Review: Conan and the People of the Black Circle #2

Since I missed reviewing issue #1, I’ll begin this review with a bit of background on this series. People of the Black Circle is a four-part miniseries adapted from one of Robert E. Howard‘s more unusual Conan stories. It’s no secret that the settings of Howard’s stories were often thinly-veiled versions of real times and places, but this story is a change from the more European feel of many other Conan stories, as it’s set in Vendhya and Afghulistan, and this story uses much more magic. This comic is written by Fred Van Lente with artwork by Ariel Olivetti, and at the halfway point this series is looking pretty good.

It’s interesting to see Fred Van Lente writing this comic, since he’ll be taking over writing Dark Horse’s ongoing Conan series once Brian Wood’s run is over in a few issues. People of the Black Circle is probably a good example of what to expect from Van Lente in the ongoing series, but then it’s more or less a direct adaptation from Howard. For his run in the ongoing Conan, he’ll be using one of Howard’s unfinished stories as a framework and adding his own material from there, and he’s said that it won’t be as direct an adaptation.

I’m torn about Ariel Olivetti‘s artwork though. He draws his characters in a very detailed, realistic style, and the artwork is very sharp and clean. I like that. But I can’t get past the backgrounds. While the characters are drawn so well, most of the background art is composed of computer-generated textures and objects, and it’s a pretty abrupt disconnect between the detailed characters and the flat backdrops. They don’t look like they belong in the same image. The rest of the comic is good, but that contrast kept jumping out at me while I was reading.

People of the Black Circle has all you expect from a Conan story, but with a few interesting additions. The setting makes a nice change of pace from most of the other stories, and there’s a more in-depth look at magic in the Hyborian world than we usually see. If that sounds interesting and what I’ve said about the artwork doesn’t bother you, this issue is worth the $3.50 cover price. People of the Black Circle shows how Van Lente handles Conan, but his ongoing run might look a bit different, as he’ll be using less of Howard’s original work in those stories. People of the Black Circle is a good series so far, with the one exception being the background artwork. It’s a standalone story, so you don’t need to know Conan’s backstory to make sense of it, but in any case you should start with issue #1 of this series if it interests you.

Danilo Culibrk, aka Augustus, is a staff writer for the Red Shirt Crew. He never uses his magic for evil, unless you ask really nicely. You can follow his trail through bandit-infested mountain passes on Twitter at @Augustusing.

Review: Conan the Barbarian #22

Finally, here it is. I’ve been waiting for this since Queen of the Black Coast. This month’s issue is part one in the Song of Bêlit, adapting the second half of Robert E. Howard‘s original Queen of the Black Coast. Issue #25 will end this story and Brian Wood‘s Conan run, and I might just forget about some of the weaker issues he wrote in between this and Queen of the Black Coast if he can make this last story work. He’s sticking pretty close to Howard’s original in this issue, and I can only hope that he’ll continue that way. How Wood ends the Song of Bêlit will make or break his entire Conan run. It’s all been leading up to these last four issues, and I really hope the end will be worth the wait. If you’re not up to speed on this series and you want to know what I thought of other issues, check out my earlier reviews here.

Dark Horse’s Conan comics have always aimed to adapt Howard’s stories and present the Cimmerian’s adventures in chronological order, with original stories to fill the gaps in the timeline. Brian Wood’s run expands on Conan’s time with Bêlit between the two main parts of Howard’s Queen of the Black Coast. The beginning and end of Wood’s run are direct adaptations from that story, but the rest of the comics are new stories. In those, Brian Wood has tried to explore different sides of Conan’s character, with varying success. Bêlit is one of the most important women in Conan’s life, and Wood’s stories have gone to great lengths to show that. Sometimes he manages it pretty well, but his ideas often fall flat.


But the first few issues of Queen of the Black Coast were excellent, sticking close to Howard’s original while adding a new side to the story. That’s what I’m hoping for in these last four issues, but there isn’t enough in this issue for me to make that judgment yet. If you’ve read Howard’s original, there’s not much to surprise you in this issue, and that’s generally a good thing, but there’s still room for the story to take an unexpected turn. 

Riccardo Burchielli‘s artwork is alright, but there isn’t really anything remarkable about it. Most of the other artists that have worked with Brian Wood on Conan had distinctive styles, but there isn’t anything that stands out about Burchielli’s art here, and that’s a bit disappointing. 

