Starfox 3D, Michael Chabon and zombies, zombies, zombies this week, August 6, 2011

We told you last week that things were about to pick up, so hopefully you didn't blow all your hard earned cash on mimosas this weekend, because there is a ton of great content to highlight this week. We've got not one, but two different pieces of zombie media -- a game and a comic -- and then we also have a new children's book from Michael Chabon, a re-release of one of the greatest games of all time (Starfox) and plenty more.

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Books

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Lifeblood: How to Change the World One Dead Mosquito at a Time, by Alex Perry
Lifeblood is an account of the history and implications of the struggle with malaria in Africa. It's not just a glib humanitarian story, either; this is a tightly tuned tale of everything about malaria, including the most recent UN efforts to eradicate the disease and take care of the people. It might not sound like a rip-roaring adventure, but Alex Perry weaves it all together to create an interesting and informative book. The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man, by Michael Chabon and Jake Parker Michael Chabon might be best known for his novels, but he has been dabbling in children's lit and comics for a while. The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man is all about the adventures of a caped hero, with a secret. What does that mean, exactly? Well, you'll have to read to find out the truth. It promises to be an excellent story for readers young and old. The artwork of Jake Parker is alone enough the price of admission -- the Chabon-penned story is just the icing on the cake.

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DVD

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X-Men: First Class
It didn't seem like very many people bothered to actually see X-Men: First Class in the theater, but now's your chance to make up for that mistake and see one of the best superhero movies of the last few years. It's not that we blame you -- there have been so many damn superhero movies lately they're getting hard to keep up with -- but First Class does a great job of showcasing the origins of everybody's favorite crew of mutants and just being a damn fine movie. Everything Must Go The last thing you'd probably imagine is Will Ferrell acting in a movie based on a Raymond Carver short story, but that's exactly what Everything Must Go is. The movie tells the story of a man who gets kicked out of his house by his wife and, instead of moving along, decides to just live on the yard where she threw his stuff. He ends up having a yard sale to keep things legit as his life falls apart. We get to sit and witness the whole thing.

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Games

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Dead Island (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) Zombies! We've seen a million and one zombie games, but Dead Island hopes to stretch its legs and stand out from the rest. It's essentially an open-world zombie-killing game, which is to say, you get to wander around an island and hit zombies over the head with weapons in a variety of ways. It's set to be a stupid, fun game where you can move aimlessly though a world with friends and bash the undead in the head -- sounds like the perfect end to Summer. Starfox 64 3D (3DS, releases Friday, August 9) There have been many great games in the history of video games, but something about Starfox 64 makes for a timelessly entertaining title. As Nintendo is wont to do, they've decided to update the classic game with fancy new visuals and 3D graphics, and it looks and plays as fantastic as you remember it. If you're one of the few who actually bothered to purchase a 3DS, this seriously needs to be in your collection.

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Comics

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Zomnibus Volume 2, by various Speaking of zombies, if you simply can't get enough of the undead, you might want to pick up this collection of zombie-ridden tales catered by Ben Templesmith. New stories and art from the likes of Brian Lynch, Jimmy Palmiotti, Kyle Strahm and plenty more. The style of each is wildly different, and while most gravitate towards horror, some of the stories take a humorous angle. We are suckers for a good zombie comedy after all. Big Questions, by Anders Nilsen Big Questions is the culmination of ten years of hard work from Anders Nilsen. It's a massive, postmodern fable told with minimalist flare across an astounding 600 pages. The parable won't be lost on anyone digging though it, and the story of a bird seeking approval is classic on a fundamental level. It's one of those books that's hard to explain the beauty of in just a few short sentences, but if you walk past it in a store, you'll see exactly what we mean.

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