The app that’s rocking my world right now? Evernote.

Evernote is a note taker’s dream, and I constantly take notes throughout the day. I might just need to jot down something as simple as items to pick up at the grocery store or a significant portion of my next story or article. Whatever that note might have been in times gone by, it ended up as a scrap of paper that would go into my wallet or pocket never to be seen again. The only time those notes would see the light of day was after laundry was done, and we were picking bits of paper out of the dryer or my pockets.

Evernote is breaking my bad habit and saving trees everywhere. The most beautiful feature about Evernote is the fact that users can access it from a wide variety of devices: iPhones, Android phones, desktop apps (PC & Mac), and in web browsers. I can start a note while I am at work in the web browser version. (After all, I don’t want to download additional software on my company computer.) Later, when I get home, I can access that same note from my desktop app and add more information. When I’m out the next day or the next week, I can then quickly pull up that same info on my Android phone without missing a beat.

Much More than Text Notes

If Evernote only handled text, it would be handy but not essential. What separates Evernote is that it can easily merge audio files, images, URLs and more into users’ notetaking. For example, an Evernote user can be driving down the road and suddenly remember a vital piece of information. Rather than having to pull out a notepad or type on a phone keypad, the driver can record an audio message with the phone and save that audio to Evernote. By tagging the note and saving it to the appropriate “Notebook,” users can stay organized on the go.

I have to confess that I still catch myself jotting ideas on paper — there is just something about the physical process of writing that holds an allure. In the past, this “old school” approach only doubled my efforts. If I really wanted to keep that exact data, then I had to bring it home and transcribe it into a Word document. Now, if I want to keep the note, I can take a picture of the page and still have all of the relevant data. Evernote even allows for plugins / add-ons that extend the functionality. Theoretically, I could create a PDF of my notes and have searchable text that could be copied and pasted to another application. The only problem is that my handwriting is far too messy for any OCR device to match up the text properly.

Endless Possibilities

Evernote has created an effective marketing tool with their blog. While the company offers several tips on how to optimize the user experience, Evernote also focuses on innovative ways that users are already applying the program. From expense reports to diet plans, the program is obviously able to adapt to the needs of customers.

I can say that it has already made a big difference in my day-to-day routine, and I can’t wait to try out some of the ideas from the Evernote blog.

Evernote has a free plan that currently allows users 60MB of data to be transferred, which is more than one might think. I was concerned that I would quickly blow by that usage number, but I’ve yet to cross the line into premium plan land. I have no doubt that I will end up getting the very affordable plan as I become more dependent on the service.

Check out the service at Evernote.com. If you switch between information and communication devices throughout the day, you’ll quickly realize the value of having your data centralized and easily accessible.

Voyaga – “Identity”

Voyaga is the only tale which has carried through the anthology so far, and I get more intrigued by the storyline with each issue. This time around, the audience is largely treated to details that help bring the stories together into a cohesive whole. I, for one, love these times when we get to catch up with how the story works.

Ionic continues to kill on art duties, and this chapter ends with a big cliffhanger. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Kidthulu in “Fetch”

Fetch is just pure fun. See, the lead character is just like every other boy… except for the fact that he is a chthulu. So what if he’ll grow up to become a menacing monster. For now, he’s just a bored kid playing with his alien dog.

With plenty of nods to geek culture and loads of monster cuteness, Kidhulu’s short tale is a blast. I look forward to future tales from writer Martin Brandt and artist Jason Stephens.

Western Addition

The final story is a Western featuring a cowboy on the run. In these few pages, readers get all the staples of a good Western tale: horses, a shootout, and a little house on the prairie.

The story looks great (Where does Barrows find all these artists?!) and moves at a brisk pace. Readers catch a few details about the character based on the choices he makes, as there are few lines of dialogue in the story.

My only trouble with this little tale is that the lead character did not seem all that unique based on this story alone. I see he’s heroic and that he shoots well, but I don’t know how he’s supposed to be any different from other Western heroes.

Knowing writer Brandon Barrows’ previous work leads me to believe there are some unique traits to this hero; I just don’t know them yet.

Reasonably Priced Comics #3 delivers once again. I give this issue 4 of 5 stars.

For more info and to purchase books, please visit www.ReasonablyPricedComics.com/.

I’ve been a big fan of Jack Hammer since issue 1, and issue 3 continues the noir / superhero mashup with an introduction to the ultimate villain behind the crime. And this guy is no lightweight! He’s sure to give Hammer a run for his money.

Ionic continues to dazzle with his artwork. His character expression and dynamic action scenes are a fine example of the comic craft. The colors of this issue especially stood out. Much of this book has a similar feel to it in terms of lighting and shade, and the subtlety and skill of the shading stood out even more.