The ruined city looks about how I expected it to, but the river and the serpent don’t have the kind of impact that they should. Maybe the color of the river doesn’t indicate its sinister qualities, and the snake shows up for all of two pages before it’s gone, but I was expecting more from that encounter. And for all the space it takes up on the cover, we only get one good look at the “devil ape” up close in this issue, and it’s a bit underwhelming. It looks more like a dog or a hyena than an ape, but maybe that’s just the angle it’s drawn at. We’ll see much more of it in the next few issues, so hopefully my first impressions are wrong. 

taken from http://www.darkhorse.com

I can’t say much more about this comic without talking about the events of the next three issues, so I’ll leave that for those reviews. This issue is a good start to Brian Wood’s last Conan story, but the artwork isn’t as interesting as it has been in previous issues. But if you want to know how the story of Conan and Bêlit comes to an end, this issue is worth the $3.50 cover price.

Also out this week is the Colossal Conan, a collection of issues #0 to #50 of Dark Horse’s Conan. That encompasses the entire Kurt Busiek/Cary Nord run to the beginning of the Timothy Truman/Tomás Giorello run, and all the stuff in between, in one book. The comics included are some of my favorite Conan comics, period. I’ve read and re-read some of them several times. If I didn’t already have them I’d think about buying the book, but at $150.00 it’s a lot for something I already have. But if you’ve somehow missed those comics before, it’s pretty cool to have them all in one volume. 

Danilo Culibrk, aka Augustus, is a staff writer for the Red Shirt Crew. He thought he saw a winged ape once, but figured it was probably on account of that poisonous river water he drank. You can follow him into the dream-haunted slumber of the black lotus on Twitter at @Augustusing.

Review: Dark Horse Presents #30

Chapter 1’s and one shots abound in this issue of Dark Horse Presents, which can only be for the better in my opinion.  If you’ve read my last two reviews, I’ve not been particularly fond of the latest issues.  Thankfully this one is back in league with what I’ve come to expect from Dark Horse Presents.

Chapter 1 of Saint George: Dragonslayer is the tale of a Roman hero, Draconarius Georgius, fighting to quell an Egyptian uprising.  There is action, secrets, camaraderie and the promise of adventure.  I’ve been loving Fred van Lente‘s Brain Boy and while it’s still early in this story, I have a feeling I’m going to really enjoy this too.

Chapter 1 of Integer City is a new private investigator story in the futuristic Interger City from Jamie S. Rich.  This story is okay.  There are a number of references to how Integer City was planned out to be mathematically perfect, and my mathematician side is intrigued to know more about the setting, but the plot isn’t anything exciting: Jonny Kilmeister is on the case to find an unknown stolen object.  That’s about all we know.  I won’t say this is a bad comic, but I’m not excited yet.

The Adventures of Nilson Groundthumper and Hermy is clearly inspired by such childhood TV cartoons as The Smurfs and the 1960’s George of the Jungle.  But where they are perfectly happy to kill characters.  The villain spells out the plot aloud, to himself, as one would expect of a kids cartoon.  Stan Sakai could have at least given him a familiar to talk to!  It’s cute but definitely aimed at a younger audience.

Chapter 11 of Alabaster: Boxcar Tales follows where Dancy Flammarion was during the events of the previous two chapters, something I was certainly wondering, seeing as she’s the main character.  It’s mostly plot and exposition, but it’s engaging enough to work.  Most every chapter in an issue of Dark Horse Presents is 8 pages, and some that are all background can feel very long, but Caitlin R. Kiernan makes it feel really quick.  Well done.

Chapter 5 of Nexus: Into the Past is better than the last issue, mostly because we now know what Hellpop’s daughters have to do with the plot.  I love mysteries, but I hate not knowing.  And the time traveling chase continues!  I still love this series, and am looking forward to the next chapter as always.

Chapter 1 of Monstrous is the new comic I am most looking froward to seeing more of.  This race of demon/alien/monsters are called the Lacerti and they methodically round up and kill the last remnants of the human race, but one victim, our narrator, found himself trapped in the body of his killer.  Great post apocalyptic setting, I can’t wait to see where this goes, though I have a few suspicions.

