The Official Guide, Second Edition

The official cover for the second edition of the AIO Official Guide is revealed!

Looks like those of us who guessed that the previously-released "mystery art" was the cover to this book were correct. I don't think it looks as great as the first edition, but it still looks good. It'd be nice if the art covered more of the cover, but I guess it is what it is.

I have to admit, I'm not nearly as excited about this as I was when the first edition was out, but it is still pretty cool. I don't know if I'm going to buy it or not.... I really do want the new information about Albums 51-56, but I'm not convinced that it's worth it, when I'll just be getting another copy of the information about Albums 1-50.

What's your opinion about the artwork? Will you buy the book? Please comment!

EDIT: I just saw this story that features a real-life guy named Barrett Jones. And he's a Christian! And he's even got reddish hair!

Check it out here.

I Laughed Out Loud!

Lately, I haven't been posting much Odyssey news, but when I saw this picture just like two minutes ago, I knew I had to post it:

Isn't that like the best art from Gary Locke ever?! I love it! It makes me want to get the book, just so I can hold it in my hands! Oh, it's so cool!!

Now, I have been somewhat disappointed at the emphasis in recent artwork on these four main characters, but I think the action in the picture is so good that it makes up for the use of the usual characters yet again.

What are your thoughts?

Mr. Jones!

I received my January 2012 issue of Clubhouse Magazine in the mail yesterday afternoon, and in the Adventures in Odyssey section of the magazine, I saw this picture:

Gary Locke has again done an amazing job in putting a face to the voice we hear on the radio. I, for one, think it is an excellent representation of my mind's picture of Mr. Jones. I did imagine him a bit heavier though...

This first issue of 2012 also featured new pictures of Emily and Barrett Jones further on in the magazine:

(Is it just me, or does Barrett have huge feet?)

I hope I'm not violating any copyright issues in posting these pictures. I stated that Gary Locke was the artist behind the new drawings, so I think I should be okay. But if anyone thinks otherwise, please let me know, and I'll take them down.

P.S. If there's anyone who'd be able to offer me some assistance with the technical aspects of the blog, I need some help. The Internet Explorer version of my blog has the entire right sidebar on the bottom of the left sidebar. No matter what I do in the "design" section of blogger, I can't fix it. All the other browsers seem to be fine. But Internet Explorer is what the majority of my viewers use, so I want to try to get it fixed.

Yes! I Finally Posted...

...but it's still not a review. :(

However, my news does (sorta) pertain to reviewing. Although I still don't feel like I have much extra time to be spending writing reviews, I have received something that will aid me in that regard: Album 54! Now, rather than digging back into the archives (or going to FAIO [heh-heh]) to listen to previously-aired episodes, I can just pop a CD into the laptop and review as I listen.

My family celebrated Christmas today on the 24th rather than on the 25th tomorrow in order to maintain the importance of the Lord's Day. We didn't want the celebration of Christmas to conflict with our celebration with Jesus' resurrection tomorrow, so we opened presents today. As you can see in the picture below, I have much reason to be happy with the presents I received. ;)

I'd love to hear about any presents you've received--especially if they have anything to do with Odyssey. And I promise I will try my best to get a review of Forgiving More...Or Less out as soon as I can. Thank you for your patience! Have yourself a merry little Christmas celebrating Christ's birth! But don't forget to go to church on Sunday and celebrate His resurrection.

Am I in a Passages Book?!

No, actually, I'm not. But that would be cool! :P

About a year ago, either in late spring or early fall, I don't remember, the AIO team created an opportunity for fans of the Passages series to endorse the books. I think it even included receiving some of the books if your entry was used in any of the republished books. Gooey98/Will has brought it back to my attention that it would appear that I am one of the people who ended up getting on the final cut of the endorsements page. Brock's blog posted a picture of the page that I believe he is referring to around the time that the contest was announced. Here it is:

The paragraph in question is the third one right in the middle which, as you can see, is signed, "Christian A., age 14 Martin Tennessee." Well, though I'd like to get credit for writing that endorsement, I can't. There are two problems with it. First of all, when this picture was released, I was only thirteen. I didn't turn fourteen until September. Secondly, if you scroll down this page and look on the left side of the blog, you will see an "About Me" paragraph. And if you click on to my Blogger Profile, you will see that I live in Ohio, not Tennessee.

So, sorry to disappoint those of you who thought you knew someone whose name was in a book. ;) Although, there is another way that could be true. If you haven't noticed before, on the "Acknowledgements" page of the Official Guide (First Edition, 2008), there are some people you may know listed. Jacob Isom, the webmaster of The Odyssey Scoop is there; along with Chris and Sarah from The Unofficial Adventures in Odyssey Podcast, and Corey/Shadowpaw, the creator of The Soda Fountain, AIO Wiki, and The Town of Odyssey. So if you've ever communicated with any of those people, you do know someone whose name is in a book after all. (And their ministry is probably way better than mine would have been had I been the one to write that endorsement for Passages.)

Here It Is

Due to somewhat popular request (whether spoken or unspoken), I have decided, against my better judgement ;) to show my attempt at an entry for the Odyssey Dollar Contest. I never really finished it, and this was only going to be a rough draft, but I didn't get beyond the rough draft, so this is the best I can give you:




So there, are you satisfied? :P

Look What I Got!

Well, I didn't get it, again, but my younger brother just did for his birthday!

I promise I won't listen to Parts 11 or 12 before they air on the radio, although I'm not sure my siblings are in agreement with me. But I gave my word when the album was first available that I wouldn't take advantage of that, so I'm sticking to it.

