Graphics Books

Though I've been mostly interested in writing for animation and comics, while playing video games I questioned who came up with it's stories. Many games have little to no stories and focus mostly on mindless entertainment...which isn't always a bad thing. But some video game stories really touch the viewer (Half Life 2, Final Fantasy, Bioshock, etc. come to mind.)

On a whim I bought this book and have enjoyed it immensely. Both the authors provided much more than I was hoping for. Both are seasoned game writers/designers who have worked on many games you know, and are still working on games. Stuff like UNCHARTED - DRAKE'S FORTUNE, CRIMSON SKIES, PROJECT ORIGIN, and FRANK MILLER'S SIN CITY - THE GAME. These guys know what they are doing.

The book breaks down not only how to write for games, but what that entails, hardships you will find along the way (both with writing and people), they provide sheets you can fill out to create your own game bible to pitch. And as an added bonus they occasionally have writing exercises to help you hone your craft or understnad a point better.

Leave no stone unturned and that's what these two have done. It has my highest regards! Buy it and truly educate yourself.

I am a Multimedia student in Community College.

This book has given me a ton of good ideas on how to create a top-notch game!

I reccomend it to anybody (Like Me.) who wants to design a hit videogame!

this book is chock-full of incredibly useful information about writing and game design. many of the classic traps in this area of game development can be avoided by following flint and john's advice here. everything is outlined in a very clean and (not surprisingly) fun and witty read.

as a game developer for 10 years now, i found information in this book that i'll be using in the future and i can't recommend this book enough. these guys get it, and so should you.

As a member of the student team who needed to produce video game in rather short amount of time, I have found this book extremely helpful. I did like one-sheet summary that allowed us to summarize everything. The content was very helpful. Thank you.

This book, is a no nonsense guide to the video game industry and more specifically to game design. It gives relevant realistic experience written in an upbeat humorous and succinct style.

There aren't any cons to it that I can think of.

Filled with true suspense and engaging swordfights. The storyline is perfect and it keeps you involved with the characters throughout the book. I would recommend the entire collection. The Vagabond series are one of my favorites.

I bought this manga without ever having heard of it and it quickly became my favorite. I usually don't read manga (though i do watch anime) but this one I fell in love with. I would suggest it to anyone. Beautiful artwork, neat story and the fact that it's historically based is the icing on the cake. I can't wait to read the rest.

Vagabond is about the journey of Takezo, a young man, future master swordsman, who is in search of purpose and meaning to his life. In the first book he thinks its to become the best swordsman by challenging and defeating the best in the world. This is bravado for an untrained youth, even just fresh from his first battle on the losing side.

If you like Manga that does not romanticizes war or swordsman, Vagabond should peak your interest. The storytelling is excellent in the drawings, more so than the text. I would rank such adept skill in the same arena as Lone Wolf and Cub. LWC is the standard for balancing poetic story telling and showing the hardcore grit of life as a swordsman. Vagabond starts with a youth, a teen, not a man with a child. So Takezo maturity is not yet there. What drives him to succeed and overcome his past makes this series promising. The characters show a range of emotions in this manga, and the situations they deal with does an excellent job of targeting a mature audience. Takezo struggle for "his" truth becomes ours to learn from his journey about becoming complete.

Read each book like a wine, one delicious sip at a time, enjoy the flavors.

I've been reading various Manga for more than 15 years. I read Japanese manga in various genre not only ones in English but also the old ones that never made it to English translation. The first two volumes of Vagabond so far are fantastic. Definitely a tall cut above the average. I can even compare it across genre and say it's a lot better than Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball (one of my top choices before I read Vagabond).

Vagabond is very poetic and alive. It fully exploits the advantage of the manga as a media and I feel the scenes from the comic are actually more alive than movie or novel. Look carefully at the expression of the characters. My favorite is Takuan Soho - it feels almost like you can get a glimpse of "Satori enlightenment" just by looking at his features as drawn in the manga. Beware that you may end-up being converted into a big Musashi / Japanese swordsmanship fan after reading this manga! This graphic novel is very absorbing!

