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Doritos Crash Course 2, Blood Dragon, interns, Pandora's Tower, La Mulana, Dragon Fantasy, interns, Animal Crossing, Monster Hunter, Sorcery, Star Command, interns, NextBox speculation, Nintendo's E3, interns, BS crowdfunding campaigns, GT6, and interns. Also: interns.

Here’s what’s going on Talk Among Yourselves, our reader-written blog: It’s crossover craziness as GiantBoyDetective begins a new feature where he looks at games inside cartoons. And his opposite number TinyManCriminal runs down TV shows inside video games. Great entries, both of ‘em. And you can always go join the voices talking about video games and life in TAY Classic and in the TAY: Open Forum.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art cheaper. Our coverage of Amazon's Mayhem Sale on 1500 games has been our most popular post ever. The sale is still going, so get in there. Looking for the current Moneysaver? Click here. Amazon's Gold Box deal today features many of Studio Ghibli's films at their lowest prices ever. Directed mostly by Hayao Miyazaki, these are some of, if not the finest animated feature films ever made, both in content and presentation. Even if you don't like animation or hate anime because of Dragon Ball Z's American edits, these are still must-see experiences. There are DVD's and Blu-rays available, and it's also worth noting that these movies tend to not make it to streaming services. [Amazon] Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke are good starting points if you're new, and also probably the two most important ones to see. Personally, I'm a big fan of Whisper of the Heart and Kiki's Delivery Service. Bummer that My Neighbor Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle aren't included in this, but you should definitely still get them anyway. Keep up with Shane Roberts on Kinja and Twitter. Check out Dealzmodo for more great tech deals, and Deals.Kinja.com for even more discounts. This is a Moneysaver One-Shot, a post focusing on a single deal, sale, or category. Join us every weekday at 2:15pm ET for the full Moneysaver roundup, brought to you by the Commerce Team. We're here to bring Kotaku readers the best gaming deals available, and to be clear, we also make money if you buy. We want your feedback.

In case you just missed Nintendo's latest stream of Direct To You announcements, you can check out the full video here. The gist? There's a little bit of Sonic. A little more of Sonic plus some Mario. Some old school Zelda, thanks to the Virtual Console. Luigi gets the spotlight. Japan gets another thing we get to be jealous of. All of that and more that you can watch above.

You figure Nintendo is probably keeping the majority of its more interesting stuff for E3. At least, I hope so, because this morning's Nintendo Direct wasn't exactly a banger. Ostensibly focused on the Wii U and 3DS' summer lineups, the live stream also revealed a couple of new, further-flung titles headed to Nintendo's various platforms, including two new Sonic the Hedgehog games.

Here is the only image Nintendo sent over for Sonic Lost World. Super helpful, right?

The one shown most prominently was Mario & Sonic at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games, which may win the award for "Most Unwieldy Game Title" for the foreseeable future. As with other Mario/Sonic crossover sports titles, this one will feature a variety of multiplayer-focused sports, including skiing, snowboarding, bobsledding, figure skating, and curling, among others. That game is expected to launch in time for the event early next year.

However, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata also announced another title featuring Sega's hedgehog mascot. Sonic Lost World is a new action/adventure/platformer that will be coming exclusively to the Wii U and 3DS. Details were scarce, but Nintendo is expected to reveal more about the title at E3.

Elsewhere, Nintendo mostly confirmed release dates for its summer games, and added a couple of details about some games already set for release. Here's the rest of today's info in bite-sized chunks.

• New Super Luigi U, the Luigi-themed DLC content for New Super Mario Bros. U, will release for $19.99 on June 20 as an eShop download. However, in addition to that, the Luigi DLC will also be packaged as a stand-alone retail game, which launches on August 25 for $29.99.
• The Wonderful 101, Platinum Games' insane looking superhero action/strategy/brawler, now has a release date of September 15 in North America.
• Nintendo plans to give you, the player, hands-on time with some of its upcoming Wii U titles during the week of E3. It will launch a demo program in over 100 different Best Buy locations in the U.S. and Canada, feauring games that will be shown on the E3 show floor. Specific locations and games have not yet been announced, but Nintendo plans to announce those details soon.
• The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, which will both launch on the 3DS Virtual Console on May 30, will be released at a sale price of $4.99 each for the first three weeks. After that, each title will revert to the price of $5.99.
• Nintendo and Sega will be bringing a number of Game Gear titles to the 3DS Virtual Console in the future. The titles announced for release are:
  • Columns
  • Crystal Warriors
  • Defenders of Oasis
  • Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
  • G-LOC: Air Battles
  • Shining Force II: The Sword of Hajya
  • Sonic Blast
  • Sonic Drift 2
  • Sonic Labyrinth
  • Sonic the Hedgehog
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2
  • Tails Adventure
  • Vampire: Master of Darkness

If you would like to watch the entire stream, which also features additional details and footage for Game & Wario, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and Pikmin 3, you can do so here.

