Change

For a little while, we'll only be updating on Mondays and Fridays. Mainly just this week, probably, but perhaps a bit longer.

Nifty Book Review: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

After finishing the other two Science of Discworld books, I thought for a moment, "Should I review these?" I eventually decided not to, at least not yet. So today, I bring you Douglas Adams' less popular creation, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

The main thrust of the book is not Dirk Gently, or his holistic detective agency, but a young man named Richard MacDuff who has found himself embroiled in a plot featuring time-travelers, ghosts from a bunch of different eras, and various things which have been misplaced in space. Eventually, when the plot really gets moving, Richard does meet up with Dirk Gently, and things become both increasingly more bizarre and they start making more sense.

The book is quite good, which is why I'm not going to go into the plot at any great length, and if you're a fan of Douglas Adams' other works, then you'll probably enjoy this initial (and sadly penultimate) adventure of Dirk Gently. It's clever, with a good bit of mystique, and it shares several plot points with old Doctor Who serials, which is actually quite unsurprising.

I may not continue doing these book reviews, as I seem to be downright terrible at them.

Random Bits

I need a better color scheme for this Blog, I do, and perhaps a different colored-logo. Way back when, when I first started using the logo (it was nearly ten years ago! I recycle!) the whole white text on black thing wasn't as done much now as it was then. Granted, it was still around, but not to the extent it is now. So I need to make this Blog a bit more flashy, I do. I don't know why I'm telling you all of this, as when you read this, I'll already have changed things, perhaps more than once.

In any case, I'm all moved in now, for the most parts. I have pictures of before and after, which I may share if I get desperate for content (quite likely). I've also finished reading three books, so expect more book reviews quite soon, and comic reviews are easy to mash-out, for the most part.

On another note, this season of "Venture Brothers" is already on its two-part season finale! At least I think it's two parts, they pulled a Doctor Who-type trick and tied last week's episode in with this week's, so that you could theoretically say it was the beginning of a three-parter.

I promise you this will be the last post for a while with fake content, and that I'll start updating daily again. Here's going for a good number of weeks before Fate tries to pull a fast one on me again! Now I have two computers with Internet access, so nothing should stand in my way. Except Fate.

Possible Hiatus: It Happened

As you no doubt noticed, the hiatus happened for far longer than it should have. Judging by the amount of comments, no one cared, and this isn't really any sort of surprise. Regular updates should resume pretty darn soon.

Possible Hiatus

Number one, I've decided not to do the Venture Brothers thing. Not yet, anyway.

Number two, I'm moving today. This should not affect my self-inflicted daily update schedule, but it might. Here's hoping it doesn't.

Third, since I may be gone for a little while but hopefully won't be, here's a picture which I stole from a little stuffed bull named Bully who is about one hundred times the Blogger I am:I hope he won't mind...

Holy jeez, there's more...

Venture Brothers: Learnin' Up

I'm not going to even act like I'm the first person to do this, because I know I'm not. What I'm going to start doing is, every Monday, I'm going to post a synopsis and review of the latest episode of Venture Brothers, when there is one. I'll try to keep this post as spoiler-free as possible, but you should still be a little wary. The premise of the series is a grown-up "Jonny Quest", and the life he would find himself in years after his prime. A quick run-down of the main characters:

The "good guys" are comprised of former boy adventurer and current super-scientist Doctor Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture, who is constantly trying to escape from his father's shadow while simultaneously driving his father's company into the ground. He still adventures and is joined by his sons, Hank and Dean, bodyguard Brock Samson, and robot HELPeR. Hank is the more athletic of the two brothers, while Dean is more intelligent. Dean also seems slightly more mature, while Hank is better with stress. Brock, their bodyguard, enjoys killing things and sleeping with women. He is very good at both of those things. Together, they sort of make up the current Team Venture.

The Ventures regularly interact with all sorts of people, including Rusty's brother Jonas, the Order of the Triad (including magic-man Doctor Byron Orpheus who is the father of the girl Dean loves, Triana), the original Team Venture, Mister White and Master Billy Quizboy, and all sorts of other people. We'll cover each character as they pop up. Those are only the somewhat heroic characters, too. When it comes to the villains, well, there's only a few you really need to know of ahead of time:

-Phantom Limb, who is a pretty big jerk with invisible arms and legs.
-Baron Underbheit, who used to be a Doctor Doom-like despot with a steel lower law.
-Sergeant Hatred, who is Doctor Venture's current archenemy.

Then there's the Monarch. For a very long time, he was Doctor Venture's archenemy, and continues to hold a torch of hatred for the man. He's a classic super-villain with a butterfly-motif and a flying cocoon/fortress filled with henchmen and a dedicated number two.

The dedicated number two is Doctor Girlfriend, who looks like Jackie Onassis and has an unnaturally deep voice. She used to number two for Phantom Limb, and is supremely competent at the whole super-villain thing. As you can guess from the name, she's the Monarch's significant other.

The henchmen are just that: henchmen, in this case evil versions of "The Tick"'s Arthur. Two, in particular, are worth noting: 21 and 24. 21 is a chubby pop culture nut who has no idea what the heck his uniform or any of the weapons he uses seem to do, and has an odd sort of friendship with Hank Venture. 24 is tall and thin, and sounds like Ray Romano.

So the stage is set. I over-simplified things here, as the inter-personal dynamics between all these characters is one of the things that makes the show great, and I'll be going into them with my brief episode synopses. I think perhaps I'm being over-ambitious with this.

The Internet Doesn't Like Me

The Internet was against me last night, folks. So, in the tradition of comic book bloggers everywhere, I'm going to put up a random odd comic book cover. Or, rather, I'll put up two because they're both weird and thematically linked, as it turns out, both featuring Firestorm battling a fellow named Black Bison:

Fury of Firestorm #2

Fury of Firestorm #25

It's a shame both of these characters are dead now, and both from massive event storylines. I mean, one is a Native American who rides around on a white stallion and can bring stuffed animals and statues to life. The other has powers which, if you're to believe the old "Superfriends" cartoon, are basically magic. I know there's a complex set of rules around them, but it boils down to the fact that Firestorm's powers are so scientific that that are indistinguishable from magic. Which is a dandy power.

I honestly hope they put Firestorm in a Showcase soon.