Wrapping Up 2008

Okay, time for the last few books I read last year.

530. Afterdead 1: The Desert Peach 31, 32 & Beyond by Donna Barr. I've had this since it came out, quite a while ago, but it took me a long time to get around to reading it. Once I did, I remembered just how good Barr is. In this book, she re-envisions and merges her series, including The Desert Peach, Stinz, and Bosom Enemies. It's weird, but it works.
     
531. Afterdead 1.2: The Desert Peach Crosses Over by Donna Barr.
     
532. Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. Very funny and with interesting insights into the origin of Santa Claus (well, the Hogfather, but he's the Discworld version).
     
533. The Best American Comics 2006 by various. Picked this anthology up in a used book store. I was surprised at how many of the selections were things I had already read in their original appearances. I don't think of myself as reading many art comics.
     
534. Tall Tales by Al Jaffee. The best of a vertical comic strip done by the man who created Mad Magazine's fold-ins.
     
535. Garfield Minus Garfield by Jim Davis, with Dan Walsh. The idea of removing Garfield from Garfield is genius. It's amazing how the strips are changed without the cat.
     
536. Promethea, Book 1 by Alan Moore & J.H. Williams III.
     
537. Promethea, Book 2 by Alan Moore & J.H. Williams III.
     
538. Promethea, Book 3 by Alan Moore & J.H. Williams III.
     
539. Promethea, Book 4 by Alan Moore & J.H. Williams III.
     
540. Promethea, Book 5 by Alan Moore & J.H. Williams III. When I bought the final volume of Moore's treatise on magic disguised as a superhero comic, I decided I'd reread the first four volumes. It took me a while to get around to it. I think this comic is great, even if the superhero disguise does grow thin when Promethea takes a tour up the Tree of Life. I think this is one of Moore's best works.

540 books in 366 days.

And now to finish catching up with the movies & DVDs I watched last year.

• Avatar The Last Airbender, Book 2 Earth, vol. 4.
  
• Space Ghost Coast to Coash, vol. 4: The 1998 Episodes.
  Movies seen at the 2008 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival
  
  • Hellboy.
    
  • Shorts Block 2.
    
  • Dark Paradox.
    
  • Shorts Block 3.
    
  • Shorts Block 1.
    
  • The Dunwich Horror.
    
  • Alien Raiders. Despite a generic and uninspired title, this is the stand-out movie from the festival this year. This is a smart & well-done little horror movie. I was glad to look, when looking for the movie on Amazon, that it will be available on DVD next month.
  
  
• Kakurenbo - Hide and Seek. A creepy anime short about a group of kids playing a game.
  
• Avatar The Last Airbender, Book 3 Fire, vol. 1.
  
• Godzilla vs. Megaguirus.
  
• Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter. Amazingly, this movie is available on Blu-ray. I have absolutely no idea why.
  
• Myster Science Theater 3000: Werewolf.
  
• Avatar the Last Airbender, Book 3 Fire, vol. 2
  
• MST3K: First Spaceship on Venus.
  
• Cinematic Titanic: Legacy of Blood. Some funny jokes here, but the movie they are making fun of is so unpleasant and squicky that we won't be watching this again.
  
• Avatar the Last Airbender, Book 3 Fire, vol. 3.
  
• Wall-E. We picked the DVD up shortly after it became available. So good.
  
• Cinematic Titanic: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. We are so used to the MST3K version of this that the jokes fell rather flat.
  
• Love Actually. We just adore this movie.
  
• MST3K: Santa Claus.
  
• Thunder Road. Robert Mitchum as a moonshiner caught between the feds & the mob.
  
• The General. Buster Keaton.
  
• MST3K: Future War. Incredibly disjointed movie that had absolutely no sense of place. Some funny jokes about it, though.
  
• It's a Wonderful Life.
  
• MST3K: Laserblast. The best thing about this movie is the stop-motion animation on the aliens.
  
• MST3K: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. We decided we had to watch this version too.
  
• Sunshine. We liked this quite a bit, although it was easy to pick nits about the poorly-designed spaceship.
  
• Mad Men, Season 1. Wow. What an amazing show. This is absolutely fantastic. They do the period so well. Believe the things you've heard about this.
  
• Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Including Commentary! The Musical.