For those of you who don't mine a fair amount of explicit violence, and enjoy fast paced things with good actions and pretty good characters, I suggest Vagabond. Okay, so thus far I'm, on the 2nd vol. However, I HAD to read that right after the first one.

You see Vagabond moves very fast, its not a short manga, page wise, but you get through it quite fast. Vagabond is based off of a novel based on the geatest Samurai whom ever lived. Forgive me, but I don't remember his name(blocks some shots). haha

I don't really see a need to run through the story, so I wont. Just read it, and be sure to get volumes 1 AND 2. :D

God Bless & *enjoy ~Amy

This is one (if not the only) very well-done shoujo vampire story. It's got love triangles and many plot twists. And it is true that the story is not done yet. Matsuri Hino is still writing/drawing it. Chapter 40 was the latest chapter in LALA magazine in Japan. And as one person before me said, everyone is ALIVE. Anyway, this manga is awesome. Especially for vampire fanatics (like me) who love bite scenes. XD

this anime manga is so awesome,i can read it again and again.there is nothing out there quite like it.

Another great volume from Matsuri Hino!

If you're like me and have problems reading some series because of the artwork, you won't be disappointed with this. Hino's art is beautiful and delicately drawn and she has a style that will appeal to many shoujo fans. The only problem I had was I sometimes couldn't tell Zero from Ichijo (think that's who it was...).

As usual, each volume builds on the last one with more secrets revealed and a lot of strong character development, especially for the men in the series.

My favorite thing about this series is that it's not totally obvious who Yuki will choose in the end. There's Zero, the one who always rejects her but seems to need her most, or Kaname, the mysterious person who's always looking out for her. Personally, I'm rooting for Kaname, but I think it's starting to tilt toward Zero/Yuki. To each his own, though :)

I hope you'll read this! Especially if you've read Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series and are hungry for more vampire drama...

In the third volume Matsuri takes a moment to show readers to softer side of Kaname Kuran, the pure blood Vampire who saved Yuki from a Vampire who had gone mad, lusting for blood. We get to see their friendship grow and how Yuki too has changed.

Matsuri also introduces into the story a mysterious girl, who decides to go to the school after finally finding Zero. Her soft exterior gets Yuki to trust her, and even through herself in the line of fire.

I really LOVED this volume and cannot wait to read the next one. I highly recommend this series to anyone who loves a good Vampire series with delicious art, and story line.

This series is one of the best written and best drawn mangas ever in my opinion. The plot is complex and engaging, full of twists and turns and mystery. The way Ms. Hino draws the characters and shows us their feelings, their lives and their relationships is simply incredible!

Contrary to what has been said in another review, this series is *not* complete yet in any country. It is significantly farther along in publication in Japan, China and Korea I think, but the series is still being published, a chapter a month, in LaLa magazine in Japan. Chapter 35 was the latest chapter and came out about two weeks ago. Kaname and the other major characters are still all very much alive, no one has died at this point. (I sincerely hope none of them will, but that's beside the point right now).

This is a truly wonderful series, and whether or not you like vampires, or even whether or not you like manga, I promise you'll love these books, they do not disappoint!

The book is easy to read and walks you through the process of setting up a web site in a very organized, step by step, process, with a little humor thrown in.

After thinking it over and over again if I should do my very own website, and if I should just learn to do it by myself because it would have been either too expensive for a professional webmaster or too much to ask from one in the family (trust me, working with family doesn't work!); I finally decided: the heck with it, I shall learn it and do it all myself. The first book I chose to study from for my high-tech adventure is actually a textbook currently used in many web design schools. Dennis Gaskill's "Website design made easy" is just that. Gaskill is a professional webmaster who really knows his trade. You'll be shown not only how to build a basic page, but also given the technique to create more advanced websites that include the use of Javascript, CSS, frames, tables, etc. Even though the book doesn't really delve into these more specialized languages, we do get help on their basics and, at the end of the book, there is a list of online resources one can go for help.