Arrested Development’s imminent return means that its stars have turned up in the weirdest places. Like frozen banana stands in various cities. And while Tobias Fünke’s sizzle reel had a brief snippet of video games in it, Capcom’s taken things to a whole new level. The publisher of Street Fighter and Dragon’s Dogma took David Cross’ character up on his challenge for folks to Insert Him Anywhere and threw the thespian into a bunch of their games. I think the Resident Evil clip is my favorite but I love the non-sequitur WTF of the Mega Man cameo too. What video game would you insert Funke into?

In what appears to be a modern take on late-80s arcade game Narc, Deep Silver's Narco Terror is a twin-stick blast-everything shooter of one man (or two in local or online co-op) versus the cartels. The game is listed for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Earlier this week, we looked at the five anime you should be watching this season. But what about all the other anime this season? Well here’s why some of the more notable ones didn't make the cut. Now, keep in mind that these opinions are based only on the first half of each of these anime. A great second half could turn any of the following anime into one of the seasons’ best. And that's not to say that all the anime below are bad—though I’d argue at least one definitely is. Most just suffer from being average and don’t stand out when compared to other, similar anime in their given genre. So let’s dive in and take a look at four more of this season’s notable anime. The Severing Crime Edge Genre: Romance, Death Game Currently at: Episode 6 (of 13) Non-Spoiler Plot Summary: Kiri is a boy with a unique fetish: he loves to cut hair. One day he comes across a girl whose hair cannot be cut—except, as it turns out, by an ancient pair of scissors passed down through his family. But when he cuts her hair, he unexpectedly sets in motion a death game that puts both his life and hers in mortal danger. Why You Can Skip It: On one side, The Severing Crime Edge is a lightly comedic, romantic tale about two teens who find the one other person in the world who completes them. On the other, it’s about their battling a score of psychopaths coming to kill them. The contrast between this cutesy love story and staggering violence is the strongest point of the show—but very little is done with it. So while the show is not bad, there are many far better realized romance anime out there. And if you’re looking for a good death game anime, you’d be better off watching Future Diary. Where You Can Watch It: Crunchyroll Flowers of Evil Genre: Suspense, Romance Currently at: Episode 6 (of 13) Non-Spoiler Plot Summary: Flowers of Evil is a slice-of-life tale about an average high schooler who, in the midst of teenage hormones and panic, accidentally steals the gym clothes of the girl he has a crush on. But before he can return the clothes, the school’s token female delinquent claims to be a witness to his theft and blackmails him into performing whatever perverted whims cross her mind. Why You Can Skip It: Flowers of Evil has gotten a lot of attention due to its use of rotoscope animation—and, no doubt, it makes for interesting visuals. Unfortunately, it is a gimmick that only hinders the quality of the anime overall. Simply put, Flowers of Evil is a long, drawn-out mess of tedium that is more concerned with showing off the rotoscoped scenery of rural Japan than telling a story. And what little story appears is nothing but useless, agonizing suspense coupled with low stakes and little payoff. Where You Can Watch It: Crunchyroll Devil Survivor 2: The Animation Genre: Sci-Fi, Apocalyptic Currently at: Episode 7 (of 12) Non-Spoiler Plot Summary: Without warning, monstrous demons begin flooding into Japan. It’s up to a group of teenage friends, able to summon friendly demons from their cell phones, to save the world from the apocalypse. (It is based on the DS title Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2.) Why You Can Skip It: Devil Survivor 2: The Animation isn’t “bad” per say, but it is painfully run-of-the-mill. Teenagers summoning monsters to save the world has been done to death. And unlike Persona 4: The Animation, there are no compelling mysteries nor are there deeper psychological dilemmas being explored to give the plot a unique twist. If digital-based monsters is your thing, you’d be better off watching the better seasons of Digimon. Where You Can Watch It: Crunchyroll Henneko: The “Hentai” Prince and the Stony Cat Genre: Comedy, Romance Currently at: Episode 5 (of 12) Non-Spoiler Plot Summary: When your typical (if more than a little perverted) high school student decides his tendency to lie has gotten him into too much trouble, he wishes it away at a mysterious cat statue. Of course, this forces him to say every thought that comes across his mind in pure honesty—no matter how rude or perverted. Teaming up with a girl who wished away her ability to portray emotions, the pair try to find a way to get back what they wished away. Hilarity ensues. Why You Can Skip It: While there is more than a little enjoyable humor in Henneko, there is really nothing you haven’t seen before. The basic setup is taken straight out of Jim Carrey’s Liar Liar and romantic aspects are pretty much par for the course for a fan service-filled moé/harem/romantic comedy made in recent years. Where You Can Watch It: Crunchyroll And what about the anime that didn’t manage to make this or the previous list? Why haven’t I looked at them? Probably one of four reasons: 1) They were the second season of an anime and I haven’t seen the first, 2) they were far outside what I and the majority of Kotaku readers have shown an interest in, 3) I have already reviewed them, or 4) they simply didn’t cross my radar. But if you feel I have left out an anime that’s something special, feel free to give me a heads up in the comments and tell me why you feel that way. Or pop over to to Talk Amongst Yourselves: ANI-TAY and post your own thoughts on these series. To contact the author of this post, write to BiggestinJapan@gmail.com or find him on Twitter @BiggestinJapan. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

