I'm a week behind, but I don't really feel like writing much today.
- 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.
- 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.)
- 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.
- Strangeways: Murder Moon by Matt Maxwell & Luis Guaragna. A mixture of wsterns & werewolves. (Library.)
- 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.
- 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.)
- 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.
- Six Feet Under: Better Living through Death edited by Alan Ball & Alan Poul. A companion book to the HBO series.
- Gimmick, vol. 2 by Youzaburou Kanari & Kuroko Yabuguchi. (Library.)
- Star Trek: New Frontier by Peter David & Stephen Thompson. David brings his series of Star Trek novels to comics.
- Northlanders, vol. 1: Sven the Returned by Brian Wood & Davide Gianfelice. Vikings!
- 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.
- Thor, vol. 1 by J. Michael Straczynski & Olivier Copiel. Meh. (Library.)
- Grendel: God and the Devil by Matt Wagner, John K. Snyder III, Jay Geldhof, et al. Another great comic from the 80s finally reprinted.
- Conan, vol. 0: Born on the Battlefield by Kurt Busiek & Greg Ruth. The story of Conan's childhood. (Library.)
- 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.
- 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.
- Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez.
- Mystique, vol. 2: Tinker, Tailor, Mutant, Spy by Brian K. Vaughan & Michael Ryan.
- Mateki: The Magic Flute by Yoshitaka Amano. Gorgeous art. (Library.)
- 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.
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