Three Books From Plan 9 22
| Three Books From Plan 9 | |
| author | (Various) |
| pages | (Var |
| publisher | Plan 9 Publishing |
| rating | 8.5 |
| reviewer | chromatic |
| ISBN | (Various) |
| summary | Online comics come to real life as books; unlikely scenarios that work to loosen the old laughter mucus. |
Plan Nine Publishing has done a wonderful thing for the online comic. Founded in 1996, they've helped to legitimize the medium. Dedicated (and new!) fans can now purchase printed collections of their favorite comics, bringing financial stability to a new generation of artist. The books themselves are lovingly designed, if one step below mass-market professional. Never underestimate the bandwidth of a hundred pages (and several months) of art.
| Bruno Most Wanted | |
| author | Ian McDonald |
| pages | 168 |
| ISBN | 1-929462-22-0 |
| summary | Witty, episodic satire about Rothland's most notorious criminal. |
Ian McDonald's Bruno the Bandit chronicles the misadventures of an increasingly inept thief and his micro-dragon sidekick. In this second collection of daily strips, the appropriately named Bunkleyutz tangles with everyone from the Imperial Guard to an undead, mostly evil sorcerer turned bartender. Despite (or because of) Bruno's mind-numbing incompetence, he's always a sympathetic character.
McDonald is an extremely talented artist. His detailed drawings convey a good blend of action and humor, his gags land true, and somehow everything looks easy. Logically, the comic is naturally divided into smaller stories, generally between two and seven weeks long. This gives McDonald a chance to explore an episodic format.
Bruno doesn't shy away from controversy. This collection includes McDonald's edgiest story ever, "No Offense!" It's a sympathetic look at faith, religion, and television. Other topics include unionization, syndication, the forbidden topic, fame and publicity, and raising children. (It makes more sense in stories.) A special bonus color story of Bruno's youth rounds things out.
Lavishly illustrated and wittily plotted, Bruno Most Wanted is a clever and thought provoking collection.
| Yippy Skippy, the Evil! | |
| author | Pete Abrams |
| pages | 154 |
| ISBN | 1-929462-23-9 |
| summary | Aliens, vampires, robots, assassins, demons, rabbits, magic, Evil, and college students. |
Pete Abrams' Sluggy Freelance continues to break new ground creatively. A simple description could not do it justice -- Abrams weaves bizarre threads into twisted patterns. What kind of evil lurks in the heart of an ordinary kitten? Attempting to unravel things even further without delving into the entire twisted history is probably NP-hard. At heart, it's a simple tale about a freelance web designer and his lovable pet bunny. Think Calvin and Hobbes meets Aliens meets Red Dwarf.
Yippy Skippy, The Evil, the fifth Sluggy Freelance, picks up with a chilling tale of Y2K disaster. Ferret-spread nanobots threaten the world, and only a rogue vampire and time traveling scientist can fix things. From there, a love spell goes wrong, leading to mishaps involving a killer robot gymnast assassin and a shotgun wedding. After a brief detour explaining half of the title (and setting events in motion for the next book), Abrams raises the question, "What happens when your alien secretary eats too many potatoes?"
What follows is a fun-filled attempt to escape an enraged rabbit. (Baywatch hath charms to soothe the savage breast. No pun intended.) From there, Adams tries his hand at mostly-straightforward horror. "The Evil" tracks the adventures of several college students on vacation in a small town. Unbeknownst to them, the devil has been there already. Who will survive? What do you serve his spawn?
Admittedly, this kind of humor is not for everyone. It can be alarmingly irreverent, and the body count is surprisingly high for not being graphic. It's terribly creative, though, and Abrams continues to tell a fine story. Book 5 may not be the best place to start, but Yippy Skippy, The Evil has the potential to recruit a new army of Sluggites.
| For the Birds | |
| author | Bill Holbrook |
| pages | 142 |
| ISBN | 1-929462-18-2 |
| summary | Divorced herbivore + widowed carnivore = nature's truest blended family. |
The unbelievably prolific (cyborg?) Bill Holbrook writes three (cyborg!) regular strips. For the Birds is his ninth Plan 9 collection, and the fifth featuring his Kevin and Kell strips. The deceptively simple artwork and matter-of-fact tranquility belie the harsh rule of nature. (Where else would a parent's biggest dilemma be whether to raise a baby hybrid rabbit/wolf to eat meat or not?)
