Monday, February 23, 2004

And then I get sick for nearly 2 weeks & am stuck at home (without net access) for most of that time. (On the upside, when I first got sick, Teena brought me chicken soup, orange juice, MST3K videos, and comfort.) So lots of time for reading. Plus, a lot of the reading was manga, which tends to go very quickly, so a huge list this time.

Books
  • Iron & Silk: The Player's Guide to Improvised Weapons by Chris Jones, John Seavey, & Will Hindmarch. An okay book for the Feng Shui game. It lists the kinds of locals where fight scenes might take place, the kinds of things you'd find there, and how they could be used as weapons.
  • Ranma 1/2, vol. 22 by Rumiko Takahashi. Takahashi's manga are very popular, so there's always a queue for her books from the library. I tend to forget just what the latest volume published is (and I'm too lazy to go through the notebook where I write down the books I've read), so I tend to end up re-checking out (and usually re-reading) a volume each time I sign up for the queue. I did that here.
  • Ranma 1/2, vol. 23 by Takahashi. (Library)
  • Ranma 1/2, vol. 24 by Takahashi. Also, I can't keep track of her books' release schedules, so I end up reading multiple new volumes at the same time. (Library)
  • DeadLands: The Great Weird North by Aaron Rosenberg. This setting book details Canada in the DeadLands RPG. It's a concept I really like: a horror western. But the execution just doesn't live up to the premise's promise. But I still get some of the books for the game.
  • Lupin III, vol.9 by Monkey Punch. (Library)
  • InuYasha, vol.14 by Rumiko Takahashi. (Library)
  • InuYasha, vol.15 by Takahashi. (Library)
  • The Art of InuYasha by Takahashi. (Library)
  • The Vampire Brat & Other Tales of Supernatural Law by Batton Lash. (Library)
  • Y: The Last Man, vol.2: Cycles by Brian Vaughan & Pia Guerra.
  • Nextworld, vol.2 by Osamu Tezuka
  • Al Capp's Li'l Abner: The Frazetta Years, vol.1: 1954-1955. Yes, Frank Frazetta (of many a fantasy poster & paperback cover fame) was Al Capp's assistant for several years.
  • Legal Action Comics by various.
  • The Montaigne Revolution by various. This is a meta-plot update for the 7th Sea role-playing game. Like DeadLands, the idea is better than the execution. This is a swashbuckling game set in a world that bears a striking resemblance to 17th century Europe. Unfortunately, it's so close to the real world that they should have just stuck with the original names. As it is, it just doesn't work. I want to like it, and I want to support swashbuckling games, but it's just so disappointing. Parts of the world are okay, but the thing as a whole just doesn't hang together well.
  • Point Blank by Ed Brubaker & Colin Wilson. Noir-ish comic with superheroes. (Library)
  • Tank Girl 3 by Alan Martin & Jaime Hewlett. (Library)
  • Alan Moore's The Courtyard adapted by Anthony Johnston & Jacen Burrows.
  • Alan Moore's The Courtyard Companion. This includes Moore's original short story, Johnston's script for the comic, some more art by Burrows, and annotations (by Ng Christakos) to all the Lovecraftian (and other) references
  • Dance Till Tomorrow, vol.6 by Naoki Yamamoto. (Library)
  • Dance Till Tomorrow, vol.7 by Yamamoto. (Library)
  • SandLand by Akira Toriyama.
  • Maison Ikkoku, vol.3 by Rumiko Takahashi. I like Takahashi's work, but this is the only series I've bought. Guess I have a soft spot for romantic comedy.
  • Lost World by Osamu Tezuka.
  • Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama.
  • Astro Boy, vol.17 by Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka is amazing, but his Astro Boy stories start to blur together after a while. So I stopped buying these monthly volumes (although they still show up occasionally in my box at the comic book store). However, there are still 2 or 3 of these in my unread pile.
  • Burn, Bitchy, Burn by Roberta Gregory.
  • YuYu Hakusho, vol.3 by Yoshiro Togashi.
  • Hey Mister Celebrity Roast by Pete Sickman-Garner.


Well, I also watched a lot of movies, during my illness, but it's getting late, so I'm going to stop for now. More tomorrow.

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