Chapter 9 of Crime Does Not Pay is much like the other chapters in this series, in that it’s not really my thing.  Corrupt cops running around with little to no plot.  But I do have a major complaint this time that anyone following this series should know: in my preview copy, the 55th page is replaced by a duplicate of the 49th page (the title page for this story).  If you are following this story in particular check for this before you purchase at your local store!

Chapter 4 of Mr. Monster: Dark Stern is much better than it has been.  I think it’s interesting that I like chapter 1 and chapter 4, but not the two in the middle.  And that I felt the two in the middle were too slow.  Maybe if they were compressed into 8 pages, I’d have liked this series more.  If you liked the series thus far, it’s definitely a well done conclusion.

Chapter 3 of The Strain: The Fall – The Silver Angel is the conclusion of a series that I’ve been kind of if-y about thus far.  We finally see the connection between the flashbacks the Silver Angel has been seeing and his apparent suicide mission.  I think given the conclusion, this isn’t a bad total story, but it doesn’t work well deconstructed like this.

Now & Then is a one shot by Chad Lambert which explores the curious nature of memory.  And I have a weird deja vu sensation, which if Lambert somehow induced that, then my hat off to him.  Regardless, it’s a deeper comic than most found in Dark Horse Presents and that change of pace is nice.

Finally, FINALLY, I’m back to being able to recommend the Dark Horse Presents issue.  It is once again worth the $7.99.  Thank you Dark Horse, I was starting to get a little concerned.

Matthew Bryant, a.k.a. Baker Street Holmes, is a writer and lead editor for the Red Shirt Crew.  He is glad to have some new series, as the old ones were getting stale.  Now, if only they could get something interesting to happen in the City of Roses… You can follow him on Twitter at @BStreetHolmes or email him at HMCrazySS@gmail.com.

Review: X #7

This is a very unusual issue of X, because X barely shows up.  This issue actually focuses on the officer we met in the last issue, Officer Ruidoso, as he hunts X with a band of police misfits and has to deal with the meddling of Lt. Setter and his Dogs of War.

Ruidoso’s team is oddly perfect.  They each have points in their background which speaks to their incorruptibility, but also skills which make the team well rounded and capable in just about any normal situation.  Unfortunately, X is not a normal situation.

I really like this team.  They have a sort of chemistry.  They crack jokes, they have their own personality.  They’re brave and they work well together.  There’s this one scene where they are sitting around in their civvies, and I swear they look like they could be a superhero team chilling out of costume.  I’m really wondering which/how many of them are going to end up working with/for X by the time this series is done.  It would make for an excellent team: them, Leigh and X dishing out some Vigilante justice.

Unfortunately for this review, there is a lot of major stuff that happens in this issue that for reasons of spoiler protection I just can’t reveal, which sort of leave me no choice but a brief review.  I really enjoyed this issue and definitely recommend this series, if you aren’t already reading it, you should be.  This issue, like all the others, is just $2.99.  If you want to get caught up, this may be issue #7, but it’s only the second issue in this story arch, so you can just get #6 to be all caught up on the action.

Matthew Bryant, a.k.a. Baker Street Holmes, is a writer and the lead editor for the Red Shirt Crew.  he hopes that Duane Swierczynski reads this and reads The Occultist, because they are referencing ‘the X-Killer’ and I would love to see X’s next adventure feature a magical big bad.  You can follow Holmes on twitter at @BStreetHolmes or email him at HMCrazySS@gmail.com.

Review: S.H.O.O.T. First #2

I was rather unkind in my last review of S.H.O.O.T. First.  This was mostly because their own universe collapses in on it’s own rules.  This however is issue #2, and so I will give the series carte blanche under suspension of disbelief.  Because once you ignore the inherent flaws of the structure of the setting, the story told in that universe is not bad.  Not great, but not bad.

This comic takes us a couple months after the initial story and last time’s new member, Infidel, is still struggling to get used to what he now knows about the world.  I won’t spoil the who, but it looks like he might not be the only one having a bit of a crisis of faith.  To me, this is what this issue is about.  Not crises of faith specifically, but it’s about the members of the team.

Bett does needlepoint and tells Infidel a little about he background and we learn why Mrs. Brookstone’s son seemed magical/cursed/nonhuman at the end of the previous issue.  Byron has a much sillier sense of humor than the traditional British stereotype, but does love his alcohol.  I don’t really feel like I learned much about Robot or Kenshin.  This helped a lot because now I feel like the characters are actually characters, not just manikins with guns.

