Jon's Comic Book: Phil Hester, Mike Huddleson and Gary Peterson, The Coffin

I purchased The Coffin at the UNC Ram's Head Bookstore for two dollars on the passing resemblance it has to an Exray Factory project which is under development. I read it the day I bought it, probably as a way of avoiding one or another of the unpleasant tasks associated with writing my Master's Thesis.



The Coffin is a peculiar bird. In it, Dr Ashtar Ahmed constructs a kind of robotic suit of armor which is able to contain a man's soul and prevent it from leaving the mortal coil, even after the body dies. As you might expect, Ashtar's funding comes from a crooked old billionaire who has already extended his life by decades using organ transplants of questionable legality and who is looking for a more permanent solution. Just as Ashtar is zeroing in on the solution to the problem, he experiences, if I remember correctly, a crisis of conscience and the forces of evil, in this case his boss, attempt to take the suit by force. The inevitable logic of the comic book comes into play here, and the end result is that a dying Dr Ahmed manages to crawl his way into the suit, forestalling his spiritual death and giving him a chance to seek revenge. This is all after, of course, he has a near death experience in which the devil appears and mocks his scientific world view and his selfish ways.

The comic book's strangeness is matched only by its vagueness. Is this the God of Christianity Dr Ahmed meets? Is he damned because he is a Muslim, or are we supposed to assume that since he is named Ashtar, that the comic is aiming a jibe at more obscure spirituality? That portions of the comic resemble Chic Tracks is undeniable, but we are never sure what we are trying to be scared into. Further complicating matters is the presence of Dr Ahmed's gay friend, who the comic seems ambivalent about in the "Girl, interrupted" sense of the word. The ending of the comic, which I will not reveal, obviously, is itself a bit ambiguous.

These minor philosophical critiques aside, The Coffin's character design shines. The usual convention in which villains follow a variation on the theme of the hero is followed with some spectacular results, and even minor variations on the suit are pulled of with panache. The writing, at the level of character, is also very well executed for such a short one-shot, and the characters are all fairly interesting and memorable, although they do read something like those found in a television pilot.

In short, it was worth two bucks and an hour.

Rating: 5/10
Shall I Keep It?: Stephen should borrow it.

Jon_, JonComicBook_

Shelby's Introduction

Hello folks - I was invited here by good friend Stephen for the reason that I too am an accumulator of items. Part of it starting when my parents decided to move back to their home country and I had to quickly gather all the items that I had stored "At Home". This has led to years of eBaying and slow sorting and a test of my sentimental leanings. Now I am heading home to Europe and am on the longest eBay journey of my life. Perhaps I shall truly be free from objects and this consuming sickness. Another consumatory blessing or curse is that I have played music for the past 10 years (most notably in the punk band Frodus). Establishing myself in the music world has bestowed upon me being on press mailing lists and accumulating more CDs than I can even keep track of. To top it off I make some of my living™ by designing CD covers so these cultural objects multiply like tribbles. All this and my liking of pokémon makes my life a constant battle between my organic life and small Chinese-made plastic objects. I look forward to sharing with my comrades and friends my attempt to break free!

(Pictured: TurboGrafx 16, eBayed 2001. And promptly replaced by a Nintendo Virtual Boy found on eBay)

Shelby_, Introduction_

Jon's Book: Stanislaw Lem, Hospital of the Transfiguration

Stanislaw Lem, I think, thrives under the rubric of science fiction. He has a fairly morbid picture of the universe as a place which is not only mysterious, but almost insultingly intangible to human understanding, which is, perhaps tellingly, best explicated in the context of some incomprehensible, monolithic alien thing of one kind or another. In other words, what he is trying to communicate to the reader is best exemplified by the sorts of things which you almost have to struggle to keep out of science fiction. Its this collusion of context and concept¹ which makes my personal favorite novel by Lem, Solaris, so compelling, and it is its the absence which makes The Hospital of the Transfiguration so strange.



The Hospital of the Transfiguration focuses on the experiences of a Polish doctor working at a rural insane asylum from the months just before the German Occupation of World War 2 to its immediate aftermath. The dehumanizing Nazi war machine is as alien and monolithic as any fictional creation Lem has ever crafted, and it also has the eerie similarity to what we will simply refer to as "human" psychology which is frequently also an element of Lem's fictional monsters. The focus, though, overwhelmingly², is on minutiae, such as the turning of the seasons, or the strange character of an elderly and mysterious member of the Polish resistance with whom Stefan, the protagonist, has occasional, innocuous conversations. The effect is to highlight the strangeness of living in the shadow of a beast rather than having a direct confrontation with it. Even the climax of the story, which most readers will readily be able to predict, comes off as mundane, as if the only possible reaction that Stefan, or indeed, the world, can muster to the insanity and inevitability of the Nazi's is a kind of defensive indifference.

As is the case in Solaris, romantic love of a sort also appears, but its emotional nature, like everything else, is blunted and clinical, and its presence is difficult to interpret. It is not clear that Lem is making the trite statement that even in the most horrific of situations that hope and love are present, and that they offer a kind of redemption. Indeed, the act of love seems to be carried out only mechanically or out of pity or some other, difficult to understand, fairly feminine motivation, in a scene, now that I think about it, somewhat reminiscent of the end of The Grapes of Wrath

All and all the effect is to create a surreal, and perhaps severely understated novel.

Rating: 9/10
Shall I Keep It: Yes.

* * *

¹ Or percept?

² Or underwhelming, as the case may be.

