Unwinnable

I don’t like endings. I’m the kind of person who stays in the theater until the end of the credits, who re-reads books over and over and over again, who roams pointlessly through the rescued kingdoms of my videogame worlds. To me, when the screen finally goes black, or the last sentence ends, or the dreaded “Game Over” looms before my eyes, it feels like rejection – like the director, author, developer had revoked my passport to this other world. The curtain, so briefly pulled away, had been closed again, and once Virgil said “the end,” I was no longer allowed inside. (more…)

In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 2009, Alan Moore concludes his three-part tale of the Antichrist in the 20th century that began in Century: 1910. We check in with League members Orlando, Allan Quatermain and Mina Harker and see where this world of imagination-come-to-life is at. If things were dark in 1969, they’re pitch black 40 years later. London is now a dystopian city that Mina Harker (who has been in a mental institution for the last 40 years) compares to the Victorian London of her youth. Allan Quatermain is homeless and strung out on heroin, and Orlando killed a lot of people in Q’Mar while serving in the British military. Upon Orlando’s return to London, Prospero insists that she get as much of the remaining League together as she can, because the Antichrist is now an adult. (more…)

Long in advance of the whole Before Watchmen kerfuffle, I had the opportunity to interview Alan Moore for the local Brooklyn literary journal, Slice Magazine. (more…)

It seems like a million years since I last  played Quake 3. I can still remember sitting in my Los Angeles apartment, huddled in front of a monitor, hearing Bender tell my opponents to bite his shiny metal ass. I wasn’t terribly good at the game – I’d occasionally hit a winning streak and rain death down from the skies – but I did derive great pleasure from the game’s adrenaline-addled pace. I spawned, I acquired weapons, I killed and I died. I played until my eyes were bleary with gibs and the sound of rocket explosions rang in my ears. I took extra satisfaction from downloading every character skin and sound pack I could get my hands on. On a good night, I’d find myself in the midst of a pop culture slaughterhouse. Boba Fett, Krusty the Clown and RoboCop went toe-to-toe, spilling blood in ways that story bibles would never allow. (more…)

While the world is recovering from San Diego Comic Con, with its toys and videogames and movies and television shows, I thought I’d take a moment to actually talk about comic books. Aside of Scott Pilgrim, there have been plenty of memorable comic moments over the last couple weeks. Let’s take a look, shall we? (more…)