Series: Couplers: A Space Opera

Episode: Book 1: Prima Volta

# of pages: 96

Story genre: Sci-Fi and Adventure.

Art genre: “Manga”

Company: Real Buzz Studios & Thomas Nelson

Recommended Reading Age: Youth/ Teen

Rating: 3.5/5

Couplers: A Space Opera is the third series to emerge from Real Buzz Studios “Inspirational Manga” project, a project which has been published by Barbour Publishing and Christian publishing giant: Thomas Nelson.

Thomas Nelson was also the publishing company that brought forth, in my opinion, 2 phenomenal graphic novel series, which where based off of Ted Dekker’s, New York Times best sellers, The Circle Trilogy, and The Lost Books. And after reading such amazing graphic novels from Thomas Nelson my expectations for Couplers were very high. The fact that this new series was the first attempt at an adventure graphic novel from Real Buzz Studios, also heightened my expectations.

In this issue.

We are introduced to life in the colony (which is simply referred to as “the colony” in the novel), and how the culture works for our peasant characters. During their teen years each citizen must serve 4 cycles (presumably years) in the Technical Corps, a aero space air force, if you will, for the Colony. Our 2 main character’s Dawn Spinward, and Adam Cozane, are thrown into action when one of the training school rooms loses oxygen. They quickly get air masks to save their comrades, only to find out the whole scenario was a test, for the cadets. As a result, Adam & Dawn become Captains in their class and are forced, under protest, to work together.

They are, later, shown remains of a R.A.T. (Robotic Alien Technology) that attacked the Colony 100 cycles ago. They are warned to prepare in case of a future R.A.T. attack

What I thought.

The story line was fairly creative, and served well as an introduction to the series, but broke very little new ground past that.

The art style looks very much un-like manga as the cover boasts it be. But for me, this was not really a  let down.

On the subject of this being a “Christian comic”, I cannot claim that they have made this clear, despite the fact such a large Christian publisher has put them out. There is literally no content in this comic that could classify it as a Christian comic. Now, I’m not saying it is a vulgar comic, on the contrary it is quite clean, about par with Archie comics, but there are no scriptures included or Biblical principals illustrated, that I could detect to distinguish it.

Although it is immensely cleaner than most anything you will find in popular modern comic books, and graphic novels, there still were a few things that concerned me. During flight training school a student named Reni, after seeing that the teacher wore toga-like outfit exclaimed “She’s naked!”, to which Dawn replied “Hush, Reni. She’s not naked. Technically…”. The whole outfit wasn’t something to concern yourself about visually, it was the fact with these lines, and accompanying lines, they seemed to try and create an awkward impression about the clothes, without either saying the clothes weren’t that bad, or were indecent, instead they left it as an awkward and unresolved moment for the reader.

Another scene that disappointed me, was when Dawn & Adam rush out of the shower rooms (without dressing first) to get the oxygen mask to save their friends. And although the two were covered in bubbles and oxygen masks, so as not to expose anything, it was entirely unnecessary for them to rush out in the nude. Again, nothing inappropriate was actually shown, but its implication seemed inconsistent with Christian values and was unnecessary to the plot.

So as a comic, it passed for its debut, however I hope to see some better things from them in future, and as a Christian comic, I believe it missed the mark.

Artist: switchfoot

Album: Nothing is Sound (Dual Disc Edition)

Genre: Classic Rock, Rock, Hard Rock

Radio Hits: “Lonely Nation”, “Stars” & “We Are One Tonight”

My Favourite Song: “The Shadow Proves the Sunshine”

My Least Favourite Song: … I’ll have to pass on this one.

Rating: 4.5/5

switchfoot is a group that has achieved success in both Christian and “mainstream” music circles. Nothing is Sound has been called switchfoot’s “darkest album” by some reviewers, and understandably so, due to its thematic content, however as a result, musically speaking, I was expecting a near-metal CD, but was pleasantly surprised to be listening to a highly unique classic rock album, that can only be described as… “switchfoot”!

The music is high quality, and very artistic. Almost every track transitions into the next one seamlessly, yet somehow each track has it’s own unique sound. On the DVD side of the album, switchfoot explains how they create the music of each song to reflect the meaning of the song. They start with a simpler idea for a song, then build up the song around the that.