But the big thing that’s missing is interpersonal relationships.  Not necesarily romantic, but anything between them.  Bett is the one exception.  Like I said, she talks to Infidel, the needlepoint (“Smile!  There’s no God!”) is a gift for Byron.  She acts like they are people and like she wants to get along with them and wants to know the people she’s fighting along side.  The others act like player characters in games that don’t really care about getting to know the NPCs fighting beside them.  I realize that some of these things take time to introduce in a series, but both of the tidbits about Bett that we know came in interpersonal interactions.  Give us more of that!

This was better, but I’m still not convinced it’s worth $3.99.  But at least this issue inspires hope that there is a future for this series.  We’ll see.

Matthew Bryant, a.k.a. Baker Street Holmes, is a writer and the lead editor for the Red Shirt Crew.  He plays a lot of pen and paper RPGs and puts a Hell of a lot of effort into his character’s story, personality and so on.  No one wants to play a gingerbread man.  You can follow him on Twitter at @BStreetHolmes, or email him at HMCrazySS@gmail.com.

Review: Bloodhound: Crowbar Medicine #2

Crowbar Medcine is heating up.  Clevenger is loaned to the US military and there’s a vigilante in town who impressively enough can stand his own against Clev.  It’s a race to hunt down Dr. Morgenstern, but can Clev get to him before his plan come to fruition?  I don’t know yet, I just like rhetorical questions.

There’s a lot going on in this issue, as you can see from the above.  First of all, Clevenger is now working under Major Boudreau, not the FBI, and he’s clearly not used to people defying him.  They will not get along well, and I like this.  Clev does just about everything he can to annoy the Major and it makes a number of the scenes quite comical.  I love it.

Then there is the vigilante, Terminus.  A number of things about: him he has powers… maybe?  Maybe it’s just another trait of his bulletproof suit?  He also carries two revolvers, which is like “why have revolvers if you have powers and are a pretty kick ass fighter?”, you know?  Massive props to either Dan Jolley or Leonard Kirk, whomever is responsible for Terminus’s emblem, because I’m a nerd hand have been looking for a cool way to incorporate either a contour integral or a section symbol into a superhero insignia.  The eye shape is elegant and beautiful.  It’s a little bit mystic, a little bit Eye of Horus, a little mathematics.  It’s fantastic.  I am such a nerd.

The last thing I just want to briefly mention, because I don’t want to go into any spoilers or anything, is that Dr. Morgenstern has at least one person willing to take him up on his offer that we know of, who I’m guessing will become our “mini boss” before Clev and company take on Morgenstern himself (and possibly an army of mutants?).  Looks promising!

I can’t wait to see what the next issue brings us.  Go check it out, $3.99 for 32 pages is a great deal.  If you didn’t catch part one, you can read my review and then purchase a copy of that too, to get caught up.  It’s worth it, I swear.

Matthew Bryant, a.k.a. Baker Street Holmes, is a writer and the lead editor for the Red Shirt Crew.  He just can’t get over the walrus mustache on the Major, and doesn’t blame Clev in the slightest for not taking him seriously.  You can follow Holmes on Twitter at @BStreetHolmes or email him at HMCrazySS@gmail.com.

Clown Fatale #1

DISCLAIMER: This comic is not for children. That being said, some of the best things aren’t; I would include Clown Fatale #1, by Victor Gischler, Maurizio Rosenzweig, Moreno DiNisio, in that list. It’s edgy and kinda dark, but in the best ways.

Here’s the basic plot: 4 clowns are mistaken for assassins and are contracted to kill some scumbag. What could be better than that? Well maybe if the clowns were sexy, badass women that kicked ass and took names. Oh right, they are! Objectively speaking (coming into this blog as the “token gay guy”) that these women are HOT! But even beyond that, they’re so freaking awesome! I want to hire them to be my bodyguards just so I can have a reason to have an excuse to chill with them and still get them to kick ass on command. While this may not be for you, this is the kind of edgy thing I just sink my teeth into and fall in love with instantly.

Since I love these girls so much, I’ll take a second to let you know how and why. Chloe is the reserved, reluctant, unspoken leader (who has a special place in my heart as a Texan) with her clever right hand girl, Tina. The two of them always know what to do and what they want. Then there’s Candy, the firecracker wildcard who is unpredictable and just a bit spicy. All that leaves is Aya, the mystery; no one really knows what her story is, but she’s funny and impulsive and just quirky all-together. The four of them could break all your bones in a matter of minutes, but turn you on in matter of seconds. They’re just cool and Victor Gischler does an awesome job at setting up dynamic characters with individual stories and personas.

