Figuring out the week ahead

Time to donate some clothes, read some books, write some books, play some games

New Story Content posted

Check out http://belartsstories.blogspot.com/ for the latest Story of K chapter.  Part 3, Immeasurable Power, is now up.  Read it and let me know what you think.

Taking Care of Business

I have a terrible lazy streak and that's why when I say that I am proud of myself this week I mean it.  I took care of my writing articles for Unreel Media in a night and managed to post my payment this morning.  I'm definitely getting things done.  I just need to get the next stage in my journey taken care of but hey, it'll get there with time.

New story content!

Check out http://belartsstories.blogspot.com/ for the latest Story of K chapter.  Part 2, Fool's Gold, is now up.  Read it and let me know what you think.

So far so good

The blogs are going great, belartscorner.blogspot.com and belartsstories.blogspot.com are both getting tons of hits and I'm starting to actually enjoy the layout.  I may tweak the main blog a little more but the short story blog is just about good to go, I'm fairly satisfied with it.

Lazy friend filled days

I don't care about many things but I do care about my friends and I have a very solid group of Lifers to fall back on.  I love them all.  It's always a rare treat to get to hang with them all thanks to how far apart we are and how busy everyone is.  I had so much fun hanging out and playing videogames with them all yesterday!  Now to go back to being a silent stoic guy with no feelings.

Comic Book Review: Dragon Ball Multiverse Chapter 29 Special

Dragon Ball Multiverse Chapter 29 Special – Universe 3, Two Great Heroes

Drawn By: Beta

Story by: Salagir and Gogeta Jr.

Colors by: Faye

 

Time for my review of Dragon Ball Multiverse the weekly released fan comic of Salagir and Gogeta Jr.  This week we’ll be reviewing Chapter 29 which is titled Two Great Heroes.  This isn’t the latest DBM chapter but the current one, chapter 30, continues directly from this one so I thought it appropriate to start here.

Two Great Heroes starts off oddly enough with two movie villians.  We have Dr. Raichi from the Dragon Ball Z OVA, A Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans and Hoi from Wrath of the Dragon.  Hoi is trying to get Raichi to open his mysterious music box.  Wrath of the Dragon watchers will instantly figure out what’s in the box.  Raichi does not appear interested in the least.  Hoi then tries to appeal to Raichi’s sense of good since the Raichi of this universe appears to be a great hero; one that successfully beat back the Saiyan tyrants (and killed them apparently).  Hoi says that Raichi is a great hero and as such should help free the other hero Tapion who is trapped within the box.  Raichi is reluctant but agrees to do it and revels in the challenge of using science to open the magic box.


Raichi is successful in opening the box.  His lab is engulfed in an immense amount of swirling energy and eventually Tapion emerges from the maelstrom.  He isn’t happy though and asks why he was freed.  When Hoi tries to escape and Raichi blocks him he releases a deadly creature that’s locked deep within himself…well half of a creature – the bottom half.  The creature wrecks Raichi’s lab and all hell breaks loose.

This is where badassery appears in the form of Ghost Saiyans and I must say where the story hits its crowning moment of awesomeness.  The Saiyans look completely badass in their new armor designs and the way they’re introduced is dripping with cool.  I don’t want to spoil any more than that but seeing the Ghost Saiyans piqued my interest and made me more interested in this special and universe.  It really made me more interested in how the battle between Raichi and the Saiyans went down and how their ghosts came to serve him.

ART

The Art of this special was superbly good.  The artist Beta takes Akira Toriyama’s character designs and makes them all her own.  I really liked her design of the Ghost Saiyan’s armor and of the female Saiyans.  Everybody else from Tapion to Hoi to Raichi were translated right from the movies to the page.  My only complaint would be that the backgrounds looked a bit bland and simple, especially towards the beginning but I’ve never been good at drawing them myself and most of the time don’t notice them so it wasn’t a big deal for me.

STORY

Pacing:

This time a special finally didn’t seem rushed or like it was just delaying the inevitable.  The sort of mysteriousness of the Ghost Saiyans gave this special more life at the halfway point where these specials typically burn out at with repetition.  The fight with the creature’s lower half dragged on for a bit but still never got stale.

