In Which Criminal Secrets Are Revealed

So I finally got through the final volume of the reprint of Crying Freeman. And after all this violence, double-dealing and two-fisted Triad-on-Yakuza action, I'm really left with one thought over everything else:

Holy crap, that's a lot of naked people.

Seriously. Imagine, if you will, a collaboration between Martin Scorsese, John Woo and Russ Meyer. You can pretty much guarantee any name character mentioned more than twice will be naked at some point, if not actually having sex.

Freeman? Naked all the time; I don't know why the man even owns clothes.

His wife? Oh yeah. Big time naked.

His morbidly obese adopted sister? That's a whole lotta woman, and you get to see every last square inch.

Now I'm not entirely opposed to the sex and nudity in and of themselves, but it really comes off as gratuitous and a little distracting at times. Especially in a combat sequence. When he faces off against an opponent, Freeman's thought process seems to flow along these lines:

1) Remove as much clothing as possible
2) Stand in dramatic pose to show off sweet dragon tat*
3) If opponent is female, make with the sweet sweet lovin'
4) If opponent is male, hold a knife between two toes and stab him in the head.
5) If female opponent is not swayed by the SSL, see step 4

See, right at step one you've lost me. Maybe things are different when you're the greatest assassin in the Pacific Rim; for me, if I'm in a fight for my life, I'd want all my dangly bits securely tucked away. Preferably with some Kevlar in there. But nobody in Freeman's world seems to find this behavior the list bit noteworthy: "What? All the great underworld figures fight buck naked. No, he won't try to grab me by the wedding tackle. That's just silly."

Ultimately the comic was enjoyable enough for me to keep reading, in spite of the distractions. The artwork is a huge departure from the typical manga styling, with very realistic character design. For all those out there who decry the "big eyes small mouth" standard, it can be a welcome change. The violence is appropriately hyped, of course. While it may seem odd to carry on about the sexual aspect and only give the buckets of blood a passing mention, that's kind of my point: this is a story about an underworld assassin and the people he fights with and against. Violence is an inherent part of the package. I expect to see Freeman make with the stabbing. What throws me is that he seems so driven to do it with his wing-wong hanging out for all the world to see.

*-OK, I'll admit, if I had to go through what he did to get that tattoo, I'd be showing it off every chance I got, too.

In Which A Singularity of Awesome Is Formed

Just came back from seeing The Bank Job - a dang good flick in its own right - and before the show, I caught the trailer for The Forbidden Kingdom. I'm not...quite sure about Jackie Chan in dreadlocks, but still.

Jackie, meet Jet. Jet, Jackie.

The longest 42 days of human existence start today.

In Which The Dice Fall Silent

It's a few days late (ain't that the story of my life), but now that I'm feeling marginally human again, I don't think I can really let it go by without saying something about Gary Gygax.

There are a lot of memorials out there already, ranging from funny to downright touching. I don't really have one of those; this is more of a reflection on gaming and my relationship with it.

Compared to a lot of my generation's nerds I was a bit of a late bloomer when it comes to gaming. I never picked up a d20 or saw the inside of a PHB until I was 19. Growing up in a fairly traditional Christian household, I'd been raised to equate D&D with devil-worship, black magic and all that fun stuff. Now, before this goes any further, understand - I am not trying to paint my childhood like it was a living Chick tract. As misguided as they were about the evils of dice with more than six sides, my parents are not screaming zealots. They bought into the hype and made a decision on bad information. It happens.

Given that background, it is perhaps the greatest irony that I was introduced to the hobby through a group of friends I met at a bible study shortly after I arrived at my first duty station in 1997. I think that first character, a ranger, lasted all of two sessions. There was a web spell, flames were involved...his was a short, unhappy life. But the hook was in. As I stumbled my way through those first few sessions, I started to realize: yeah, maybe these guys are a little weird, but overall they're just...guys (I don't recall if we had any girls around the table at that point, though a few did drift in later on). No black masses, no dark arcane rituals, and the only animal sacrifice was whatever went into those Taco Bell burritos.

And this stuff was actually kind of fun.

That first group of gaming buddies was kind of a mixed blessing, looking back. On the one hand, they were a great bunch; I made some great friends, and I still keep in touch with a few even though it's been almost ten years since our dicing days and they all live five or six states away. We weren't always the strongest role-players, maybe, but the sessions were almost always fun. The downside, of course, is that when I left the group I was rather spoiled. I'm sure the nostalgia factor is kicking in a bit, but I don't think I've ever found quite the same rapport with my gaming groups since then.

These last few years have been especially lean, gamewise. Sure, there are a few comic stores around I could probably sound out, but I've found as I get older my tolerance for spending hours at a table with strangers of dubious hygiene is dropping fast. Not many of my friends play. And now there's a good chance my time in Omaha is coming to a close later this year. Still, wherever I end up, I'll probably get the urge to dust off the Crown Royal bag and track down some kobolds to skewer.

For the late nights (and some early mornings), the good friends and the vast consumption of junk food: here's to the Double-G.

In Which The Mighty Have Fallen

Ugh. I'm trying to actually get this thing up and post something interesting enough to, I dunno, have a reader. So what happens? I finally catch the bug making its way around the office.

Figures.