Okay, now that I finally got that out of my system, time to catch up with what else I've been reading.

• Maison Ikkoku, vol. 5 by Rumiko Takahashi.
  
• Maison Ikkoku, vol. 6 by Rumiko Takahashi.
  
• Astro Boy, vol. 23 by Osamu Tezuka. The final volume in this series collecting all the Astro Boy stories. (Checked out of the library.)
  
• Supreme Power, vol. 1: Contact by J. Michael Straczynski & Gary Frank. The creator of Babylon 5 re-works Marvel Comics' version of the Justice League.
  
• Batman: Child of Dreams by Kia Asamiya, adapted by Max Allan Collins. A manga version of Batman. (Library.)
  
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, vol. 1 by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neil. I reread this because I finally got around to reading
  
• Heroes & Monsters: The Unofficial Guide to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Jess Nevins. Nevins has annotated all the literary references in LoEG. My name appears in the aknowledgements (along with a couple hundred other peope) because I contributed to the annotations when Nevins was first compiling them & putting them up on the Web. (But the one thing I know I contributed to the Web list didn't make it into the book because it wasn't a literary reference, but a suggestion as to what was happening in a slightly confusing point in the book.) Reading this & rereading LoEG made me want to read volume 2, but I'm going to wait for Nevins' companion volume; it should be out next month.
  
• Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner. The Usual Suspects Faulkner Seminar continues. (Library.)
  
• Masters of Luck and Death by various. A sourcebook for the HeroQuest role-playing game.
  
• The Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather by Ron Zimmerman and John Severin. I think it was a slow news day when Marvel Comics announced that they were reviving this character from the days when cowboy comics sold, but now he'd be gay, because it got a lot of attention. It sounded to me like a lame attempt to be relevant, but what none of the news stories mentioned was that the whole thing was going to be humorous. This isn't serious at all. There's a school-marm character named Laura Ingulls who is always talking about her Pa and growing up in a small house on the prairie. It's quite funny. Plus, it has art by John Severin, who I like a lot.
  
• Exiles, vol. 5: Unnatural Instincts by Chuck Austen & Clayton Henry. Reading this, I learned that I was right to only buy the Exiles collections written by Judd Winick. (Library.)
  
• Isaac the Pirate, vol. 1: To Exotic Lands by Christophe Blain. (Library.)
  
• Jimmy Olsen Adventures, vol. 1 by Jack Kirby. As a friend said, this book "hurts my brain," but it does so in a good way. Kirby was a visionary, and (despite the efforts of many) nobody else has every captured the essence of his work. Plus, this volume has a story guest-starring Don Rickles! How can you go wrong? (Library.)
  
• GURPS Mars by James L. Cambias. Four versions of Mars for role-playing games, from scientifically plausible to extremely pulpy.
  
• Halo & Sprocket: Welcome to Humanity by Kerry Callen. (Library.)
  
• Captain America: Cap Lives by Dave Gibbons & Lee Weeks. (Library.)
  
• Wolverine: Snikt! by Tsutumu Nihei. A manga version of Wolverine. (Library.)
  
• The Unspeakable Oath, no. 16/17 by various. Scenarios, resources, etc. for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.
  
• Trigun, vol. 1: Deep Space Planet Future Gun Action!! by Yasuhiro Mightow. I don't know whether the manga or the anime came first, but whichever did, the other is a pretty faithful adaptation of it. A science fiction western.
  
• Who Let the Dogs In?: Incredible Political Animals I Have Known by Molly Ivins. A collection of essays by Ivins from throughout her career, but the emphasis is on her more recent work. (Library.)
  
• Birth of a Nation: A Comic Novel by Aaron McGruder, Reginald Hudin, and Kyle Baker. Although this is supposed to be a graphic novel, there are many times it feels more like a heavily illustrated screen play. Anyway, the plot is about the city of East St. Louis seceeding from the US after the events of the 2000 election. (Library.)
  
• Rosetta, A Comics Anthology, vol. 2 by various. (Library.)
  
• The Complete D.R. & Quinch by Alan Moore & Alan Davis. Silliness.
  
• Scary Godmother: Spooktacular Stories by Jill Thompson. This is a collection of several Scary Godmother one-shots. Lots of fun.
  
• Smax by Alan Moore & Zander Cannon. This is a spin-off of Moore's Top Ten series, but what that does with superheroes, this does with fantasy tropes. The backgrounds are full of references to fairy tales, fantasy novels, etc.
  
• Buzzboy, vol. 2: Monsters, Dreams & Milkshakes! by John Gallagher w/Rich Faber. (Library.)
  
• Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography by Chester Brown. More non-fiction comics. (Library.)
  
• Dreadstar, vol. 3: Plan M by Jim Starlin.
  
• Certified Cool by various. This is an anthology comic that didn't work for me.
  

Well, I'm still not caught up, but I made some progress. Out of time now. More later.