Stir Crazy

Despite being snowed in the entire week, I did not find the time to update. And I probably won't get the chance to do so until next weekend.

See you next year!

Cabin Fever

Thanks to the snow and ice (and a cold that finally seems to be subsiding), I only went to work one day last week. (And the way things are going, I don't know that I'll be going to work tomorrow. If that's the case, I'll do another movie post.) But despite that, I didn't finish all that many books this week.

524. Monster, vol. 17: I'm Back by Naoki Urasawa. Things are coming to a head, with twists & revelations. One volume to go. (Checked out of the library.)
     
525. Mail, vol. 1 by Housui Yamazuki. Manga about a guy who exorcises ghosts with a special gun. (Library.)
     
526. The Question, vol. 3: Epitaph for a Hero by Dennis O'Neil & Denys Cowan. This comic gets very meta in the issue where The Question reads Watchmen, which contains a character (Rorschach) who is based on the original version of The Question.
     
527. Dungeon Monstres, vol. 2: The Dark Lord by Joann Sfarr, Lewis Trondheim, Andreas, & Stephane Blanquet. Another Dungeon volume. I don't know how fast the originals are coming out in France, but if the translations are a ways behind, I wish they'd step up the production schedule. (Library.)
     
528. Black Jack, vol. 2 by Osamu Tezuka. In Japan, this is Tezuka's most popular manga for adults, and I can see why. (Although I personally think Buddha is better.)
     
529. The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson & Ernie Colon. There is a lot of important information in this book. Unfortunately what I took away from the book is that somebody involved does not know how to lay out comic pages so that they read easily. Far too many times I found myself puzzling over which caption to read next. The eye should flow easily from one panel to the next, with out having to stop & consider which caption is next. Poorly done comics.

The Return of Movie Posts

Between snow & a sore throat, I've been home for the past 5 days. I guess I should use some of that time to catch up on the list of movies I've seen. My last post on the topic was in June, so this is long overdue.

• The Court Jester. It was really strange seeing Angela Lansbury when she was so young.
  
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Starfighters. This movie has no plot whatsoever; it's just a string of events that happen.
  
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. This is not nearly as good as the first FF movie, and that wasn't anything more than a dumb but entertaining super-hero flick.
  
• Iron Man. Now this is how do do a super-hero movie. Everybody says Robert Downey Jr. is perfect for the role. They say it because it's true.
  
• Double Indemnity.
  
• Best in Show. Teena has commented that Christopher Guest's movies are all pretty much the same, with the only difference being the subject in which the characters are involved. I can't argue with that, but they're still funny.
  
• Ocean's 13. I have a weakness for caper movies.
  
• The Muppet Show, Season 2. It's a wonderful thing when a fondly remembered show from your childhood lives up to your recollections even after you're an adult.
  
• Wall-E. Oh man, does Pixar make some great movies. Simply delightful.
  
• Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Well, it's better than Temple of Doom.
  
• The Mist. A very scary & brutal adaptation of a Stephen King story.
  
• Planet of the Apes. The original, not Burton's remake. I had never actually seen this before, or if I had, I was so young that I don't remember a thing.
  
• The Ghost and the Darkness.
  
• The Fountain.
  
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
  
• Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs. I think the first Futurama (direct to DVD) movie was better, even with way too many call backs to the series. Still damn funny, though.
  
• Cinematic Titanic: Doomsday Machine. An incredibly incoherent movie that simply demands to be made fun of.
  
• The Muppet Show, Season 1. The first season isn't as strong as later ones. I guess that's why it took us longer to finish this even though we bought it before the second season.
  
• A Hard Day's Night. I love the bit where somebody asks Ringo if he's a Mod or a Rocker and he replies, "I'm a Mocker."
  
• The Dark Knight. I think there's some kind of rule stating that anybody who reviews this movie has to mention Heath Ledger's amazing performance as the Joker, but this really feels like a film & a half. I think it would have been better if they could have moved most of the Two-Face story to another movie.
  
• Clash of the Titans.
  
• Amazon Women on the Moon.
  
• Avatar the Last Airbender, book 2 Earth, vol. 1.
  
• Cinematic Titanic: The Wasp Woman.
  
• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Indecision 2004. The Daily Show's election coverage from 4 years ago.
  
• Ghost Rider. This is the cheesiest movie I have EVER seen. And the thing is, I cannot tell whether or not they were trying to be cheesy. I suspect they were, but I'm not certain.
  
• Avatar the Last Airbender, book 2 Earth, vol. 2.
  
• Cloverfield. I think the monster was, for some reason, attracted to the video camera the characters were carrying around for the entire movie.
  
• 28 Weeks Later.
  
• Avatar the Last Airbender, book 2 Earth, vol. 3.
  
• Hairspray. They really should have just cast a woman in the Edna Turnblad role. As it is, you just spend too much time thinking, "That's John Travolta in a fat suit & drag."
  
• Six Feet Under - The Complete Series. Teena & I watched this with some friends. It took us a long, long time to get through the whole series, but it was definitely time well spent. The final episode lives up to the hype surrounding it. Just an amazing series all the way around.

I am not caught up yet (this only gets us to mid-September), but I think that's enough for now. Good to stop on a high note. I'm hoping it won't be another 6 months before I get back to posting about movies again.

Cold Weather

Because Portland got a lot of snow yesterday (more than Vancouver did), my workplace is shut down today, so I am enjoying a surprise 3-day weekend. Anyway, on to the books I read last week.

505. FreakAngels, vol. 1 by Warren Ellis & Paul Duffield. The first (of I hope many) collection of a web comic I really enjoy. I look forward to it each week, but it reads even better when collected.
     
506. The Couriers, vol. 1 by Brian Wood & Rob G. Big, loud action comic. (Checked out of the library.)
     
507. The Couriers, vol. 2: Dirtbike Manifesto by Brian Wood & Rob G. (Library.)
     
508. The Couriers, vol. 3: The Ballad of Johnny Funwrecker by Brian Wood & Rob G. (Library.)
     
509. Fables, vol. 11: War & Pieces by Bill Willingham & Mark Buckingham. This volume wraps up the major story that's been brewing since the very beginning of this series.
     
510. Aqua Leung, vol. 1 by Mark Smith & Paul Maybury. Pretty standard adventure story that could have used some proofreading. The art is pretty, but the story feels extremely generic. (Library.)
     
511. X-Men First Class: Band of Brothers by Jeff Parker, Roger Cruz, et al. More angst-free X-Men stories. Yay!
     
512. Superman vs. Brainiac by various. I wish Amazon had the actual cover image for this book (they often do not have the actual cover image for graphic novels); it's a terrible cover. First, and most importantly, it's ugly. But also, it's impossible to tell whether Superman is winding up to punch Brainiac in the face or if he's turning tail to run because Brainiac scares the crap out of him. I'm sure it's the former, but if it is Superman is seriously overbalanced, and would fall right over. (Although I guess that is less of a concern when you can fly.)
     
513. Omega the Unknown by Jonathan Lethem & Farel Dalrymple, with Karl Rusnak. Lethem's reworking of one of Steve Gerber's stranger (and that's saying something) 1970s comics. (Library.)
     
514. JLA/Avengers by Kurt Busiek & George Perez. Nice of DC & Marvel to finally collect this in an affordable format.
     
515. In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot by Graham Roumieu. This just didn't work for me. There were funny bits, but for the most part, this left me cold. (Library.)
     
516. Marvel Adventures Iron Man: Armored Avenger by Fred Van Lente, et al.
     
517. Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi. Yeah, I've read this before, but those times I checked it out of the library. I finally picked up a copy because Amazon had it for sale at like 60% off.
     
518. 100 Bullets, vol. 12: Dirty by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso. Heading toward the series climax in the next volume. (Library.)
     
519. Ultimate Iron Man vs. Hulk: Ultimate Human by Warren Ellis & Cary Nord. Somewhat overpriced, but a good example of Ellis's superhero work.
     
