1st Impression: SHRUGGED 2 # 4 Review

SHRUGGED 2 # 4
Written Frank Mastromauro

Art by Jonathan Marks, Beth Sotelo & Kyle Ritter
Aspen Comics

FLIPPING THROUGH:

                Theo and his friends are in trouble as a vastly changed Ange and Dev show up in reality to cause chaos and more. As Lou walks in, things go from bad to worse. Yet, as Theo, Lou and the others try to fend off “Dark” Ange and “Dark” Dev, they are blessed with some unexpected help as things continue to worsen in Perspecta.

ART:

                Marks continues to give us a very visually unique style as we continue to get deeper into this miniseries. His line work is a bit rougher this issue than it was in previous issues. While I admit that the rougher pencils were great for the first half of the issue, once the conflict was done, I found them less appealing. They were still good but just felt like they were a bit too rough for the more quiet scenes. Still, Marks unique style continues to keep your eyes focused on his work and is, overall, appealing.

                Sotelo and Ritter continue to come up with the right blend of colors that really realize Marks pencils. The dark battles and darker shades fit the battle with Ange and Dev perfectly. And the colors, looking almost water color like, really work well in the more quiet scenes. A fairly good job.

WRITING:

                Things seem to be going to a strong climax as this issue has Theo and the gang face Ange and Dev. While the battle is going, Theo is showing off his bravery and how much he’s come to care for Lou. Kudos to Mastromauro to have a good battle within a house that is going on while developing a character at the same time. The pacing to the story was strong and flowed well. The characters were a joy to read about and Mastromauro gives some solid dialogue that feels true to teenagers today and true to the characters. I am intrigued to see what happens as our group goes to Perspecta themselves.

OVERALL IMPRESSION:

                Great story. The art was kind of up and down this issue but still a decent read.  If the scenes after the battle did not look as rough or rushed looking, this book would have been near perfect.

RATING:

                I give Shrugged 2 # 4 a 7.5 out of 10. 

1st Impressions: Shrugged 2 # 3

SHRUGGED 2 # 3
Written by Frank Mastromauro
Art by Jonathan Marks & Beth Sotelo

Aspen Comics


FLIPPING THROUGH:

            Theo is enjoying life while Ange and Dev watch as Theo goes through practice, meet up with the mysterious and kind of stalker-ish Mr. Scelus and then nearly getting into a fight with Rick.

            In Prespecta, Chaos becomes unleashed, attacking the citizens and slowly taking it over.

            Back on Earth, the chaos has an effect on both Ange and Dev … which in turn, makes Theo go through pain. So much so that Theo ends up on Perspecta and . . .


ART:

            This issue continues to display the beautiful art from Marks and Sotelo.  What I love is the contrasts that are consistently viewed in this issue. Not just the two realms of Earth and Perspecta but also Ange and Dev. The edgy pencils and inks really help give a different yet animated texture. Ange always looks fluid while Dev is a bit more gruff. Marks gives his people distinct features while Sotelo’s colors really help give energy to Marks’ work.

            The only slightly problem I saw was one panel where it was people from a distance had no distinct features. I know it is hard to make faces from such a distance but it just looked weird to see no faces at all.

            Otherwise, Marks and Sotelo beautifully render this issue.

WRITING:

            Mastromauro spends the issue giving us a day of the life of Theo while building up the threat and chaos that was to come. Theo is growing up while the relationships he has are definitely coming to bear … especially Kiori. Her feelings for Theo are becoming apparent to all … but Theo. Meanwhile … seeing the corruption of Perspecta. We see over the course of the issue how the corruption is affecting Perspecta and the ending definitely nailed that things have gotten bad.

            The issue was paced well. And I am intrigued what is going to happen next. Yet, I felt a bit … meh. I enjoyed the issue. I like Theo and I love Ange and Dev. But there just felt like something was missing and I can’t put my finger on it. Otherwise, it’s got great dialogue, interesting characters and a good plot.


OVERALL IMPRESSION:

            We get a good day in the life story with a b plot dealing with the corruption of Perspecta. Having both plots meet at the end was done well and the art was superb. The writing is good I just felt like something was missing.


RATING:

   I give Shrugged 2 # 3 a 7.5 out of 10. Good, could be better. Yet, still read it and pick it up.

In The Dark Mini Review

In The Dark – Dev

Mini Review

Hello wonderful people

I have two questions, One, has anyone else noticed how the popular songs have similar sounds or instruments in them? Two, does anyone remember the song “Like a G6,” if so do you remember that random girl from the song? 

If don't remember, her name is Dev, and she has a song called “In the Dark,” and I should hate the song but it has an infectious sax solo that I absolutely love and it’s always in my head. I do love the riff, as well as two other songs that blew up a few summers ago and not only is the saxophone popping up in random genres of music on mainstream radio, another artist I reviewed a while back, introduced a handful of people to the amazing sound of the accordion, if you weren't already a Weird Al fan and had never really heard an accordion before, you might have heard it from a song called Stereo Love, I know that was the song that made me love the accordion. I'll touch on that a in part two of my trendy song reviews.

This song is on her 2011 album ‘The Night the Sun came up…’ it’s her debut album. Is it good? I don’t know, probably not because I find her voice to be blander than plain yogurt. Dev claims to have made the song because ‘she wanted to make a sexy song to show she’s a grown woman.’ You don’t need to release a sexy song to prove how mature you are. There’s plenty of other ways to prove you’re mature this just seems like the default theme to go to when people think they need to mature themselves.