How many more Japanese photo memes can there be? When will they stop? At this rate, never. In the last 24 hours or so, the above photo has been going viral in Japan. It's been retweeted over eighteen thousand times. On the original tweet, it says in Japanese, "We're sick of guitar!! We want to play Mushiking!" The four students put their guitars on their backs and pretended they were beetles. Mushiking: The King of the Beetles was an originally a Sega arcade and collectible card game in which insects battled. It was very popular in Japan about a decade ago and even spawned an anime series. Online in Japan, people are saying things like, "This is too clever" or "I want to play Mushiking, too". Of course, some people in Japan are wondering when this seemingly endless stream of teenage photo memes will end. Others are joining in: Japanese teens, like teens anywhere, like to goof off on the internet. And thus, we get trends like this—trends that sometimes go global. What's interesting about this particular is that the original photo and its catchphrase are spawning parodies. The cultural context means some of the humor is lost in translation. The tweet for above image says, "We're sick of L'Arc-en-Ciel!! Let's play Mushiking!"This one says, "Since there's no Yu Jin, we're tired of being the Five Elite Generals!! Let's play Mushiking!" This meme is, as previously mentioned, just starting to take off. And it's unclear how far it will spread or how many kids will start playing "guitar Mushiking" for internet kicks. In case you missed it, here's a round up of recent Japanese photo memes: Dragon Ball, Harry Potter, and Attack on Titan. Photos: koyoniikoyo, tamachan_0523, pannnnnta, sykc5, akarin_mc_z, tamachan_0523, a0319c, minami_moimoi, tamarankeisuke To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

Four members of LulzSec, the group behind 2011's hacker attacks against Sony and Nintendo, were sentenced at a London court yesterday. The youngest member received a suspended jail term of two years, while the other three were sentenced to prison time ranging from thirty months to two years. [via GI.biz]

You know what's more mind-blowing that latte art? Latte art drawn in vibrant color. And this Japanese coffee craftsman has mastered it. You are looking at the work of "Nowtoo Sugi". Starting this past February, Sugi began using colored bartender syrups to, as the hobby artist says, "paint" on coffee. Sugi isn't the only one to create colorful lattes, but is certainly one of the best. So, for example, Sugi uses Blue Hawaii syrup for, well, blue and strawberry syrup for red or pink. The colors are mixed with steamed milk for variation. Sugi's work features video game, anime, and movie characters from Japan and the West. The first, or one of the first, color coffees the artist did was of One Piece's Donquixote Doflamingo (below). Soon after that, the frothy painter followed up with Nintendo's Kirby character. And Sugi also does 3D latte art—that is, color 3D latte art. The Japanese latte artist says this as a hobby—a way to blow off steam, if you will. So, since Sugi does this at home, that means only friends and family get to sample this amazing looking coffee. But who could drink such amazing art? Sugi, thankfully, does share the work online Below, you can check out some videos, which show how these vibrant java works are bought to life. In case you missed it, here's a look at 3D latte art. @Nowtoo [Twitter] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

The site Zero Feedback has a noble mission statement: to track down and play independent, freeware games that for whatever reason have gone completely unnoticed. The criteria for inclusion is that a game must have been submitted to a forum or site and received zero feedback (hence the name) within a 3-6 month period. If so, then the site's curator Noyb would try and find it, play it, and give it some kind of review/feedback. "It’s never been easier to make games", he writes. "It’s never been easier to make a game that goes overlooked." Noyb has looked at 300 games since setting up the site. You can take a look, and dig through the titles he's found, below. Zero Feedback [Site]

As part of the promo campaign for the upcoming Arrested Development comeback, there's now a Tobias Fünke sizzle reel on YouTube. You know, because he's an actor. It's fantastic stuff, especially the part where he gets all multimedia, and manages to star in a shitty old video game.

