Zombie Waffe (also a webcomic)

Edited for corrections... Some explicitly pointed out, others not.

Continuing with the theme (that I hadn't originally intended to start but decided to run with anyway) of zombie apocalypse webcomics, this week's review is Zombie Waffe. Apparently "waffe" means "weapon" in German. No, I don't get it either. Apparently the author, Malin Falch, is Norwegian. Which brings me to the best part of the comic: the translation. This comic, though originally written in German, reads very natural in English. Keep in mind, I am a professional translator and editor, so I keep an eye out for these things, and the fact that Malin is either that good at English or hasn't skimped on getting a good editor for her translations means a lot to me. It's very impressive.
Correction: Apparently Malin does write the comic in English first. Though she does get an editor to help her out. Still, it's very impressive work for a non-native speaker.

As for the rest of the comic... well, there's not much there. The comic has a lot of potential from what I've seen so far, but there are fewer than 60 pages, and most of those have been for building up the background and introducing characters, so there's not much of the story yet.

Dead Winter (a webcomic)

This week, I have another zombie apocalypse webcomic for you. Dead Winter, by Dave Shabet. In many ways Dead Winter is both a counterpoint and a complement to The Zombie Hunters. It is far more stylistic in just about every way possible, yet it deals with many of the same themes of survival and human nature just as seriously.

The Zombie Hunters (a webcomic)

So, I'm a bit of a scholar of zombie apocalypse literature, games, and film. There's something fascinating about the genre. I think it's the very human nature of the storytelling. The problem is that most people misunderstand the genre of the zombie apocalypse and mistake it for any horror movie with zombies in it. Really, few things could be further from the truth... But I could go on and on about that. I actually wrote a 20-page paper on the subject that was presented at a symposium. But a discussion of what the zombie apocalypse is is not the purpose of this review.
Ahem. As I was saying, I enjoy me a good zombie apocalypse, and The Zombie Hunters provides. It's a webcomic started in 2006 by Jenny Romanchuk. It follows the story of a group of zombie hunters. Though the name is slightly misleading. These aren't people who go out and hunt zombies. Actually, they are semi-disposable, second-hand citizens who are used for salvage operations in the uncharted "wastes".

No review this week. Deepest apologies

Yeah, sorry about this. I've been pretty busy finishing up a couple of projects and starting some others. While you probably will never see most of them, some of them you will. One of the bigger things is that I will be joining a start-up professional video games review blog. It's still just starting up, and it's been going through some major overhauls in the past month getting it ready for me and the other new members. Originally it had been a one-man show, but there will be four of us writing for it now. If you've actually been following this blog and decide to check out this other site, then you may notice that some of my reviews over there will look similar. This is not a coincidence. Some, if not all, of my reviews over there will be posted here first in a rough draft kind of form. I make no pretense at saying that this blog here is professional. Like I said in my first post, I started this blog to get me writing. However, this other blog is professional, so the reviews will go through changes and polishing to make them better. I just didn't want anyone to think that some guy with the same name is plagiarizing my reviews. It is the same guy, and they are the same reviews. They'll just be better versions of my reviews.
On a related note, some of the reviews already on this blog and reviews to come will also be re-worked versions on reviews I have done elsewhere. Most of them will be from my college's sci-fi club's forums, but some may be from an old, oooooold blog of mine. I will not link it here, since it was even more of a personal blog than this one is. It's not that I'm trying to hide anything, but I just don't really feel it's relevant to anything here. If you really want to find my old blog, it wont be that hard. So if you see a review here that looks an awful lot like something written at my old blog... well, it is. But that too was written by me, so please don't fear that it might be plagiarism.
Aside from that, I've also been working on a translation of a Spanish role-playing game. Mostly this is for personal use, so I can share the game with my monolingual friends. But if I'm satisfied with it, I may approach the publisher to see if they have any interest in it. They probably won't, but a guy can dream.
That's about it. I'll try and make up for this week's loss by writing an extra review in the coming weeks, but I won't make any promises.

The Blackwell Series

The Blackwell series is pretty much Wadjet Eye Games' flagship product. (Yes, if you haven't guessed by now, I really like Wadjet Eye Games. What can I say? They make products of the highest quality.)
Anyway, back to the review: The Blackwell series the the story of the Blackwell women, specifically Rosangela and her aunt Lauren, who are spirit mediums. With the help of their inherited spirit guide, Joey Mallone, they must go about helping the ghosts of those who have died and been unable to move on to whatever awaits their spirits after death. But not all spirits are just ready to go, they need to be convinced, in one way or another...

The Gamers: Dorkness Rising

This is an... interesting movie. Made by independent filmmakers Dead Gentlemen Productions, The Gamers: Dorkness Rising is apparently a spiritual sequel to The Gamers, which is a movie I’ve never seen, though I wish I had. The plot follows a group of role-players as they try and finish a campaign. The problem is that the GM is an aspiring writer who’s the type that insists that the players actually role-play and often railroads them into where they need to go. Conversely, the players are a bunch of munchkins who don’t care so much about the story. They just wanna kill stuff and loot the corpses. More tension is added as the ex-girlfriend of one of the players joins the group. This is her first time role-playing, and she actually does want to role-play. Hilarity, as they say, ensues.

Alka-Seltzer Plus Day non-drowsy cold formula. (Citrus flavored)

So I was sick most of last week. It wasn't fun, but it did give me the chance to review Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold medicine, orange flavor. I'm also using this as my excuse for being so late in last week's review.
Anyway, I haven't had Alka-Sletzer since I was a kid, so I really wasn't sure what to expect, but since my symptoms were mostly headache, congestion, and sore throat I figured "why not?" I mean, that's exactly what it's supposed to help with.