Through the anthropomorphism, Holbrook pokes fun at modern, geeky subjects. Where else would a hunter track prey by waiting for their cell phones to ring? The gags don't get in the way of a sweet story, though. At heart, Kevin and Kell is a gentle story punctuated with several surprises. Holbrook has created a rich world with interesting characters.
The book explores several themes, including family, responsibility, and love. Though nature can be brutal, the world is full of good "people". Holbrook examines ideas of prejudice (domesticated versus wild species, love between predator and prey) but never comes across as preachy. Throughout the several storylines, he always finds time to insert a chuckle or two. (Who else but a chameleon would stoop to typo-squatting?)
After five books, there's plenty of backstory, but the characters are compelling and the humor gentle. For The Birds should appeal to a wide audience looking for something a little more compelling than the daily comics but a little tamer than the Slugfest.
You can't currently purchase Yippy Skippy, the Evil or For the Birds and Bruno Most Wanted at Fatbrain, but you may be able to special order from there or some other vendor.
This would not pass thru a compiler (Score:1)
Odd bracket error there, old chap!
Another pair of good comics (Score:1)
Re:AT&T's Plan 9 (Score:2)
> be about AT&T's Plan 9 operating system, here's
> a link...
Sigh. I can see that some intensive re-education is in order:
Plan Nine from Outer Space [phillyburbs.com]
Pens ?? (Score:1)
Re:Order from Plan 9 Directly (Score:1)
Sluggy? Make sense? I didn't think it had done that since Bugsquishers.
Sluggy's great, but if unresolved plot threads make your stomach queasy, stay away. Go in for the humour and surrealism, not the plot.
AT&T's Plan 9 (Score:2)
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/
At first, I was surprised that three books were being released on this operating system. I was further surprised to read that the operating syetm was being used in a publishing house. Finally, I was surprised to see that none of this was true and that Plan 9 is also the name of a comic book publisher.
Is this off topic? Maybe. But if you go and read the story intro without an understanding of any of the proper names, you'll the mistake makes a bit of sense.
Re:shouldn't it be garoted? (Score:1)
shouldn't it be garoted? (Score:1)
use LaTeX? want an online reference manager that
Re:Pens ?? Well, OK ... (Score:1)
Cartoons! Cartoons! I bet they're not drawing them with TeX.
("Arrrh -- why we didn't have 'pens' in my day -- we had to make do with elaborate descriptions and charcoal-tipped bones, and we *liked* it!")
timothy
Order from Plan 9 Directly (Score:4)
You can also get all of these books (and others) directly from Plan 9 [plan9.org]. They give the authors more royalties for those sales.
Also, if you're going to start reading Sluggy Freelance [sluggy.com], I highly recommend you start from the first strip. Everything makes so much more sense that way.
Re:Order from Plan 9 Directly (Score:2)
I have to disagree. Pete wraps things up, just not in a linear fashion or brief time-line. All characters/events/plot points get revisited, although at times there is a lot of space between A and B. And then, too, there's the need for a few ongoing mysteries (Oasis being one of them)...
Three as in.. (Score:1)
Re:lame (Score:1)
Re:AT&T's Plan 9 (Score:2)
Any E-Book versions of these comics? (Score:2)
Just no PDF, I'm boycotting Adobe.
Re:Sluggy! Is it not nifty? (Score:1)
-Mynn the Museless
Re:Sluggy! Is it not nifty? (Score:1)
Flem! is http://flem.dhs.org/comic/new.htm not
Sluggy! Is it not nifty? (Score:2)
Here are some links.
http://flem.dhs.org/comic/new.html Flem! [dhs.org]
http://www.sinfest.net Sinfest [sinfest.net]
http://www.penny-arcade.com Penny-Arcade [penny-arcade.com]
Re:Order from Plan 9 Directly (Score:2)
Jee.. you can plug in any bookstore into that and it still applies!
You can't currently purchase Yippy Skippy, the Evil or For the Birds and Bruno Most Wanted at Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble
Some times I wonder why people bother to do what it is that they do, if they do any thing at all....
Re:Any E-Book versions of these comics? (Score:1)
Those do not deserve hyperlinks.
BTW, did you read the article?
Re:Any E-Book versions of these comics? (Score:4)
Plan 9? (Score:1)
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