Plot:

The chapter had a strong plot.  The mysteries of Raichi, Tapion, Hoi, and then the Ghost Saiyans got me intrigued.  The rest of it was just seeing how Raichi handled all of this chaos and what he had in store for Tapion and vice versa.  They’re a weird combo but this is definitely a weird universe.  It also had a nice cliff hanger-ish ending which setup the next chapter.

Dialogue:

There were really good translators this time.  There were no awkward phrases or sentences in this special like the series is typically known for.  The character interactions also felt natural and character specific which isn’t saying too much because we never really get to see these guys too much in their own movies.  Everything felt natural and the dialogue flowed smoothly.

Characters:

This cast of characters is really strange to say the least.  The choice for these characters would leave most people wanting for more but the writers used what they had and to great degree.  The only “main” character from the original series here is Kakarott aka Goku but he shows up here for a second and dies almost instantly.  For a special with no main characters and all class B villains I feel I got more out of each character.  The characters stayed true to themselves and their interactions were really good.  Also credit goes to Beta for some really cool looking original character designs for the Ghost Saiyans.

THE AWESOME

+        Mysteries that keep you turning the page

+        Great characterizations

+        Solid action

+        Strong plot

+        Great Art

+        Ghost Saiyans!!!

+        Interesting universe

THE FLAWED

-        Somewhat repetitive fight sequence

-        Bland backgrounds

-        Lack of a strong “leading” character

Overall: 8/10

This special is a page turner and not because you just want it to be over either.  This special did what the others could not in regards to the story and art as far as quality is concerned.  I hope that the specials to come are as good as or better than this one.  Universe 9 is a particular one that I want to see on this level.  Anyways go check it out and get lost in the Multiverse starting here: http://www.dragonball-multiverse.com/en/page-629.html.  Thanks for the read and may your dreams be at your fingertips!

(Belart)

Comic Review: Dragonball Multiverse

Dragonball Multiverse is a fan comic created by Salagir and Gogeta Jr, two extremely talented, creative, generous and patient artists from France.  Salagir is the writer and Gogeta Jr. is the artist or cartoonist if you will.

Now this comic has been going on for years for those not familiar and continues where the Dragonball manga left off, you know after Buu was destroyed and everyone lived in peace.  It takes place a few years after that in an alternate universe.  You see that’s the whole premise of the book.  Like Trunks’ universe there exists others where the timeline was altered in a major way forever changing that universe from the one that we’re used to.  In most of the universes the good guys simply lose and the villains rule but in other universes major changes to who the good guys are occurs.

This comic uses that premise of alternate universes and runs with it.  Initially everyone from the universe we know and love, which is universe 18, are greeted by these creatures called Vargas.  Vargas are little bird people with technology that allows them to travel between the multiple universe.  They are a new creation by Salagir and Gogeta Jr. but seem to compliment to Dragon Ball-verse well I think.  They seem like a natural fit and I can definitely see them being in an Dragon Ball Z OVA.

Well anyway the Vargas have come with the help of the Kais and the Nameks to host a gigantic Multiverse tournament with the prize being any 3 wishes for the winning universe.  The Vargas say that the biggest prize though is the chance for warriors to test their mights against other warriors from other universes with virtually no risk factor since they’ll simply be wished back at tournaments end.  All of the Saiyans go along with Piccolo, and Videl and thus starts the multiverse tournament.

Everything here is a nice setup for some dream fights.  Since alternate versions of our heroes lost in other universes, we get to see some of our most hated (or loved) villains and old grudge matches flare up again.  Most of the villains seem to have gotten stronger so there are some good matches here and even a few nifty (and hilarious) mirror matches as well.  My favorite matches so far were Cell versus Dabura and Nail versus Recoome.  Those are matches many fans have been wanting to see.

 

There’s also some surprises in the form of crazy/cool/wtf author created characters.  This one group of all girl fighters from - of all universes - Bojack’s universe, sport all manner of unique and crazy powers.  One girl has the power to swap her gender with her opponent and you’d never guess who she fights!  Another group of author created characters are these mercenary guys with nanotech armor that gives the abilities to match up with the high powered gods of the tournament.  One guy has a blade that seems to be able to cut through anything to one character’s painful astonishment.  But for all the good author created characters there is one that most people dislike with myself included.  I won’t throw any shade there but you’ll figure it out once you start reading.