I also must give credit to Maurizio and Moreno for making such beautiful art work. The curls in Tina’s hair, the tears in Candy’s eyes, just the attention to detail does wonders for the story. And it’s dark, but colorful; I didn’t even know that was possible. And the consistency with the make-up really enforces the whole “clown assassin” theme. The characters really come alive on the page and it’s because they look like they are based of real people. And if they are real people, please let me meet them.

As much as I love this comic, I do have feel obligated to only give a conditional recommendation. Primarily you need be mature, this is not a comic for children. Even with that being said, this isn’t for everyone. I love this comic because it’s right up my alley, but I’m sure there are comic lovers that would not enjoy this as much. Dark, edgy, action, humor, it definitely has elements of all them, but some people can’t mix them together, at least this way. And if you don’t know if this is for you, then the cover price of $3.99 may not be worth it for you.

Brendan (@bigmacd101) has fallen in love with four fictional girls and wonders how he got to this point. Signing off this time and hoping to see you soon. Follow him on twitter and keep an ear to the ground.

Review: Violent Cases

The new reissue of Violent Cases has three introductions and an afterword, each pulled from earlier editions: its original 1987 release and the 1991, 1997 and 2003 reissues. So this isn’t a new comic, but maybe you haven’t seen it before. There aren’t many comics like it, even so many years after it was originally published. Violent Cases is written by Neil Gaiman and, much like his Sandman comics, it reads like a half-remembered dream (or a long-forgotten memory), but it wouldn’t be nearly as effective without Dave McKean‘s illustrations. It’s a graphic novella, or rather an illustrated short story about memory, childhood, magicians, and Al Capone: the sort of unlikely combination of themes that Gaiman is known for. 

The plot of the comic revolves around a man remembering events from his childhood. The story is pretty simple, but the way it’s told is interesting. Details of the story emerge as the narrator remembers them, and he changes them as he goes. The most obvious example is the face of the osteopath. The narrator can’t remember if his face looked one way or another, so combines the two images to create a new (admittedly fabricated) appearance of the man, and changes his mind again later in the story. As for the writing, it’s pretty good, but it’s always apparent in Gaiman’s comics that he has a background in literature, and that isn’t always good. He tends to rely on narration and delivering exposition through text rather than art, and that emphasis is very heavy in Violent Cases.

Luckily, the artwork more than makes up for that, putting the details of the story together into disparate images that are just as shaky as the narrator’s memories. The artwork is rough like a sketch, with images scattered through different panels. The original 1987 printing of the story was in black and white, but each reissue since then been in color. Still, there’s very little color in it. It’s only there as punctuation, to draw your eye to a detail. It’s an unusual choice, but it’s effective. This story only needs so much color; anything more seems unnecessary. Besides, I’m sure the narrator doesn’t remember what color everything was. The lack of color, if anything, helps tie together the artwork and the text.

Besides the heavy narration, I’ve only got one complaint about this book, and that’s the lettering. I know it’s supposed to look handwritten and perhaps it’s intentionally hard to read, but it’s an obstacle between the reader and the text. Maybe the printed version looks better than the digital one I’m looking at, but I don’t know. Other than that, Violent Cases is a solid book, and it holds up just as well in 2013 as it did in 1987.

taken from http://www.darkhorse.com

Alan Moore‘s introduction from 1987 talks about comics “growing up” as an art form, but that process doesn’t seem to have gone very far since then. A book like Violent Cases is still unusual in comics, as is anything else that attempts this kind of story, without action and superheroes. However, I think there’s still room for both paradigms in comics, superhero comics and cartoons as well as more serious storytelling. They both do something that the other can’t provide, but it’s true that comics still aren’t always taken seriously as an art form. Books like Violent Cases can change that perception somewhat, but it’s a very slow process and might require a change in the way we think about (and buy) comics. I won’t speculate about that any more than I have; that’s not the purpose of this review, and it’s very likely that I’m talking nonsense at this point.