520. Thunderbolts, vol. 2: Caged Angels by Warren Ellis & Mike Deodato Jr. Ellis does even better when writing supervillains (and still better when writing characters he created & owns). And Deodato's artwork has improved since the 90s (see last week's post).
     
521. Batman: Ego and Other Tails by Darwyn Cooke. No, that's not a typo. There is a Catwoman story in this collection. Gorgeous artwork.
     
522. Artesia by Mark Smylie. I had been interested in this book for quite a while, but never enough to spend the money on it. Then I found a copy for half price, so I gave it a try. Despite having to keep track of a huge number of strange names (too often par for the course in fantasy settings), I quite liked this, and I'll be looking for later volumes, even if they aren't discounted 50%.
     
523. Essex County, vol. 3: The Country Nurse by Jeff Lemire. Touching end to the trilogy. (Library.)

Snow Day

Due to inclement weather, I'll have tomorrow off, and I'll update then.

Breaking 500

495. Local by Brian Wood & Ryan Kelly. Great stories about a young woman, presented in a beautifully-designed book. (Checked out of the library.)
     
496. Chamber of Mystery: Witchcraft, vol. 1 by various. Pre-comics code horror stories. Not from EC, not actually all that good, but still interesting.
     
497. Good-Bye by Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Alternative manga from the 70s. (Library.)
     
498. DC Goes Ape by various. Stories featuring gorillas. Once DC's forte.
     
499. I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert, et al. Colbert's tone doesn't quite come across without him delivering the lines, but still quite funny.
     
500. Tales of the Multiverse: Batman - Vampire by Doug Moench and Kelly Jones. Nice, creepy artwork, but the writing is overwrought.
     
501. The Death of the New Gods by Jim Starlin. Cosmic Sturm und Drang that was undone by another writer even quicker than is usual in comics (because DC's editors apparently don't talk to each other). (Library.)
     
502. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, pt. 2 by Akira Himekawa. I enjoyed this adaptation of the video game, but I doubt I'll get further volumes in the series, since they'll be adapting games I haven't played. I may pick this series up again if they get to Wind Waker.
     
503. Thor Visionaries: Mike Deodato Jr. by Warren Ellis, William Messner-Loebs, & Mike Deodato Jr. I can't say I'm actually a fan of Deodato, but I do like Ellis & Messner-Loebs' writing, and I found this for half price.
     
504. Order of the Stick, vol. 3: War & XPs by Rich Berlew. The latest collection of the web comic.

Attempting to Catch Up

I'm a week behind, but I don't really feel like writing much today.

474. DNAgents: Industrial Strength Edition by Mark Evanier & Will Meugniot. Reprints of an indie super-hero series from the 80s. Comics sure used to be a lot talkier than they are now.
     
475. In Odd We Trust by Dean Koontz & Queenie Chan. I haven't read any Koontz before, but I enjoyed Queenie Chan's manga-esque series The Dreaming, so I thought I'd check this out. That was a mistake. I really didn't like this. Mostly because the dialogue was atrocious, full of awkward exposition and baffling attempts at characterization*. I don't know if Chan adapted an existing short story, or if Koontz did the actual writing, but it was awful. I won't be looking for any more of Koontz's work. (Checked out of the library.)
     
476. The Spirit: Femmes Fatales by Will Eisner. I'm not looking forward to the upcoming Spirit movie. It looks too much like it will be Sin City lite, rather than an actual adaptation of Eisner's work, but at least the movie means that we're seeing more of the original work released in an affordable format. (Although there is quite a bit of overlap between this volume and The Best of the Spirit, but I'll take what I can get.
     
477. Strangeways: Murder Moon by Matt Maxwell & Luis Guaragna. A mixture of wsterns & werewolves. (Library.)
     
478. John Constantine, Hellblazer: The Family Man by Jamie Delano, Ron Tiner, et al. I think one more volume will mean that Delano's run on this series will finally be completely collected.
     
479. To Terra..., vol. 1 by Keiko Takemiya. This may be a hugely influential manga series, but it felt extremely generic to me and did not hold my interest. (Library.)
     
480. Black Jack, vol. 1 by Osamu Tezuka. Now this manga is interesting. It's about a brilliant but unlicensed doctor who handles extremely unusual cases. Weird, and occasionally disgusting, but fascinating. I'm looking forward to future volumes.
     
481. Six Feet Under: Better Living through Death edited by Alan Ball & Alan Poul. A companion book to the HBO series.
     
482. Gimmick, vol. 2 by Youzaburou Kanari & Kuroko Yabuguchi. (Library.)
     
483. Star Trek: New Frontier by Peter David & Stephen Thompson. David brings his series of Star Trek novels to comics.
     
484. Northlanders, vol. 1: Sven the Returned by Brian Wood & Davide Gianfelice. Vikings!
     
485. Doktor Sleepless, vol. 1: Engines of Desire by Warren Ellis & Ivan Rodriguez. Mad science for the 21st century. Ellis has not forgotten that mad scientists are villains.
     
486. Thor, vol. 1 by J. Michael Straczynski & Olivier Copiel. Meh. (Library.)
     
487. Grendel: God and the Devil by Matt Wagner, John K. Snyder III, Jay Geldhof, et al. Another great comic from the 80s finally reprinted.
     
488. Conan, vol. 0: Born on the Battlefield by Kurt Busiek & Greg Ruth. The story of Conan's childhood. (Library.)
     
489. Three Strikes by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, & Brian Hurtt. Great crime story. I have been very impressed by every non-superhero story I have read by DeFillippis & Weir.
     
490. Crossfire, vol. 1: Hollywood Hero by Mark Evanier & Dan Spiegle. A spin-off from DNAgents that is quite a bit better than the source material. That's because the emphasis is less on super-heroics and more on Hollywood (a subject Evanier knows a lot about). I'm hoping to see more collections, especially if they include Evanier's essays about his life in show biz.
     
491. Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez.
     
492. Mystique, vol. 2: Tinker, Tailor, Mutant, Spy by Brian K. Vaughan & Michael Ryan.
     
493. Mateki: The Magic Flute by Yoshitaka Amano. Gorgeous art. (Library.)
     
494. Nation by Terry Pratchett. A rare non-Discworld book from Pratchett, but this is just as good as any in that series. Wonderful & highly-recommended.

Well, look at that. I did get caught up after all, and I actually wrote something about most of the books.

*Admittedly I don't know any fry cooks, but I doubt many invest as much of their identity in their jobs as Odd does.

Lazy

No update this week. Spent too much time playing Animal Crossing.

Taking a Break from Animal Crossing

Teena & I just picked up the latest Animal Crossing game, so I'm going to try to keep this short as I want to get back to our cute new town.

463. The Martian Conspiracy, vol. 1 by Jason McNamara & Paige Braddock. Pretty good science fiction action story. (Checked out of the library.)
     
464. JLA: That Was Now, This Is Then by Roger Stern & John Byrne. I have to admit this wasn't Stern's best story, but he has written some great super-hero comics in the past, and he deserves my support.
     
465. Blue Beetle, vol. 4: Endgame by John Rogers, Rafael Albuquerque, et al. Now this is a fun comic. It makes me feel like I did when I read comics as a kid. Highly recommended.
     
466. Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan by Jiro Kuwata. This is a collection of 60's Batman comics from when the TV show was airing in Japan. These stories are insane. Imagine goofy silver-age comics viewed through a filter of Japanese culture. I especially love the story where a gorilla has acquired the intelligence level of the scientist who was experimenting on him (the ape), but the gorilla knows it will revert to its original state in a few days so it sets out to capture Batman & perform the experiment again so it can acquire Batman's intelligence. I said the stories were insane.
     
467. Empowered, vol. 3 by Adam Warren.
     
468. Hikaru no Go, vol. 13: Professional Match by Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata. More manga about go.
     
469. Herbie Archives, vol. 1 by Shane O'Shea & Ogden Whitney. Oh, so strange. Comics about a fat kid who doesn't speak in complete sentences & who is constantly sucking on a lollipop. But he is known and respected around the world & throughout time. Bizarre & wonderful comics. (Library.)
     
470. The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, vol. 1 by Akira Himekawa. Reading this manga made me want to play the game again.
     
471. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, vol. 3: Wolves at the Gate by Drew Goddard, Joss Whedon, & Georges Jeanty. I continue to enjoy these comics. And they're definitely doing things that would be impossible with a TV show's special effects budget.
     
472. Prince of Persia: The Graphic Novel by A. B. Sina & LeUyen Pham. A good story, but only slightly related to the video games. (Library.)
     
473. Love & Rockets: New Stories, no. 1 by Los Bros Hernandez. When I first started reading Love & Rockets (man, that was 20 years ago), I preferred Beto's work over Jaime's (Mario's has never really worked for me), but nowadays it's the reverse. I think it's because Beto has moved away from the Gabriel Garcia Marquez-esque Palomar stories. Still great stuff, though.

Now, back to Animal Crossing: City Folk.

A Few Words about Some Books

452. Showcase Presents Legion of Super-Heroes, vol. 2 by various. This volume contains the debut comics work by Jim Shooter. Stories written when he was 13. Which might explain how, in one of them, he tried make the reader believe that the Legionnaire who would betray Earth was NOT the newly-introduced Nemesis Kid.
     
453. Achewood: The Great Outdoor Fight by Chris Onstad. I had heard about the web strip Achewood, but the art style put me off, and I never got into it. Then this collection came out, and I kept reading how good this storyline was, so I decided to take a look. I have to admit, it's pretty damn good. I still think the art is incredibly ugly, though. (Checked out of the library.)
     
454. Gimmick, vol. 1 by Youzaburou Kanari & Kuroko Yabusuchi. Manga about a make-up artist. (Library.)
     
455. Where the Deep Ones Are by Kenneth Hite & Andy Hopp. Mixing Maurice Sendak & H.P. Lovecraft.
     
456. Essential Man Thing, vol. 2 by various. More adventures of the muck-encrusted mockery of a man.
     
457. Owly, vol. 5: Tiny Tales by Andy Runton. More cute, wordless stories. (Borrowed from Teena's classroom.)
     
458. Marvel Adventures Avengers, vol. 7: Weirder and Wilder by Jeff Parker & Ig Guara. I say this every time I read a Marvel Adventures collection, but some of the best super-hero comics being written today are aimed at children.
     
459. Ex Machina, vol. 7: Ex Cathedra by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris. Still enjoying this.
     
460. Crossing Midnight, vol. 3: The Sword in the Soul by Mike Carey & Jim Fern. The final volume of this series involving Japanese yokai. I liked the concept, and I guess I should have bought the issues as they came out. If more people had, this might not be the final volume. But I'd rather have collections than individual issues.
     
461. Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home by Robin Furth, Peter David, & Jae Lee. And now, a Dark Tower comic that isn't an adaptation of pre-existing stories.
     
462. The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher & Ardian Syaf. I've never read the novels, and I only saw a couple of episodes of the TV show, but I thought I'd give this graphic novel a try. The story is pretty good. Not the best art, but at least the characters look the same from panel to panel, and the artist can tell a story using pictures.

Back Up to Speed

Got a few more books read this past week.

440. The Savage Sword of Conan, vol. 1 by Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Barry Windsor Smith, et al. Reprints from the magazine Marvel published in the 70s. The stories can get somewhat repetitive, but they're still entertaining.
     
441. Super Spy by Matt Kindt. Very impressive. An assortment of related spy stories set in WWII. Extremely well done. (Checked out of the library.)
     
442. MySpace Dark Horse Presents, vol. 1 by various. As with any anthology, the quality of the stories varies, but there is more good here than not. (Library.)
     
443. Aetheric Mechanics by Warren Ellis & Gianluca Pagliarani. This is steampunkish, and therefore I bought it. I liked it, but there is a revelation that comes near the end that I don't quite buy. On the other hand, I do like how the characters react to that revelation.
     
444. Miki Falls, vol. 2: Summer by Mark Crilley. Manga-ish & very well done. (Library.)
     
445. Miki Falls, vol. 3: Autumn by Mark Crilley. (Library.)
     
446. Miki Falls, vol. 4: Winter by Mark Crilley. (Library.)
     
447. Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip, vol. 3. More sweet, funny comic strips.
     
448. The Goon: Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker by Eric Powell. A serious story about the Goon's past. (Library.)
     
449. Cthulhu Tales, vol. 1 by various. Another anthology. I especially liked the story about a grade-school production of The King In Yellow, but I think it needed more room to develop. (Library.)
     
450. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Another enjoyable book from Gaiman. This one made me want to read The Jungle Book, since I only know the stories from the Disney movie (and I haven't seen that since I was a child) and a handful of comic book adaptations. As it is, I was only able to see the broadest of parallels (although I don't know that the correspondences go beyond the most basic of levels).
     
451. Meow, Baby! by Jason. Largely silent comics involving a variety of monsters. (Library.)

Another Light Week

434. Dororo, vol. 1 by Osamu Tezuka.
     
435. Dororo, vol. 2 by Osamu Tezuka.
     
436. Dororo, vol. 3 by Osamu Tezuka. I am so happy more & more of the god of manga's work is being translated. Admittedly, I'm not sure any of it surpasses Buddha or Phoenix, but I want to read all I can.
     
437. Boneyard, vol. 6 by Richard Moore. (Checked out of the library.)
     
438. The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez. The Hernandez Brothers' work doesn't grab me nearly as much as it used to (during the heyday of Love & Rockets), but it's still damn good. (Library.)
     
439. The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, vol. 7 by Eiji Otsuka & Housui Yamazaki. Yet another volume in this horror manga series. (Library.)

Awful and Brilliant at the Same Time

Your challenge is to write crossover fanfiction combining Siegfried & Roy and Metalocalypse. The story should use furries as a plot device!

Learn more at The Terrible Crossover Fanfiction Idea Generator.

(found via)

Light Week

429. Punisher War Journal, vol. 3: Hunter/Hunted by Matt Fraction, et al. (Checked out of the library.)
     
430. The Immortal Iron Fist, vol. 2: The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven by Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker, David Aja, et al. Kick-ass kung fu action. Loads of fun. This book is a blast.
     
431. Apocalypse Nerd by Peter Bagge. (Library.)
     
432. The Eternals, vol. 2 by Jack Kirby. The comics collected here don't hold up quite as well as those in volume 1, but it's still Kirby.
     
433. The Goon, vol. 5: Wicked Inclinations by Eric Powell. (Library.)

See, I told you right up front it was a light week.

A Few More Titles Read

I've got what feels like a nasty headache coming on, so I'll keep this short.

421. Emma, vol. 4 by Kaoru Mori.
     
422. Emma, vol. 5 by Kaoru Mori. Stupid Amazon doesn't have a listing for this volume.
     
423. Pantheon, vol. 1: Welcome to the Machine by Bill Willingham & Mike Leeke. No listing for this book either, but as it's from a small press, it's a bit more understandable.
     
424. Emma, vol. 6 by Kaoru Mori.
     
425. Emma, vol. 7 by Kaoru Mori. The final volume.
     
426. Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse, vol. 1: Birds, Bees, Blood & Beer by Ben Templesmith. If you like Templesmith's art style (which isn't for everybody), this is great. (Checked out of the library.)
     
427. Invasion! by Keith Giffen, Bill Mantlo, Todd McFarlane, & Bart Sears. Big, loud, superhero cross-over. Not high art, but entertaining.
     
428. Harvey Comics Classics, vol. 1: Casper the Friendly Ghost by various.

Recovered

The 2008 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival finished up Sunday night, and I have caught up on my sleep, so here's the update for this week, just a couple of days late.

393. John Constantine, Hellblazer: Reasons to Be Cheerful by Mike Carey & Leonardo Manco. I'm slowly acquiring all of Carey's run on Hellblazer. I should pick up the next volume soon, since this one ends on a cliffhanger.
     
394. M Is for Magic by Neil Gaiman. This collection had more stories that I had already read than I originally thought. I didn't recognize all the titles.
     
