Scribblenauts: “Quit Embarrassing Me!”
I have a new review up over at The House Next Door - on "Scribblenauts" for the Nintendo DS (just in time for the sequel, he said dryly). Thrill as I expose my own inadequacies!
No, what's more interesting is that the game's seemingly limitless potential can quickly work you up into a froth of self shame. I never had much case to doubt the adequacy of my imagination until I began playing Scribblenauts.
It feels good to be writing reviews again! Go check it out, I'll wait here.
Comics Column, House Next Door
In '08-'09, I posted a very infrequent comics column, focusing in part on comics in relation to film, over at The House Next Door (now a part of Slant Magazine). I'm still a contributor over there (link to a new review when it goes up) but I'm not yet sure what the state of this column is. Editor Keith Uhlich, who has been incredibly supportive, has left the door open, but I'm not yet decided whether the column is actually filling any kind of niche - most of what I've said has been said elsewhere, and better.
Here is the archive:
- #1: Windows on the Other Art
- #2: Poetry and New Languages
- #3: A Question of Accessibility: Studying Pathology and Archaeology
- #4: Mapmaking and the Hoi Polloi
- #5: Untitled (Pluto, Scott Pilgrim, Watchmen)
- Special: More Than Meets Few Eyes At All - The Legacy of The Transformers
The column received some kind press in its time: Jog still has it in his linkroll, I made it onto Journalista! once or twice, and Savage Critic Abhay Khosla pointed me out twice, here and here. I've also received kind words from Top Shelf's Leigh Walton, and an earlier version of column #2 found its way into David Mack's "Best of Letters" collected in Kabuki: The Alchemy.