Another Week Gone

268. Beowulf, v. 1: The Monster Maker by Bill Willingham. Short fantasy novel set in the same world as Willingham's short-lived comics series, "Coventry."
     
269. Essential Luke Cage, Power Man, vol. 2 by various. Mores 70s Marvel comics. (Checked out of the library.)
     
270. The Best American Comics 2008, edited by Lynda Barry. Barry wanted to include an excerpt from Paul Pope's Batman Year 100 in this anthology, but DC wouldn't give their permission. Their loss. (Library.)
     
271. Daredevil: Lady Bullseye by Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark, & Stefano Gaudiano. I may start buying these collections again. (Library.)
     
272. The Rack: Year One (Mostly) by Kevin Church & Benjamin Birdie. Print collection of a web comic about a comic book store. It doesn't depend entirely on knowing comics (but that knowledge doesn't hurt).
     
273. Humbug, vol. 2 by Harvey Kurtzman, et al. The rest of the humor series. This volume contains annotations for the entire series, which helps explain some of the 1950s cultural references that have not survived. (Library.)
     
274. Bayou, vol. 1 by Jeremy Love. Great story and beautiful art, printed on some of the worst paper I've ever seen. (Borrowed from Teena.)
     
275. Star Wars: Vector, vol. 1 by various. (Checked out of the library.)

2 movies this week, both from RiffTrax.

• The Best of RiffTrax Shorts, vol. 1.
  
• The Best of RiffTrax Shorts, vol. 2.

Still more books

258. BPRD, vol. 10: The Warning by Mike Migola, John Arcudi, & Guy Davis. More portents of disaster to come.
     
259. Swamp Thing, vol. 8: Spontaneous Generation by Rick Veitch. I finally got around to picking up the second collection of Veitch's Swamp Thing run. Now if only they would finish reprinting it.
     
260. I Saw You...: Comics Inspired by Real-Life Missed Connections edited by Julia Wertz. Like most anthologies, a mixed bag, but there were some good stories here. (Checked out of the library.)
     
261. Justice Society, vol. 1 by Paul Levitz, Gerry Conway, Joe Staton, Keith Giffen, Wally Wood, & Ric Estrada. 1970s stories of Earth-2. (Library.)
     
262. Pluto, vol. 3 by Naoki Urasawa. Still very much impressed by this expansion & retelling of an Astro Boy story.
     
263. Punisher War Journal, vol. 5: Secret Invasion by Matt Fraction, Rick Remender, Howard Chaykin, et al. Bad fun. (Library.)
     
264. Secret Invasion: Thor by Matt Fraction & Doug Braithwaite. (Library.)
     
265. T-Minus: The Race to the Moon by Jim Ottoviani, Zander Cannon, & Kevin Cannon. The latest work of science history from Ottoviani, this time about the space race.
     
266. Rasl, vol. 1: The Drift by Jeff Smith. Very different from Bone, but I like it, and I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes. (Library.)
     
267. MySpace Dark Horse Presents, vol. 2 by various. This volume includes a Captain Hammer story. (Library.)

Just one movie this week:

• RiffTrax: Plan 9 from Outer Space. RiffTrax is a venture from some MST3K alumni. They do humorous commentaries on movies & then sell them as downloads. The purchaser then plays the commentary as they watch the movie. But recently, they've begun selling DVDs with both the movies & commentaries. Of course Teena & I had to have these. More RiffTrax movies will be showing up in the coming weeks.

Another Update

249. X-Factor: Secret Invasion by Peter David, Larry Strohman, et al. Part of Marvel's latest mega-event crossover, but still comprehensible for all that.
     
250. The Superman Chronicles, vol. 1 by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster. The first volume of a series reprinting Superman stories from the very beginning. The power fantasy elements are very apparent in these early stories. Superman gets his way by beating up people, and lots of people are afraid of him. I do like the way Superman fights for the little guy in these stories. (Checked out of the library.)
     
251. Supermarket by Brian Wood & Kristian Donaldson. (Library.)
     
252. Star Wars Legacy, vol. 5: The Hidden Temple by John Ostrander & Jan Duursema.
     
253. Showcase Presents Jonah Hex by John Albano, Michael Fleisher, Tony DeZuniga, et al. Western comics from the 70s. Very good, and I really hope they do further volumes, even if they do have to renegotiate reprint rights with the creators.
     
254. Countdown to Final Crisis, vol. 4 by Paul Dini, et al. Eh. (Library.)
     
255. Gravel, vol. 1: Bloody Liars by Warren Ellis, Mike Wolfer, Raulo Caceres, & Oscar Jimenez. Combat magician Sergeant Major William Gravel gets an ongoing series.
     
256. MPD-Pscyho, vol. 8 by Eiji Otsuka & Sho-U Tajima. (Library.)
     
257. Showcase Presents Legion of Super-Heroes, vol. 3 by Jim Shooter, Curt Swan, et al. It's great to see these stories made available in an affordable format.

A few more movies:

• More Tales of the City. With the cast changes, & the fact that the main characters are split up for the first half of the story, this isn't as good as the first one.
  
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: Stranded in Space. Another episode courtesy of Dave.
  
• Speed Racer. Light & fluffy, with faster visuals than you can possibly keep up with, but surprisingly entertaining. The visual overload works because it's about conveying an impression. When details are important, the movie slows down enough that you can understand what's going on. Not something I'd want a steady diet of, but it shows what can be done with green screen.

Three in a Row

I really shouldn't be so excited to have updated 3 weeks running.

242. Joker by Brian Azzarello & Lee Bermejo. Pretty good, but I'm not sure how well a semi-realistic depiction of gangsters fits in with Batman & the Joker. In some ways, it reminded me of The Sopranos. (Checked out of the library.)
     
243. Superfolks by Robert Mayer. Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, & Kurt Busiek all cite this 1977 novel about a superhero undergoing a mid-life crisis as an influence. I liked it quite a bit, but I have to admit that the humorous parts largely fell flat for me. I think that's largely the cultural distance between when it was written & when I read it.
     
244. Museum of Terror, vol. 1: Tomie 1 by Junji Ito. One of the things I like about the Japanese horror I've seen is that often there is no reason behind the horror. It's just something awful that happens for no reason & with no origin. In the Tomie stories, Tomie is a young woman who provokes obsession in men. They become so obsessed with her that they hack her into pieces. These pieces then regenerate, sometimes into multiple Tomies. No explanation is ever given as to where she came from or why she has this effect or how she can regenerate.
     
245. Museum of Terror, vol. 2: Tomie 2 by Junji Ito. More Tomie stories.
     
246. Museum of Terror, vol. 3: The Long Hair in the Attic by Junji Ito. More horror manga.
     
247. Essential Ms. Marvel by Chris Claremont, Jim Mooney, et al. Pretty good. Claremont hasn't quite developed into the writer he will be, but on the other hand, his writing tics are not very prominent here.
     
248. Star Wars Clone Wars: The Wind Raiders of Taloraan by John Ostrander & the Fillback Brothers. I haven't seen the show, but I like & trust Ostrander's writing. This was pretty good.

A few movies this week, and a correction:

Last week I identified Mystery Science Theater 3000: Gamera vs. Barugon as being from Dave's collection. That was wrong. It's one of Teena's. I regret the error. (MST3K: Robot Monster from a while back, is from Dave's collection, though.)

• MST3K: Time of the Apes.
  
• MST3K: Rocket Attack U.S.A..
  
• The Film Crew: Wild Women of Wongo.