395. Dungeon Monstres, v. 1: The Crying Giant by Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, Mazan, & Jean-Christophe Menu. (Checked out of the library.)
     
396. The Collected Hutch Owen by Tom Hart.
     
397. Godland, vol. 3: Proto-Plastic Party by Joe Casey & Tom Scioli. The best Kirby pastiche I've seen, because the creators use their own characters, rather than Kirby's. (Library.)
     
398. Hutch Owen: Unmarketable by Tom Hart.
     
399. Black Panther: The Client by Christopher Priest, Mark Texiera, & Vince Evans. (Library.)
     
400. The Onion Presents Embedded in America: Complete News Archives, vol. 16 by various. Reading this went a lot quicker once I realized reading the articles didn't make it any funnier than just reading the headlines.
     
401. Essex County, vol. 2: Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire. Wonderful, touching book. (Library.)
     
402. Banks/Eubanks by Tom Hart.
     
403. Axis of Troubleby Lloyd Dangle. The political cartoons collected here are pretty good, but they're also past their shelf-life.
     
404. Cat Eyed Boy, vol. 1 by Kazuo Umezu. More insanity from the creator of The Drifting Classroom. (Library.)
     
405. Monster, vol. 16: Welcome Home by Naoki Urasawa. Events in this thriller are coming to a head. I can't wait for the conclusion in the next volume. (Library.)
     
406. Emma, vol. 1 by Kaoru Mori. Back when I first read this, I thought it was okay, but it didn't grab me enough to buy any further volumes. Then I checked volume 2 out of the library and liked it a lot more. So I decided to pick up the whole series. It's taken me a little while.
     
407. Fall of Cthulhu, vol. 1: The Fugue by Michael Alen Nelson, Jean Dzialowski, & Andrew Ritchie. I wasn't sure at first, but as this graphic novel went on, I liked it more. (Library.)
     
408. The Goon: Noir by various. (Library.)
     
409. Emma, vol. 2 by Kaoru Mori.
     
410. Chance in Hell by Gilbert Hernandez. (Library.)
     
411. Emma, vol. 3 by Kaoru Mori.
     
412. Monster Attack Network by Marc Bernardin, Adam Freeman, & Nima Sorat. (Library.)
     
413. The Death of Captain America, vol. 2: The Burden of Dreams by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, & Butch Guice. I've never thought he would stay dead. Whatever Brubaker intends, he won't write the book forever, and Steve Rogers will be back sooner or later. But I'm enjoying the ride until we get there. Great stuff.
     
414. Power Pack: Day One by Fred Van Lente & GuriHiru. I like Van Lente's writing, so I bought this for myself rather than for Teena's classroom.
     
415. Dr. Fate: Countdown to Mystery by Steve Gerber & Justiano. Gerber's last work. I wish he could have completed it, but the tributes from other comics writers are touching.
     
416. Korgi, bk. 2 by Christian Slade. This book I did get for Teena's classroom.
     
417. Bleach, vol. 24: Immanent God Blues by Tite Kubo.
     
418. Wolverine: First Class: The Rookie by Fred Van Lente, Andrea Di Vito, & Salva Espin.
     
419. Black Summer by Warren Ellis & Juan Jose Ryp. I love the concept behind this book. If you're a superhero, you're taking the law into your hands. Where do you draw the line? Which criminals do you go after? This book opens with a superhero deciding that the president lied to get us into an illegal war. The book deals with the fallout of what he does after having made that decision.
     
420. Abe Sapien: The Drowning by Mike Mignola & Jason Shawn Alexander. The story of Abe's first solo mission for the B.P.R.D.

Gah!

I didn't realize that if I upgraded Blogger's layout (which I needed to do if I wanted the Twitter feed back), that I'd have to re-do all the work I did yesterday. Crap. If I'd known, I would have just upgraded yesterday & done it in this format from the start. Ugh.

Also, I hate the way it looks, and I'm not sure I'll be able to sort the blogs into categories. I preferred being able to mess with the HTML. I'm not exactly a high-powered web coder, but I had enough knowledge to get what I wanted. Thank, Blogger. Thanks a lot.

The Return of the Sidebar, Part I

I'm not done yet, but I've been in front of this computer for too long, and I'm starting to get frustrated. I'm hoping to finish restoring the sidebar tomorrow (possibly in lieu of a post).

Democratic Process

Up until this year, I have always been registered as an independent, even though I vote Democratic. (I'm more liberal than they are, but candidates who reflect my positions aren't going to get elected.) When the Washington State caucus came around, I decided that turn-out would be important & changed my registration.

And when the primary election came around, I got an email saying that nobody had filed for the position of Democratic precinct committee officer, and people who wanted the position should write their names in & ask their friends to do the same. So I wrote my name down & asked Teena to do the same. I have no real experience, but I figured, if I won it with two votes, the party needs all the help it can get.

I just got a phone message saying that the person who got more votes than me (apparently he got 3) doesn't feel he can do the job. So I need to call them back & figure out if it's something I can do.

Holy crap.

80 Posts a Year

383. Conrad's Fate by Diana Wynne Jones. Jones writes some great young adult books.
     
384. Tag by Keith Giffen, Kody Chamberlain, Chee, & Andy Kuhn. Not your typical zombie story. (Checked out of the library.)
     
385. The Middleman, vol. 2: The Second Volume Inevitability by Javier Grillo-Marxuach & Les McClaine. More silliness. (Library.)
     
386. The Umbrella Academy, vol. 1: Apocalypse Suite by Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba. I'd heard good things about this online, but I was disappointed. It's not bad, but it doesn't live up to the hype. The story is somewhat muddled, most often, I think, by the writer assuming we have the same information he does even though that info doesn't appear on the page. Fantastic art, though. (Library.)
     
387. She-Hulk, vol. 6: Jaded by Peter David & Shawn Moll. I may need to pick up further volumes of this. It's pretty good. (Library.)
     
388. Hero Squared, vol. 2: Another Fine Mess by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, & Joe Abraham. Fun superhero comic. (Library.)
     
389. Astro City: The Dark Age, 1: Brothers and Other Strangers by Kurt Busiek & Brent Anderson. The latest volume in a fantastic series. I can't wait for the second half of the story to begin.
     
390. The Final Solution: A Story of Detection by Michael Chabon. Chabon's Sherlock Holmes novel.
     
391. The Eternals, vol. 1 by Jack Kirby. I am very happy that more & more of Kirby's work is being collected. This is great stuff, possibly Kirby's last great work.
     
392. Runaways: Dead End Kids by Joss Whedon & Michael Ryan. I'm not sure Whedon quite got the characters' voices down, but still enjoyable.

By the way, the 23rd will mark the 5 year anniversary of this blog, and this is my 400th post. Not exactly burning up the internet with my posting, but I'm still at it after 5 years, which is something. Now to go take a look at templates to see if there's something that catches my eye.

Edited to add: Crap. I intended to revamp my sidebar, but because I was too hasty in changing my template, I'm going to end up having to recreate the entire thing. Whee!

Well, I'm not going to do it at the moment. Look for the sidebar to return in the near future.

Not Too Many Books This Week

375. Essex County, vol. 1: Tales from the Farm by Jeff Lemire. Very good. (Checked out of the library.)
     
376. The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard by Eddie Campbell & Dan Best. I enjoyed this quite a bit, but don't have anything to say about it.
     
377. Millennium by Steve Englehart, Joe Staton, & Ian Gibson. I had fond memories of this cross-over, so I ordered the collection when it showed up in "Previews." It doesn't live up to my recollections. There were too many crossover issues (which aren't collected here), and too much of the story happens in them for this to make much sense on its own. I found it reasonably entertaining (although Englehart's attempt at cosmic wisdom is laughable), but unless you're deep into superheroes, I cannot recommend this book.
     
378. Suicide Squad: From the Ashes by John Ostrander & Javier Pina. Sometimes you can go home again. I loved Ostrander's Suicide Squad when it ran in the late-80's to the early 90's, and this collection of the new mini-series is just as good as the original. Now if only DC would collect the old comics.
     