They're made of paper. Amazing stuff. Reader VJIII, aka shieldcore, sent these in. I'm in awe. I mean, the papercraft itself is impressive enough, but sticking lights in there is just too much. Some of these are small papercraft models. Others are papercraft outfits for figures. Some are human-sized papercraft cosplay! shieldcore [DeviantArt]

Dan LuVisi - who we only just featured on our daily concept art showcase - is to thank for this "realistic" portrayal of Buzz Lightyear, which puts Star Command in the hands of the US government and turns the cartoon hero into someone you could easily imagine kicking ass in a 2013 video game. To Infinity and Beyond - [DeviantArt]

Here's a silly take by Freddie Wong on what would happen if we had a dog for president. In this reality, all cats are eradicated until only one cat is left. The Last Cat. Naturally, the last cat on Earth is also a rather cute cat. And naturally, there's also a group of select people devoted to keeping it alive at all costs. And yes, there are gun fights. Dramatic? Maybe. Also kind of hilarious. Remember this when you see posters for Mr. Ruffles 2016, people. Feel free to talk about cats, dogs or just about anything else here in this open thread or over in our spiffy Talk Amongst Yourselves. The Last Cat on Earth [freddiew]

We fire up some You Don't Know Jack, and prove that, indeed. we truly don't.

Last week Lay's decided to award the U.S. potato chip prize to Cheesy Garlic Bread, the least interesting of the three "Do Us a Flavor" competitors. A little over a third of America voted for it, allegedly. That leaves a little under two-thirds of America to the mercy of price-gouging jerks on Amazon and eBay. Who is going to spend $24.95 plus shipping for a bag of Chicken and Waffles or Sriracha potato chips? Not me, that's for sure. I only went as high as $20 with shipping on eBay for a bag, and I will savor that bag until Lay's comes to its sense. Hopefully that'll happen before the rebellion.

Dark, a shooter where you play as a vampire, still looks as cool now as it did when we initially saw that it wasn't about being a sparkly, sensitive bloodsucker. After all, you will eat your enemies to regain health. You will teleport. You will become invisible and stalk your prey. You will hypnotize your targets. This trailer showcases a number of powers available to you in the game, making it seem as if you have a variety of approaches available to you when it comes to problem solving. Anyone reminded of Deus Ex a bit here? With cel-shading, that is. The game releases this summer for PC and Xbox 360.

GeoGuessr, as you might have guessr'd from the name, is a straightforward game. You get dropped in the middle of a random location on Google Street View and have to guess, based on your surroundings, where the hell you are. The closer you are, the higher your score. Pretty simple right?The difficulty varies wildly. Sometimes it'll drop you in front of a sign that reads "Welcome to Rio De Janeiro", and other times it'll strand your ass on a dirt road that could be almost anywhere. One thing is clear though: It's stupidly addictive, and perfectly simulates the sensation of waking up in the middle of an unfamiliar, foreign country after a week long bender. I...I can't stop playing it, you guys. Play it here, if you dare.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #23 - People who’ve worn the webbed mask have abandoned being Spider-Man before. The cover of this week’s Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #23 riffs on the classic John Romita image from Amazing Spider-Man #50, when Peter Parker quit. And I want to say that Ben Riley stopped web-swinging because of angst, too. But I could be wrong about that. What feels different about Miles Morales’ abdication of the Spidey identity is the proximity of trauma to the event. Unlike Peter Parker not being there for Uncle Ben, Miles was there when the bad stuff happened. His wounds must feel especially raw. And then you’ve got people from all sides pressuring to talk about his feelings and/or start being Spider-Man again. Writer Brian Bendis and David Marquez make Miles feel so much younger and vulnerable than Peter Parker and that makes me feel for the kid even more. You know he’s gonna get back in the suit and you feel so, so bad for him in this moment. Batwoman #19 - Another Bat-family reunion happens in this issue. Don’t expect anything happy, though. It’s a testament to the writing of this series that I’ve kept reading even when co-creator J.H. Wiliams isn’t drawing it. I felt the last arc was a bit over-written but the emotional punch of this issue is a turn for the better. I like how the end of this issue assembles a group of partners/loved ones around Kate. This story beat happens even as Batman’s family unit is crumbling and dissipating after both the Death of the Family storyline and the murder of Damien Wayne, the most recent Robin. If it were a fair fight, you might even think that Batwoman has a chance in taking Batman on. But it’s never a fair fight when Batman’s involved. Fatale #14 - The thing to love in this issue of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’s dark magic noir series is how human the monsters feel. Usually, anything derived from Lovecraftianmaterial generates villains that feel aloof and removed from human concerns. But the way that the Nazi Cthulu entities curse and react to the conflicts in these pages makes them more engaging—and worth hating—than the usual cult-of-bad-guys. This installment also fills in a bit of the lore for the Fatale universe and, of course, makes everyone in this book feel even more wonderfully damned.

