Retrieve The Guild (The Guild, #1) By Felicia Day Available As Document
Chicago Public Library recently entered a partnership with online content provider Hoopla, which among other things means I suddenly have access to thousands of old comic books I've never read before, including most of the back catalog of Top Shelf, Dark Horse and Boom! Studios.
This was the first thing I decided to read through Hoopla, because I'm already a big fan not only of the web series this was based off of, but also Day's memoir You're Never Weird On The Internet Almost.
This prequel series, though, turned out to be a big disappointment containing none of the sharp humor that is a hallmark of the web series, it feels literally like one of those cheap comics adaptations of a famous movie done by people who aren't associated with the original in any way, who are writing it before seeing the actual movie and have only a series of hastily written character descriptions off which to base their own story.
Featuring way too broadly devised new characters Codex's boyfriend here might as well be twirling a pencil mustache while wearing a top hat and tying her down to some railroad tracks, and introducing existing characters with all the subtlety of Liam Neeson yelling, "ObiWan Kenobi, meet Anakin Skywalker!!!," the whole thing feels like a cheap ripoff of the funny and smart original, not a project written by the same exact person.
A big letdown, although I'll continue to consume Day's newest projects in the future, simply because I'm such a big fan of the original web series that first garnered her so much attention.
This was pretty cute! It's been a really long time since I've watched the webseries, but this definitely made me remember it fondly and kind of want to rewatch it.
Felicia Day is so cute and even her graphic novel counterpart feels so perfectly authentic and lovable, More than anything, it was just neat to read a prequel and see how she came to meet all of these other gamers,
I think my only real complaint was how inconsistent the artwork was, Some panels were beautiful, while a lot of others were really, . . meh. Absolutely one of the best comics about gamers out there, So refreshing to read something from a female's perspective, I would say this is a must read or a must gift for a gamer or someone interested in getting the girlfriend/daughter/wife into comics.
The artwork is beautiful and Ms, Day's voice really comes across in the narrative and she's just a fun person to be a fan of, check her out! Im familiar with Felicia Day from her small roles in shows like Supernatural, Eureka, and The Magicians, and I follow her reviews here on Goodreads.
I tend to agree with her reviews on comics and some books, so I had to check out her comic, I decided to watch a few episodes of her web series before diving in, but I have to admit I wasnt really crazy about it from the firstepisodes I watched.
Maybe I should give it another chance, but Ill just review this book for now,
Ive never played WoW, but Ive always thought Id check it out someday, Ive heard its really addicting, and I have quite enough things Im addicted to right now, thank you very much including Goodreads, I like that The Guild was easy for non WoW players to get into, Day starts off the comic by introducing the main character Cyd to the game simply called “The Game” here, so we get to learn along with her.
I felt like a lot of time was wasted on Cyds oddly abusive relationship problems, but maybe it was meant to empower women to escape those situations Im not really sure honestly, but Ill go with that for the sake of being optimistic.
Cyd is alright, but she see's a therapist and then throws away her prescription, for what appears to be a Xanax type drug, in a public trashcan, then she uses "the game" to pretty much replace therapy.
It's a weird theme for a comic,
Also, not super fond of the other characters, What's up with
the super hostile and pretentious gay guy He apparently also doesn't mind breaking up a relationship,
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Don't get me started on Trevor, This dude seriously sucks.
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Like not one single positive attribute, He's a totally flat character, He lies, steals Cyd's ideas and claims them as his own right in front of her, uses her to write songs for him, do research, buy him and his friends pizzas, cheats on her, and is this pseudo charming, skeezy snake.
I don't get it.
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You never thought he'd look at you Come on, You're a gorgeous girl who we're supposed to view as some bullied weirdo, like mosts/earlys makeover movies where the "ugly" girl is really a pretty girl in glasses and dumpy clothes.
And is he gay or not Guess we'll never know,
Felicia Day is a feminist, I believe, which is a term I don't particularly like, but I do praise her for considering the treatment of female characters in the books she reviews.
