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Game review: 'Arkham Knight' does Gotham right
FRANK WEIRICH
@LetMeBeFrank23
答
Let's clear something up to start with: I love Batman. I'd played two of three previous "Batman: Arkham" games made by game developer Rocksteady and found them to be a pretty fitting visualization of the Dark Knight's universe as well as being pretty solid games.
After finishing "Arkham Knight," I'd have to give Rocksteady credit. They really know how to make a Bat
man game.
Now, just a bit of a heads-up: if you haven't finished the other games in the Arkham series, you might want to do that before taking on "Arkham Knight." Spoilers for the other games pretty much set the scene for this game.
of wiping Gotham in minutes. After a mandatory evacuation of all civilians, criminals rise up, taking the streets for themselves. Villains such as Penguin, Two-Face, and the Riddler carve out swaths of territory.
"Arkham Knight" takes place after the events of "Batman: Arkham City," the death of Joker and the closing of Arkham City. It's Halloween in Gotham, and Scarecrow has developed a new fear toxin capable
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AUTHOR FROM PAGE 10
out for a while, but when I got to KU I started to show more interest," Yankey said. "Underlying was a lot of want to keep making things."
Yankey began school at Hutchinson Community College on a softball scholarship. She transferred to the University in her second year after she began to feel "antsy with a desire for something more."
While initially interested in elementary education, Yankey switched to art education, where she found herself in the studio as a part of the requirement for the major. With story ideas already in mind, she knew she wanted to make books, and eventually switched to the illustration major.
The idea for her first children's book, "Sun and Moon" — a story about the moon feeling like it's missing out on life during the day — came about in a pretty simple way.
"I was walking home from class one day and thought, 'Wow, this is such a beautiful day.' It was springtime and beautiful and I thought, "The sun gets to see everything cool.' Then I was thinking, "The moon's missing out," she said.
"Bluebird," her second book and the one on the Kansas Notable Books List, came from a simple, one-line idea about a bird missing the wind.
"I was thinking about a bird looking for the wind; well, then you have questions," Yankey said. "Why is she looking for the wind? Where would she look for the wind? What is the wind and the bird's relationship? How do they know each other? How did that even start?"
Although both stories are for a younger audience, the ideas are rooted in a deeper meaning. "Sun and the Moon" is about learning to appreciate what you have, and "Bluebird" focuses on doing something for the first time without a friend or someone you depend on, Yankey said.
After college, Yankey traveled to England for a few months and started working on posters for an art collaborative group. When the group started putting her work in its mailing list, she got in touch with Shakespeare and Co. bookstore, located in Paris, and began making bags, posters and signs for the store. Her work with the store added a credible client to her portfolio.
In 2014, she traveled to the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy to try to find publishers for her books. She found one in Simply Read Books, which would go on to publish "Sun and Moon" and "Bluebird."
Through Simply Read Books, Yankey worked closely with Robin Mitchell Cranfield, principal of Hundreds & Thousands Book Design and Illustrations as well as visiting professor in the publishing department at Simon Fraser University in Canada.
“[Yankey] plans her books out quite carefully and has great attention to detail,” Mitchell Cranfield said. "Working with her gave me a lot of insight into how illustrators experience working with a graphic designer, and I brought some of that
experience into my teaching."
After the books were published in 2014, Yankey participated in various library and bookstore readings and received positive feedback from her target audience.
"It's exciting. I got recognized by two little kids on the street," she said. "I had a reading at the Raven [Book Store] a couple weeks ago; it had just happened so I think it was really fresh on their minds."
Yankey also makes cards and prints in Lawrence, which are sold at Au Marché, a European foods and gifts store, and Essential Goods, which sells prints, cards and other gifts but focuses on local artists.
"We first saw Lindsey's work at WheatFields [Bakery] and immediately knew she was really talented," said Molly Crook, owner of Essential Goods. "I got in touch with her and we kind of went back and forth and now she sells her cards in the store."
For Yankey, these cards are little ways to experiment with her designs. Although her go-to is oil paint,
she often experiments in different mediums for her cards and prints.
In one specific instance last fall, Yankey glued leaves onto paper, and eventually they formed into characters, which she made into a print. For another print that appears in "Sun and Moon" she made intricate slices in linoleum to make a stamp of fireworks and then used that stamp to illustrate a page.
"I think that a lot of my style comes from keeping my options open with materials. That's something that really helps free me up to illustrate however [the piece] would be the best illustrated," she said.
Throughout her life, Yankey said she has always been a creative person an artist. Art matters because it is a part of what "makes us human," she said.
“[Art] is our celebration, our filter, our vent, our questioning, our understanding, our exploration, our play,” Yankey said. “Everyone is born creative and continuing to encourage creativity throughout our lives is enriching for everyone.”
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