Trent's Top 50 albums #35-26

35. Avantasia - The Metal Opera (2001/2002)
34. The Beatles - Let It Be (1970)
33. Muse - Origin of Symmetry (2001)
32. Opeth - Damnation (2003)
31. Queen - A Day At The Races (1976)
30 - Helloween - Keeper of The Seven Keys (1987/1988)
29. Deep Purple - In Rock (1970)
28. Rush - 2112 (1976)
27. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream (1993)
26. Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind (1983)

Also, I have posted a review of the Iron Maiden concert I attended last week, so take a look.

I Killed Adolf Hitler review

This was the book that brought me back to comic books. It was one of my first visits to a real comic book shop, and I was dead set against getting something that was completely left of center. My interest in Star Wars was too safe, and I didn’t feel up to the financial requirements of reading The Sandman just yet. So, there it was, on the independents shelf: I Killed Adolf Hitler, featuring anthropomorphic characters, and an author who didn’t have a last name. Just Jason. So thirteen dollars later, I was the owner of forty-eight pages of stand alone comics. After reading, I didn’t have anything negative that I could possibly say, other than, perhaps, that it was too short.

Despite having no names, the characters are phenomenally animated. The hero is an assassin for hire in a world where that profession is perfectly acceptable, and not against the law. In the opening scene, he breaks up with his girlfriend, and quickly appears disillusioned by the line of work he is in. So, in walks a scientist who assigns him a hit, and tells him that he will be traveling through time to kill Adolf Hitler. After this doesn’t work out, he works with his ex to track down Hitler in the modern era. This sets up a poignant love story more than anything else, and quick witted to it’s finale. The tone of the book seems to be inspired greatly by the films of Woody Allen. The dialogue is sharp, and the action takes a back seat to the character development.

Jason is yet another great writer who also draws his own books. His art style is very simple, colors minimalistic. There isn’t anything that takes the attention away from the tale being told, but it’s not offensive to the eye either. The sci-fi element of time travel is simply handled as well, with a giant metal bubble being the only time travel device necessary. However, this doesn’t mean that it isn’t plot important through to the ending. As a matter a fact, this plot device provides the sweet ending that makes me constantly recommend this book to readers new to the medium.

Despite a simplistic cartoon appearance, don’t go into this book expecting a young readers experience. The first scene alone depicts the hero’s girlfriend graphically describing masturbation while he shoots and kills someone from her window. This isn’t the only moment of graphic violence either, as there are several moments where another assassin is performing a hit while the hero talks to other characters. This is more a warning than anything else, as it doesn’t take the spotlight away from the fantastic character development and storytelling.

This was my first experience with independent comics. My first graphic novel from the Norwegian artist and writer Jason. This was my indoctrination into the fan base associated with comics, though I’m not one of “those” comic book fans. Give this one a try, and I’m certain you will come back for more shortly after.

4/5

So, my schedule has been thwarted by work, finances, and school over the past two weeks. I'll be playing catch up with weekly comics at the end of the week, and I'm currently working on reviews of We3 by Grant Morrison and Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli. I've also been invited to write reviews for , where I will be crossposting my reviews to. I'm still a contributor to The Galactic Outpost as well. Stay tuned, folks.

Trent's Top 50 albums #50-46

I've started my list of my top 50 favorite albums on my site, complete with little reasons why and a list of my 3 favorite tracks from every album. Here's just the list so far, in case you can't be bothered to know WHY I consider these favorites. Also note, these are favorite albums, as in the ones I listen to most, not what I know are the best ones. 'Best' lists are, in my opinion, pretty rigid and boring.

#50. Images and Words - Dream Theater (1992)
#49. The Grand Illusion - Styx (1977)
#48. Destiny - Stratovarius (1998)
#47. Argus - Wishbone Ash (1972)
#46. Van Halen II - Van Halen (1979)
#45. The Nylon Curtain - Billy Joel (1982)
#44. Holy Diver - Dio (1983)
#43. Peace Sells... But Who's Buying - Megadeth (1986)
#42. Imaginations From The Other Side - Blind Guardian (1995)
#41. The Turn of A Friendly Card - The Alan Parsons Project (1980)
#40. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John (1973)
#39. Heaven and Hell - Black Sabbath (1980)
#38. Somewhere Out In Space - Gamma Ray (1997)
#37. Jailbreak - Thin Lizzy (1976)
#36. Van Halen - Van Halen (1978)

The fully detailed list can be found here.

Top 50 lists coming soon!

Hello all, I promised an outline of how things will be done on my personal blog, and well… here it is. Hopefully this will make the blog easier to navigate, and the updates more constant. (I will try to make both this blog and my personal one look cooler also.) It’s all about keeping me motivated, after all. Well, maybe not, but I like to think so.

At any rate, here’s the plan for the next few months.

July will focus on my top 50 favorite rock/metal albums of all time. I’m really excited to finally compile this list, which I’ve been thinking of doing for the past 2 or 3 years. Obviously my musical tastes have expanded since then. Why rock albums? That’s what I listen to. In reality therefore, it’s my 50 favorite OVERALL albums, but if I didn’t specify the genre, it just wouldn’t seem fair to, say Gustav Holst or Miles Davis now would it?

August and September will be dedicated towards compiling my 50 favorite films. I’ll be attempting to post one a day at that point, with reasons why it’s one of my favorites. After those 50 days we have like 10 left, and I’m still kind of thinking about what to do there… Possibly I’ll work in some leg-room so that I can have ten days during those two months where I don’t have to post.

Now, in regards to the Outpost Hub, and how that figures in with these specials… I’ll probably post an update every ten installments on there, and it will include just the list. There won’t be any comments from me on them. I’ll leave those to my personal blog, as it’s easy to access it from the Hub.

Along with these special top 50 lists, I’ll still be posting book/film/album/concert reviews, special comments on media topics, links to upcoming short stories that I do, etc. So all in all, this is gonna be one busy blog in the coming months. I’m very much looking forward to this, so stay tuned. I hope you like it.