This comic, however, is not super "girl power", A female character we encounter in the very beginning in the store is trying to sell ten video games that she stole from her roommate, She gets irate at the cashier when he doesn't bow to her batting eyelashes for a higher price, On the stolen goods. It's a semi pointless interaction and I can't figure out why it was included in this comic,
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And the pregnant gamer doesn't seem to spend any time with her kids, She even has a baby then jumps on a computer she brought with her to the hospital, so she can compete in a contest in the game.
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Is this supposed to be some kind of "friendship" message
I don't really have much to say about the other characters.
They're forgettable. One is some kind of weird stalker guy who has a weird relationship with his mom,
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One is a pervy middle school kid, One is a moral preaching older man who seems to have lived his entire life within a computer, Then there's the bitchy female character who comes in near the end, There's even a part where Cyd has to choose between good and evil, evil being the road with the cooler prizes, but you have to kill a bunch of kittens and some innocent girl or something.
And this environment is apparently beneficial to Cyd's mental health,
Don't get me wrong, I play my fair share of violent fantasy games, but I also wouldn't say it's an entirely healthy escape when I playhours straight, and I'd never claim it's a good replacement for real world interactions and therapy.
I'm not even fond of the idea of therapy for everyone especially not for Cyd, considering her therapist seems like a quack, But still, it's kind of odd how the story is set up to prove something, but does a great job making me question it right up to the end.
There are games I'll play when I'm feeling down, like Sunset Overdrive, and it really is therapeutic, but not when I waste entire days in a row immersed within the game, a dozen coffees down.
I guess I'm mostly annoyed by this aspect of the comic because it presents "the game" as a healthy escape and new beginning for Cyd, instead of presenting it as a humorous and crazy time in her life discovering a new hobby.
Cyd doesn't even learn from her mistakes unless you count the ending as her learning, which I don't, I didn't want to read a happy hippy "moral if this story" comic, and I feel like that's what I got, but with a very unconvincing/unsatisfying moral.
The biggest disappointment was definitely the ending, Seriously, what just happened First of all I love Felicia Day! And I love this book! Our heroine is an introvert with a jerk of a boyfriend, She never speaks up for herself and her boyfriend takes advantage of her talents,
But in her online game she is brilliant, brave, extroverted, Soon her personality is affected by her online persona changing her life,
Excellent story with fun characters, My favorite is the pregnant woman who only leaves the game long enough to give birth, Hahah! The hospital has wifi so shes set, Cyd ist Mitteund mit ihrem Leben nicht zufrieden, Sie spielt Geige wenn auch nicht die erste in einem Orchester und hat einen Freund, den sie getrost zum Teufel jagen könnte, Doch ein freundliches Wort von ihm, und schon läßt sie sich aufs neue schamlos ausnutzen, Cyd ist neurotisch und ihre Eltern bezahlen ihre psychotherapeutischen Sitzungen, aus denen Cyd auch keinen Nutzen zu ziehen vermag, Überhaupt: der Umgang mit anderen Menschen ist ihr Hauptproblem,
Das alles ist Jammern auf hohem Niveau und nicht wirklich mitreißend, Aber dann findet Cyd plötzlich durch Zufall die Rettung: ein OnlineRollenspiel, in dem sie sich ausleben und plötzlich mit Menschen Mitspielern problemlos kommunizieren kann.
Alles was im richtigen Leben nicht funktioniert, hier läufts,
Äh, das kann doch jetzt nicht ernst gemeint sein, oder
Ich kenne die "Kultserie" von Felicia Day nicht, aber die Handlung dieses Comics ist nicht nur dürftig, sondern auch fraglich.
Hier wird die virtuelle Welt der realen vorgezogen, als ob nicht schon genug Menschen sich in Rollenspielen verlören, Aber ich will nicht moralisieren und kann die schlechte Bewertunbg auch mit der dünnen Handlung und der mässigen Artwork begründen, Auch als "Studies in Nerdology" hat mir das dünne Büchlein nicht gefallen,
Da die Bewertungen ansonsten aber sehr hoch liegen, muss es einen Kultfaktor um die Autorin geben, der mir nicht bekannt ist und der sich durch das Comic mir nicht erschlossen hat.
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