The lyrical themes seem to centre around a feeling of hopelessness, but unlike the empty feeling of the lyrics of their song “Awakening” from Oh Gravity!, it goes on to offer hope in the hopelessness.

“Lonely Nation” a long time favourite, hard rock song, of mine, from switchfoot, talks about wanting more than this empty generation we live in, “Stars” carries on this theme. “Happy is a Yuppie Word“ uses almost direct quotes from the book of Ecclesiastes from the Bible, talking about how this world does not satisfy, that nothing in it is sound, and we need to look to the kingdom of heaven instead.

“The Shadow Proves the Sunshine” is possibly the first track to directly mention God as the rescue from the hopelessness (although it is implied in earlier tracks). The poetic title of the song has a special meaning, stating that the occasional spots of darkness in our lives, prove that light exsists. It is a very reflective song with an interesting reverb effect to the vocals, that the DVD side shows us was achieved by recording Jon Foreman’s vocals as he sang them through a piano’s acoustic chamber.

“Easier than Love“ touches on a subject rarely mentioned in Christian music (or at least so bluntly). It talks about how people degrade themselves by taking sex over love because its “easier”. It is a very direct call to live responsibly and stop buying into the lies we’ve been taught about how “everyone’s doing it”. At first when you hear the song you may find it rather “extreme” in its approach, but when you look for its intent, it is easy to get its message.

Musically “The Blues” has a similar feel to Relient K’s softer songs, it is another song that feels lyrically similar to Ecclesiastes, while “The Setting Sun” talks about a yearning for our home in heaven.

Overall Nothing is Sound is definitely a themed album on depression, hopelessness, and the fallen state of our world, but with a touch of hope, and the music seems very well crafted to reflect this theme. I personally think this is a solid album from start to finish, and perhaps my only personal complaint would be that it could have used a few more clear inferences of Christ as the answer, but I felt it was direct enough, for a thinking audience.

If you are a switchfoot fan, or a fan of classic rock, or someone going through a dark time in their life, Nothing is Sound is definitely an album I recommend you pick up!

As for the dual disc edition of the CD that includes a DVD, with a behind the scenes video, I liked the video, but unless you are a big fan of the band, someone who is really into music or audio editing, you may not really want to bother to go to the trouble of buying the special dual disc edition of the CD, verses the regular album.

Artist: FM Static

Album: My Brain Says Stop But my Heart Says Go!

Genre: Punk Rock, Rock, Soft Rock & hip-hop

My Favourite Track: My Brain Says Stop But my Heart Says Go!

My Least Favourite Song: Cinnamon & Lipstick

Radio Hits: “Last Train Home” & “F.M.S.T.A.T.I.C”

Rating: 4/5

FM Static is an unusual band to describe, in that they aren’t really a band, but a side project of Thousand Foot Krutch’s lead singer Treveor McNevan, and drummer Steve Augustine.

The CD starts off with its title track, and my personnel favourite track, “My Brain Says Stop But my Heart Says Go!“, a peppy hip-hop/punk rock song. The music is ultra-catchy and intensely unique with the seamless blend of hip-hop and punk.

The whole CD is very “radio friendly”, meaning that the songs would work well on the radio, as the second song “F.M.S.T.A.T.I.C” proves. The song is fun, up beat and is right up the alley of fans of Hawk Nelson’s “Live Life Loud”.

There are many tunes that you will want to listen to again and again off this album, “Cinnamon & Lipstick” even had points in the pre-chorus that reminded me of David Meece vocally. Musically speaking, the CD is quite strong and one of the better releases of 2011 so far. I would describe it as “a very fun summer CD”. Perfect for a BBQ in the back yard with friends. Unfortunately the lyrical side of the album is somewhat weaker than its musical accompaniment.