Imagine if the most annoying parts of the internet—spam emails, viruses, things that exist to steal your identity—were real people. Real people trying to get into your house. Ugh, no. Things could get ugly quick, as shown by this video by HapstanceFilms. Well, until the porn lady comes around. Then you won't even realize you're being screwed with. The Inbox | HAPSTANCE [HapstanceFilms]

Before I knew a single piece of information about Lords of the Fallen, I knew I wanted to play it. Whatever is going on in this image, I want to be a part of it. Has that ever happened to you? I didn't know Lords of the Fallen was an upcoming role-playing game from Poland's CI Games. I hadn't a clue the project was being led by Tomasz Gop, former senior producer on The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings. Hell, had I read the official description of the game, due out in 2014 for next-generation consoles and PC, I probably would have simply made a note to wait for something more concrete than generic-sounding plot and promises I've heard before. Lords of the Fallen is a hardcore action-RPG featuring an advanced combat systems and robust class skill trees. Set in a richly created fantasy world where the Gods have failed mankind, players will take on the role of a human named Harkyn who sets out on a quest to stand against an apparently unstoppable supernatural force. Players travel across a world that is deeply divideded by those that follow and others that resist, the Fallen God. Along their journey they will be faced with a series of decisions that will alter both the world and their character thus dramatically impacting the storyline. But no, I saw the art first, and now I am intrigued. An image that chances are won't even appear in the final product. That's some powerful mojo. Luke Plunkett regularly celebrates the work of concept artists in his Fine Art series, through it I've developed a healthy respect for those often unsung heroes. They're thrust into the front lines of the game marketing war, and sometimes they manage to win the battle without a single screenshot fired.

Google will start selling an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S4 with stock Android next month, but is it worth the cash?

Many of us get kind of teary-eyed when thinking about how Mass Effect has allowed us to transfer Commander Shepard across three games over the last five years. That pales in comparison to Pokémon, which, barring the early games, allows you to transfer creatures for over a decade across many titles—a feature which blogger Cunzy1 1 has made ample use of. Dactylocer, which is Cunzy's name for his Omastar—a fossil type Pokemon—is a companion that he's been using since Pokémon Fire Red. That'd make the Omastar at least a decade old—older once Pokemon X/Y come out. "Even though I know that it isn't 'my Omastar' being transferred from one game to another, it's merely the (genetic) code being replicated in the next game and permanently deleted from the old game I can genuinely say I have a sentimental attachment to this guy (and it is a male) who has now been my digital companion, more accurately, the digital companion of many of my trainers through each game, for just under a decade," he explained on his blog—where he chronicled the adventures the Omastar experienced across all the different games. He recognizes that while this Omastar isn't the best Pokemon—or even the best Omastar—it doesn't matter. It's his Omastar. Today, Kill Screen interviewed Cynzy1 1, who revealed that the reason he's picked Omastar for this is because he's a paleontologist, and Omastar is a fossil type that's a parody of ammonites. Makes sense. Mind, not everything is romantic about this. The Omastar he's transferred is actually the second Omastar. Remember, you can't transfer over Pokémon from the original titles—so there was an Omastar before this one. That, and, the Omastar has mothered a "couple hundred other Omastars. Sometimes with her own sons." Yeah. Many of us are guilty about the breeding thing with our own 'mon I'm sure, but it's still kind of ick to think about. I'm curious, though: have you transferred your Pokémon across all games? If so, which and why? Share your stories—surely, while this sort of thing is kind of rare, Cynzy1 1 can't be the only one that's done it! GIF above is from this must-watch, although unrelated, video. An Omastar is for life [That guys a maniac] Meet the man who's been playing the same Pokemon character for a decade [Kill Screen]

The internet is kind of like a classic confessional - except it's not a box, it's a lot brighter and everyone can hear what you have to say. Still, we asked a handful of independent developers for their thoughts on what exactly makes a platform effective, and they spilled it all, dissecting the pros and cons of the most popular, current models of distibution.

