In the last couple of month I was reading a comics version of Ender’s Game. Ender’s Game is a book written by Orson Scott Card published in 1985 and spawning 5 sequels (two of them written during 2007 and 2008) and a Shadow – parallel series. The book itself tells the story of Ender – a gifted young child that is send to special military strategic training to fight the Formics in the next invasion. The Formics are a race of bug like creatures that attacked earth and tried to invade it twice. In the background there were some interesting concepts in psychology and social behavior of groups of kids and some nice concepts later translated into the gaming world. The novel won a Hugo and Nebula awards and is considered a science fiction classic. Up to today its very readable and in my opinion is very recommended to any book lover in general – I found myself flying through the pages every time I picked it up.
Last year – Marvel decided to pick up the glove and together with Orson Scott Card – start releasing a graphic novel version of the book divided to monthly comic books. While the graphic art did not catch me from the start, the story telling is great. In the past I already read some comics that Orson Scott card wrote the script for – Ultimate Iron Man, so I knew it would be a closely worked on project and not just slapping the name around. In general I would definitely recommend anyone to read this version – however – as a supplement to the original book, to give it some more graphics in your mind – see how what the original writer visualizes rather then a “cliffs notes” or a definitive version – the comics do not include the books content word to word to say the least, far from it in fact – missing entire plot lines. That said – whoever read the book will definitely enjoy the comics. Marvel and Orson Scott Card also released in parallel a version of Ender’s Shadow comics (Beans story) which was just as nice, and for me – who read the two books apart – reading the comic books close to each other each month – tied some loose ends in the story.
So to whoever wants more details: Ender’s Game comics – official page
And whoever would like a copy in Israel – CNV.
Enjoy,
Liviu
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First of all – I wish to apologize on being absent most of last week and posting nothing.
As the test period came – I had to study for one of my two tests. Together with Mass Effect 2 – it was a tough week.
During my dad’s travels he used to bring me some magazines from time to time that might interest me. A few years ago he grabbed me a copy of Shonen Jump and since then it became my favorite way to get my manga updates. Shonen Jump (SJ from here onwards) started publishing in 2003 and since then became the biggest manga magazine in the US and releases new volumes each month. Shonen – in case you were wondering is the term of manga referenced to teens. SJ is an English counterpart of a Japanease magazine with the same name and is following some of the more known manga stories today. Currently it follows the following series: Bleach, Ultimo (a Stan Lee manga), Naruto, One Piece and Tegami Bachi. In the past it also followed some other very high caliber manga series like Dragon Ball Z, Hikaro No Go, Shaman King and a few more. The roster changes from time to time but Naruto and One Piece which are the two stories I care most about are constant. Each monthly issue comes with about 30-40 pages of story from each series and some articles in the middle reviewing manga related games and movies. I do admit it lacks some of the more mature themed manga and some futuristic and mecha stories which I like, but it does a wonderful job of keeping me up to date with two of my favorite manga stories. Also I like the very authentic theme of the magazine, starting “on the wrong side” like Japanese manga would start and keeping the entire order of the original story – instead of all kind of weird adaptation attempts.
In Israel – SJ can be ordered through CNV (look for my other Comics related article for more details) for 35 NIS if I remember correctly.
If you like manga – be sure to give this one a try.
Liviu
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Another one of my various hobbies is comics.
I remember when I was younger, we had a store in the city center that used to trade book. You buy a book, and if you want, you can bring it back, and for an extra exchange fee you can pick up another book. Since I (as any geek at that age) had a library card – I didn’t pick up any books their, but they had one thing that was completely new to me and blew me away from the first second – Comic books. I remember the first comics I read – Tarzan, Conan the Barbarian, GI Joe, Batman, Superman and so on. Ever since that period I fell in love with the medium. As book adaptations in my opinion it doesn’t work – but the stories written especially for that medium – can be wonderful.
During the years – I always loved to pick a comics here and there and even got fairly into the Japanese counterpart – the manga, but I never really got hooked up because I couldn’t get a monthly comics – each month without very high costs or missing volumes, so for years i was reading only TPB (Trade Paper Back) collections of comic books or parts of the story. Every time I was in the states I was really sad to see the endless shelves of new comic books and stories I can’t monthly subscribe to. All that was before I did some research and found out that two stores were selling comics as their main business. At an average exchange rate of 5 NIS per dollar – I get whatever comic book I want – delivered once a month to my house – that way I follow my favorite comic books without missing any episode.
As I mentioned – there are two stores I know of that deal with comics seriously today. The first one is Comikaza – I remember them from their opening days, but never bought from them more then two or three books. They have a very nice store, but for me – the problem was the rarely updated site. As a lazy person – I want to find all the data I need – like updated shipments, upcoming books and compilations etc online and order them either online or by phone.
Which brings me to the second store - Comics N Vegetables – or in Hebrew קומיקס וירקות. Except for a very amusing name – everything I can think about saying about the store is positive. About two years ago – my wife stepped in the store and opened an “account” – ever since – I enter their site a couple of times a month – see what they brought in the last shipment (updated same day as the shipment) and the upcoming list of comics for the coming months. The phone service is impeccable – definitely one of the best that I ever got, and in general – they were able to get me all kind of comic books (old and new) I wanted on the upcoming shipment. So – if you’re interested in comics and want to stay updated – I can really recommend giving CNV a try. As far as I noticed – both stores offer about the same prices, but the difference in the website – is a major issue for me.
Finally after all those years – I am able to keep being updated with all the comic books I always wanted during the years.
In some later posts I’ll review some of the great stuff I am currently reading.
Some Links:
Comikaza
Comics N Vegetables
Liviu
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In the last couple of month I was reading a comics version of Ender’s Game. Ender’s Game is a book written by Orson Scott Card published in 1985 and spawning 5 sequels (two of them written during 2007 and 2008) and a Shadow – parallel series. The book itself tells the story of Ender – a gifted young child that is send to special military strategic training to fight the Formics in the next invasion. The Formics are a race of bug like creatures that attacked earth and tried to invade it twice. In the background there were some interesting concepts in psychology and social behavior of groups of kids and some nice concepts later translated into the gaming world. The novel won a Hugo and Nebula awards and is considered a science fiction classic. Up to today its very readable and in my opinion is very recommended to any book lover in general – I found myself flying through the pages every time I picked it up.