There’s a music video and it has absolutely nothing going on other than a bunch of hands holding her naked body at random times. Dev said, “I wanted the video to be sexy as well. I wanted it to reflect all the dark aspects of the song, and initially we went in thinking that we'd have an Alice in Wonderland/Tim Burton type of feel.”

Well I can safely say the video she put out doesn’t look like Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland at all. In fact, the two couldn’t be farther apart from each other.

The lyrics are boring, her sing-talk style isn’t interesting and there’s not much to comment about the music video. I’ve been negative long enough, here’s why I like it. Someone working on this song knows how to make a semi-interesting beat. Not just the saxophone riff on the chorus, but the verses while they are bland, are slightly interesting. You have to build up to the drop and yes, I just said it was bland but it works. Overall, the verses are obviously not the important part of the song, the chorus drives it and once you’ve heard it, at some point in time it will be stuck in your head. One might say it’s great to hear a saxophone in an electronic song, she’s smart for using variety, well I say do your research because other artists have done this before. For example, Calabria by Enur and for the people who never heard Calabria, Katy Perry’s ‘Last Friday Night,’ and “Edge of Glory,” by Lady Gaga all have Saxophones in them.

Dev, aka Devin Star Tailes, wanted to write a sexy song, and indeed, she wrote a sexy song. A boring one but it still exists with the only thing standing out in the song being a ‘current’ music trend “In the Dark” won’t last long despite how well it did. It has over 44 million views on YouTube and it peaked at 11 in the US charts. Dev has two strikes against her, the first one being “Like a G6,” the bland and boringness of “In the dark,” is number two. I hope she can work with her production company, known as the Cataracts, that’s why she always says something about Cataracts in her songs, to produce something amazing. Right now, I don’t have much faith in her although their ability to capitalize on a trendy sound and put it in a place not often heard was a smart idea.

Somehow, despite the fact I should hate the song, I can’t get over the awesome saxophone. It saves the song and gives it some good points in my book.

~Pugsly~ 

If you're wondering, I know two songs that are sexy songs done ten times better than "In The Dark"

Cold- VNV Nation:

Shut Up And Sleep With Me - Sin With Sebastian

Okay this song isn't that great but it's hilarious.

Techno Takeover: Trendy Sounds

** I reviewed this around May of 2012, I know the popularity of this song might have faded by now, but it'll be a while before I review anything new**

In The Dark – Dev

Mini Review

Hello wonderful people

I have two questions: 
1: has anyone else noticed how the popular songs have similar sounds or instruments in them? 
2: Does anyone remember the song “Like a G6,” if so do you remember that random girl from the song? 

If don't remember, her name is Dev, and she has a song called “In the Dark,” and I should hate the song but it has an infectious sax solo that I absolutely love and it’s always in my head. I do love the riff, as well as two other songs that blew up a few summers ago and not only is the saxophone popping up in random genres of music on mainstream radio, another artist I reviewed a while back, introduced a handful of people to the amazing sound of the accordion, if you weren't already a Weird Al fan and had never really heard an accordion before, you might have heard it from a song called Stereo Love, I know that was the song that made me love the accordion. I'll touch on that a in part two of my trendy song reviews.

This song is on her 2011 album ‘The Night the Sun came up…’ it’s her debut album. Is it good? I don’t know, probably not because I find her voice to be blander than plain yogurt. Dev claims to have made the song because ‘she wanted to make a sexy song to show she’s a grown woman.’ You don’t need to release a sexy song to prove how mature you are. There’s plenty of other ways to prove you’re mature this just seems like the default theme to go to when people think they need to mature themselves.

There’s a music video and it has absolutely nothing going on other than a bunch of hands holding her naked body at random times. Dev said, “I wanted the video to be sexy as well. I wanted it to reflect all the dark aspects of the song, and initially we went in thinking that we'd have an Alice in Wonderland/Tim Burton type of feel.”

Well I can safely say the video she put out doesn’t look like Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland at all. In fact, the two couldn’t be farther apart from each other.

The lyrics are boring, her sing-talk style isn’t interesting and there’s not much to comment about the music video. I’ve been negative long enough, here’s why I like it. Someone working on this song knows how to make a semi-interesting beat. Not just the saxophone riff on the chorus, but the verses while they are bland, are slightly interesting. You have to build up to the drop and yes, I just said it was bland but it works. Overall, the verses are obviously not the important part of the song, the chorus drives it and once you’ve heard it, at some point in time it will be stuck in your head. One might say it’s great to hear a saxophone in an electronic song, she’s smart for using variety, well I say do your research because other artists have done this before. For example, Calabria by Enur and for the people who never heard Calabria, Katy Perry’s ‘Last Friday Night,’ and “Edge of Glory,” by Lady Gaga all have Saxophones in them.

Dev, aka Devin Star Tailes, wanted to write a sexy song, and indeed, she wrote a sexy song. A boring one but it still exists with the only thing standing out in the song being a ‘current’ music trend “In the Dark” won’t last long despite how well it did. It has over 44 million views on YouTube and it peaked at 11 in the US charts. Dev has two strikes against her, the first one being “Like a G6,” the bland and boring sound of “In the dark,” is number two. I hope she can work with her production company, known as the Cataracts, that’s why she always says something about Cataracts in her songs, to produce something amazing. Right now, I don’t have much faith in her although their ability to capitalize on a trendy sound and put it in a place not often heard was a smart idea.

Somehow, despite the fact I should hate the song, I can’t get over the awesome saxophone. It saves the song and gives it some good points in my book.

~Pugsly~ 

If you're wondering, I know two songs that are sexy songs done ten times better than "In The Dark"

Cold- VNV Nation:

Shut Up And Sleep With Me - Sin With Sebastian

Okay this song isn't that great but it's hilarious.