379. Edgar Allan Poe's Haunt of Horror by Richard Corben & Rich Margopoulos. Adaptations of several of Poe's poems & a couple of his stories. (Library.)
     
380. DMZ, vol. 5: The Hidden War by Brian Wood, Riccardo Burchielli, et al. The latest collection in this excellent series.
     
381. Superman: Last Son by Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, & Adam Kubert. (Library.)
     
382. The Complete Copybook Tales by J. Torres & Jim Levins. Pretty good semi-autobiographical stories. My biggest complaint is that early in the book, Torres overdoes it with 80's pop culture references.

You didn't think I'd actually post last Monday, did you?

Yeah, I'm lazy. And since it's late I'm just going to post about books rather than cover movies or video games.

366. Journey, The Adventures of Wolverine MacAlistaire, vol. 1 by William Messner-Loebs. One of the great comics of the 80's is back finally back in print. Set in 1810 or thenabouts, this is the story of a frontiersman in the Northwest Territories. Adventure, frontier life, & the occasional fantastic element. Great stuff, with humor & wit. I especially like Jemmy Acorn.
     
367. Skyscrapers of the Midwest by Joshua Cotter. This is well done, but I'm just not the audience for this comic, which has a young person's cynicism that's best summed up as "Life sucks. Ha ha, just kidding. No, seriously, it sucks." (Checked out of the library.)
     
368. John Constantine, Hellblazer: The Fear Machine by Jaime Delano, et al. DC/Vertigo is finally collecting more of Delano's run on this title. It's not quite as good as I remember it being, but I think part of that is due to some atrocious coloring. Seriously, the color art is often just plain ugly.
     
369. Dave Stewart's Walk In by Jeff Parker & Ashish Padlekar. I don't know how much Stewart (of the Eurythmics) actually contributed to this, but I've enjoyed Parker's other comics, and this didn't disappoint. Not great, but entertaining enough.
     
370. Marvel Adventures Iron Man, vol. 3: Hero by Design by Fred Van Lente, Graham Nolan, & Scott Koblish. I say this a lot about the Marvel Adventures books, but these are seriously some fun comics. These are the kinds of superhero comics that I remember reading when I was a kid, the kind that got me hooked on comics. Optimistic, entertaining, fun.
     
371. Fantastic Four Visionaries: Walter Simonson, vol. 2. I shouldn't begrudge Marvel for trying to make money, but this collection only contains 5 issues, and one of them is a fill-in that only contains a couple of pages by the guy whose name is on the cover, the guy whose reputation is the whole reason for this particular series of reprints.
     
372. The Sandman Presents The Dead Boy Detectives in The Secret of Immortality by Ed Brubaker & Bryan Talbot. That's quite a mouthful of a title.
     
373. The Foundation by John Rozum & Chee. Pretty good thriller. I've enjoyed Rozum's work in the past, and am glad to see him working in comics again.
     
374. Showcase Presents Batman & the Outsiders, vol. 1 by Mike W. Barr & Jim Aparo. Not great, by any means, but entertaining enough. I love the "Showcase Presents" and "Essentials" series from DC & Marvel, respectively. Cheap comics reprints are always welcome.

Labor Day Weekend

Unlike most three-day weekends, I am going to update on Sunday, rather than putting it off until Monday.

359. Beg the Question by Bob Fingerman. Semi-autobiographical comics. This didn't click with me as much as it did the first time I read it.
     
360. Little Nothings: The Curse of the Umbrella by Lewis Trondheim. Slices of Trondheim's life. Quite amusing. (Checked out of the library.)
     
361. Jhegaala by Steven Brust. The latest of Brust's Vlad Taltos novels. This one recounts what happened to Vlad when he went east for a while. Good, as always. (Borrowed from Teena.)
     
362. Uncanny X-Men: The Extremists by Ed Brubaker & Salvador Larroca. (Checked out of the library.)
     
363. Batman: Death & the City by Paul Dini, Don Kramer, et al. (Library.)
     
364. Nat Turner by Kyle Baker. Baker's account of the slave 1831 slave revolt that Turner led is nearly silent, but gripping, nonetheless.
     
365. The Middleman, vol. 1: The Trade Paperback Imperative by Javier Grillo-Marxuach & Les McClaine. I've been enjoying the Middleman TV series (even if I did come to it fairly late), so I thought I'd check out the comics. I was not disappointed. Just as silly & action-packed as on TV. (Library.)

Well, if I don't get too lazy tomorrow, I may post about movies & videogames.

Who Would Direct the Movie of My Life?

Your result for The Director Who Films Your Life Test...

Edward D. Wood, Jr.

Ed Wood will get your film done waaaaay under budget, and will likely make it into a classic film of all time -- for all the wrong reasons. Let's face it, your life isn't terribly exciting to begin with, and it needs some camping up. His resume includes classics such as Plan Nine From Outer Space and Glen or Glenda? He's not afraid to tackle controversial topics, and may insist on portraying a transvestite in your film -- even if you've never seen a transvestite before. He was immortalized in the Academy Award winning Tim Burton film, Ed Wood -- go see it.

Take The Director Who Films Your Life Test at HelloQuizzy

Woo-Hoo! Wooden "acting", stock footage, and plot holes you could drive the Death Star through. Sounds perfect.

Sports, Sports, Sports

Watching the Olympics. No update today.

edited to add:

Or, thanks to a lack of interest in water-polo, we might catch up with all the Olympics we had on the DVR, and I might find myself with a couple of hours before the Olympics return.

327. Army@Love, vol. 1: The Hot Zone Club by Rick Veitch. Throw war & romance comics in the blender & add a heaping handful of satire, and you end up with this. Offensive on any number of levels, but funny & smart. This is one of the best things Veitch has done.
     
328. Army@Love, vol. 2: Generation Pwned by Rick Veitch. Rounding out the first 12 issues of the comic.
     
329. 100 Bullets, vol. 7: Samurai by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso. I am completely hooked on this series. (Borrowed from Alex.)
     
330. Batman & Son by Grant Morrison & Andy Kubert. This felt to me a little disjointed, like Morrison wasn't really trying all that hard. Pretty good, but not great.
     
331. 100 Bullets, vol. 8: The Hard Way by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso. (Borrowed from Alex.)
     
332. Coraline by Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell. I bought this story as a prose novel when it came out. I also got the audio book read by Gaiman. Now I've got the graphic novel adaptation. I will definitely see the movie when it comes out, and there's a decent chance I'll get the DVD when that becomes available. That's a lot of different media for one story.
     
333. She-Hulk, vol. 5: Planet without a Hulk by Dan Slott & Rich Burchett. (Checked out of the library.)
     
334. 100 Bullets, vol. 9: Strychnine Lives by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso. (Borrowed from Alex.)
     
335. Yam: Bite-Size Chunks by Corey Barba. Cute, silent comics. (Borrowed from Teena's classroom.)
     
336. Angel: After the Fall, vol. 1 by Bryan Lynch, Joss Whedon, & Franco Urru. AKA Angel, Season 6. The story is okay, but I can't say I like the art. Very muddy in places & not the best story-telling.
     
337. 100 Bullets, vol. 10: Decayed by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso. Some of these volume titles are really clever. (Borrowed from Alex.)
     
338. Doctor Who Classics, vol. 1 by Pat Mills, John Wagner, & Dave Gibbons. 30-year-old Doctor Who comics.
     
339. The Brave and the Bold, vol. 1: The Lords of Luck by Mark Waid & George Perez. Beautifully-drawn & entertainingly-written team-up book. (Library.)
     
340. Too Cool to Be Forgotten by Alex Robinson. Pretty good.
     
341. Criminal, vol. 3: The Dead and the Dying by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips. Three connected stories set in the early 70s. This noir comic is simply amazing.
     
342. Spy vs. Spy: The Complete Casebook by Antonio Prohias. This brought back memories of reading Mad when I was a kid.
     
343. The New York Four by Brian Wood & Ryan Kelly. Pretty good, but clearly intended as the first of a series.
     
344. Shirley by Kaoru Mori. Manga about a maid in a Victorian household.
     
345. Read Responsibly by Bill Barnes & Gene Ambaum. Comic strips about a public library. (Library.)
     
346. 100 Bullets, vol. 11: Once Upon a Crime by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso. (Borrowed from Alex.)
     
