adam Richman took on the Mystery Challenge at Munchies 420 Cafe’ in Sarasota, Florida. (The inconsistency of punctuation in the name is their doing, not mine–maybe whoever made the name official did so shortly after 4:20 PM?)

Little warning: please be careful visiting the above link to the Munchies homepage if you’re prone to motion sickness; a few people I showed that website to complained of nausea or headache from the spinning background, myself included. If Munchies is trying to subliminally make us think that drugs are bad (mmkay), that’s doing a fantastic job! After ten minutes of looking at their spinnerific pages, I definitely did not want to embark on a drug trip. However, I also did not have the munchies and certainly didn’t even want to THINK about their nachos and tater tots. A brief nap and some aspirin was far more appealing after viewing the Munchies website.

This may sound like I’m writing just to snark on Munchies. That’s not actually my intent. So let’s move on back to Man v Food, where it turned out that Adam’s Mystery Challenge was a hunka-hunka burnin’ Fire in Your Hole Wings, smothered in sauce containing extract from the world’s certified hottest chili pepper, the bhut jolokia, or ghost pepper.

Adam had to eat ten wings in twenty minutes without drinking anything. He was a dead man within two wings, admitting his defeat. End of episode.

Only…turns out Munchies’ victory wasn’t an entirely honest one.

Later, on Adam’s Travel Channel video blog, he mentions (while still in very bad shape from the ghost peppers’ attack–the video’s linked below) that one of Munchies’ staff admitted to overdoing it on the ghost pepper extract for Adam’s challenge.

Hey, wait a minute! I watch Man v Food because I wanna see Adam take on REAL challenges! The same challenges served to everyone else who attempts them. How are we supposed to know how serious a challenge really is when the odds are tampered with?

But that’s not what’s really burning my goats here. It’s that Munchies is incredibly irresponsible with their ghost peppers. Bhut jolokia is serious stuff, folks. As Adam mentions in his video blog, ghost peppers are used to repel wild elephants in Asia. They can cause serious reactions in humans who consume too much of the fiery fury. In short, ghost peppers are not something you want to mess around with or play jokes with. And not only did Munchies up Adam’s dosage, they also tell customers where to buy ghost peppers–without mentioning any of the risks, at least not in the link I found to their pepper dealer on one of Munchies’ pages. (No, I will not link you to where you can get ghost peppers. You’ll have to make with the online detectivin’ yourself on this ‘un. Adam Richman is correct in his video blog post when he says he won’t tell you how to buy them–even if you’re a chili-head who loves your hot stuff, ghost peppers are NOT a game, NOT a thrillseeking stunt. You need to do your ghost pepper research before you even think of taking a nibble.)

The whole episode and its aftermath left me with a bad (but non-peppery) taste. Man v Food is all about taking you to great new places to eat and explore, but I’ve gotta say, this is the first episode that’s made me want to stay away from the place featured. Good job, Munchies 420 Cafe’!

If you’d like to see Adam’s attempt at the Mystery Challenge, do that clickin’ thing here.

If you’d like to see Adam’s follow-up video blog of his pain-filled aftermath, look no further than this link here.

Welcome to this week’s entry of my Geek Journal!

It looks like all the leaked ads and rumors were true: Nintendo announced the $50 price drop on the Wii yesterday, and it’ll take place this Sunday. It remains to be seen if this will help them take back the top spot among the current generation consoles.

Also yesterday, SquareEnix announced that the next update for FFXI will be coming in November. This will most likely also be when the final (at least for now) mini-expansion, “A Shantotto Ascension“, will be released. Like the first two mini-expansions, it’ll probably be available for purchase sometime in October, but won’t be activated until the November update. It’ll be interesting to see what else is included in this coming update.

While on the subject of Final Fantasy, go check out the trailer for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers from Tokyo Game Show. It’ll be released on the Wii sometime this December.

