Category: EBRPL Comics

Cosplay Photoshop Crash Course with Ninja Yoyo

We’re so excited for the Mid City Micro-Con, coming at you on YouTube Live this Saturday! Because it’s all virtual this year, we’ve asked some of our excellent creators if they would be interested to make some prerecorded content to share with all of you. Veteran cosplayer and graphic designer Cheri Ayers-Small, known as Ninja Yoyo Cosplay, has a fantastic tutorial on how to use Photoshop along with some basic phone camera tricks to boost your cosplay content. Check it out!

Want more Ninja Yoyo Cosplay? Of course you do! Tune in to the Mid City Micro-Con and catch Ninja Yoyo as one of our cosplay contest judges.

Mid City Micro-Con: Welcome to Wakanda

Don’t miss the first-ever East Baton Rouge Parish Library micro-con! Our very first in-house convention will feature comics creators, artists, and professional cosplayers based everywhere from right here in Baton Rouge to – well, all over the country. We’ll have everything from panels on diversity in media, to documentary screenings, to art workshops, and more! Want to dress up like your favorite character? Come in full costume and compete in our cosplay contest! Want to meet some of Louisiana’s best comics artists? Check out the Comics and Arts Market!

The very first Mid City Micro-Con will happen on Saturday, February 10th, from 10 AM-5 PM. This year’s theme is “Welcome to Wakanda,” so if you’ve already got your tickets to Black Panther, there’s no better place to get ready for the February 15th release date. Come be super with us!

Get Ready for Avengers: Age of Ultron with Your Library!

I had strings, but now I’m free. There are no strings on me. Are you ready for Avengers: Age of Ultron this Friday? Or more likely tonight’s midnight showing? (Well, maybe not I’m unsure whether I can handle a midnight showing these days, possibly a matinee.)

ageofultronIf you’re not ready there are so many ways you can prepare with your East Baton Rouge Parish Library. Don’t remember the last Avengers Movie? Or maybe you missed Chris Pratt, a gigantic tree named Groot, and Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy? Your Library has all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on DVD and Blu-Ray plus a ton of comics based on the movies such as Winter Soldier, Age of Ultron, and so much more.

And when you’re done with the movie come join us to talk about the movie and its source material:

Comics Review: X-Men: Days of Future Past

X-Men: Days of Future Past by Chris Claremont and John Byrne.

Days_of_Future_pastReviewed by Adam St.Pierre

Disclaimer: This review is written by someone who hasn’t read every single X-Men story arc, but has read quite a bit and loved every bit of the X-Men television show from the 1990s.

If you haven’t seen the newest installation of the X-Men movie franchise, Days of Future Past, you need to. Pretty much immediately. The film is a true comic book movie and does a phenomenal job of highlighting all of the characters from the highly lauded story line from Chris Claremont and John Byrne. Now that doesn’t mean that you can’t nitpick certain elements from the movie and compare it to the original story or talk about how certain characters were not written like that because you most definitely can do that and that kind of critique can be fun … but, ladies and gents, comics and by proxy comic book movies are supposed to be fun. 

Luckily, your library has two different collected editions of the Days of Future Past story line to help you get reacquainted with or introduced to that classic tale. Why do we have two different editions you ask? Well: The first collected edition brings together X-Men #138-141, Uncanny X-Men #142-143, and X-Men Annual #4. This one is a good primer for folks that:

1.) Have not seen X-men First Class or cannot remember much about First Class

2.) Just want a short overview on X-men comics during the 1960s when it was mainly monster of the week

3.) Have not seen X-men Days of Future Past yet

4.) Don’t care about the minutiae and want the book quicker (the waitlist is currently shorter)

The only disappointing thing that I came away with this particular collected edition was that it only contains one issue that is relevant to the Days of Future Past story line.

The second collected edition is a Marvel reprint that came out earlier this year. It collects X-Men #141, Uncanny X-Men #142, New Mutants Annual #6, X-Factor #5, X-Men Annual 14, Excalibur #52, Wolverine: Days of Future Past #1-3, and Hulk: Broken Worlds 2. Which is basically every single possible issue that could deal with the Days of Future Past story arc. This is a great complete edition for folks that:

1.) Want to analyze every part of the movie and compare it to the source material

2.) Need to go back after the movie is over and fact check

3.) Want to have a protracted debate and compare it to the 1990s television show

Either collected edition is a fantastic read and honestly you could read one or both of them to get the full effect. Regardless, the T.V. show’s theme song is totally stuck in my head.

Comics Review: East of West The Promise

East of West Volume 1  by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta. Reviewed by Adam St.Pierre.East_Of_West_Vol1

So after two consecutive reads, I think I’m ready to give reviewing this thing a shot. Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta have done something wonderful here mixing serious science fiction, alternate history, and western elements to build a story that could easily garner as much attention as Saga has over the past year or so. The story begins by showing three of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, being reborn/reincarnated as children without Death. Once War, Famine, and Conquest realize that Death is not with them they decide they must find and kill him, immediately setting up the conflict that carries throughout the rest of the story arc.

After the reincarnation scene, Hickman and Dragotta piece together what happened from the Civil War to 2066, and how we form the Seven Nations of America. Our protagonist, a Clint Eastwood-like Death dressed entirely in white, is finally shown exacting his brand of bloody vengeance upon all who have wronged him.

What exactly occurred between the Horsemen and a myriad of other questions are introduced very quickly to the reader which can make the story a bit difficult to keep up with at first. The payoff is definitely worth it and the end of the trade seriously leaves you wanting for more. Check out Volume 2 soon!