Which is probably a good sign that I should wrap up this review. If you haven’t run into Violent Cases before now, go ahead and pick it up. The cover price of $24.99 is pretty standard for a hardcover book like this. The story is pretty short, but it’s worth it just for the artwork. If you’ve ever read Sandman before, you’ll know what to expect broadly in terms of the writing and style, but this is still a very different comic from most others you’ll read.

Danilo Culibrk, aka Augustus, is a staff writer for the Red Shirt Crew. He doesn’t think a violent case is a good place to store a violin, or a typewriter for that matter. You can follow his ramblings through his own memories on Twitter at @Augustusing.

Review: Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight

I can’t figure out if this is the end of the story or not… but I guess I’m getting a little ahead of myself.  This issue of Grindhouse continues the story of the Bee Vixens From Mars and is mega action packed.

I’m not even sure where to start with this comic.  I guess I should start off by saying that the first issue didn’t even begin to express how bad-ass Garcia is.  She kicks some major ass in about four different ways in this issue and it’s pretty boss.  She’s Ghost Rider, the Punisher and Hercules, in a package that looks like a female, tattooed Nick Fury.

In my last review, I talked about the visual design of the Bee Vixens, and this time we get to see their queen and she is every bit as beautifully designed as the drones, just the right combination of alien and insect.  I am a little disappointed because the first third or so of the comic is monotone orangey-pink.  I don’t have a problem with mood lighting, which is effectively what this is, but it goes on just a little too long.  I don’t know, maybe I’m being over picky.  A little later they add some purple and then quickly some green which is still a limited pallet, but much more tolerable.  Yeah, I’m probably juts being over picky.

So the problem I get is it feels both final, and like there should be more to Garcia’s story.   Like she’s done with this adventure, but she deserves another, you know?  I want to see her kick more ass, but there just really isn’t much ass left to kick in this little town anymore.  The comic ends with “The End” followed by the comment “Next month: Hot girls do hard time in outer space in Prison Ship Antares” , so I guess we’re moving on.  Unless Garcia’s a prison guard or something…

I recommend this series you can find part 1 here, and part 2 here, both for $3.99.  If you aren’t going to read both, it’s not worth it, but I think the whole story (64 pages, nearly regular comics in length) is worth the eight bucks.  Here’s to looking forward to their next story!

Matthew Bryant, a.k.a. Baker Street Holmes, is a writer and the lead editor for the Red Shirt Crew.  He would not like to meet an angry Garcia in a dark… well anywhere dark really… or sunny for that matter.  Not alone.  Not without and army, or at least a mech.  You can join his army on Twitter at @BStreetHomes or email him at HMCrazySS@gmail.com.

Review: Occultist #2

The Occultist continues to be exceptionally well done.  Which is quite an accomplishment when the issue is almost entirely plot development.  Actually might be one of my favorite plot development stories because you can just see the collapse of all things good coming.

Okay, first I want to put a huge “Hells yes” to the writer, Tim Seeley.  Why?  Because I also read X for the Red Shirt Crew reviews, and he made a reference to the series!  It really made me want to go back and look through the first series to see if there were any hidden references in that one.  I just like the other series as well, and it’s really cool to see that Seeley is a fan too.

Of course, the comic in its own right does deserve praise for the writing, not just for referencing something else I like (otherwise they could just reference jelly beans in every issue and I’d be elated).  Like I said in the intro, there isn’t much action in here: Rob meets some fellow college students, they hang out, they also use magic together.  In a nut shell that’s all that happens.  But you get enough glimpses of threats and things possibly to come that it still holds your attention.  I get bored easily when a comic doesn’t have action (assuming the genre is action oriented to begin with), but that didn’t happen here.

We also get to see a little more of Anna and Mr. Charles.  They only have brief appearances, but they are both enlightening and curious.  Not too much.  There is still a considerable focus on Rob, as there should be, but there is enough of the other two that we learn something new and (those of us who are new to the Occultist characters) don’t forget who they are.

I have a feeling this was super obvious already, but total recommendation.  I was shaky regarding my recommendation from the last issue, but now that things have gotten moving, I am totally on bored.  Grab yourself $3.50 and get to a comic store.

Matthew Bryant, a.k.a. Baker Street Holmes, is a writer and the lead editor for the Red Shirt Crew.  He’s writing this article very late at night, as he was distracted by YouTube.  We’ve all been there, haven’t we?  You can follow him on Twitter at @BStreetHolmes, or email him at HMCrazySS@gmail.com.