Being my friends’ (and Spwug’s?) usual go-to geek when it comes to computers, I try to keep up with software updates for my and my friends’ computers. This allowed me to notice that the version WordPress used on Spwug’s site was fairly out of date and thus spring into action to remedy this. I worked with site owner and good friend Richard Kim to get the latest version of WP installed, which closed several vulnerabilities and exploits, and also got the database backed up to boot. Readers won’t notice any real changes to the way the site is presented, but now it’s better protected from the “bad people” out in cyberspace. My recommendation to anyone else making use of any blogging or forum software: Keep things up to date and do backups!

That’s it for this week’s post!

Greetings, Super Troopers!

It’s that time of year again – the leaves are starting to change color, the air is starting to get cooler, those still getting learned are back to school, and The Reaper himself has put a hit list out on re-runs.

That’s right – it’s time for the fall season to begin on the telly!

I don’t have a large list for this installment for a couple of reasons.  One, I’m short on time.  I have to get ready for Horrorfind Weekend (you know, that horror convention I go to every year?), and most of my week is spent getting prepped for that.  The other reason is that there aren’t to many shows that have come back yet.  At least, not ones I watch, anyway.

So hopefully, that will make this week’s Meeting a quick and fun read!  But, probably not.

I want to preface this with another preface besides the long preface I just gave you by saying that I’m actually surprised by how the 2009 fall TV season is shaping up so far.  This will probably be my lightest viewing season in a long time.  Not many new shows really jumped out at me as being must-see.  Good news is I still have some returning favorites, despite the Network Newbie Slaughter of 2008-2009 where most of the shows I enjoyed were mercilessly struck down before they even had a chance to live.

No, that’s just dust in my eye.  Moving on!

For this installment, four great shows will be broken down in brief.  Ready… steady… go:

“Supernatural”

One of my favorite genre shows right now.  This series started off kinds weak, but managed to pick up an incredible amount of steam over the course of four seasons.  Jensen Ackles and Jared Padelecki carry the show as two brothers who hunt demons and monsters.  The chemistry between the two actors is enough to warrant a peak, but the mythology and pacing of the show make viewers want to stick around.  This is just a fun ride.  Season four left us with Lucifer himself being freed from his backyard in Hell.  Season five manages to slam us right back into the thick of things as the brothers try to stop the apocalypse.  I know what you are saying – “Apocalypse, blah, blah.  Seen it.”  Oh no.  Not like this.

“Fringe”

This is, without a doubt, my favorite sci-fi show currently on the air.  Currently beginning its sophomore year, “Fringe” debuted last season on some slightly shaky footing.  It quickly found its equilibrium and is now a very strong show that executes an almost perfect balance of character, plot, and pacing.  I’m simply riveted during each episode as the super science mystery is unraveled, both to its own and, and in order to reveal the bigger picture.  Plus, Leonard Nimoy!

“House”

I came to this one quite late.  Middle-of-season-five late, in fact.  What got me hooked was the all-you-can-stand House buffet that USA put on last Christmas.  With nothing else on, I found myself tuning in on an episode here and there.  The mysteries were stand-alone enough that I could follow.  That’s what hooked me.  The character development… well, that’s what made me stick around.  I have since seen practically the whole series so far, albeit out of order (Really, USA?  You can’t at least try to show them in some semblance of how they originally aired?), and I was able to catch up to the middle of season five so that I could be ready for last Monday’s two hour premiere.  My God, it’s full of awesome.

“Heroes”

This show has become the black sheep of my TV family.  Sure, you want it to do well, but it just can’t seem to stop getting itself into trouble.  Yet, you still look after it and try to love it as best you can.  No joke, after a pretty damn good first season, “Heroes” suddenly went off the rails in a big way in its second season.  With plots that suddenly veered directions and characters that were unnecessary, this show quickly became a mess.  But, I stayed… much like a battered wife who truly believes her husband isn’t really as bad as he seems.  When the Emmy-winning “Pushing Daisies” got cancelled (thanks, jack-holes at ABC), creator Bryan Fuller was brought back to help pull “Heroes” out of the pit of suck that it had gotten itself into halfway through the third season (he was a head writer during the impressively solid first season).  His efforts worked, and “Heroes” managed to roll a weak saving throw versus weak plotting.  The first two-hour premiere of the new season wasn’t actually too bad.  Unfortunately, Fuller has left the show again to create a new show that will also quickly get cancelled after winning Emmys.  This means that despite a half-way decent opening, the show just might lose its power permanently.