That’s the basic premise for the comic and there are now a total of 658 pages for it which is amazing because at one point there was only one new page a week.  Damn, how long have I been reading this?  I won’t be reviewing it from the beginning because it’s so long now but I will at least start from the beginning of the last special.

The Awesome:

+        Comic made by fans and it shows

+        Great Art that matches and at times exceeds Akira Toriyama’s own style

+        Awesome battles

+        Dream matches for the fans

+        Lots of comedy

+        Minor characters are given some spotlight

+        Cool Scenarios for the various universes

+        The promise of there being specials explaining the different universes series of events

+        The Human universe lead by Old Turtle Hermit Krillin, Super Tien, Cyborg Yamcha, and Mystic Videl

+        Gast Carcolh

+        It’s free!

The Flawed:

-        Pacing. It’s rarely “just right”, it’s either too slow are too fast.

-        Some fights are a waste.  I’m looking at you Frieza vs. Nappa and Tien vs. Son Wukong

-        The specials are usually bad because they’re slow and predictable.  They also seem sloppily put together

-        Not enough out-of-ring plot development

-        Wasted plot potential

-        Bra, though she is cooler than most give her credit for

-        Not enough of “our” heroes in action.  Universe 18 rarely gets any plot development.  I’ll even say that so far they’ve been given the least amount of plot development

Check out the comic at http://www.dragonball-multiverse.com/en/chapters.html. Thanks for the read!

(Belart)

Book Reviews:

I'm currently reading the manga Kenji which was written by Matsuda Ryuchi and Illustrated by Yoshihide Fujiwara.  It's about a young boy growing up and learning martial arts (mostly Bajiquan) from his grandad.  I'll start over to review from the beginning.

I'm also reading the fan created comic Dragonball Multiverse on a week to week basis so reviews for that will be on Sundays where I'll review all three pages in one day instead of one page on the days they're released.


The next Real Book that I'll be reviewing will be Shadow's Linger is a paperback by Glen Cook.  The review for that will be coming whenever I finish it.  Bare with me, I haven't read a Real Book in ages.
(Belart)

This Blog is Too Busy

I now realize that this blog needs to be split up into two parts for my literature and the other stuff.  There is just too much diverse content going on and with the way the site is structured, too much is not good.  Stay tuned for the Belart's Stories blog!

Blogger.com experiments

Still testing various page formats and layouts.  Expect the blog to change periodically throughout the week as I try different templates and visual styles.  My page layout for the other sections such as Belart's Stories, etc. will most likely change too as I add more content.

Blogging and relevance

So honestly this is my first shot at blogging.  You can count stuff like Facebook and Tumblr as blogs technically but I choose to not think of them as such.  I think of Facebook as a bar/hangout with your family, friends, and acquaintances.  Most hardly ever go outside of adding those people and I myself like to keep certain privacy settings on so outsiders can't see all of my various posts, notes, etc.  Tumblr, to me, seems more fit for posting art and other sorts of pictures.  It has a nice amount of functions for notes, news, and other types of text messages but feeds are usually dominated by pictures and for someone unknown and somewhat irrelevant like myself it's easy to get drowned away by all that hyper-imagery (though it is quite awesome I can attest.)

My goal here is to find some relevance and to promote my works.  I am a very strange kind of person when you get right down to it and I want to see if the stuff I like and my works are relevant in the world as it is today.  There will be darkness, there will be queries, quandaries, and confusion that will be mostly on my part then it may spread to you.  The world is a confusing place and I struggle to make sense of it all.  Hopefully I'll get some help in that through this blog.

Just made homemade ramen today and guess what?  It's fairly decent, not incredible, not bad, but hella decent.  In this case it pays to know how to make broth and have pre-seasoned meat.

Coming Soon

Hello all you curious folk and others who've wandered here by accident.  My name is Belart and this is my new blog on blogger.com.  This seems like as good a place as any to get started on the whole blogging process.  I have a Tumblr profile that I post to but it's tough to get any sort of notoriety because it's so image heavy and posts quickly fade into obscurity but I still like it.  I'll be posting there and here with updates from my various projects.

You can look forward to various short stories, video game philosophy and mechanics breakdown, book reviews, and updates from a videogame project that I am working on.  So stay tuned.