The lyrics of the album don’t touch the spiritual much. “Lost in You” is a semi-worship song and done well, but unfortunately like most worship songs, has only one verse which is repeated. The writing was rather simplistic, or immature if you will, as well. Examples of this are in “U Don’t Know me Like That“. But the simplicity wasn’t all bad, it is an entertaining album for ambient purposes when you are doing other things. “Black Tattoo” is a song about someone leaving an abusive relationship, and lyrically it was a valiant attempt, but the comparison of something sticking with you like a tattoo (also used by Jordan Sparks in her song “Tattoo“) is certainly going to get some disappointed looks in the “Christian market” that FM Static is directed to. A song off My Brain Says Stop But my Heart Says Go!, with a clearer spiritual meaning would be “Breaking me Again“, which discusses not knowing how to express our problems and relying on God when things seem darkest. “Inside Out” promised to be a love song towards Jesus, and disappointed us by the second verse, turning out to be a human love song with simple verses, ending the album with a spiritually empty feeling.

I’ve always been disappointed when I review “Christian” albums where the only direct mention of God, is in the thank you’s in the back of the CD booklet. If you are looking for a safe CD with some substance My Brain Say Stop But my Heart Says Go! is right for you, but if you want something to feed you spiritually that came out this year, you may want to look out for Brandon Heath’s Leaving Eden instead.

Series: Goofyfoot Gurl

Episode: Vol 3: Come and Play!

# of pages: 96

Story genre: Character driven/ day to day life

Art genre: “Manga”

Company: Real Buzz Studios & Barbour Publishing

Recommended Reading Age: Youth/ Teen

Rating: 3/5

If your like me, and you bear in mind that most mangas are quite violent, include eastern mysticism, and often times have promiscuous characters, you may believe “Christian manga” to be an oxymoron. However when manga is taken as an art style only, this is not the case.

First off, you must know this: I am not a fan of the manga art style, personally I don’tenoy it, but I am trying to be “un-biased” for reviewing purposes. So, unlike the debut manga Serenity, put out by Real Buzz Studios & Barbour Publishing, the art style here, while they claim it is manga, looks (in my opinion) pleasantly unlike manga. So ironically, without mangas typical omission of noses and the occaional chibby* (*for those like me who didn’t now what that is, a chibby is the “cute”, small, chubby, version of a manga character used in moment of comic relief), the art style is more marketable to those who do not like manga, rather than those who do.

In this issue

Suki meets a kid who has been spying on her and her friends for the last 3 issues. He is confined to a wheelchair, but has not allowed it to confine his imagination in designing high tech spying devices. Later on Suki’s friends Punja and Char stay the night at her house. Things get messy when Suki’s brother Zachai brings Char’s future step-mother home, after finding her in a bar.

What I thought.

This issue has a more hard edge art style than it’s sketchy predecessors, but doesn’t lose it’s sketchiness altogether, which I think was a positive artistic improvement.

One scene takes a weak stand for purity as Suki warns Char about her crush on Ray (a character who is a snob and somewhat of a jerk). We see a flash back of Suki when she first met Ray a number of years ago and he kissed her, but never talked to her after that when they saw each other. Although the scene was meant as a warning to Char and readers alike about throwing themselves at people, it doesn’t feel like what Ray did was shown to be as wrong as it fully was.

And with that failed purity message aside the graphic novel has no real Christian values. Although I’m not implying there was promotion of anything anti-Christian, it still hardly merits itself as the Christian “manga” it claims to be.

Also the comic has a girly feel, and won’t interest many guys. However, maybe this was there goal, and in that case they achieved it well. All in all as a safe secular comic, I give Come and Play! a thumbs up! But for it’s attempt at making a Christian message, in all honesty, I believe it failed or at very least remains unclear.

Series: Goofyfoot Gurl

Episode: Vol 2: When Dolphin’s fly

# of pages: 96

Story genre: Character driven/ day to day life

Art genre: “Manga”

Company: Real Buzz Studios & Barbour Publishing

Recommended Reading Age: Youth/ Teen

Rating: 3.5/5

If your like me, and you bear in mind that most mangas are quite violent, include eastern mysticism, and often times have promiscuous characters, you may believe “Christian manga” to be an oxymoron. However when manga is taken as an art style only, this is not the case.

First off, you must know this: I am not a fan of the manga art style, personally I don’t like it, however I am trying to be “un-biased” for reviewing purposes. However unlike Real Buzz Studios & Barbour Publishing’s debut manga Serenity, the art style, although claimed to be manga by it’s creators’, looks (in my opinion) pleasantly unlike manga. So ironically, without the occasional chibby* (*for those like me who didn’t now what that is, a chibby is the “cute”, small, chubby, version of a manga character used in moment of comic relief) and omission of noses, the art style is more marketable to those who do not like manga, rather than those who do.