Stay tuned for part two of this series.  But not next week.  No – next week will be my recap of Horrofind Weekend.  But after that?  Come back and see.  Until then, at least you have the tube to keep you company.

The Don agrees that it’s never Lupus.  Unless you’re dealing with a werewolf.

It’s 2 AM Wednesday morning. Where, you may ask, is that weirdo DKM Marlink’s Tuesday evening post?

Well, it was eaten by a Grue. Two Grues, in fact. Named Dell and Cox, respectively.

Cox’s cable service has taken to dropping out at regular intervals. This is annoying and prevents me from doing the necessary research for my Spwug articles, but is more of a delay than a wall across the road. It’s Dell who’s the crueler of the two monsters.

The monitor I’m using right now, the 2408WFP A02, just arrived from Dell earlier today (well, yesterday now). It was sent to replace a replacement monitor (!!) but is faultier than the (replacement!!) monitor it’s supposed to be, you know, replacing. I can’t actually see part of what I’m typing right now, due to a huge pink horizontal band that divides the screen and causes the bottom of my desktop to be hidden from view. After spending about five hours of quality time with Dell on the phone and its (totally unhelpful) website to replace the first monitor, it looks like Dell’s now demanding cuddle time from us, after the red-hot passions that led to the birthing of this second monitor. Not looking forward to that grating hold music yet again….

Thank all the Powers What Is for unlimited five-year warranties.

If things come to a happy conclusion, expect me to be back on track by Tuesday. If they don’t end happily…well, look for another Dell rant next week!

Welcome to this week’s post to my Geek Journal!

The first day of Fall (or Spring, for you southern hemisphere people) occurs in a few days (Sept. 22nd), meaning that day and night will be equal (12 hours each) as the sun passes over the equator on its way south. This also means that the Fall TV season is about to begin (or already has begun, thanks to Fox), and that Busch Garden’s Howl-O-Scream will be starting soon as well (Sept. 25th!).

It appears that Nintendo has been feeling the pressure of not having dropped the Wii’s price: leaked Toys”Я”Us and Target ads indicate that it’ll be dropping to $200 sometime in the near future, if they’re true. There has also been news that both Sony and Microsoft are looking to release the 250GB versions of the PS3 Slim and Xbox 360 quite soon.

CFLs have gotten a bad rap due to their cost, use of mercury, color issues, hard to use dimmers with, and that a lot take time to get up to full brightness. LEDs are safer, but still have cost and heat issues. A new company is giving their take on the energy-efficient lighting situation: Electron Stimulated Luminescence (ESL) bulbs. These bulbs appear to work similar to the way a CRT does, but instead of being scanned with a single electron beam, the entire face of the bulb is sprayed with electrons, causing the phosphors of the face to glow with a natural white light. I’m really interested in this, but I’m wondering if this will be the next big thing in lighting.

That’s it for this week’s post!

Greetings, Bugaloos!

Has there ever been a good Batman game?  Sure, there are one or two games that have come close.  Some folks really liked one of the various entries that came out for the early Nintendo or Sega consoles.  Others are huge fans of the arcade game that came out years ago based on the first Tim Burton film.  I, personally, really enjoyed Batman: Vengeance when it came out back in 2001 for the PS2.

But, much like what is going on currently in the comic books (SPOILER ALERT: Dick Grayson is the current Batman!), there’s a new Bat in Gotham…

…and this one is kicking ass and taking initials (it doesn’t have time to write down full names).

