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The Boys of Blur, by N.D. Wilson, will appeal to readers 8 to 12 who like football, scary tales, and stories about complex family situations.

The Oscars just did a little segment on their Scientific and Technical Awards. Among the the winners of the Technical Achievement Award this year was Rhythm & Hues for its proprietary Voodoo software.

The solicitations for DC’s September have been slowly unveiled over the course of this afternoon, causing bloggers all around America but mainly New York and Los Angeles endless minutes of anxiety and figner cramps as they refresh DC’s The Source website. The news, as already reported, is that Dan DiDio will compulsively hold to the unending dream of 52 books a month, meaning Justice League International, Captain Atom, Voodoo and Resurrection Man will all be cancelled to make way to AMETHYST, Phantom Stranger, Talon, and that other one we’ve all forgotten about already.

Voodoo stuggled from the start, as it gained the attention of the internet immediately as a side-note to the Starfire/Catwoman ‘women shouldn’t be defined by their sexuality now let’s all stare at pictures of women and define them by their sexuality’ blog boom of last year. Having a stripper for the main character gained the title serious negative attention, and writer Ron Marz was replaced on the title by Josh Williamson after only a handful of issues.

Resurrection Man and Captain Atom was solid titles, which didn’t do anything to really grab attention from fans during their runs. They were reasonable, had decent art, and did okay things with the characters and story. But they never kicked off or really hit home wtih readers in the same way that, say, Animal Man has done. And Justice League International was probably the least interesting book ever published, so it probably better off dead.

Other news! The DC’s ‘Zero’ initiative kicks off, and looks to be the place where we’ll finally see Shazam make his first appearance; will at last get round to explaining how Batgirl escaped The Killing Joke; and introduces that new mysterious Green Lantern to readers. All the books cancelled after the First Wave will have a swansong in the Zero issue of DC Comics presents, while Demon Knights and Stormwatch will explain a little bit about their connection to each other. Meanwhile, Rob Liefeld retains control of three titles while Scott Lobdell takes over Superman.

May Contain Spoilers

From Amazon:

Review:

Arise picks up where Hereafter left off, with Amelia still a ghost and a long term relationship with Joshua looking more and more unlikely.  Nobody can see her, after all, and he looks like a nut case walking through the school campus holding her hand or talking to her.  Worse, he is avoiding his friends and starting to lose his social standing at school so he can spend time with her.  This only makes Amelia feel guilty and stressed out.  She realizes that a relationship with her will make Joshua a social outcast and it’s tearing her up inside. 

I thought that the setting and story elements were stronger in Arise than Hereafter.  Joshua’s family heads to New Orleans to spend the Christmas holidays with family, and Amelia is immediately surrounded by a group of young Seers.  Instead of wanting to banish her forever, they seem to want to help her.  Can she trust them?  I was immediately skeptical of their motives.  Joshua’s sister, Jillian, had me the most suspicious.  After Amelia saved her from certain death and her Seer abilities were unlocked, Jillian did nothing but deny that she can see and hear Amelia.  I kept wondering why she trying to be deceptive.  Was it because she was in denial, or was there a more sinister motive behind it?

Without giving too much of the plot away, I did like the voodoo aspects that were introduced to the storyline, but wish that that they were a little more believable.  Amelia’s new friend, Gabby, performs a voodoo ritual that drastically changes Amelia.  The ritual was supposedly learned by reading a spell in a voodoo priestess’ shop, and it just seemed wrong to me that Gabby could alter the dead just by reading a spell in a book.  Even though she was interested in voodoo and even though she was related to a voodoo practitioner, I would have expected that a spell that powerful would demand a lot more effort than waiting for the book to be left open on that particular page.  Maybe by virtue of the fact that they are in New Orleans, the very air that surrounded Gabby gave her the knowledge and the magical powers necessary to perform the spell. 

I felt that this book is guil