In this issue

Suki has all her friends over for a party, and Scott gets a job as a surfing instructor. Meanwhile Suki’s brother Zachai and her friend Punja seem to have a mutual crush on each other, which doesn’t go over with Punja’s older brother who has arranged a profitable marriage for her.

What I thought.

The story line continues directly off of where the previous book ends, and ends set up to be continued by the next issue. Although I feel this writing style of making all the graphic novels in the series be one long story instead of separate ones, lends itself well to this particular series, it can be bothersome to some readers.

This story had a bit too much teen romance drama for my taste, with nearly every Character having been revealed to have a crush on someone, you get bored quickly with this type of sub plot, and is frankly immature writing, focusin away from Christian ideals.

On the subject that the graphic novel claims to be Christian, the only element indicating it is, to some one who had not been told it is Christian, is when Suki’s family says grace for a meal. So unfortunately When Dolphin’s Fly comes off much more like a clean comic (much like Archie) with some Christian characters, rather than a Christian comic as it claims.

Also again the comic has a bit of a girly feel, and may not interest a very large male audience. However, maybe this was there goal, and in that case they achieved it well.

And for this and the over done romance solely, does the graphic novel take a 3.5/5 rating instead of what would have otherwise been a perfect 5/5. But all in all it is still an entertaining read.

Movie Review: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Starring: Voices of Bill Hader as Flint Lockwood; Anna Faris as Sam Sparks; James Caan as Tim Lockwood; Bruce Campbell as Mayor Shelbourne; Mr. T as Earl Devereaux

Company: Columbia Pictures

Length: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Rating: PG

Stars out of 5: 4.5

Plot

Flint Lockwood, a failing scientist, can’t quite find the right invention in order to make his father, Tim, proud of him, or to make himself popular in the island he lives on.

The island is the sardine capital of the world, unfortunately for the islanders, the demand for sardines elsewhere in the world has plumited, and the islanders are forced to eat sardines all the time to use them up. The mayor of the island keeps trying to reinvent the image of the town for marketing reasons. As a result he opens up “Sardine Land”, a new amusement park to attract tourists.

In addition Sam Sparks, a small time weather reporter, travels to the island to follow up the newsworthy elements of the opening of “Sardine Land”. Meanwhile at the grand opening, Flint attempts to use electricity from the local power plant to power his new invention, a machine that changes water into food. Through a series of events, Flint ruins the grand opening  instead and sends his machine into orbit. Later that day however, his machine causes it to rain cheeseburgers and before you know it he’s making it rain food all the time. This new populairity begins to go to his head.

After weeks of being the big man around town, still not making his father proud, the over use of Flint’s machine causes the food to mutate to outrageously large sizes. It soon is up to Flint to stop his machine before the town is destroyed in a spaghetti hurricane or a meatball meteor shower!

What I Thought

You may have noticed I gave this movie has an almost perfect “5 out of 5 stars” score. Although no movie, including this one, is “perfect”, this is by far the most original movie I have seen in ages! Giving any movie such a high score is rare for me, as most people who know me, know that I am highly critical of lack of originality in modern movies.

According to the Plugged in Movie Review the producers tried to push envelope with this film and create a movie as crazy as the studio would allow, this I believe was a goal achieved and, unlike most other movies, the humour fortunately for the most part was kept quite clean.

There are only a few crude humour moments which are mostly brief. Except perhaps one character, who was known as a star when he was a baby and tried to “relive” his good old days by stripping down to only his diaper for the rest of the movie (at least until he is swallowed by a chicken).

Perhaps my only other negative comments to make are in regards to two plot elements which have been done in almost every family geared movie in the past ten years. The first is, the unnecessary romance. Every movie I can think of with the exception of The Lion The Witch & The Wardrobe has this element. After seeing a number of movies, you learn to both expect and tolerate it. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against romance in a plot line, what I am annoyed by with romance in movies, is that usually the character’s who fall in love in a “family” movie, are far too young to be in that sort of relationship, and the second reason it annoys me is that usually it is tacked on to the story and takes more away from the plot than it adds.