Batman: Arkham Asylum is to Bats what Spider-Man 2 was to ol’ Webhead himself – a game that makes you feel like you’re really playing as the character.  I mean, all of the tricks of the Bat-trade are here – gadgets that help you accomplish different tasks, Batman’s signature fighting moves.  There’s even a viewing mode you can switch to called “Detective Mode” that allows you to look for clues.  This is most likely the first time any video game has been able to effectively capture the detective side of our caped crusader.

Every little detail of this game is practically perfect.  Paul Dini, of “Batman: The Animated Series” fame, wrote the storyline for the game.  Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, and Arleen Sorkin return to voice Batman, Joker, and Harley Quinn, respectively.  The music, while not lifted from the show, is a perfect match for the atmosphere of the game.

The game begins with Batman showing up on the front doorstep of Arkham Asylum with a “gift” – the Joker, who had recently escaped (again).  The Dark Knight follows the guards as they escort his arch nemesis to his cell.  Unfortunately, it appears that the Joker allowed himself to get captured on purpose!  Having concocted an elaborate plan that sets himself free and puts him in charge of Arkham, the Joker locks everyone inside and sets all the inmates free!

What follows is a very Metroid-style adventure, pitting Bats against many angry thugs with a grudge, as well as some of his greatest villains.  All the while, Batman has to look for clues and secret passages in order to rescue the guards and circumvent different security measures that the Joker has put into place to stop our pointy-eared crimefighter.  Add to that an extra set of clues laid by the nefarious Riddler for Batman to solve, and you have a game that is extremely well-crafted and fun.

I had an absolute blast with this game.  In an unusual turn of events, I was actually able to finish story mode before I picked up Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 this week.  That’s not to say that the game is over.  There are several challenge maps to play through.  If you are a PS3 owner, this includes an exclusive challenge level where you take on “skeletons” while under the influence of Scarecrow’s fear gas.  The other sweet exclusive is the ability to play the challenge levels as the Joker.  The rest are just separate challenge stages where you have to either face of against several waves of thugs, or stealth levels where the object is to take everyone out one by one without getting caught.

Oh yeah – did I forget to mention that there is some element of Metal Gear Solid to the game as well?

That there’s what we call an “inverted takedown”, and it’s one of the many upgrades you can purchase as you play the game.

If there was one complaint I had with the game, it wouldn’t be with the game itself, but with the coding.  It appears that certain PS3 systems have a tendency to freeze up during game play.  I’ve done some research and found that this is a common occurrence, but it only seems to happen with the older systems.  The freezing got so frequent on mine that I eventually couldn’t even play it, as it froze up the minute I started to play.  Every time.  I ended up having to do a system restore to my PS3.  That didn’t eradicate the problem completely, but it did reduce it back to just once every one or two game hours of play.

Despite that frustration, I thoroughly enjoyed Arkham Asylum and have every intention of going back to it at some point, especially since there will be DLC coming with more challenge maps.

But first, I need to switch over to the Marvel Universe for a bit and get my Ultimate Alliance (2) on.

The Don is the terror that craps in the night.

When I’m on the phone with family, my housemate is usually a few feet away, blowing zombies to pieces in Call of Duty 5 or racking up headshots in Battlefield 1943. A common phone conversation goes like this:

THEM: I hear a lot of noise over there. Is he playing games again?
ME: Yep, he’s playing online with some friends.
THEM: Everyone’s staying home to play?
ME: Yeah, no one wanted to waste time and gas driving over to someone’s house, and then we’d still have to drive back home later ’cause we all have work tomorrow.
THEM: So do you guys ever actually hang out anymore, or do you just all stay home and play video games without ever seeing each other?

Gamers are reclusive, shunning the light, not to mention all other people. Surviving on chips in order to gain one more level before work, one more rare drop item, as their chair strains under the player’s ever-increasing bulk. It’s a common myth about gamers, and one that’s probably had most of us rolling our eyes at some point (and had the guilty gamers struggling to get their respective behinds unstuck from their chairs). Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to raise a counterpoint. Not with the fact that you can actually socialize with friends while gaming, via headsets like you’re talking on the phone. No, this is about a much more physical type of gaming interaction.