Something I did find boring about the book is that Gaskill expresses, right from the beginning, that he does not endorse any of the HTML editing programs (such as, for instance, Macromedia Dreamweaver), and this is the reason why he explains how to build a website from scratch. In this way, you are taught ALL the codes to do everything manually in HTML, something that I believe is good to know - especially if you run into problems while using Dremaweaver; although in this day and age to believe that a new student of the subject will eventually do it this way and without the help of one of the major software programs available seems to me kind of naïve. I would still recommend this book, since if you don't know anything about building websites the task can look daunting. But do not despair, Dennis Gaskill is here to make it easier for you and, with his own brand of humor spread throughout the book it is actually a fun ride to hang on to. You can even practice your new learned talents with the quiz and the exercises at the end of each chapter, where that last question is always a joke (e.g.: How many web designers does it take to change a light bulb?)

Overall, a fine book you'll keep referring to again and again, especially when you need to check on your code. Only one question remains: being Gaskill, as he calls himself, a professional graphic designer as well as a webmaster; why would he approve such an awful layout design for the printing of his book?

Whether you are a beginner or an experienced web designer, you are likely to find something of value in this book. The information is presented in an easy-to-follow and easy-to-implement structure that walks you through all the steps needed to create and publish your website. Dennis even provides design tips to help the technically-competent-but-graphically-challenged! And, he provides lots of links to other useful websites as well as to special places on his own website... where he has provided even more tips, tools and techniques.

I wish I’d had this book when I first taught myself HTML – it would have shortened my learning curve incredibly, and with Dennis’ sense of humor, I would have had a lot more fun! With all these tips for designing, coding, promoting, and maintaining your site, and the added reference and troubleshooting charts, online resources, glossary, index and multiple screen shots, maybe it should be retitled, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Creating Your Website, But Didn’t Know How to Ask!”

Originally I was going to pass the book on to my daughter who is just now learning webdesign, but it’s just so doggone useful I think I’ll have to get her her own copy! (P.S. Go visit his site – you’ll get a sense of the quality of this book when you look through the many tutorials, graphics and ezines he already offers for free! And be sure to check out his Background Magic program, too.)

If you're a web design newbie, then this is the book for you. Finally there's a book that puts web page designing in plain English, rather than some techie jargon. It takes you step by step from the bare basics to some of the more advanced techniques in a way that's actually easy to understand. Plus, the author goes beyond telling you how to make a website work, but also gives practical advice on how to make it good. On top of all that, the book is well written with plenty of humor that makes it not just informative, but also fun to read. I wholeheartedly recommend it!

I have read many books on designing web sites. Most of them are as confusing as dusty old text books. I have always wondered why learning new things has to be so difficult. It's always as if you need a teacher at your elbow so you can ask questions. But learning how to build a really, really good web site is easy with author Dennis Gaskill at your side. Yes, he is right there showing you the way with his new book, "Web Site Design Made Easy." It is easy to read, and easy to learn, and it's down right fun. Dennis not only leads you step by step, but he plays games along the way to see if you are paying attention. He has a wonderful, if not a bit twisted, sense of humor.

"Web Site Design Made Easy" is a joy to read. It answers all the questions, and clears up the mysteries. It starts out with simple HTML and carries you through many complex designing tricks and takes you all the way to optimizing for search engines and shows you how to upload your site to your server.

You will learn it all with this book. I don't know how he did it, but this book really does cover it all, right down to the little details that I always wanted to know. There are color charts, ascii character charts, html tag charts, trouble shooting guide, and a really great glossary. Everything is extremely well laid out, comprehensive, and fun.

It's no wonder to me why Dennis's own web site has won so many awards. I highly recommend this book. Its the only one you need.

For those of you new the the series, yes, the manga and anime known as "Wedding Peach" (WP) looks a lot like "Sailor Moon" (SM). Why? Well, not only is it a typical magical girl shoujo (such as "Magical Girl Pretty Sammy" and "Tokyo Mew Mew"), but the producers of Sailor Moon have actually worked on the series. I also find WP different in that it has a more focused storyline (saving love versus saving the whole universe), fewer magical warriors, and one singular body of evil. So, if you enjoy SM or like series but want something more digestable, I highly recommend WP.