Barrows has crafted some very interesting characters in Jack Hammer. I’m really looking forward to learning about this villain as much as possible. His sinister nature lurks just below the surface, and he seems even creepier for it. It’s as if he’s just ready to explode with vile behavior at any moment, and we get to see a few of those moments in this issue.

Issue 3 has a ton of story to tell, and it unfortunately falls prey to some intensive blocks of text to convey the necessary information. The story is able to afford a little leeway here since it’s a noir tale with the lead character narrating, but even still the text felt a little heavy. There are moments either described in the text or assumed in the progression of panels that I wish we could have seen in action.

Still, there is plenty enough action to keep readers of superhero comics glued to the fights and car crashes, and the cliffhanger draws the reader in for the final issue of this mini-series.

Issue 3 is a fun read and a great setup to the big finale. 4 Stars

Learn more about the Jack Hammer comic series at Reasonably Priced Comics.

The second issue of the Reasonably Priced Comics anthology is now available, and I can promise that the issue’s price agrees with the book’s title and that the book is more than worth the money. This issue has three short stories, including the ongoing tale Voyaga by series editor Brandon Barrows.

Before jumping into the reviews of the individual stories, let me quickly say that the cover art is absolutely incredible. I’ve been paying close attention to artist Ionic’s cover work, and I can’t get enough of it.

Voyaga – In this issue, we see lead character Dean Kirkland in a version of Earth in the distant future that has survived what appears to be the end of mankind. All of man’s architecture is left behind, but decay has set in over the hundreds of years since the construction of these buildings.

Voyaga continues the tradition of many science fiction stories like Planet of the Apes and I am Legend with the lone man facing a deserted world, and the short story reads like a scene from a novel. Barrows uses heavy narration to give readers a peek into the mind of the character, and the use of the first-person point of view throughout gives the text a sense of immediacy.

Artist Ionic simply kills on art, and his illustration of future environments and oversized, feral house pets is very entertaining. Even in moments of quiet exploration, the art catches the reader’s attention with an unusual angle or an extra level of detail. Barrows and Ionic work well together, allowing the art and the text to comment on one another without simply feeling repetitive.

My Way – Leppy Jooker would be a washed-up Vegas headliner if he were human. Instead, he’s an alien performer at the Starlight lounge in deep space, and he’s in trouble. Leppy only has a week to pay back his loan shark.

The art on this story is more cartoony than the first story, and it suits the mood of the light-hearted tale of heists and mobsters. Artist Robert Durham does a great job including a variety of aliens in music clubs in a Star Wars type manner.

There is a lot of text to squeeze into these panels, and the art felt a bit crowded at times. And even though the ending of the story was not really a surprise, Leppy is an entertaining character with wonderful dialogue. My favorite part of this entire story is the bits of lyrics we read from some of his hit songs, including the line “And that’s why there’s no ‘I’ in space.” No real explanation… it’s just there. And I love that type of humor.

The Communicators – The Communicators is mostly a silent tale showing the two men who lead virtually identical lives with drastically different attitudes. I don’t want to say too much about the plot in fear that I would ruin it for you, but the story is worth a close study. The story says a lot about man in very few words.

The creative team of Nichols and Calloway make great use of the page to show the duality of man. Readers can visually compare these two men through a series of snapshots all the way through their lives.

Final Verdict

Issue 2 of Reasonably Priced Comics is a strong anthology with solid stories and a great variety of themes. Check out Reasonably Priced Comics, and pick up an issue.

Set immediately after the defeat of Poland, issue one deals primarily with Orzel Bialy, the White Eagle of Poland. He is their defending champion, and he is full of rage after seeing his country conquered so easily. When he is outmatched in a battle against the Nazi superhero (or “progressives”), the rest of the Allied Forces are called to intervene.

Allied Forces is a combination of ideas like Captain America and the Justice Society of America along with some of the toys from the retro Hellboy / BPRD stuff. These are classic heroes, drawn in the style of Marvel’s and DC’s earliest line. I won’t spoil the story for you, but the reveal of retro technology at the end made me ready to see issue 2 right away!

My only criticism is that the characters feel a bit stiff in a few panels. By far, the majority of the art was dynamic and kept the pace moving, but there were a few cases where the characters could have been in a more active pose or leaning toward the “camera” a bit more. It’s obvious from looking through this issue that artist Joe Kuzma has real talent, and I look forward to seeing what he does in the rest of the series.

For me, the measure of the quality of a comic book is the attention to the little details. Big ideas are fairly common, but solid execution is rare. The creative team behind Allied Forces really went the extra mile to make this storytelling world come alive. Artistic touches like showing the underside of the White Eagle’s beak made his costume look like a real person could actually wear that outfit, and the writing included some dialog in German to help you feel the confusion that the Polish would have known upon watching these foreign conquerors.