The other typical element the film had was the fact Flint’s father, Tim, wanted to Flint to join the family business, but Flint wanted to follow his childhood dreams and still somehow make his father proud. This may not sound typical, but I can think of many movies with a parent who doesn’t understand their child’s desire to do something the child sees as glamorous, instead of a more practical accepted profession, this element Robots, Honey I Shrunk Ourselves!,  Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit along with many others.

These short comings aside, I highly recommend Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, for those looking for an original family movie to watch, in a day and age where I thought the “original family movie” had become an oxymoron!

Link to movie trailer on youtube.

Series: Goofyfoot Gurl

Episode: Vol 1: Let there be Lighten up

# of pages: 96

Story genre: Character driven/ day to day life

Art genre: “Manga”

Company: Real Buzz Studios & Barbour Publishing

Recommended Reading Age: Youth/ Teen

Rating: 3.5/5

If your like me, and you bear in mind that most mangas are quite violent, include eastern mysticism, and often times have promiscuous characters, you may believe “Christian manga” to be an oxymoron. However when manga is taken as an art style only, this is not the case.

First off, you must know this: I am not a fan of the manga art style, personally I don’tenoy it, but I am trying to be “un-biased” for reviewing purposes. So, unlike the debut manga Serenity, put out by Real Buzz Studios & Barbour Publishing, the art style here, while they claim it is manga, looks (in my opinion) pleasantly unlike manga. So ironically, without mangas typical omission of noses and the occaional chibby* (*for those like me who didn’t now what that is, a chibby is the “cute”, small, chubby, version of a manga character used in moment of comic relief), the art style is more marketable to those who do not like manga, rather than those who do.

In this issue we meet Suki, also known as the “Goofyfoot” or “Goof”, a “friend to all” type, who is half Japanese and half Hebrew and all Christian. We also meet Suki’s friends:

Chardonnay, a opinionated girl who spends her summers on the island living with her father with whom she does not get along.

Pooja, also known as “Pooch”, whose father moved from Mumbai to work for Suki’s father’s electronics firm, while she is continually having prospective husbands lined up for her by her over bearing brother, Vikram.

Joplin, the son of an athlete and a supermodel, who often finds himself alone.

And Scott, a marketing major looking who wants to open his own surf gear store. He is the only one in the group without rich parents to pad his wallet.

The readers are taken down to trips on memory lane in each characters life.

What I thought.

The story of Let There be Lighten up!, was very “light” as the title implied and offered  a nice break from the dark feeling of most comic books today. The story was an entertaining read.

I enjoyed the impressionistic art feeling the colour scheme had, as well as the sketchy feel of the comic. However at times the sketchiness was overdone leaving the detail limited too much for it’s own good.

Unfortunately as a release from a Christian “manga” series it has little to no message what so ever! So even though as a comic I give it 3.5/5 stars, however as a Christian comic, it scores with only a 1/5.

So if you are looking for a clean “feel good read”, as the cover states, Let there be Lighten up! will do the job, but if you are looking for something to strengthen your walk with God, in this graphic novel, where practically your only Biblical reference is the spoof of Genesis 1:3 in the title, you won’t find it. Also the comic has a bit of a girly feel, and may not interest a very large male audience. However, maybe this was there goal, and in that case they achieved it well.

Movie: Furry Vengeance

Starring: Brendan Frasier, Brooke Shields, Matt Prokop, Ken Jeong & Skyler Samuels

Company: Summit Entertainment

Length: 1 hour and 31 minutes

Rating: PG

Stars out of 5: 3.5

Plot

Dan Sanders (Brendan Frasier, George of the Jungle, Dudley Do Right, Looney Tunes: back in Action), moves to a small town in the middle of a forest. He is sent there to oversee construction of more home’s and businesses by the supposedly “eco friendly” company he works for. Dan soon finds out that the local wildlife doesn’t like the construction company’s presence on their turf, and lead by their racoon boss, these animals thwart Dan’s every move.

Soon Dan becomes obsessed with stopping the animals, while everyone else including Dan’s wife and son, think he’s lost his mind.