As for the sixth volume, I admit, it was rushed. Nao Yazawa, the creator, admits it to being rushed. And frankly, I like her honesty. I do not see many manga writers that own-up to such things; at most, I see them tip-toe around the subject. (Of course, this could just be my experience; if you've read of others that have acted similarly, be thankful.) That being said, the storyline is wrapped up well with a mix of drama, action, and a fitting happily ever after.

I really like this Manga. It has action romance, and surprises around every corner. I reccomend this to any Manga reader. I plan on getting all of the Wedding Peach books.

I love Wedding Peach, and when I found out it was being published into the English language, I was pshyced! I've been into Wedding Peach for about three years, and I never thought it would make it to the USA, but it has. Anyways, this manga was pretty good. It is obvious that it wasn't translated from the original Japanese version, but from the German version because there seems to be german words in the backround scenes that are supposed to be sound effects...kind of strange. Other than that, its worth buying. I definately recomend!

You've just transformed into an angel of love and told that you must fight devils. WHAT ON EARTH JUST HAPPENED HERE!!!?!?!?!?!?!
That's exactly what happens to Momoko Hanasaki, daughter of the angel Celestia. Devils from the Demon Realm are on earth, threatening to steal all energies of love and replace it with hatred. Momoko and her friends Yuri, Hinagiku, and Scarlet are out to battle with the demons as the angels Wedding Peach, Lily, Daisy, and Salvia!
Along the way, new friendships are found, and many secrets are revealed.
Don't miss out on this new shoujo sensation! Be sure to get the anime too when it comes out on DVD in APRIL 2004!!!

This is the volume that actually jump starts the Wedding Peach plot. Before was a very long introduction and character establishment. Now that it has passed, volume three sends the Love Angels into understanding the history of the war they're fighting and comprehending how important their role is. Though the story doesn't become darker, it's a bit somber at times (especially in later volumes) which, I think, most will find refreshing.

Volume three is a reward for getting through the first two, and a nice passage into the final volumes that are definitely worth reading (especially if you've come this far).

Cartoons of the NEW YORKER variety are a long way from comic books or most newspaper comic strips when it comes to social commentary. Byrnes is a well-known practitioner of the slightly cynical cartoonist's art, often giving the reader pause: "Wait -- What did he just say?" Like the businessman asking on the phone, "What's our policy on honesty?" Or the magnate remarking to a younger manager, "When I lost my sense of humor, I lost my sense of compassion, which is how I got where I am today." And sometimes his commentary is sharper, such as with the parents in front of a family camp-tent addressing their youngest child: "I'm sorry, Tommy, you've been voted out."

Thankyou very much for these comics. LOL happen with each of them.

Hilarious is one way to describe the cartoons in here.Especially the few "Adam and Eve" ones..but youd have to buy this book to understand what I mean by that.Heh.The only reason I give it 4 stars is because I admit I didnt quite get atleast 5-7 or the cartoons.But thats only due to my ignorance in the subject that is joked about.

Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of really funny cartoons here. But, given the subjects we could choose from (normal business operations, radical religions, absurd politics, etc.), I expected more absurdity. Twenty of the included cartoons are from the "New Yorker." I have often read an entire issue of "New Yorker" cartoons without "getting" them, although I appreciated the artistic skill involved. Once, I interviewed a cartoonist who had sold a single cartoon to the "New Yorker." He could not explain why the editor had bought the cartoon or why he could never sell another one. Now, Pat Byrnes' cartoons are much funnier than the average. His art, though it looks dashed off, is certainly not. A great deal of thought and effort has gone into these well-crafted pieces. Here's hoping that Byrnes will publish a companion volume of even darker humor. Perhaps, the devil will make him do it. By the way, his introduction is just as humorous as his drawings.

Pat Byrnes's cleverly caustic "What Would Satan Do?" is a collection of the artist's outrageous cartoons on the delights of deviltry. In his amusing introduction, Byrnes points out that the temptation to transgress is all around us; after all, society's moral compass went permanently haywire a long time ago. Therefore, the author decided to profit from the wages of sin by ridiculing such human shortcomings as greed, selfishness, incompetence, sadism, rationalization, one-upsmanship, hypocrisy, insensitivity, and other obnoxious traits that we see all around us every day--but never in ourselves.