Allied Forces is a tightly constructed book that is firmly rooted in the history of World War II with material that is fresh and engaging. You need to find this book and check it out. I give it a 4 out 5 stars.

Good news and bad news: a friend recently recommended an incredible webcomic to me that I absolutely love, but it’s going on a monthly schedule since the artist has been so busy. Apparently, he’s working on a series for IDW. Come on. You’re going to get industry recognition on a series with one of the bigger indie publishers? Where’s your dedication to webcomics? Ok, so I’m not that much of a jerk. Congratulations to artist David Wachter on the new gig, and I hope you are still able to find time for The Guns of Shadow Valley.

The Guns of Shadow Valley is a Western webcomic that captures the visual grit of Western movies like Unforgiven and the remake of 3:10 to Yuma. The art style has a rough, worn feel to it, and you can practically taste the sand in your teeth in this small desert town. Artist Wachter uses a subdued color palette to capture the washed out, sunburned look of the Old West, and he includes enough detail to record every weathered line on these cowboys’ faces.

The artistic team of Wachter, co-writer James Andrew Clark, and letterer Thomas Mauer have created a fascinating version of the Old West. Chinese immigrants are forced into menial labor, and their prize worker is the size of three NFL linebackers put together. A drunkard cowboy can move quicker than the eye can follow, and the town’s sheriff follows the laws that he believes are good and ignores the rest. The town’s blacksmith customizes rifles into new configurations while thankfully avoiding the ridiculous flavor of Wild, Wild West.

I started reading the series last week and got through a few pages of it before I was distracted by some emergency or another. This week, I finally had the opportunity to sit down and get wrapped up in the story, and I read the rest of the way through the tale in one sitting. This story is comparable to Oni Press’s Sixth Gun, though Wachter’s linework has a grittier feel than Brian Hurtt’s smooth, animated style. Shadow Valley seems more closely akin to movie Westerns, so Wachter’s art is a great fit. The Guns of Shadow Valley‘s use of supernatural elements are more subtle than Sixth Gun, and the webcomic leaves readers wanting more of each character’s mysterious abilities.

I’ve been in a Western mood over the past few months, and The Guns of Shadow Valley is a perfect solution.

Skipjack is a webcomic / comic book that I found at the recent New Orleans Comic Con. Written by Ryan Christopher Lord and drawn by John Stephen Lord, Skipjack is the story of a human crew of pirates in space. No, not “of the Caribbean” type, but the type that is only a step removed from Han Solo in Star Wars and the crew of the Firefly from Joss Whedon’s TV and movie series.

I bought the first printed issue of the series, but it is available to read over at Registration Comics for free. This is the type of book that I am happy to have in my collection and not just on the computer screen because of the quality of the art. Strong coloring can make a tremendous difference in the look and feel of a series, and Skipjack looks amazing. On a couple of occasions, the sunflare effect is used with fantastic results, and the art switches between subdued, secretive color schemes and bright, explosive color schemes at the right moments.

Most importantly to me, Skipjack has a strong storyline filled with twists and intrigue along the way. I was particularly by the characters. The captain of the ship has a roguish charm that easily compares with Han Solo and Mal Reynolds, but he is still his own man. He is active when he needs to be but happy to let his crew shine in their skill areas.

Buying indie books at a convention is always a bit risky, and I was very happy that Skipjack turned out to be so much fun.

Free Mars

Free Mars is a punk rock gritty sci-fi story of the futuristic rock band The Sisters Grimm. After their new hit song was picked up as the anthem of the revolutionary group Mars Liberation Front (MLF for those keeping track), the Sisters are forced into hiding.

Free Mars is a fun comic that is tongue-in-cheek about many of its sci-fi names of places and groups (like Amazonis Prime), but they also consciously work on the linguistics of this future culture with different words for time and expressions of praise and curses. My favorite is the use of the word “sol” as an indication of time, complete with variants like “lastsol.”

The story is, at times, humorous and also action-packed. The creators of the comic are easily able to switch back and forth between whimsical moments and full-on scenes of war between the MLF and the government in control.

Free Mars should be intended for an older audience than Skipjack, but both comics are great examples of sci-fi webcomics.

I had to know what would happen to Charles Xavier. So I did what everyone did in the 90’s for an important issue: I bought multiple copies. Seeing that I was on a middle schooler’s budget, I only bought three issues, which left one copy to read and two to save and sell later on for exorbitant amounts of money. (I still have all three issues, by the way.) Xavier died, and the Age of Apocalypse began.

