Books, Books, Books

140. Doctor Strange Versus Dracula: The Montesi Formula by Roger Stern, Dan Green, et al. I'm not sure why Marvel chose to put out this collection of comics, but I'm glad they did. I've always enjoyed Roger Stern's writing, but he doesn't seem to have the reputation I think he deserves.
     
141. X-Factor, vol. 1: The Longest Night by Peter David, Ryan Sook, & Dennis Calero. The art's a little dark & sometimes unclear, but generally I like this quite a bit.
     
142. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling. Until I reread this, I had forgotten just how much I hate Dobby, and the whole House Elves story. Fortunately it's not too prominent in this volume. (Borrowed from Teena.)
     
143. Livewires: Clockwork Thugs, Yo by Adam Warren & Rick Mays. (Checked out of the library.)
     
144. The Punisher, vol. 6: Barracuda by Garth Ennis & Goran Parlov. Formulaic but satisfying. (Library.)
     
145. Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser by Howard Chaykin & Mike Mignola. For years I've heard good things about Leiber's stories, but I've never read any, even though I've bought some of his books. If this adaptation of some of his stories is any indication, I've been missing out. This graphic novel was lots of fun.
     
146. Hikaru no Go, vol. 4: Divine Illusions by Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata.
     
147. Bleach, vol. 18: The Deathberry Returns by Tite Kubo. I have no idea where Kubo gets his chapter titles (which are also used for the collection titles), because they make almost no sense at all. But I shouldn't be surprised; there still has been no explanation as to why the series is called Bleach.
     
148. We Are on Our Own: A Memoir by Miriam Katin. A touching story about how the author & her mother fled Budapest in 1944. (Library.)
     
149. DMZ, vol. 2: Body of a Journalist by Brian Wood, Riccardo Burchielli, & Kristian Donaldson. This is an excellent comic. It feels like it does a fantastic job of portraying life in a war zone, even if that war zone is Manhattan. Highly recommended.
     
150. Megatokyo, vol. 4 by Fred Gallagher. I'm not terribly familiar with the genre, but this may be the emo-est book ever. The main character, Piro, makes Hamlet look impulsive and carefree. There are some great ideas here, but the story moves at a glacial pace because Piro has to examine every little decision in excruciating detail and more often than not ends up not doing a damn thing. I can only imagine what it would be like reading this as a webcomic; it is updated (at best) 3 times a week. At least with the books, you get around 200 pages at once. (Library.)
     
151. Ultimate Spider-Man, vol. 8 by Brian Michael Bendis & Mark Bagley.
     
152. Superman: Back in Action by Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza, Pete Woods, et al.
     
153. Usagi Yojimbo, Book 2 by Stan Sakai. I ended my update last week with the first volume in this series, so it seems appropriate to end this week's with the next. Good stuff.