Sorry I still haven't gotten a review out. It was a pretty uneventful episode, so I'm working on going through every scene again. But that takes a lot of time, and I've been pretty busy, so I decided to post this as something for you guys to enjoy while you're waiting. I'll do my best to get the review out either tomorrow or probably Thursday at the latest. I don't want to have to combine my reviews of Parts 10 and 11, but unfortunately, it may come to that.

Thank you for being faithful readers! I greatly appreciate it!

I Finally Got It!!

Well, I didn't get it, but my little brother did, and he's sharing, so it counts. :D



Sorry I haven't written in a while. My family's been out of town for Spring Break, but I had written that April Fools Day post before we left, so I just saved it as a draft and then posted it from where we were. I'm going to try to get a review of The Green Ring Conspiracy Part IV out tomorrow, but I haven't even listened to it yet, and I've got a lot of things to do having been out of the house for a week.

I listened to the first CD in bed last night, and I've gained a new appreciation for The Mystery of the Clock Tower. I guess it wasn't that bad of an episode. I had only heard it once, so I was really surprised when what I thought wasn't that great of an episode won the Avery Award for Best Episode. But I think it deserved it for the most part. The music, for one, was phenominal, and it made it sound like an action/adventure/thriller movie. The mystery part was pretty well thought out, and aside from the mature story behind it that might give some kids bad ideas, it was an entertaining episode. The writers did a good job. And the actors did great jobs too. Will Ryan deserved Best Actor for his job as Eugene in that episode, and that Best Scene was actually the best scene of the season, in my opinion. If Heather Simpson, who played Alicia was up for Best Actress in that episode, I would have chosen her hands down. She did an amazing job and portrayed her character with all of her complicated emotions exquisitely. So after hearing it for a second time, I think The Myster of the Clock Tower Parts I and II really did earn its title as Best Episode of Album 52.

Again, I'll try to get a review out tomorrow, but I won't give any promises. I still haven't started school, so I know I won't have time today, but maybe tomorrow will be better.

P.S. There's proof for those of you who thought I was black. *cough-cough* Tim and Luke *cough-cough*

I'm Going Crazy!

The Official Podcast posted this word search puzzle on their blog, and I cannot, for the life of me, figure it out!

P E O L I V I A
C V C R I N K C
W A E O I P A J
O J M U N A T O
O A I I G N R H
T S L L L E I N
O O Y V O L N E
N N G L E R A E

As soon as I can find just ten current Odyssey characters, and then enter the letters in the leftover spaces into the "Secret Word box", I get to see the cover of Album 54! And you do too if you can figure it out! But I can't find the last character. I've found Olivia, John, Camilla, Emily, Eugene, Connie, Wooton, Jason, and Katrina, but I can't find any others at all! The word that you enter into the password box is supposed to be a character we're going to meet in Album 54, but I can't finish the puzzle!

Please tell me if you've figured it out, so I can see the new album cover!

Mystery Image

This picture was posted on the AIO Facebook page a few days ago as a teaser picture. I'm not on Facebook, so I didn't know about it until AIO Wiki posted it the other day. The only clues we are given about what it might be a picture of are the initials RC and VS. Also, as someone else pointed out, you can see the word "Fingerpainting" in the grey rectangle at the top left.

People over at AIO Wiki speculated that since this looks very similar to the Kidsboro Book #3: The Creek War cover, RC and VS might stand for "Ryan Cummings" and "Valerie Swanson". Commenters were saying that there may be a repackaging in store for the book series with Gary Locke illustrations, since this picture definitely appears to be by Gary Locke. Here's the cover for The Creek War:

I've read the book, and I know that in that picture, Alice is driving the sled, Ryan is in the second spot, and Jill is in the third. The characters have the same hair color and positions in the new picture, so I think it is highly probable that this scene is what we're looking at. And the "Fingerpainting" part may just mean that this was a finger painting that Gary Locke had done. From the video we've seen before where he drew Eugene, we know that he uses a touchscreen to do all his painting.

I don't know for sure, but this is definitely going somewhere, and I'll be looking for more news to share should any more come up. Thanks for reading! Please comment!

Alright

Now that I am the fourth site to get the picture out (Here it is again.)...




...I'll give you my review:

Awesome! I love it! It looks great! I love the way the light from the clock is shining over everything! There is brilliant detail all throughout the picture and this is definitely one of my favorite, if not my very favorite Gary Locke drawing.

I still can't really tell who that third person is supposed to be. It's obviously a female, but it doesn't really look like anyone I've seen. I think it might be Connie, but unless the new Connie illustration has a pointed chin, freckles, and green eyes, it's probably some new character we don't know yet. (Tell me what you think!) If that's supposed to be Connie, she underwent major plastic surgery and looks more like the newly-plastic-surgeried girl in Disney's Bolt than Connie.

Mr. Whittaker and Eugene look great! I still hold to my opinion that the new Mr. Whittaker illustration is far superior to the old. And Eugene doesn't look that bad either.

Now I can't wait for Album 53's cover to be revealed!

P.S. I wrote this review yesterday, but didn't post it until today. So any similarities to other bloggers' reviews are coincidental (or providential, if you prefer ; D).

Album 52 Cover Leak!

I'm pretty sure Brock did this on purpose, but FreddyJay noticed something special in the background of the most recent picture released on The Quest for Truth:

If you look behind the book, you can see a clear Eugene, a sort of clear Whit, and another female character that looks to me like Connie. (Tell me what you think in the comments!)

It's just like Brock to do something like that. The picture wasn't even really needed, so I'm sure he only took the picture to sneak some secrets out.

Make sure to go vote in the Avery Awards, and keep checking in for more Odyssey news. Marvin seems to think that we'll be seeing the final album cover for Album 52 sometime soon.