I'm Back

59. My War With Brian by Ted Rall. Rall recounts his high school experience.
    
60. The Drifting Classroom, vol. 9 by Kazuo Umezu. (Checked out of the library.)
    
61. Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four, vol. 7: Silver Surfer Fred Van Lente & Cory Hamscher. More kids' comics that are more enjoyable than most of what Marvel is producing nowadays.
    
62. Hikaru No Go, vol. 7: The Young Lions Tournament by Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata. More manga about Go.
    
63. Essengial Man-Thing, vol. 1 by Steve Gerber, Val Mayerik, Mike Ploog, et al. I knew, when I heard that Steve Gerber had died, that it was time to read this collection of one of his signature characters.
    
64. The Marquis: Intermezzo by Guy Davis.
    
65. Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy by Matthew Reinhart. Teena found a very good deal on this & got it for me as a gift. It's very cool, with amazingly elaborate pop-ups.
    
66. Tales from the Crypt #2: Can You Fear Me Now? by various. A not very good attempt to recreate the formula & feel of EC's horror comics. (Library.)
    
67. Amulet, book 1: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi. This is aimed at kids, but it's quite good, and I'm looking forward to the next volume (whenever that may come). (Borrowed from Teena.)
    
68. The Iron Wagon by Jason. A comics adaptation of a Scandinavian mystery novel that has never been translated into English. (Library.)
    
69. Dragon Head, vol. 9 by Minetaro Mochizuki. This horror series is heading to its climax. (Library.)
    
70. Yotsuba & !, vol. 4 by Kiyohiko Azuma. More cuteness. (Library.)
    
71. Batman: False Faces by Brian K. Vaughan, et al. A collection of Vaughan's early work for DC. Some of it's pretty good, and some of it isn't.
    
72. Fantastic Four: Books of Doom by Ed Brubaker & Pablo Raimondi. Back in late 2006, when I checked the hardback edition out of the library, I had completely forgotten that I had ordered the paperback edition from my comic shop, so I was quite surprised when it showed up a week or two after I read the library book. That's why I sat on this book for over a year before reading it.
    
73. Fantastic Four: The End by Alan Davis.
    
74. Doom Patrol, vol. 6: Planet Love by Grant Morrison, Richard Case, Stan Woch, et al. Less wild & more of a downer than the previous volumes, this is still a great comic and a good conclusion to Morrison's run on Doom Patrol. I just wish the Flex Mentallo mini-series had been included, since it seems unlikely it will ever get its own collection.
    
75. Superman: The Amazing Transformations of Jimmy Olsen by various. Silver Age stories about Jimmy Olson being changed into various weird forms, including a wolfman, a genie, and a giant turtle man. If this quote: "Great Scott! Why is Jimmy stuffing that volcano crater with a battleship? What on Earth is his huge, twisted turtle-mind up to?" does not make you want to read this book, nothing I could possibly say here would change your mind.
    
76. Will and Abe's Guide to the Universe by Matt, Will, and Abe Groening. I no longer read it regularly, but Groening's "Life in Hell" comic strip hasn't been all that good since The Simpsons began. Except for the strips where he documents things his sons have said. This collection contains nothing but those strips, and it's fantastic.

A Longer Delay

I'm lazy.

A Slight Delay

Since I don't have to be at work Monday, there will be a slight delay in the update this week. See you tomorrow.

Late in the day update

48. Knights of the Dinner Table Bundle of Trouble, vol. 12 by Jolly Blackburn, et al.
    
49. The Marquis: Danse Macabre by Guy Davis. Set in an alternate 18th century, this is the story of a man who can sense demons. But when he hunts them down, is he doing God's work, or is he simply mad? Or is there something more sinister going on?
    
50. Emma, vol. 2 by Kaoru Mori. Romance manga about a Victorian maid and a gentleman. (Checked out of the library.)
    
51. Tales of the New Gods by various. Short stories by various creators, using Jack Kirby's Fourth World characters.
    
52. Hulk Visionaries: Peter David, vol. 5 by Peter David, Dale Keown, Jeff Purves, et al. This series of reprints has finally gotten to the part of David's run on the Hulk where the art matches the writing. There's some excellent stuff here, and there's more to come in future volumes.
    
53. Monster, vol. 12: The Rose Mansion by Naoki Urasawa. The hunt for the serial killer continues. (Library.)
    
54. Manhunter, vol. 4: Unleashed by Marc Andreyko, Javier Pina, et al. Until this excellent series returns from hiatus, this will be the last we see of it. Which is a shame, because it's great.
    
55. Fight for Tomorrow by Brian Wood & Denys Cowan. Emo martial arts.
    
56. Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow by James Sturm & Rich Tommaso. This book gives the impression that it's a biography of Paige, but it's actually about the life of a sharecropper in the early half of the 20th century. It's still an excellent book.
    
57. The Punisher Presents: Barracuda by Garth Ennis & Goran Parlov. Completely over-the-top. (Library.)
    
58. Showcase Presents: Green Lantern, vol. 2 by Gardner Fox, John Broome, & Gil Kane. I started this quite a while back, but just finished it today. I love Kane's artwork, but there's only so much Silver Age writing I can take at once.

And Now Back to Books

42. John Constantine, Hellblazer: Bloodlines by Garth Ennis, Will Simpson, et al. Most (all?) of the last uncollected issues from Ennis's run on this title.
    
43. Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis. Ellis's first novel. I quite liked this. It felt somewhat reminiscent of The Illumintus! Trilogy, but with the weirdness level turned down to only slightly beyond what is beyond the realm of possibility.
    
44. Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne, vol. 7 by John Byrne, et al. Closing in on the end of Byrne's run on the FF.
    
45. Parasyte, vol. 1 by Hitoshi Iwaki. Japanese horror, with a touch of humor. (Checked out of the library.)
    
46. Monster Month: Thirty-one New Discoveries from the World's Foremost Cryptozoologist by Prof. Ichbonnsen, with illustrations by Sven Bonnichsen. Last Thursday, Teena & I went to the book release party for this tome. We had a lot of fun and picked up a copy of the book, which I quite enjoyed. Lots of daring-do & fascinating creatures.
    
47. I'm Ready for My Movie Contract by Darby Conley. The latest Get Fuzzy collection.

Well, that didn't take too long, so I guess I'll finish catching up on movies.

• The Film Crew: The Giant of Marathon. A Steve Reeves movie where he doesn't play Hercules. This is what 300 should have been.
  
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: Mr. B's Lost Shorts. A collection of short films compiled from MST3K episodes, including one of the funniest things I've ever seen: "Mr. B Natural."
  
• MST3K: Attack of the Giant Leeches.
  
• The Office, season 1. After hearing about this series for so long, I finally broke down & checked this out of the library. We loved it. However, when we took a look at the original British version, we didn't like it nearly as much. It just seemed too mean. I guess we're just American wimps.
  
• Delicatessen. A post-apocalyptic comedy that's surprisingly light considering it deals with cannibalism.
  
• Doctor Who: City of Death. Great adventure. Tom Baker & Lalla Ward work together wonderfully, and the script has lots of funny moments. Excellent all the way around.
  
• Treasure Island. Until Michael showed this to me, I had never seen this. It's amazing to think that at one point, Disney made live-action films worth seeing.
  
• The West Wing: The Complete First Season. A damn fine show.
  
• Cinematic Titanic: The Oozing Skull. Most of the MST3K alumni who aren't involved in The Film Crew are involved in Cinematic Titanic, which is the same premise yet again: cracking jokes at bad movies. Can't say as I'm tired of it yet.
  
• Avatar The Last Airbender, Book 1: Water, vol. 1. We liked this more than we expected to. We'll be getting future volumes from the library.
  
• Short Cuts.
  
• MST3K: Teenagers from Outer Space.
  
• There Will Be Blood. Impressive all the way around. Beautifully shot, fantastic music, and an outstanding performance by Daniel Day-Lewis.

Five Months

Has it really been five months since I listed movies & DVDs? Damn. It's well past time I did something about that. Just don't expect in-depth analysis.

• Penn & Teller - Bullshit!: The Complete Third Season.
  
• The Film Crew: Killers from Space. MST3K-like commentary on an old, bad movie.
  
• Penn & Teller - Bullshit!: The Complete Fourth Season.
  
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: Ring of Terror.
  
• Final Fantasy Unlimited, v. 1. Four episodes of an anime series loosely based on the Final Fantasy video games. Weird and not very good.
  
• The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival: Shorts Block 1.
  
• Shorts Block 2.
  
• Cthulhu. Filmed in Astoria.
  
• Shorts Block 3.
  
• The Thing. I saw this at the very first HPLFF, and again at the most recent one. It is a great movie.
  
• Wishbaby.
  
• Nobody. Dark, noir-ish film involving a time-loop.
  
• The Twelve Chairs. A Mel Brooks film set in the early years of the Soviet Union.
  
• The Simpsons: The Complete Sixth Season.
  
• Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.
  
• The Maltese Falcon. Oh, what a fantastic movie.
  
• Neil Gaiman's A Short Film about John Bolton. I think the ending could have been better, but still quite good.
  
• Rope.
  
• Doctor Who: Genesis of the Daleks.
  
• The Simpsons: The Complete Eighth Season.
  
• Doctor Who: Keeper of Traken.
  
• Jeeves & Wooster: The Complete First Season. Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie in the title roles. Very funny. Delightful, except for the decision to adapt a story that involved Bertie putting on black-face.
  
• Yellow Submarine.
  
• Jeeves & Wooster: The Complete Second Season.
  
• Futurama: Bender's Big Score. Too many call-backs to the tv series, but otherwise excellent.
  
• Jeeves & Wooster: The Complete Third Season.
  
• Nobody's Fool.
  
• The Golden Compass. Visually stunning, & excellent casting, but it felt rushed. I think there is simply too much plot to cram into the movie's run time, so characterization & context got sacrificed.
  
• Jeeves & Wooster: The Complete Fourth Season. Several of the stories in this season were preposterous, even by the standards of Bertie Wooster stories.
  
• Samurai Jack, Season 4.
  
• MST3K: Santa Claus.
  
• MST3K: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
  
• Duck Soup. My favorite Marx Brothers movie.
  
• Scrooged.
  
• Love Actually. I adore this movie.
  
• X-Men: Last Stand. Simply terrible. The best thing this movie has going for it is Kelsey Grammar as Hank McCoy.
  
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Eh. I much prefer the version with Angela Lansbury.
  
• The Bourne Supremacy.
  
• The Bourne Ultimatum. We also watched the first Bourne movie while we were at Teena's parents', but I didn't pay all that close attention, so I'm not listing it here.
  
• It's a Wonderful Life. This was an amateur stage production we saw while in southern California. It was quite good; the only problem I had with it was that the director never told the actors not to mug to the audience when they didn't have lines. There were times I wanted to slap the guy playing Clarence.
  
• The Philadelphia Story. How can you not love a movie staring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and Jimmy Stewart?

Well, I'm not caught up yet, but that does take me to the end of 2007, so I think I'll stop for now.