The Sunday LAN Party. It’s become a sort of tradition amongst my group, only failing to take place when most of us are out of town or have to work. We pick a house, and everyone lugs over their computers and consoles, their handhelds, their huge flatscreen monitors, movies, drinks, and a whole lot of potluckin’-good food. People take turns playing games, since it almost never happens that everyone owns the game currently being played on the local network. While a group game is in session, anyone not playing eats, chats with whoever’s nearby, watches movies, plays cards, or mucks about on a Nintendo DS or a PSP. Even the people who are engrossed in multiplayer gaming are talking with one another–that is, when they’re not yelling instructions like, “ZOMBIE BEHIND YOU!” or “Crap! I need a revive!”

In other words, it’s a real party, full of real party activities (some of which are fueled by real alcohol), and real party people (who may or may not be raisin’ their hands in the air like they just don’t care). It just has the word “LAN” in front of it.

And that bit about us gamers shunning the light? I took this photo at the last LAN party (only had my cell phone camera, sadly). Check out the full-size version, and….Why, just LOOK at all that sunlight coming in through the patio door! Okay, so that part’s a bit tongue-in-cheek….Still, though. It’s natural light. I think it counts.

The boys were gracious enough to reveal part of their screens for this photo, to showcase the variety of gaming we get up to at these things (albeit they’re all on PS3s at the moment. Some Nintendo and PC gaming was going on outside of camera range.) Can YOU identify all the games being represented here?

That’s all for this installment. Tune in next time for…I don’t even know what, but it’ll be here!

Welcome to this week’s post of my Geek Journal!

I’m sure most people realize that today is the 8th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. It’s hard to believe that it’s been eight years since that happened and I still remember where I was when I first found out about the attacks. I would like to take a moment to think about all the lives that were lost and all the great work done by everyone (police, firefighters, EMS, military, and civilians alike) before continuing.

Thank you.

Over this week, I managed to take in two great movies and part of a third:

Inglourious Basterds – Spell-checkers have a field day with that title. Quentin Tarantino’s latest film is his take on World War II, but done in a “spaghetti western” style. The movie itself, while slow in a few parts, is a lot of fun to watch. I found myself laughing at several points. The only part that didn’t really sit with me (or the friends I saw it with) was the scene with Mike Myers‘ cameo; it was strange to see him there but not acting like his usual characters. This made him stand out more than he really should have.

Gamer – Another fun movie to watch, especially if you’re familiar with MMO and FPS game genres. The Society game in the film borrows mostly from Second Life, while Slayer borrows from almost any FPS you can think of. The main difference is that both games use real people as avatars instead of computer graphics, thus the main idea of the story. It was funny to see some of the usual things seen in multi-player games, especially the part that had someone constantly running into a wall. I kind of look forward to technology that connects to the mind directly to computers, but I’d prefer to stay away from the stuff that would let someone control me (not that we don’t already have enough of that without the tech).

9 – Not to be confused with District 9 or Plan 9, I linked to the short film this is based on in an earlier post. I only got to see part of this movie; due to technical issues with the theater I was watching it in, I ended up walking out and getting a refund with plans to go back and see it at a later date (possibly tomorrow).

Earlier this week, Apple announced the addition of new models it its iPod lineup: a 64GB Touch (using the same components as the iPhone 3GS and finally having enough space that I might think about picking it up), a 160GB Classic (the difference from the previous 160GB Classic is the usage of a 5mm single-platter drive instead of an 8mm double-platter one, so it’s still thin), a new Nano (with a larger screen, a VGA camera, and an FM tuner (about time they made it internal, too bad it’s not HD, and why not the new Classic as well?)), and a new Shuffle. At the same time, the iPod Nano Linux project released a new loader for the 2G Nano, getting a step closer to me being able to run Rockbox on the newer Classics.

That’s it for this week!

Greetings, SAINT prototypes!

