Showing posts with label Farscape. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Farscape. Show all posts

Friday, September 25, 2020

Vagrant Queen

Seeing how Vagrant Queen seemed to come and go at lightning speed I view it as my duty to say that this show deserved so much better than being quickly shuffled to a bad time slot and then unceremoniously dumped. The show is fun and colorful and zany and kitschy, like the best 80s science fiction series you could ever hope to encounter with heart and humor. What other show has their battle in the "mandatory science fiction fight club episode" be a karaoke sing-off to the theme from Mannequin!?! Seriously, if there's another show that has done this I need to know to fill the Vagrant Queen sized hole in my life. Perhaps I embraced this show because it reminded me a bit of Killjoys with a dash of Farscape, or perhaps it's because I actually subscribe to comiXology and had targeted ads for the comics so when I got my SyFy newsletter announcing the show I instantly set up a recording for the series on my DVR and was therefore lucky enough to catch the show being one of the few who saw the advertisements in advance. Because seriously, the SyFy Channel just didn't advertise this show enough, as I said before, it deserved better than being just sent out to die. Plus it has something for every science fiction fan! For those who like lots of mythology and a space opera with a crown, there's Elida, the deposed ruler. For those who like their shows full of vengeance, there's Lazaro and his big chip on his shoulder where it comes to Elida. For those who like a funny man with a tragic backstory, there's Isacc, flung into another galaxy, not yours, far from Earth and his wife and child. And for those who like a love story, there's Elida and the gadget wizard Amae. I ship these two so hard. But to top it all off in their episode "No Clue" they do the best send up of the movie Clue only superseded by the Psych episode "100 Clues" because they had most of the cast from the movie in it. And it's Psych.

Friday, June 1, 2018

Westfield Comics

Bookstore: Westfield Comics

Location: West Side Madison, Wisconsin

Why I Love Them: I have been a fan of Westfield Comics long before I was a fan of comics or even books for that matter... Yes, it seems like an odd thing to frequent a comic store and not be there for the comics, but I went through a hard core trading card addiction in my late teens and early twenties and their old location on South Whitney Way sure supplied me with the goods. That little island in the center of the store was four sides of trading card heaven, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Farscape to The Avengers (Emma Peel obviously), if there was a show or movie I loved I HAD to have the trading cards and there was always that elusive chance of finding a signed one or even better a pieceworks one (AKA a bit of fabric from a costume)! This addiction was helped along by the fact that Westfield Comics was right next to Marshalls and my mom went there literally every day, so I'd tag along and see what was happening next door. Eventually my interest started to shift into British Science Fiction magazines that you could only get there and which I desperately needed to feed my Red Dwarf addiction. But when Joss Whedon started writing comics, that was the beginning of my shift to full on Westfield Comics addict. For a short while their new location was right next to Frugal Muse and I was living the dream. Sadly Frugal Muse moved but by this point I was a goner. I now even have a pull list. Reserved. In fact Giant Days issue number thirty-seven is out this coming Wednesday! Can't wait to see what else they've gotten in!

Best Buy: Now because this blog and these posts are all about books, ostensibly, I'm going to talk about my favorite book I've gotten at Westfield Comics. And yes, this could include a trade paperback or hardcover release of comics, but in this case it doesn't. Because my spending habits in regards to graphic novels got kind of out of control I instated a rule for myself, I wasn't allowed to buy a graphic novel unless I had previously read it. This is where my local library and their amazing graphic novel selection comes in. Under the advice of my friend Janice I started to read the Fables comics by Bill Willingham back in 2012. The modern take on Fairy Tales was right up my alley. Over the course of the next three years I devoured all of them, even the offshoots from the atrocious Jack of Fables to the hit or miss Fairest. During my first initial binge catching up on all the back issues I'd missed over the years I noticed that there was one prose volume, Peter and Max: A Fables Novel. I was expecting pretty much more of the same, but I was in for a surprise. I didn't check the book out from the library, I am literally only there for the graphic novels, so off I went to Westfield Comics and there it was on the shelf under "F" and up to the counter I went and when I got home I just fell completely in love with this book. The complex story of the two brothers Peter and Max became my third most favorite book I read that year and by best buy that might never be top from Westfield Comics.   

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