347. Jack Kirby's O.M.A.C.: One Man Army Corps. Kirby's use of language in his comics may have been (shall we say) awkward, but man he could put together a story. No wonder so many superhero comic artists emulate him.
     
348. Scalped, vol. 2: Casino Boogie by Jason Aaron & R.M. Guera. (Library.)
     
349. Monster, vol. 15: The Door to Memories by Naoki Urasawa. (Library.)
     
350. The Four Immigrants Manga: A Japanese Experience in San Francisco, 1904-1924 by Henry (Yoshitaka) Kiyama. This does a much better job of explaining this book than I could. In fact, that journal entry was why I decided to try this book, and I'm glad I did. (Library.)
     
351. PS238: The Role-Playing Game by Steven S. Long & Aaron Williams. I guess the game mechanics presented in this book are a simplified version of the HERO System. If that's the case, keep the full HERO System well away from me.
     
352. The Adventures of Little Archie, vol. 2 by Dexter Taylor & Bob Bolling. This is a thin book, with around eight stories. I have vague recollections of reading over half of them when I was a kid. Either there are fewer Little Archie stories than I thought or I read a hell of a lot of them. (Library.)
     
353. Zot!: The Complete Black & White Collection by Scott McCloud. I was a big fan of Zot! when it was first published, and I was always disappointed that the last few issues, the best of the run, were never collected. That has been rectified in this hefty tome. There's some great work here, especially the character studies in the latter issues. Read this. Do it.
     
354. The New Fantastic Four by Dwayne McDuffie & Paul Pelletier. (Library.)
     
355. Fantastic Four: The Beginning of the End by Dwayne McDuffie, Paul Pelletier, Karl Kesel, & Tom Grummet. (Library.)
     
356. Ug: Boy Genius of the Stone Age by Raymond Briggs. Kids book comics format. (Library.)
     
357. The Compleat John Byrne's Next Men, vol. 1. Next Men is probably Byrne's last really good work. It's nice to have inexpensive reprints of this comic.
     
358. Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes by Geoff Johns & Gary Frank. I really liked this, although the art tended to make everybody look rather crazed. (Library.)

And that catches me up.

Heat & Athletics

It may be 10 degrees cooler than yesterday, but it's still too damned hot to spend a lot of time in front of the computer today. So no update. Instead, I'll be watching the Olympics.

Catching Up

312. Death, Jr. by Gary Whitta & Ted Naifeh. Not too bad.
     
313. The Incredible Hercules: Against the World by Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, Khoi Pham, et al. I've been hearing good stuff about "The Incredible Hercules", and this volume supports what I've been hearing. (Checked out of the library.)
     
314. Judenhass by Dave Sim.
     
315. PvP, vol. 5: PvP Treks On by Scott Kurtz. (Library.)
     
316. Planet of the Capes by Larry Young & Brandon McKinney.
     
317. Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four, vol. 9: New York's Finest by Paul Tobin, David Hahn, & David Nakayama. More fun comics aimed at kids.
     
318. Cowa! by Akira Toriyama. Cute manga about the adventures of a boy monster who is half-vampire & half-werekoala.
     
319. Counter X, vol. 1 by Warren Ellis, Ian Edginton, Whilce Portacio, et al. There's some good writing here, with some interesting ideas, but the art is remarkably ugly, and the storytelling leaves a LOT to be desired. Also, this seems to be from the period when it was editorial policy to make the various X-titles inaccessible to new readers.
     
320. Usagi Yojimbo, vol. 22: Tomoe's Story by Stan Sakai. The latest volume in this excellent series.
     
321. Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil by Jeff Smith. Finally! A good updating of Captain Marvel, one that understands the original comics. (Library.)
     
322. 100 Bullets, vol. 6: Six Feet Under the Gun by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso. (Library.)
     
323. Magic Trixie by Jill Thompson. This is definitely a children's book, but it is enjoyable by adults as well. Beautiful artwork (as always) from Thompson, and a cute story about a Trixie's jealousy of the attention her baby sister receives.
     
324. The Order, vol. 2: California Dreaming by Matt Fraction & Barry Kitson, with Javier Saltares.
     
325. Girl Genius, book 7: Agatha Heterodyne and the Voice of the Castle by Kaja & Phil Foglio. I'm still loving this series.
     
326. Fallen Angel, vol. 5: Red Horse Riding by Peter David & J.K. Woodward. A bunch of story threads that have been building come to a head in this volume.

And with that, I am caught up with books. If I feel like it, after dinner I may post about movies that I've seen recently and/or the video games I've been playing. (But don't count on it.)

Still Catching Up

I go back to work tomorrow. (What was I thinking? Why didn't I just take six days off?) So I should take advantage of the extra time I have right now to update some more.

287. Freddie & Me: A Coming of Age (Bohemian) Rhapsody by Mike Dawson. I can't say this excited me. There just didn't seem to be much of a point to the story. There's more to autobiography than just recounting stuff that happened to you. (Checked out of the library.)
     
288. Welcome to Tranquility, vol. 2 by Gail Simone & Neil Googe. (Library.)
     
289. Conan, vol. 1: The Frost Giant's Daughter and Other Stories by Kurt Busiek & Cary Nord.
     
290. Superman: Escape from Bizarro World by Richard Donner, Geoff Johns, & Eric Powell. A pretty good story, padded out with older Bizarro stories so they could justify putting it out in hardback and charging $25. (Library.)
     
291. Kimmie66 by Aaron Alexovich.
     
292. True Story, Swear to God Archives, vol. 1 by Tom Beland. I recently discovered Beland's blog and learned that TSStG sells around 1,300 copies at best. Which just amazed me. This is a wonderful, wonderful comic; full of heart and with some great cartooning. I guess I shouldn't be surprised; the comics market isn't exactly overflowing with customers looking for true-life romance stories. And that's a shame. This comic is fantastic and deserves a much, much bigger audience.
     
293. The Question: The Five Books of Blood by Greg Rucka, et al. I'd feel better about this comic if there were any indication DC might be publishing a follow-up.
     
294. Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War by Geoff Johns, Dave Gibbons, et al. (Library.)
     
295. The Helmet of Fate by various. (Library.)
     
296. Punisher War Journal, vol. 2: Goin' Out West by Matt Fraction & Ariel Olivetti. (Library.)
     
297. Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan. (Library.)
     
298. A Gentleman's Game: A Queen & Country Novel by Greg Rucka. I hate book blurbs. "She's a spy who plays by only one rule: her own." Please. The blurbs on this novel make it sound like a James Bond-like story, instead of a reasonably realistic spy story that takes into account the political and psychological tolls of wetwork.
     
299. Queen & Country, vol. 8: Operation: Red Panda by Greg Rucka & Chris Samnee. And here's the fallout from A Gentleman's Game.
     
300. 100 Bullets, vol. 5: The Counterfifth Detective by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso. Some of the subtitles to this series don't make a lot of sense. What does "counterfifth" mean, anyway? Working the volume number into the subtitle is clever, when it makes sense. (Library.)
     
301. The Nocturnals: Carnival of Beasts by Dan Brereton, et al.
     
302. She-Hulk, vol. 4: Laws of Attraction by Dan Slott, et al. (Library.)
     
303. Hellboy, vol. 8: Darkness Calls by Mike Mignola & Duncan Fegredo. I really liked this volume. In it, Hellboy deals with the consequences of some of the choices he has made, including his refusal to accept the role of Beast of the Apocalypse (or Antichrist; I forget which he's supposed to be, possibly both). The art is fantastic, even if it feels weird saying that about a Hellboy story not drawn by Mignola.
     
304. Hikaru no Go, vol. 12: The Shinshodan Series by Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata.
     
305. Justice League of America, vol. 3: The Injustice League by Dwayne McDuffie, et al. (Library.)
     
306. Star Wars Legacy, vol. 3: Claws of the Dragon by John Ostrander & Jan Duursema. Ostrander is so much better than Lucas at depicting someone on the edge of falling to the dark side.
     
307. Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War, vol. 2 by various.
     
308. Manga Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet adapted by Richard Appignanesi & Sonia Leong. Maybe it's because I'm less familiar with Romeo & Juliet than I am with Hamlet, but this annoyed me less than the other Manga Shakespeare volume I read. I am still glad I bought it cheap on sale, though.
     
309. Green Lantern: Tales of the Sinestro Corps by various. (Library.)
     
310. Postage Stamp Funnies by Shannon Wheeler. This could have done with fewer poop jokes, but is otherwise pretty funny.
     
311. Pendragon Graphic Novel, bk. 1: The Merchant of Death by D.J. McHale & Carla Speed McNeil. I am completely unfamiliar with the Pendragon series of young adult novels, but I love Carla Speed McNeil's work, so I picked this up. It was a good choice. I doubt I'll be reading the originals, but if she adapts any more of the books, I'll definitely be getting them.

Well, that takes me up to where I would have been if I'd updated on Sunday, so I think that's enough for now.

Back at Last

Given that I'm 3 weeks behind, I'm not going to get caught up today. But I'm on vacation through Thursday, so I'll have a chance to update later in the week. (Just don't count on it.)

273. X-Factor Visionaries: Peter David, vol. 4 by Peter David, Jae Lee, Joe Quesada, et al. Comics in the 90s were remarkably ugly. And X-Men crossovers were impenetrable (not that they're much more comprehensible now).
     
274. Showcase Presents Superman Family, vol. 2 by various. More Silver Age wackiness.
     
275. Bleach, vol. 23: !Mala Suerte! by Tite Kubo. (That first exclamation point should be upside down, but I don't know how to do that.)
     
276. The American Way by John Ridley & Georges Jeanty. Superhero story set in the 60s and dealing with actual issues of the day. Most swear words in this comic were represented by symbols like: @#$%, so it came as a surprise when the n-word appeared in full. It was used in a context-appropriate way, but it was still a shock. (Checked out of the library.)
     
277. Penny Arcade, vol. 5: The Case of the Mummy's Gold by Jerry Holkins & Mike Krahulik. More comics about video games. (Borrowed from Teena.)
     
278. Jack of Fables, vol. 3: The Bad Prince by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, et al. More adventures, and some hints as to what's going on.
     
279. Dogs and Water by Anders Nilsen. (Library.)
     
280. The Death of Captain America, vol. 1: The Death of the Dream by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, & Mike Perkins. I feel I should have something to say about this, but I don't. Of course, the story's not over. Maybe then.
     
281. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, vol. 2: No Future for You by Brian K. Vaughan & Georges Jeanty. I like the idea of doing the "eighth season" as a series of story-arcs rather than trying to fit an "episode" into each issue.
     
282. The Museum Vaults: Excerpts from the Journal of an Expert by Marc-Antoine Mathieu. (Library.)
     
283. 100 Bullets, vol. 4: A Forgone Tomorrow by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso. Still enjoying this. (Library.)
     
284. From the Desk of Warren Ellis, vol. 2: 1998-1999. More discussion of comics.
     
285. The Discworld Graphic Novels: The Colour of Magic & The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett, Scott Rockwell, & Steven Ross. The early Discworld books aren't the best of the bunch, not by a long shot. These two books in particular are parodies of fantasy novels, rather than the commentary on society that the later books will be. Still, they can be funny.
     
286. Take Our Cat, Please by Darby Conley. Another Get Fuzzy collection.

That's enough for now. More later in the week (I hope).

This Is Getting to Be a Habit

Kinda muggy today, and I spent a lot of time playing Paper Mario this afternoon. So no update again this week.

Excuses, Excuses

It's not as hot as last week, but I've got a headache that just won't go away. Maybe later in the week. (But don't count on it.)

Too Darn Hot

It is much too warm today to spend any length of time in front of this computer. So no update this week.

Lots of Re-reading

262. Y: The Last Man, vol. 3: One Small Step by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, & Paul Chadwick.
     
263. Y: The Last Man, vol. 4: Safeword by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, & Goran Parlov.
     
264. Y: The Last Man, vol. 5: Ring of Truth by Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra.
     
265. Y: The Last Man, vol. 6: Girl on Girl by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, & Goran Sudzuka.
     
266. Y: The Last Man, vol. 7: Paper Dolls by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, & Goran Sudzuka.
     
267. Y: The Last Man, vol. 8: Kimono Dragons by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, & Goran Sudzuka.
     
268. Y: The Last Man, vol. 9: Motherland by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, & Goran Sudzuka. One of the things I hadn't caught when I read these books the first time around, but I caught on this re-reading, is that time passes for the characters at approximately the same rate that it did for people reading the individual issues. For instance, around issue 12, the characters were saying that it had been about a year since the plague that killed all the men, and towards the end of the series (issue 60), they said that it had been nearly five years. That's a nice touch.
     
269. Y: The Last Man, vol. 10: Whys & Wherefores by Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra. A good, solid ending to the series. One that I think is very satisfying. Re-reading the entire series before tackling the final volume was a good idea; there were lots of details I had forgotten.
     
270. Legion of Super-Heroes: 1050 Years of the Future by various. A nice sampling of LSH stories from the 50 years of their publishing history.
     
271. Lobster Johnson, vol. 1: The Iron Prometheus by Mike Mignola & Jason Armstrong. Another Hellboy spin-off. Two-fisted pulp action.
     
272. Fables, vol. 10: The Good Prince by Bill Willingham & Mark Buckingham, with Aaron Alexovich. Another great volume in this series.

Hot & Muggy

Some ugly weather today. Didn't do a damn thing except lounge around the house.

249. The Mighty Avengers, vol. 1: The Ultron Initiative by Brian Michael Bendis and Frank Cho. While reading this, I couldn't decide whether Bendis was playing a joke on the people who complain about him not using thought balloons, or if he just doesn't get how to use them well. (Checked out of the library.)
     
250. Japan Ai: A Tall Girl's Adventures in Japan by Aimee Major Steinberger. We need more comics travel writing. (Library.)
     
251. The Punisher, vol. 9: Long Cold Dark by Garth Ennis, Goran Parlov, & Howard Chaykin. Brutal. (Library.)
     
252. Midnight Sun by Ben Towle. Fictionalized account of a mission to rescue the survivors of a 1928 attempt to reach the North Pole via airship. (Library.)
     
253. She-Hulk, vol. 3: Time Trials by Dan Slott, Juan Bobillo, & Scott Kolins. (Library.)
     
254. Wisdom: Rudiments of Wisdom by Paul Cornell, Trevor Hairsine, & Manuel Garcia. This was okay, but it didn't really gel for me. I didn't get much of a sense of who the main character was. I think part of the problem is that the writer assumed the reader already had that information. (Library.)
     
255. Emily the Strange by "Cosmic Debris." Feh. (Library.)
     
256. Micrographica by Renee French. Odd & disturbing, like most of French's work. (Library.)
     
257. MPD Psycho, vol. 2 bu Eiji Otsuka & Sho-u Tajima. More Japanese horror manga. (Library.)
     
258. Life Sucks by Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria, & Warren Pleece. When I was part-way through this book, I thought my review would consist of three words: Clerks with vampires. But as I read more, I realized there was more to it than that. Not a hell of a lot more, but more. (Library.)
     
259. The Starman Omnibus, vol. 1 by James Robinson & Tony Harris. Even though I own all the trade paperbacks collecting Starman, I am thrilled DC is publishing this series. Quite a few issues never got collected, plus there were text pieces, fragments from the Shade's journal, that appeared occasionally in the comic's letter page, and those pieces didn't show up in the trade paperbacks. And there's the Shade mini-series, and a few short pieces from here & there. It'll be wonderful to have the whole series & all the extra collected in six nice hardbacks. I'm looking forward to the next volume.
     
260. Y: The Last Man, vol. 1: Unmanned by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra.
     
261. Y: The Last Man, vol. 2: Cycles by Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra. The online dealer where I get most of my graphic novels tells me that volume ten of this series is on its way, and so I'm rereading the whole series before I get to the final volume.