I’m feeling a little under the weather this week (no, I don’t have Hamthrax), so I’m keeping this one short.  Luckily for me, yesterday provided me with the perfect gift to leave you with…

You remember the film shoot I was in about a month ago up in West Virginia, right?  At least, I hope so – I’ve been talking about it incessantly like an obsessive fanboy who just met Hayden Panettiere.

The little teaser trailer filmed by Darkstone Entertainment that I got to play a role in, Plan 9, just went live yesterday at its official website to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the original Plan 9 From Outer Space.  The trailer looks incredible, and I’m proud to be a part of it.

Originally, the remake itself was supposed to make its debut yesterday, but director Johnny Johnson delayed filming so as to procure a bigger budget that would allow him to film the movie in super 35mm film instead of super 16mm.  This means that the film will be higher quality.  But, so that he could still honor the anniversary, Johnny filmed the trailer first so that he could present fans and the curious alike with something to tide them over until the film is complete.

Hopefully, the trailer is enough meat to satisfy those hungry for more, as filming does not begin until spring of next year.

So, give it a look-see.  Enjoy, and see if you can find me lurking within its celluloid goodness…

The Don is a McHobo Happy Meal, served up special between 1:48 and 1:51.

The observant amongst my three readers will probably have noticed that the first Tuesday of the month is usually WEBCOMIC HAPPY TIMES, but last Tuesday, WEBCOMIC HAPPY TIMES were not had. This is because the comic I’d chosen to review suffered a fatal server crash before the review was scheduled to go up and may not be back online for a few months. I didn’t have time to write up a substitute review for another comic, but “luckily” the woes of PlayStation 3’s 3.0 firmware update made for an excellent speedy filler. So let’s get back on track this week, eh? (And hope that this review doesn’t jinx the chosen comic like that last unpublished one seems to have done.)

The Phoenix Requiem typically updates on Mondays and Thursdays and is both written and illustrated by the absolutely amazing, talented, and all-around brilliant artist Sarah Ellerton. You may remember my enthusiastic gushing over her work in the review for another webcomic she illustrates, Dreamless.

As of this writing, The Phoenix Requiem is 463 pages in, yet the story is still simple to catch up on: it takes place (cue Movie Trailer Guy voiceover) in a world where magic and otherworldly spirits–creatures of a faerielike origin–were once part of daily life, worshipped by humans as deities of religion. But if you’ve got forces of goodness protecting the world, you’ve normally also gotta have forces of evil trying to damage or destroy it. After a cataclysmic struggle, the spirits were forced to seal themselves away from the world in order to also seal away the Bad Guys, and magic faded out along with them. After centuries upon centuries have passed, we arrive at the present of Ellerton’s fictional Victorian-era world, strongly echoing English and Russian cultures. Magic and the spirits aren’t forgotten, and there are many people who still worship the spirits and hope for their eventual return. Of course, after so many centuries, not everyone believes they ever existed, and even some people who still believe in the spirits scoff at the idea that they will ever return to the human world.

At the beginning of the story, it’s apparent that something is going very wrong. A strange plague is quickly killing citizens of the small town of Esk, seemingly at random. The skin of the affected turns black as the plague spreads, and there’s no known cure or even treatment. Even more disturbing, gruesome, deformed shades of the deceased are rising from cremation ash at night to chase the living, and these tormentors from the afterlife are steadily getting bolder and more aggressive. The military is called in, not to defend the village, but to seal in everyone in the belief that this will contain the plague. As the story moves along, there are sightings of spirits pleading for release from their prison, and even reports of ghosts (a completely different entity from spirits and shades in this universe).

Without magic, science, medicine, and technology govern the path of society. And this is where our female lead, Anya, comes in, with the rest of The Phoenix Requiem’s main characters.