Today, we feature answers from Ridiculous Fishing's Rami Ismail, Canabalt's Adam Saltsman, Octodad's Philip Tibitoski, Retro City Rampage's Brian Provinciano and others. This group of developers had specific thoughts about Steam, the Humble Store, Apple's app stores and the Android hub, Google Play.

This follows yesterday's batch of answers from the Steam, Humble Store, iOS and Android camps. Let the confessions begin:

These might be the most important words in comics: "Hey, have you read that?" The medium's lifeblood has always been the word-of-mouth that passes from one reader to another. The only query that might surpass the above is "So, what'd you think?" Here's where we put the discussion into Panel Discussion. Of course, we want to hear from you. Please join us in the comments below. This week, pop culture crtitics Douglas Wolk, Graeme McMillan and myself talk about The Private Eye #2 and Julio's Day. One happens in the near future while the other takes place over the last century but people have things to hide in each comic. Read on to see why we think is good or problematic about each work. Evan: So we've got Private Eye #2 by Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin and Julio's Day by Gilbert Hernandez on tap this week. Graeme: Two very different comics, those two. Douglas: That is very true. Graeme: Let's start with the beautiful, garish Private Eye. Evan: Yeah, garish. That's a great way to put it. I love how the book fuses all these familiar genre elements: a flying car straight out of Steranko S.H.I.E.L.D., a Cthulu mask, brass knuckles out of a Mickey Spillane story. Douglas: I really, really like The Private Eye. I can't describe its concept as easily as I can describe other Brian K. Vaughan comics, but I love the LOOK of it—Marcos Martin is one of those artists who aren't nearly as well known as they ought to be, but he's SO good at playing with the page's space, and he's gotten right into the groove of landscape-format art. Graeme: Douglas, doesn't this seem like a series that's far more ABOUT the visuals than any other BKV comic? The writing in it is very sharp (of course), and I love the genre mash-up, but this is ALL about the art for me. And the colors. I can't imagine this in print, the colors are so vibrant. Douglas: And I love the old "do the worldbuilding first, then don't explain it and let readers figure it out as they go along" trick. I don't think Vaughan's done that before—even Saga tends to be very easy to grasp—and I'm enjoying going back over the first two issues and puzzling it out. Graeme: I feel like this second issue benefited from not having the info dump of the first. Evan: And Martin seems to have down a subtle shift in the framing in this issue. The first issue had more wide-angle shots—better suited to the world-building—and this one was more close-ups and talking heads. Graeme: As if BKV got that out the way and was then comfortable enough to leave everything else to us. Douglas: Side note: I'm very happy to see people who've done a lot of mainstream comics doing stuff on their own, online, and figuring out how to get paid for it—see also the Lady Sabre Kickstarter that's doubled its initial goal in about a week. Evan: Douglas, I spoke to Rucka about that very topic last week. Douglas: Graeme,very true! It's definitely visually driven in a way that Y the Last Man and Ex Machina weren't (and Saga kind of is). Graeme: Evan, the framing in this felt (appropriately) more influenced by noir movies, but entirely detoured by the colors/costumes. The focus on visuals feels consistent with what the book is about, though - The surface gloss and how it hides what's underneath. Douglas: There's also a lot of wordless panels and sequences in this one. Martin's a really strong visual storyteller—he can make images that are very simple but that you want to linger over long enough to catch what's happening in them–and so he's getting to do a lot of the work here. Graeme: I wonder if Martin will continue to evolve his pacing/structure as the writing becomes more intricate and the story goes on. Evan: Yeah, the scene where PI takes off the eye-black was oddly effective Graeme: Look at how the colors shifted down a gear in that scene, too. Douglas: As I understand, Saga is becoming one of the big backlist success stories of the moment; I wonder how many of its readers are aware of The Private Eye? They've been doing remarkably little to publicize it. Like, you'd think they'd at least email people who bought the first one to let them know the second one's out. Graeme: This is a visually SMART book. Douglas: (The downshift followed by the mostly-white wordless panel: YES.) Graeme: Yeah, the strange release schedule/method here fascinates me. Like, the first one almost advertised itself: HERE ARE THESE GUYS DOING THIS CRAZY THING. But for future issues, how can they repeat that impact? Evan: Vaughan says in the afterword that it exceeded expectations, so that's good, hopefully? Graeme: Are they