With the Age of X set to begin in March of 2011, I wanted to take a look back at another dystopian view of Marvel’s mutants to see how an event from 1995 looks in today’s standards.

A Quick Summary of the Age of Apocalypse

Charles Xavier is killed in the past, before the X-Men and any other superhero teams are ever formed. Magneto becomes the leader of a harsher group of X-Men. These are not the benevolent do-gooders of Xavier. These are soldiers, trained to deal with threats in the ways that are necessary. Only Bishop, a character who became unhinged in time because of his past time travel and other complicated factors, remained as a link to the X-Men universe that we previously knew.

In the new world, all of the comic book titles changed. Some were obviously more creative than others.

• The Uncanny X-Men became Astonishing X-Men.
• X-Men became Amazing X-Men.
• X-Factor became Factor-X.
• Excalibur became X-Calibre.
• Cable became X-Man.
• X-Force became Gambit and the X-Ternals.
• Wolverine became Weapon X.
• Generation X became Generation Next.

Upon re-reading all of the titles in preparation for this article, I was surprised how much these storylines intersected. This entire event was carefully orchestrated so that each team had a crucial role in the struggle against Apocalypse. I believe that you could certainly enjoy the tale without having to know what happened in each book, but the experience is certainly richer for knowing.

The Crazy 90’s

In looking back at the event, some books obviously hold up better than others over the passage of time. The Age of Apocalypse is not as over the top as the Image founders brand new series at the time, but there are still plenty of characteristics that plainly root the series in the era.

Apparently, at the time, nearly every book had to have a two-page spread close to the beginning of the book. Not only was the two-spread required, but a good portion of the issues required readers to physically turn the book sideways to follow the orientation of the art. Again, this wasn’t quite at the level of Jim Lee’s double-page foldouts in Wildcats, but the standard practice of switching orientation is no longer the mainstream approach to comics.

Another clear indication of the time period was the heavy tone that saturated the entire series. I can easily imagine a bunch of Gen X kids sitting around listening to their Nirvana and Pearl Jam CD’s while reading this series. Even though comics had become darker since the 80’s, the 90’s reveled in the mopey, woe-is-me type of attitude. I actually liked a lot of the storyline and think much of it held up over time, but it is humorous now that comics reflected then current culture with such a brooding story.

The other dead giveaway that this is a 90’s book? The fashion! Every man has long, grungy hair that makes him look like he wondered out of a garage band and into a superhero team. In fact, Cyclops lets his hair hang over one side of his face to cover his scars and missing eye. There are a few characters with “cyber” arms and / or legs, but they are mercifully few. Wolverine was probably one of my favorite re-designs, but Jean Grey looked decidedly 80’s depending on who drew her. Her shoulder pads and her hair grew wildly puffy in some issues.

While several artists followed the overhyped muscles for men and hourglass figures for women, not all followed suit. The artist whose work stands out the most for me was Chris Bachalo on Generation Next. The funny part about that is that I really didn’t get his work at the time, but there is a dynamic quality and intricacy of design that separates itself from the rest of the series.

A Period of Transition: the 80’s vs. the 2000’s

The writing of the issues throughout the Age of the Apocalypse is truly intriguing compared to today’s books. Writers heavily employ the use of thought balloons throughout the series, while they are hardly ever used today. They either use thought balloons, or characters will just talk to themselves for a while – out loud – so they can express their feelings. Of course, another character is inevitably bound to come walking in to comment about the way the other person feels. It’s interesting when to modern writing because the characters are so entirely direct and plain in their thoughts and monologues that it feels like the writer is just stopping the story for a moment so that he can explain the plot for a while.

Now, this was a time when many more kids were reading these titles, so allowances had to be made to make the story more obvious. Since older audiences are now the primary readership of the X-Men books, you can’t make a direct comparison between the two. It’s like comparing the 80’s TV version of the A-Team with the show Lost. The plot complexity is not quite the same!

One notable exception to this style is young writer Warren Ellis on the X-Calibre title. I don’t think he ever uses the thought bubble through the 4-issue run.

Big Events

Just from looking through the creators who worked on these issues, it’s interesting to see the lengths Marvel went to in order to keep books coming out on time. Gambit and the X-Ternals switched artists halfway through. Several issues of all titles have multiple writer, pencillers, and inkers. At the time I was reading the series, I didn’t really notice. It seems much more apparent now.

What Did I Learn?

I’m a sucker for X-Men alternate universes. I bought the Exiles book when it was out. I read the House of M, and I’ll read the Age of X. Even though I don’t read many superhero books anymore, I’ll be there this March, ready to scoop up all of the issues. Marvel… you know me too well.