The cartoons, some in black and white and others in color, are deliciously satirical and skillfully drawn. Nasty nuns, putrid parents, curmudgeonly CEOs, creepy criminals, and scenes from hell (literally)--they're all here for your reading pleasure. Byrnes also takes aim at reality show hosts, newscasters, computer geeks, slimy lawyers, and other easy-to-lampoon targets. "What Would Satan Do?" is timely and biting social commentary that makes us laugh at the expense of those self-centered and nasty individuals who delight in making everyone else's lives miserable. Although a few of the cartoons fall flat and others may be too naughty and tasteless for some, the book's blend of artistry (I love the facial expressions) and merry mockery make it a good purchase for misanthropes with a sense of humor.

This book would make a great gift for the nerdy-but-earnest sweetheart (or potential future sweetheart) in your life. This book is a series of slice-of-life depictions of new romance. most are funny, a few are poignant, none of them are saccharine. A few (plot-relevant) boner and boobie jokes cut the treacle admirably, and remind the reader that yes, this is a comic about real -albeit weird- people. This quirkiness makes it just that much more endearing for its sincerity.

Sweet comic about relationships and love. My husband & I laughed together over how true it is and how sweet.

THIS SHORT BASIC GRAPHIC NOVEL WAS SUCH A LAUGH OUT LOUD PLEASURE TO READ. PRINCE IS AMAZING! MUCH LOVE TO SCIENCE...

Liz Prince's little work perfectly captures the underrated romantic nuances of love. I immediately wanted to share it with my boyfriend. This would make a really adorable little gift. Very uplifting and warm!

i didn't buy this from amazon (sorry), but i found this comic at a local store in french "tu m'aimerais encore si je fais pipi au lit?" my boyfriend stumbled upon it and started chuckling to himself. i took a look at what he was enjoying and was immediately enchanted myself. each simple 4 panel comic gives you a glimpse into the amazing and mundane moments in a relationship which liz captures so well. i am a big fan and looking forward to more comics from liz!

Even though I have read all of Wondermark's free online material, this purchase was still absolutely worth it. Not only for the bonus material, which went well beyond just extra strips, but because the comic holds up, and it's great to have a portable book for re-reading.

Bravo, I say!

Like all of Shelley's poetry, the works in this volume impose something of a pre-postmodernist matrix of assumptions about the nature of incipient reality upon the reader -- assumptions, I might add, not properly appreciable by those unfamiliar with the lovely depredations of absinthe or the glory of beards. As a proud possessor of several sprouted facial whiskers myself, I found myself deeply moved throughout.

If you can't have William Blake croon gentle poetry into your ear, this, then, is the next best thing.

This is a beautiful collection of David Malki ! 's anachonistic webcomic potpourri. Likely to pry a wry grin from the lips of even the most humorless or otherwise sedated reader, Beards of Our Forefathers is a volume I am proud to have on my shelf. Highly recommended for both jocular humans and ursine connoisseurs of whimsical hats.

Why, not since Madame Pomphrey's Illustrated Guide to Tuberculosis have I read such an astonishing and informative reference of import. I especially enjoyed the sections covering historical taxonomies of beardography as it related to the Industrial Revolution and the invasion of the Gaxxian Armada in 1789. Any persons not having read this new classic should be stripped of their beard in full view of their childhood sweethearts. Also, they should not be allowed any soda at the box social.

This book is hilarious and I was truly saddened when I had devoured every last word and there was not a crumb left. I'm going now to wondermark.com to find out what happens to Uncle.....

Without any words, i just can say two thumbs up 4 clamp for making this art book. even if you're not a manga or anime lovers, this piece of art was worth enough to be collected.

The illustrations are SUPERB!! Like always. Very details and the effects .... make anyone amazed and jealous !!! Most of X pics are in it but some are not, maybe the CLAMP will publish the X - First in the future and it is my mission to hunt it.

I think X is an excelent manga, and this art book is wonderful, the pictures are marvelous.

I fell in love with this artbook as soon as I took it out of the box (it comes in a cardboard box/sleeve thingy).

CLAMP's illustrations are absolutely marvelous, and most of the pics are full page! There's at least 1 full page pic of every character, and they're all meticulously detailed, like every other CLAMP painting. I love this book! Get it!