Light Week

245. 100 Bullets, vol. 1: First Shot, Last Call by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso. (Checked out of the library.)
     
246. 100 Bullets, vol. 2: Split Second Chance by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso. (Library.)
     
247. 100 Bullets, vol. 3: Hang Up on the Hang Low by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso. The first time I tried to read this series, I ended up getting it from the library out of sequence, so it didn't make a lot of sense (even though each story is largely self-contained, there is an ongoing story arc that builds). This time I'm making sure to read everything in order. I like it, but I'm having some difficulty reconciling the noir-ish, gritty individual stories with Agent Graves seeming omniscience and the conspiracy-theory type plot that appears to be building in the background. (Library.)
     
248. Hellspark by Janet Kagan. Teena recommended this to me quite a while ago. It's her favorite book. I kept putting off reading it. No particular reason. Well, I might have been worried that I wouldn't like it. But the was no cause for concern. I will never love it as much as Teena does, but I really enjoyed this novel about different cultures and trying to establish communication with a species that may or may not be sentient. (Borrowed from Teena.)

Frustration

So we got ourselves a wi-fi hub so we would be able to download songs for Rock Band, but the online Sony store is incredibly picky about credit cards, and it keeps telling us our card aren't valid. Plus, the security settings on the hub are apparently incompatible with our Nintendo DSs. Thank goodness the online Wii stuff works.

Anyway, on to books:

233. Zoot Suite by Andrew & Roger Langridge.
     
234. Sidescrollers by Matthew Loux. (Checked out of the library.)
     
235. JLA Presents: Aztek - The Ultimate Man by Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, & N. Steven Harris. Pretty good, but the artist wasn't that great with story-telling. Sometimes it was hard to tell what was going on or just who was in a particular scene.
     
236. Nothing Better, vol. 1: No Place Like Home by Tyler Page. I quite liked this comic about a pair of college roommates. (Library.)
     
237. Little White Mouse Perfect Collection, no. 1 by Paul Sizer. This is an enjoyable science fiction comic about a young woman stranded on a mining satellite. I'm not sure there are any more "Perfect Collections", but it looks like there is a collection that has the entire series. I'll need to look for that.
     
238. Rocketo: Journey to the Hidden Sea, vol. 2 by Frank Espinosa & Marie Taylor. Gorgeous art, and a great, pulpy adventure story. I really liked this. (Library.)
     
239. Iron Man & Power Pack: Armored & Dangerous by Marc Sumerak & Marcel Dichiara. Yet another book bought to pass on to Teena's classroom library.
     
240. Monster, vol. 14: That Night by Naoki Urasawa. (Library.)
     
241. The Question, vol. 2: Poisoned Ground by Dennis O'Neil & Denys Cowan. These comics aren't quite as cool as I remember them being from when I read them in the 80s, but they're still pretty damn good.
     
242. MPD Psycho, vol. 1 by Eiji Otsuka & Sho-u Tajima. Another horror manga. (Library.)
     
243. Atomic City Tales, vol. 2: Doc Phantom by Jay Stephens.
     
244. Superman: The World of Krypton by John Byrne, Mike Mignola, Rick Bryant, et al.

Two Posts in Two Days!

224. Showcase Presents Booster Gold by Dan Jurgens. I'd love to see more cheap reprints of 80s comics from DC. This is pretty good, but I have to say that the depiction of a mercenary super hero seems pretty tame compared to later works in the same vein, such as Milligan & Allred's X-Force.
     
225. The Drifting Classroom, v.11 by Kazuo Umezu. The final volume of this series. The ending is just as weird & messed up as the rest of the series. (Checked out of the library.)
     
226. The Thing: Idol of Millions by Dan Slott, Andrea Divito, & Kieron Dwyer. (Library.)
     
227. Hikaru no Go, vol. 11: A Fierce Battle by Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata. I've said this before, but I never thought I'd enjoy a comic series about a board game.
     
228. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus vol. 2 by various.
     
229. Heartburst and Other Pleasures by Rick Veitch. It's nice that Veitch is putting his early works back into print.
     
230. Johnny Boo: The Best Little Ghost in the World by James Kochalka. Adorably sweet story aimed at kids. (Borrowed from Teena's classroom.)
     
231. Checkmate: Fall of the Wall by Greg Rucka, et al. Espionage & superheroes.
     
232. Hulk Visionaries: John Byrne. Gee, I wonder if the reason Marvel decided to release this has anything to do with an upcoming movie.

Long Overdue Movie Post

It's been more than four months since I listed the movies & DVDs I've watched. Past time I did something about that.

• The West Wing - The Complete Second Season. I have heard the complaint that people don't actually talk the way that the characters in an Aaron Sorkin show do. My response to that is, "So what?"
  
• The Office - Season Two. I wish we'd discovered this show earlier.
  
• Persepolis. I think this works better as a movie than it does as a graphic novel, but in any case, this is a powerful story.
  
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: Secret Agent Double Dragon.
  
• The Bat.
  
• Invasion of the Bee Girls. Steve bought a set of 100 horror movies on DVD and had a bunch of us over to watch a couple of them. The Bat was surprisingly good. We joked all through it at the absurdities, but in the end it is a well-told story. Invasion of the Bee Girls was just cheesy 70s sexploitation.
  
• All That Jazz.
  
• Avatar: The Last Airbender, Book 1: Water, vol. 2.
  
• No Country for Old Men. The Coen brothers are back in form.
  
• MST3K: The Rebel Set.
  
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The movie. Pretty cheesy.
  
• Avatar: The Last Airbender, Book 1: Water, vol. 3.
  
• The Office - Season Three.
  
• It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Nearly every comedian working in Hollywood in the early 60s appears in this movie. The ending doesn't really work, but the ride there is a lot of fun.
  
• Avatar: The Last Airbender, Book 1: Water, vol. 4.
  
• MST3K: The Giant Gila Monster.
  
• Enchanted. Better than I expected.
  
• Avatar: The Last Airbender, Book 1: Water, vol. 5. The last volume of the first season. We need to start getting season two from the library one of these days.
  
• Juno. We both liked this quite a bit, and I really liked the soundtrack, especially the cover of "Sea of Love."
  
• MST3K: Parts: The Clonus Horror. I am terribly amused by the fact that the producers of this movie successfully sued the producers of The Island for stealing the plot of their film.
  
• MST3K: Eegah. Watch out for snakes!
  
• Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation. When Raiders first came out, three twelve year old kids loved it and decided to recreate the film. It took them seven years, but they did it. This was a blast to watch, to see the creative solutions they came up with (substituting a motor boat for a bi-plane, replacing the monkey with a dog). If you love the original and get a chance to see this, I highly recommend that you do so.
  
• Shortbus. This was...interesting. John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) made a movie featuring explicit sex that is not pornography. The thing is, I don't think the sex was absolutely necessary to the film. But the plot was created through improv workshops with the actors, who knew what they were getting into. So the sex isn't gratuitous, but I'm not sure it was essential.
  
• Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
  
• Twin Peaks. Man, this show was good, but it really did lose it in the second season.
  
• Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. Not much in the way of answers here.
  
• The Film Crew: Wild Women of Wongo. This is a film that deserves MST3K-like treatment. It is supposedly about two tribes of people: one with good looking women & ugly men and another with good looking men and ugly women. These tribes have no contact with each other until a tribe of bestial ape men begin invading. The trouble is, it's not really possible to tell which tribe a person belongs to (including the ape men) by looking at them. With a couple of exceptions, everybody looks pretty normal.
  
• Dark Water. Another American remake of a Japanese horror movie. I saw most of the original on cable a while back, and it was better than this version. Much creepier.
  
• Topper. Cary Grant as a ghost.
  
• Modern Times.
  
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie. Much as I love MST3K, I have to admit that this doesn't work all that well, possibly because the movie they make fun of, This Island Earth, is actually pretty good.

Whew, that's quite a list. I really should do movie posts more frequently.