What I Thought

The story line in principle was fairly original, however there were many predictable moments along the way. I was impressed however with the creator’s choice to make the animals merely murmur to each other rather than talk. Although some younger viewers may not like this, movies with talking animals, can get real old, real fast, because they lack the stimulus of imagination.

Another plus was that their were many fun characters who were casted well and added a lot of laughs to the experience.

On the down side, there was some crude humour. With the scene where Dan hides in an out house, from an angry bear who rolls it covering Dan in its contents, as well as repeated scenes where people are sprayed by skunks, most of the other crude humour is fairly brief and low key.

Also if the audience discards any expectations of a film appealing to your intellect rather than your funny bone, this will aid in the appreciation of the movie.

There was an unnecessary sub plot about an aimless romance between Dan’s son, Tyler, and a local library assistant, it felt very formula. However the romance has almost nothing to do with plot and by the end of the movie you were left with a feeling they were going to be just friends.

Also there was a weak environmentalist message, that although well meaning, didn’t quite come through in a practical way.

All in all, Furry Vengeance, despite having some off moments, is a movie I enjoyed.

Link to movie trailer on youtube.

Series: Serenity

Episode: Vol 6: You Shall Love

# of pages: 96

Story genre: Character driven/ day to day life

Art genre: Manga

Company: Real Buzz Studios & Barbour Publishing

Recommended Reading Age: Youth/ Teen

Rating: 3/5

If your like me, and you bear in mind that most mangas are quite violent, including eastern mysticism, and often times promiscuous characters, you may believe “Christian manga” to be an oxymoron, however when manga is taken as an art style only, this is not the case.

First off, you must know this: I am not really a fan of the manga art style, personally I don’t prefer it, however I am trying to be “un-biased” for reviewing purposes.

In this issue: After breaking her leg, Serenity must stay in bed, and having nothing within reach to entertain her, she reads her Bible, which gives her many questions, she wants to get answers for, when she gets out of her cast.

What I thought.

The story was informative for those with specific Biblical questions, but with less drama than usual, You Shall Love ended up being a fairly boring conclusion to the original set of 6 Serenity books, as it depends very heavily on dialogue rather than motion in method.

Another plus was, that in the back of the books, there were two pages dedicated to supporting the lessons with scripture.

Overall; for me, looking for Christian comics, manga doesn’t satisfy me. But if you, or someone you know is hooked on some very secular mangas, and you want a Christian alternative, I think the Serenity series is a very good substitute. However as the genre of graphic novels is character driven, people who are into action comics may find it a very dull read. I would also recommend the series much more to a female audience then for males, for much the same reason.

Series: Serenity

Episode: Vol 4: Rave-n-rant

# of pages: 96

Story genre: Character driven/ day to day life

Art genre: Manga

Company: Real Buzz Studios & Barbour Publishing

Recommended Reading Age: Youth/ Teen

Rating: 3/5

If your like me, and you bear in mind that most mangas are quite violent, including eastern mysticism, and often times promiscuous characters, you may believe “Christian manga” to be an oxymoron, however when manga is taken as an art style only, this is not the case.

First off, you must know this: I am not really a fan of the manga art style, personally I don’t prefer it, however I am trying to be “un-biased” for reviewing purposes.

In this issue Serenity goes to a rave, meanwhile some crooks, desperate for some money, try to sell cleaning powder as drugs to local kids.

What I thought.

The issue had some good character development and showed a possible start to a good friendship between Serenity & Prayer Clubber Lori. In another moment of character development, we see that, Prayer Club member, Tim feels unwanted and unneeded. The moment was brief and was probably put in this issue to provide back story for later episodes, however since it wasn’t pursued any further in Rave-n-rant it felt awkward and tacked on.

Also the intended prayer message of this episode, was rather weak, and seemed almost like an after thought.

Another plus was, that in the back of the books, there were two pages dedicated to supporting the lessons with scripture.

Overall; for me, looking for Christian comics, manga doesn’t satisfy me. But if you, or someone you know is hooked on some very secular mangas, and you want a Christian alternative, I think the Serenity series is a very good substitute. However as the genre of graphic novels is character driven, people who are into action comics may find it a very dull read. I would also recommend the series much more to a female audience then for males, for much the same reason.