It seems like a cliche these days. Say the name of the game Ico and everyone expects praise. And by this point, everyone knows the idea of the minimalist game with beautiful design and a story that can be interpreted a myriad of ways. But what we’re talking about is one interpretation that was interesting enough to get published.

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I have to admit, for the most part I had some pretty cool parents when I was growing up. As far back as I can remember (which is back to around 1985-ish), I was lucky enough to have multiple computers in my house, and even more at my grandparents’ house down the street. I grew up swapping 5 1/4″ floppies and singing along to the Internet song (which would be the timeless handshake between my dial-up modem and the vast unknown). If not for my parents being so cool with technology, I may have grown up to be an athlete or something. Whew, bullet dodged! Read the full story

The Old Republic:  Revan, by Drew Karpyshyn, was one of the most highly anticipated Star Wars novels of the year.  It came out just in time (on my birthday, in fact) to create hype for The Old Republic, an MMORPG set to be released on December 20 of this year.  Revan, although a great read, failed to meet my expectations and, sadly, was a disappointment. Read the full story

The author of Persepolis is getting a fairy tale of hers released in the US. How does it match up with her previous work? Pretty well.

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Joker week continues, my lovely mad little fools, and today we have a juicy one. Lovers and Madmen, done by the team of Michael Green, Denys Cowan and John Floyd, was published in Batman Confidential, a fairly recent comic series that is supposed to cover early events in Batman’s career, such as his first meeting with Lex Luthor. This is their take on Batman meeting Joker. While I love the storyline, I don’t count it as canon. It contradicts too many established pieces of Batman lore. What I do love is the most disturbing look at Joker ever. And given what I’ve talked about this week, that’s saying something. Read the full story

We’re halfway through Joker Week, and I’m hoping my sanity continues to hold up, despite all the exposure to madness. In keeping with the theme of Joker Week focusing on Batman’s early encounters with his archenemy, today we’ll talk about The Man Who Laughs, a graphic novel written by Ed Brubaker, drawn by Doug Mahnke and colored by David Baron. This is a modern update of Joker’s first appearance, which you may remember as day 1 of Joker Week. Go on, I’ll wait. Read the full story

Howard Gordon has worked on The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, 24, and more. The man knows TV, but does he know novels? With his first novel, Gideon’s War, being published, Howard Gordon is betting that he does. According to our review, Howard’s a safe bet. Read the full story

If you look at my bookshelf… well, you’ll see DVDs, because I don’t keep my books on my bookshelf. If I did keep my books on my bookshelf, and you looked at my bookshelf, you would not see anything remotely resembling Gideon’s War (at its core, an action-thriller novel). You would see fantasy, science-fiction, historical fiction, philosophy, and more in that vein. Read the full story

If you ask me for my opinion about Alan Moore, I will probably go into a long rant. While I don’t like him as a person, I can’t disagree with his genius as a comic writer. This man does things with setting up panels and what-not that I could never hope to do. And my pick for one of his best stories is also the second entry in Joker Week, The Killing Joke, a tale that looks into the Joker’s past as well as his motivation and relationship with Batman. Warning: there will be spoilers aplenty. Read the full story

The year is 1940. Batman is still relatively new to the comic scene, and Robin had just made his debut. It’s that period where our hero is still in touch with his pulp roots, and the stories are still dark, but slowly getting more to the comics we know. And as far as enemies go, Batman has already faced threats like the Monk and Hugo Strange. But he’s about to meet the greatest enemy he’ll ever face: The Joker. Read the full story