Anya Katsukova – She’s a young nurse who hopes to become a doctor, a rather rare occupation for women in this world. Anya works under Esk’s doctor, and eventually is forced to step up and take his place (you’ll just have to read the comic to find out the full, slightly gory story behind THAT). She’s always been a practical-minded woman who’s never really believed strongly in the spirits or magic, preferring to focus on medical science. But now, she’s finding her beliefs called into question with her own otherworldly sightings, as well as the arrival of the comic’s male lead.

Jonas Faulkner – Easily the most mysterious character in the story, despite his open–and very eccentric–manner. Arriving around the same time as the plague, Jonas is found just outside Esk with multiple gunshot wounds and is brought to Anya for treatment. He’s a very wealthy man who doesn’t want to go back to where he came from, and he purchases a house in Esk. Jonas is a friendly sort of chap, but with a penchant for not always thinking before he speaks. Many of the villagers believe he’s insane, since he not only believes in spirits, but claims to see and speak with them, and thinks the spirits need him to return. (It also doesn’t help his case that he spent some time in an asylum before the beginning of the comic.) Jonas is known to horribly abuse his body, starving and deliberately overmedicating himself, and is also tormented by dreams or visions of his dead, rather antagonizing wife. As if all that’s not bad enough, he’s constantly followed by a law enforcement agent, Patrick Armand, and some of the people of Esk blame him for bringing the plague. His and Anya’s relationship is slowly progressing, though Jonas’ apparently tenuous grasp on sanity and their nurse-patient connection prevents Anya from giving in to emotion.

Petria Grey – A good friend of Anya, Petria is a bit of a former “wild child” who’s not afraid to speak her mind and still has a strong mischievous, tomboyish streak in her. She was abandoned as a child by her parents, and has always done what’s needed to survive, including, it seems, working as a…er…”lady of the evening”…in the past. Now, she functions as a jill-of-all-trades in Esk, doing various jobs and looking out for the well-being of her friends. The person who can calm her down best is Robyn Hart, who took care of her in the past and for whom she has strong but undefined feelings.

Robyn Hart – Another good friend of Anya, though he’d like to be much more. Robyn is a bit of a “grumpy old man” despite his young age, an ex-soldier who tired of that life and now lives in Esk as a caribou farmer. Petria can draw him out of of his bad moods, but he is nevertheless a very serious man. At one point, Robyn confesses he’s been seeing ghosts and other supernatural beings for a short time before Jonas’ arrival. Being around him seems to make Robyn’s sightings more frequent, and that, combined with Jonas’ developing relationship with Anya, seems to have given Robyn a strong dislike of Jonas.

The art is, as you can see from the pictures, absolutely stunning. Ellerton is always looking to advance her skills, and you’ll notice gradual changes in style and colouring as the comic moves along. Occasionally, you’ll notice the minor anatomy flaw, but the artist is an extremely busy lady, and as I’ve said before, this isn’t her only comic project, so it’s quite understandable. That she finds the time to do multi-page updates twice a week on The Phoenix Requiem, and of such high quality, is still amazing to me.

Some have criticized the story for moving too slowly. I can’t say I share that opinion. Ellerton’s developing some complex character relationships from the ground up, and moving at a relaxed pace makes the character development seem much more natural and emphasizes dreamlike qualities of the comic’s art and story–parallel to the way characters in the comic question how much of what they’re experiencing is real. (Besides, the longer the story continues, the more gorgeous art we get to gawk at.) And look, even with creepy shades and plagues, this isn’t meant to be a high adventure story. It doesn’t require epic battles or huge screaming conflicts in every chapter. There are a few times near the beginning where someone’s actions seem a bit awkward or not fully explained, but those moments are much more scarce the further the plot progresses, and it’s sometimes revealed that there’s a valid reason for the person to do what they did.

The Phoenix Requiem is a beautiful story, told by someone who clearly loves her work and her characters. You’re doing yourself a huge disservice to not at least give it a try! Additionally, you’ll notice Ellerton has her art galleries linked on the front page. If you like her work, why not drop by and see some of her incredible art outside of the comic, maybe drop her some appreciation in the comments?

Till next time, happy surfin’, Spwuggies!