hoping we'll just continue to be all "Oh, wow, have you SEEN this?" Douglas: That's possible. And it's possible that we will—! Graeme: I think it's good, yes. But I also wonder what the plan is to keep this going, for want of a better way to put it. This feels too good to just... run quietly, I guess? Evan: I certainly hope this isn't something that gets abandoned for more stable, better paying work Graeme: Like, I know they keep saying no print plans, but, man, I'd love to have this in a hardcover when it's done. Douglas: I think it's meant to be about ten episodes. Graeme: Evan, Martin quit Daredevil for this, so there's that, I guess? Evan: Wow, okay. Douglas: I'd like to see that too, but I also admire the idea that it's just a place to work out a new form… straight to digital and designed first and foremost with tablet reading in mind. Evan: Agreed. Evan: Reading it in landscape felt like reading a Sunday color comics strip in a newspaper years ago. That déjà vu was compounded by the fact that the journo cop looks a lot like Dick Tracy. Douglas: I also love the fact that (SPOILER ALERT) the "cover" image this issue is also the final panel of the story! Graeme: Yeah, I really enjoyed that. It's funny… that was also the gimmick of a lot of DC's WTF covers, where it DIDN'T work. Evan: Yeah, that feels unconventional, just like so much else about the book. Graeme: Maybe the plus is that the cover here is just a cool image with no baggage until you get to that final scene? Douglas: That makes sense. Evan: Absolutely. Graeme: There's no "AND THESE GUYS — WILL SHOOT OUR HEROES!" blurb to spoil it. All told, it's one of those "Well, if only ALL comics were this good" things, still. Which reminds me: Did you see the review of Daredevil that was essentially "I wish this book wasn't so good, quality is boring"? Evan: None of you asked but I still feel the need to say that my favorite line from this comic was "Easy with my Christian, handsome." Douglas: Shall we tackle Julio's Day? Graeme: Yes! I am very curious what you two made of it. Douglas: I encountered "Julio's Day" in its original incarnation—in the second volume of "Love & Rockets," where we usually only got, I think, a page an issue, the idea being that we got lots of little fragments of this guy's life and had to piece them together. That's one thing that Gilbert Hernandez does in a LOT of his work: strip the story down to tiny moments that imply a lot more, and let readers work out how they all fit together for themselves. Graeme: It's something that I was initially thrown by here: - The time jumps between scenes with no immediate signifiers. It was one of those things that made me realize how much I rely on storytelling crutches elsewhere. Douglas: So I wondered if this version—100 pages long (one for each year of the character's life, although not one PER each year)—might connect the dots a bit more. And... it mostly doesn't! I kind of feel like I should sit down with it at much greater length and work it all out. I caught a few ways that things tied together, but I'm sure I'm missing most of them. But it also doesn't have the insane momentum and scope of some of the Gilbert Hernandez things I like best—Luba or The High Soft Lisp or Love & Rockets X. Graeme: It is surprisingly complex, but also surprisingly... uneven, I guess? It felt very scattered to me, and not intentionally. Unlike you, Douglas, this is probably my favorite Gilbert yet. But then, I haven't read Palomar, and I find his work problematic in other places. It's his obsession with uber-large breasts, I admit. It's a weird fetishization thing of his that distracts from everything around it. Douglas: Not a lot of uber-large breasts in this one, though, gotta say. Plus: gay male protagonist! Evan: This was my first contact with the work and it felt scattered to me, too Douglas: Well, Gilbert is totally problematic! Gilbert tries hard to be problematic! Graeme: Evan, how long did it take for the book to make sense to you? Asking because I felt it to be "too long," if that makes sense. And, to Douglas, yes. Thankfully, the fetishization was kept to a minimum. Although, his cartoonish qualities weren't. For example, Julio's father's sickness felt like it came out of another book. Evan: I got the gist right away and liked it overall but struggled to care about some of the characters. Graeme: That's the unevenness I was referring to before; there wasn't a consistency in tone. Douglas: One thing I find fascinating about Beto's stuff is that he can make "tacky/sleazy" a deliberate tonal choice, and does it way more often and for longer than most other "highbrow" cartoonists. Graeme: I'm torn on the gay male protagonist bit. On the one hand, yay for not sensationalizing it! On the other, Julio seemed more asexual than gay and his reaction to the grandson was... odd. Evan: The broad humor didn't always mesh well with the sleazy, fantastical and horror beats Graeme: Douglas, his consistency with tacky/sleazy as aesthetic is one