I am actively drawing Hereville again, but it’ll be a while before the new pages are posted in public; read about it here.

1. One comic book that changed your life.

Maus.

2. One comic book you have read more than once.

Maus.

3. One comic book you would want on a desert island.

Maus.

4. One comic book that made you laugh

Maus.

5. One comic book that made you cry

Maus.

6. One comic book you wish had been created.

Hereville. (Luckily for me, it’s in progress!)

7. One comic book you wish had never been created.

Y: The Last Man.

8. One comic book you are currently reading.

…I own a copy of Blankets?

9. One comic book you have been meaning to read.

Fun Home.

Have you read American Born Chinese? GREAT little comic…

1. One video game that changed your life

Apprentice

Thanks to a small piece of software, I was able to go from “I wish I could play in Magic tournaments” to, well, actually playing in Magic tournaments. I got pretty good, too, and it led me to various social circles that I would never have gotten involved in otherwise.

2. One video game you play over and over

Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Super Smash Bros. Melee never gets old, and it has the interesting property of being fun to play no matter how badly you’re getting beaten. Four players Smash Bros = gamer’s heaven. If this game needs an introduction or a description, well, there’s not much point in giving one.

3. One video game you would want on a desert island

Any popular MMORPG; I could use it to call for help. ;)

On a less practical note, I’d want NetHack. It has endless depth and replayability; one really could sit on a desert island and just play it for years. Remember, The DevTeam thinks of everything!

4. One video game that made you laugh

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, for the PS2. I think this game has the best story of any video game I’ve ever played; it’s hilarious AND it has real heart, too.

5. One video game that made you cry

Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra

Near the end of this game, there’s a big scene in which Non Action Guy Allen Ridgeley makes a dramatic stand against one of the superpowered bad guys. Of course, he gets his ass kicked, but his refusal to give up in the face of overwhelming power inspires the rest of the heroes. I’m really not doing the scene justice here, and it had a bit of a special meaning to me because I see a lot of myself in Allen (including the hopeless unrequited crush on the game’s female lead), but yes, I was crying.

I could have mentioned Aeris’s death scene in Final Fantasy VII, but there were so many things I didn’t like about that game that I’m not going to use it as my choice here.

6. One video game you wish had been created

Final Fantasy 7, with a script by Ted Woolsey, translator of Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger.

Ted Woolsey was hired as a translator by Square to make sure that nothing like the horrible Final Fantasy IV localization ever happened again. For a while, it worked, as he wrote some very readable and high quality scripts in spite of the constraints imposed upon him by limited storage space and censorship. However, before Final Fantasy VII was translated into English, Square moved its US headquarters, and Ted Woolsey didn’t move along with them.

The script that Square ended up using was horrible. It was clearly written by people who were not native English speakers, as it contained numerous grammatical errors. It was also a translation by people who apparently didn’t know the context of what they were translating, as the dialogue is filled with bizarre non-sequiturs. It really killed the game experience for me; I still hope for a remake with a script that makes sense, as Square has found a new translator, Alexander O. Smith, who is very good at his job.

7. One video game you wish had never been created

Donkey Kong Country. It started a trend towards the kind of 3-D rendered graphics that I don’t find aesthetically pleasing. The PS1 era of game graphics was a giant step backwards from what I used to see on the SNES. The way I see it, either a game looks good or it doesn’t, and the capabilities of the technology have little to do with it. There are beautiful games on the NES and ugly games on the Xbox 360. If a game “looks good for its time” but looks bad today, it probably looked bad then, too!

8. One video game you are currently playing

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, for PSP

Final Fantasy Tactics was another Square game that had the misfortune to be released after the departure of Ted Woolsey but before Square managed to put together another decent localization team. I’m looking forward to reading a version of this game’s script that actually makes sense.

9. One video game you have been meaning to play

Metal Gear Solid 3

I have a ridiculous backlog of games I’ve never played. I got Metal Gear Solid 3 for Christmas several years ago and STILL haven’t played it.

10. Now tag five people!

Sorry, I don’t do tags.

I thought you liked comics?

And October was the first month that Firefox has surpassed IE in Browser usage statistics (www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stat…), so I’m guessing at least half of your readers will see it correctly.

Back on topic: thanks for reminding me of a few comics I’ve been meaning to read and pointing me to some new ones to check out. I’m woefully behind in my comics reading.

tooootally off topic, but: the way the image from Ganges #1 floats around and overlaps the surrounding text and blockquote is oh so awesome. it makes the designer in me so very happy.

Me too! Unfortunately, it doesn’t work in IE, so 90% or more of the readers won’t see it laid out correctly. Oh, well.

Amen! I was a die-hard Cerebus fan from the early 30s and, had you asked me anywhere during the High Society or Church & State cycles, I would have said I was with the little grey guy until 300. But after a few years of issues that grew increasingly painful to slog through, I finally admitted that, 300 or not, it was over for me.

also, i want to read that book (Ganges #1).