This is a well-made, high quality hardcover artbook collecting color artwork from the manga (comic) X/1999 (as it is published in the US). X/1999 is a supernatural, apocalyptic story about destiny and choices leading toward the end of the world, written and illustrated by a team of women collectively called CLAMP. The artwork here focuses on the numerous characters. As a loose generalization, the illustrations are either elegant or bloody. The characters themselves have the delicate, slender designs of all CLAMP characters. The female character illustrations shine here: the sword-wielding priestess Arashi, the innocent Yuzuriha Nekoi, and the fire-wielding Karen Kasumi, in particular. Other illustrations, particularly involving lead characters Kamui and Kotori, are scenes of violence or impending violence. X/1999 the comic has scenes of dismemberment; none of these illustrations reach that point, but they are not all sweetness and light. If you have read any comics by CLAMP (such as X/1999 or Rayearth) and think the art looks good in black and white, these full-color illustrations will show you CLAMP can reach an even higher level. One last note: this is a Japanese book, so it opens and reads in the opposite direction (but don't worry, it sits just as nicely on a bookshelf).

i'm not sure why this collection is so highly rated; maybe it's because it's the end of the claremont/byrne run.
the tpb is a disjointed collection, which goes from the x-men going through the 9 levels of hell a la dante's inferno, to wolverine and nightcrawler in canada fighting the wendigo, to some x-men fighting mystique and the brotherhood trying to kill senator kelly, to kitty pryde and some other x-men trying to change the past and thus the future.
altogether they are solid if somewhat unrelated stories.

ok let me clarify...x-men 141 and 142, the days of future past, is a great classic comics storyline. but this tpb collects some unrelated stories before and after i guess just to be longer, so it kind of throws off the storyline if you think this whole tpb is one long connected story which it isn't.

This are the two comic books that thrust just about every encarnation of the X-Men into a whole new ball game. Did you ever watch the old X-Men cartoon in the 90's where politicians were about to mess with mutants? Remember the Sentinels? How about X-Men Evolution? Sound familiar? What about the first X-Men movie? That's right folks. All these shows have this in common: whole story arcs based on Days of Future Past.

These two comics started it all. It launched ideas for numerous future/alternate timeline stories in the X-Men comics as well. The trade paperback reprints issues 141 and 142, but I hear they added more issues with new printings. Doesn't matter which one you get because to me is the focal point is those two issues. Still getting more comic for your money isn't bad. Especially when they are all written by Chris Claremont (whom I consider THE scribe for the X-Men).

Why do these comics hold so much clout? This was something totally new to comicdom. Stan Lee never fled from serious content, and racial profiling is what you have here. The story shows a future where mutants are stripped of their human rights and are regarded as inferior. The parallels between this story and what happened in Nazi Germany are obvious, but it puts a different angle on the issue that makes it something younger audiences can click with.

The artwork is solid and striking without being gaudy and flashy. The background (future) story you get is going to blow you away. And the "modern" activity will give you the classic team you know and love. There is no reason for any X-Fan not to have this TPB... other than if you have the original issues.

"X-Men: Days of Future Past" is the epilogue to the Dark Phoenix saga, the swan song for the team of writer Chris Claremont and penciler Johny Byrne as the co-plotters for "The Uncanny X-Men," and the arrival of Kitty Pryde as the newest and youngest pupil in Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters on Graymalkin Lane outside the Westchester County Township of Salem Center. What you will find in this trade paperback collection are issues #138-143 of "The Uncanny X-Men" and Annual #4, where the artwork is handled by John Romita, Jr. & Bob McLeod.

"Elegy" (#138) begins with Jean Grey's funeral and ends with Scott Summers leaving the X-Men for a while. It really is the true epilogue to the Dark Phoenix saga and most of the issue is a walk down memory lane, recapping the history of the X-Men from when Jean first showed up at the school. Fans of the series will enjoy recognizing issues from the past (remember Grotesk and the Living Pharaoh).