of the reasons I have such problems with his work overall, even if that wasn't the case here. Douglas: Evan, yeah, I think that's the thing: there are a lot of Gilbert's characters, even very minor ones, who are permanently part of my brain now, and not many of the characters here are anywhere near as lively. Graeme: And Evan, yes, the humor and the horror and everything else didn't make sense. Evan: I did like how the family lived on the fringes of the 20th Century. It reminded me A LOT of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' 100 Years of Solitude. The weird almost-incest, characters with the same names and weird proclivities, home-as-a-black-hole-you-can't-escape, the outside world as an exotic dangerous place, nature as this karmic equalizer … Graeme: Evan, I think you have managed to make 100 Years of Solitude sound amazingly unappealing by accident. Evan: Well, I don't mean to. But those things are there, right? Douglas: Also, it's not really a secret that G.H. is really into 100 Years of Solitude–there's a conversation about it fairly early in Heartbreak Soup! Douglas: Graeme, my take on Julio's sexuality is that it's interesting to have a really, really, really repressed protagonist around whom everything else in the story revolves. But that also creates story problems... Graeme: I feel that even his repression was repressed, though; it felt less as if he was repressing his own urges as Gilbert was avoiding the subject. Douglas: So the thing I really loved here, as always, was Hernandez's artwork. That page where the grandson is walking in the snow out in the middle of nowhere and the clouds are just a few hatched lines: SO GORGEOUS. Graeme: Gilbert-as-artist does environment really well. The various transition scenes that just focus on the surroundings and weather are all lovely to me. I think he's stronger at that than at character work. Douglas: What this really made me think of is this: you know how you might have a favorite art-film director? And sometimes they make masterpieces, and sometimes they make this weird little slightly malformed slip of a movie that you're still fond of because it's so obviously theirs? Even if it's not actually anywhere near as affecting ast the masterpieces? That's where I am with Julio's Day. Graeme: Yeah, I can see that. I almost have the opposite reaction: I liked it, but what I found off-putting was what I would term Gilbert tics. Evan: I just wanted it to feel more... lyrical? Like that on book of his a few years back, with the orange groves? Douglas: I tend to like artists for their tics in general... the things that sneak into their work even when they're trying for something else. Evan you're taking about Sloth! Graeme: Douglas, I agree wholeheartedly about liking artists for their tics. It's just that there are also artists whose tics I don't like, you know? Douglas: Yeah, this one's his Another Woman rather than his Hannah And Her Sisters, I suppose. Graeme: But both are... valuable? I don't know; I suspect this may give me more of an "in" into Gilbert's work in some way. Douglas: Which would make Fatima: The Blood Spinners his... Melinda and Melinda? Graeme: I know that my first thought when finishing it was "I REALLY have to read Palomar." Marble Season is Radio Days, then? Douglas: ...It totally is! Marble Season is his cute, simple, lightweight story of a particular happy moment in childhood. Evan: I haven't read Marble Season yet. Douglas: Which means that Palomar is Annie Hall and… please somebody stop me now, thanks! Evan: Ok, we're done here. Graeme: Next: Why Jaime Hernandez is actually Julie Delphy. Evan: Hahahaha!

Today we chat with Valve about trading cards, but Axe just won't shut up!

Today we chat with Valve about trading cards, but Axe just won't shut up!

I'd say the exclusive head on Sideshow Collectibles' new Harley Quinn figure has a face only a deranged lunatic could love, but I'm worried about what that says about me. Sporting a full cloth costume, a giant wooden mallet and her trademark jester headgear, the standard version of Sideshow's premium format rendition of Harleen Quinzel is a fair representation of what the character looks like in the cartoon and comics. She's the Harley Quinn we see wandering the halls of comic book conventions in large numbers — easy mode Harley. Anyone can put on a mask and be recognized as the Joker's girl Friday. But there's much more to Harley than a mask and a mallet. There's the sass — the most deadly sass you ever did see. I'd say attitude, but that brings to mind early 90s video game mascot characters wearing sunglasses and surfing on sharks. She doesn't have an attitude — she is an attitude. She's this attitude, right here. Such a brat. She's perfect. Standing 21 inches tall and weighing 9 pounds, the premium format Harley Quinn is now available for preorder at Sideshow Collectibles. You've got to have mad love for the character to shell out $359.99, but that face is enough to make anyone go a little crazy.