Jon_, JonBook_

A. Toups's Misc.: Aluminium Train

I received this tin train from my father the first christmas after he decided to end his estrangement from us. This was the first christmas we had shared in over a decade; I imagine between him and his wife they didn't have much of an idea what to get me or my siblings. I imagine this to be part of a collectable series. This one is the engine of a train, with an old-fashioned Coca Cola logo on the side. There is a lid on the cab which held various candy; but the engine itself is also a container. If you turn it on its side, the cab itself fits on top of the engine as a lid as well, revealing even more candy. I've long since emptied it of confections, and haven't really been using it for anything else.

I should probably throw it away, but I am a sentimental person and I've grown attached to it. Andrew_, AndrewMisc_

Stephen's CD: Add N To X's "On the Wires of Our Nerves"

At, or near, the heart of my having accumulated too many possessions over the years is my desire for completion. I will admit to owning some things that are perhaps "sub-par" or "not quite up to muster," primarily because they belong to a greater collection of things. This is mostly bad, but it can be good for the sake of providing context.

Such is the case with my small (three CDs) collection of Add N to X albums. Here, I shall review them in order, as I recently listened to them. Upon listening to the first of the discs, I thought to myself "Why do I have this aimless thing?" but by the third CD, I knew precisely why: analog genius, revealed over time.

I am fairly certain I purchased this CD sometime in high school on the basis of the cover alone, although I am sure the track listing probably helped. Clearly, an album with song titles like "Gentle Germans," "The Black Regent," "Planet Munich" and "King Wasp" can't be all bad. And it isn't. However, I should say that, rather than really liking this CD, I more so appreciate it. Almost every song has a great intro and often, a great first minute or so, full of thick synths, burbling, beeping and zooming away, much of it backed by solid non-programmed drums. After that, though, the whole thing just bogs down. Either the song merely repeats itself over and over, or the changes are entirely based on some typically aimless noises. Perhaps this is all intentional, and the members of Add N to X are in some monochrome pub, drinking opaque fluids from filthy and tarnished devices, laughing about how annoyed they made me. And yet, I have kept the CD and bought two more from the same band...

Grade: C+ (the + is because there are just so many lovely analog keyboards happening and because the cover features Ann Shenton having a lovely Moog Rogue being inserted into her womb)

Shall I keep it? Yes. (See album cover, above) Stephen_, StephenCD_

Stephen's CD: Add N To X's "Avant Hard"

Alright, so the title is a pun. And the cover isn't exactly eye-catching. But, hear me sigh with relief. For the songs, the songs...these songs are songs!

We are treated to the same analog keyboard fest that the first Add N To X album features, but this time around the songs typically go somewhere. Or, lacking a real song progression, there might be a vocoded voice to keep the ear interested (not to mention some sparing, but nicely done theremin leads). The single was "Metal Fingers in My Body" (accompanied by a striking animated and, frankly, pornographic video) and the title fits the song, if such a thing is possible.

Most of the other songs (such as "Revenge of the Black Regent," "Steve's Going to Teach Himself Who's Boss," and "Skills") also hold their own, although there are a few moments when the band treads a bit too familiar of ground, setting up a song with a great keyboard part and then running out of ideas on it. For the most part, though, this is a great retro-futurism synthesizer noise album, although it has a few moments of drag.

Grade: B+

Shall I keep it? Yes, indeed I shall. It's very much not in a jewel case, too. Stephen_, StephenCD_

Stephen's CD: Add N To X's "Add Insult to Injury"

Ah, how many times can I count the joys of owning this Add N To X CD?

At least three.

Firstly, the album itself, although apparently somewhat discoherent in its creation, is fantastic from start to finish. I shall list each and every one of the (as usual) fantastically named tracks:

1. "Adding N To X" is a funky synthy creation, featuring variations on the title phrase both said and shouted, apparently, by a French child. Or several of them. I love French children.
2. "Brothel Charge" is precisely the song I shall use when I next storm a brothel.
3. "You Must Create" is as inspiring a mantra as it is thoroughly in a groove
4. "Kingdom Of Shades" is dancy and has an obvious major key change!
5. "Monster Bobby" is like some kind of android Gary Glitter pub chant song, including the potential for underage girls
6. "Poke 'Er 'Ole"'s title might cause a wince, but the song is a pleasant sort of joy-ride
7. "Plug Me In" again has a near-pornographic video, although the song is more bubbly than sensual
8. "Hit For Cheese" is a bit silly, with (presumably) Anne and a robot voice having a sort of back and forth (Anne: 'I want to treat you bad' Robot: 'You'll wish you never had'), but it also rocks
9. "MDMH (Miami Dust Mite Harvest)" rocks itself into a prog-rock tizzy
10. "B.P. Perino" is a completely obscure title for me, as is the song itself
11. "Incinerator No. 1" has a sort of noisy drum and bass beat backing some noisy synths
12. "The Regent is Dead" ends the album with an epic and tragic musical eulogy for the now dead Regent (who appeared on the previous two albums in song form)

Secondly, the CD has some great album art (mutants on the CD itself, I believe) and the version I got actually had stickers in it!

Thirdly, the CD is in a flexi-pack that has SCRATCH 'N' SNIFF patches on it the front and back covers!! From what I can tell, the smells are "Pine Cudgel," "Dirt Floor," "Oily Blanket" and "Liquorice Whip."

Rating: A

Total GPA of My Add N to X Album Collection: 3.2

Shall I Keep It? Scratch and Sniff, Stickers and not in a Jewel Case? How can I do otherwise?

Stephen_, StephenCD_

Birru's Introduction

The internet has cursed us with convenience and savings. Froogle, Cheap Ass Gamer, Ben's Bargains, et al have made seductively priced closeout items far too easy to acquire. The pricing alone has convinced me that retailers care less about making money and more about taking up all my living space.

It's fitting that Stephen paraphrased the King of All Cosmos. Katamari Damacy is not a whimsical masterpiece of gameplay. It's yet another dystopian vision of the future. The consumer has become the consumed.

I'm part of the problem. Bill_, Introduction_