The Annual story, "Nightcrawler's Inferno," has a demon who is fighting Doctor Strange yanking the X-Men off into another dimension, leaving Professor X and Kitty behind. This one involves a more classical interpretation of Hell, what with Minos and Cerberus from Dante coming into play, but like most Annual stories seems a bloated attempt to do something big as opposed to the much bigger impact of a solid multi-part story (see below).

"...Something Wicked This Way Comes!" (#139) has Kitty being introduced to training in the Danger Room, and Wolverine and Nightcrawler head to Canada to meet up with Alpha Flight and an old problem. That would be the Wen-Di-Go, who they fight in "Rage!" (#140), while Ororo takes Kitty to dance lessons with Stevie Hunter. Then we get to the two-part story that gives this collection its title and which remains a classic X-Men story.

"Days of Future Past" (#141) begins with Kate Pryde making her way through a New York City slum in the 21st century (remember, these stories were published in 1980). She is meeting Logan and wearing an inhibitor collar that neutralizes her power to phase through solid objects and an "M" that marks here as a mutant (number 187 in fact). At the South Bronx Mutant Internment Center she walks by graves of the victims of the Sentinels, which includes most of the X-Men and all of the Fantastic Four. Only four X-Men remain: Logan, Ororo, Kate and her husband Peter, and are joined by a wheel-chair bound Magneto, Franklin Richards and his girlfriend, Rachel, a telepath. There last hope is to change the future by changing the past, when the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants murder presidential candidate Robert Kelly and others. To do this, Rachel sends the mind of Kate Pryde back to the present to inhabit her body at age 13.

"Mind Out of Time!" (#142) juxtaposes the battle in the present between the X-Men and the Brotherhood, with the attempt by the few remaining mutants in the future trying to keep Kate's body alive and away from the Sentinels. You know how this one is going to work out in the end, but Claremont and Bryne know how to milk the emotions. This two-parter is the reason that fans of the series would want this one on their shelf.

"Demon" (#143) is basically Kitty Pryde "Home Alone," as the X-Men go out to a Christmas party. While doing a basic gymnastic workout in the Danger Room, an intruder enters the mansion and Kitty finds herself going up against an alien monster. I would say that the alien monster actually looks a bit like the monster in "Alien," but you will find that there are other aspects of that film that come into play as well. Basically this is Kitty's baptism under fire and underscores that "X-Men: Days of Future Past" is ultimately about the littlest X-Man.

I am in complete agreement with the other reviewer's sentiments regarding the "Dark Phoenix" saga. There's just one problem: THIS IS NOT A REPRINTING OF THE DARK PHOENIX SAGA!!! This is a reprint of the also classic "Day's of Future Past" storyline, which was also penned by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. That storyline actually consists of only two issues, but for this latest edition the good folks at Marvel were kind enough to also include issues 138-140, and issue 143 in addition to issues 141-142. A wonderful collection consisting of the issues that FOLLOWED the "Dark Phoenix Saga". This book also features one of the best comic book battles ever as the X-men face off against the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. So buy this book people, but please Amazon, get your act together.

Though it's really only a two-issue event with more stuff crammed around it in this graphic novel, everything about Days of Future Past is just plain awesome X-Men adventures from the golden age of Chris Claremont's prolific run on the title. Picking up after the Dark Phoenix Saga, Cyclops quits the team and reminisces about all the events that took place up until the death of Jean Grey, Wolverine gets his classic brown costume for the first time (and gets called Logan for the first time too) as he treks to Canada and takes on the Wendigo. Angel rejoins the team, and Kitty Pryde becomes a new member as well, just in time as the X-Men get a visit from the future, and we get a glimpse at the future world ruled by Sentinels and get to see the future versions of Magneto, Wolverine, Storm, and Colossus get slaughtered. This prompts the present day X-Men to stop an assassination plot of Senator Kelly by Mystique and co., and concludes with a demonic Christmas visit. The art by classic X-Men penciler John Byrne and early art by the great John Romita, Jr. has been remastered here and it looks great, as does the revamped cover by Byrne. All in all, Days of Future Past was one of the best stories from the golden age of X-Men comics, and while not as influential or groundbreaking as the Dark Phoenix Saga that came before it, if you missed out on it, then you've missed out on a great deal.