Third Week Running!

151. The New Avengers, vol. 8: Secret Invasion, Bk. 1 by Brian Michael Bendis, et al. Keeping up to date (sort of) with events in the Marvel Universe. (Checked out of the library.)
     
152. The Rabbi's Cat 2 by Joann Sfar. I picked this up a while ago, but I didn't read it right away for some reason, and I am at a loss as to what that reason is. Because this is just as great as the first book. Very human. Plus, this volume has a cameo appearance by Tin Tin!
     
153. Green Lantern: In Brightest Day: Tales of the Green Lantern Corps by various. (Library.)
     
154. Light of Thy Countenance by Alan Moore, Antony Johnston, & Felipe Massafera. Television considered as a god.
     
155. Showcase Presents: Strange Adventures, vol. 1 by various. Science fiction comics from the 50's. Most of the stories involve alien invasion. And in half of the invasion stories, the aliens are trying to trick the humans because our atomic weapons pose a threat to them. In the other half, our arsenal is no match for the aliens' superior firepower, and we need to trick them. It happens so often I have to wonder if the writers were aware of the Cold War fears playing out in their stories.
     
156. Ted McKeever Library, Bk. 2: Eddy Current. Oddball stuff, but I liked it. (Library.)
     
157. Grendel: Devil's Reign by Matt Wagner & Tim Sale. Wagner used radically different styles for each Grendel storyline. This one takes the form of a history/political biography of a man who becomes emperor of the world. Well-done, but not exactly gripping storytelling.
     
158. Aces: Curse of the Red Baron by Shannon Eric Denton, G. Willow Wilson, & Curtis Square Briggs. Pretty good adventure story that could have used a proofreader. (Library.)
     
159. Little White Mouse Omnibus by Paul Sizer. Great science fiction story about a teenage girl stuck on an automated mining outpost in deep space. One of the things I especially like about it is that Loo's family gets along. Memories of her family are a source of strength for Loo, not a source of angst. And that's just refreshing.
     
160. Batman: Private Casebook by Paul Dini & Dustin Nguyen. Pretty good. (Library.)
     
161. Narbonic, vol. 3 by Shaenon Garrity. It's taking be about a week to get through each volume (each one of which collects about a year of the webcomic).

Couple of movies:

• Cinematic Titanic: Blood of the Vampires. The latest riff on a bad movie from the creator and most of the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
  
• Every Which Way But Loose. Clint Eastwood & an orangutan.

Wow. Two Updates in Two Weeks.

136. Essential Fantastic Four, vol. 3 by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby. There are some great comics here, including the introduction of the Inhumans and the Black Panther's first appearance, not to mention the Galactus & the Silver Surfer.
     
137. Fall of Cthulhu, vol. 2: The Gathering by Michael Alan Nelson, et al. All the stories in this book are creepy, but only the first one seems particularly Lovecraftian. (Checked out of the library.)
     
138. Beanworld, vol. 1: Wahoolazuma! by Larry Marder. Yay! Beanworld is back in print! This is cause for celebration. As the tagline says, it is a most peculiar comic book experience, but it's a wonderful one.
     
139. St. Trinian's: The Entire Appalling Business by Ronald Searle. Cartoons about a girl's boarding school. (Library.)
     
140. Un-Men, vol. 1: Get Your Freak On! by John Whalen & Mike Hawthorne. Meh. (Library.)
     
141. Spider-Man: The Other - Evolve or Die by various. Gee, all the changes to Spider-Man that came out of this cross-over event are all gone, some of them even disappeared before the next Spider-Man cross-over event.
     
142. The Invincible Iron Man, vol. 1: The Five Nightmares by Matt Fraction & Salvador Larroca. Does a lot to make Iron Man more sympathetic after the way he was portrayed in Civil War. (Library.)
     
143. Star Trek: Assignment Earth by John Byrne. Remember that episode in the original Star Trek series where they go back to the 1960's, and it was intended as a pilot for a spin-off series? Teri Garr was a guest star in the episode. Anyway, this comic is about the (non-existent) spin-off. (Library.)
     
144. Flight, vol. 3 by various. Another excellent volume in the anthology series. (Borrowed from Teena.)
     
145. Conan, vol. 4: The Hall of the Dead and Other Stories by various. Working my way through this series.
     
146. Fall of Cthulhu, vol. 3: The Gray Man by Michael Alan Nelson & Mateus Santolouco. Again, a good horror story, but forces of evil at work here seem entirely too comprehensible for this to be very Lovecraftian. (Library.)
     
147. Myth Adventures! by Robert Asprin & Phil Foglio. Comics adaptation of the first of Asprin's humorous fantasy novels.
     
148. Pluto: Urasawa X Texuka 001 by Naoki Urasawa. A reimagining of an Astro Boy story. I have to say I am extremely impressed by this first volume. Gorgeous artwork and a story full of depth.
     
149. Superman: Kryptonite by Darwyn Cooke & Tim Sale. A pretty good story with some fantastic artwork. (Library.)
     
150. Narbonic, vol. 2 by Shaenon Garrity. Working my way through this series again.

Just one movie this week:

• The Man Who Knew Too Much. The 1956 version with Jimmy Stewart.

I'm Back

107. Hikaru no Go, vol. 14: Sai vs. Toya Koyo by Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata. Still enjoying this.
     
108. The Vinyl Underground, vol. 1: Watching the Detectives by Si Spencer & Simon Gene. Pretty good story about occult detectives. (Checked out of the library.)
     
109. The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones. Another great fantasy novel from Jones. One thing I like about her work is that, unlike in most fiction for kids, the bad guys in her stories are bad in the ways that real people are: they're selfish, greedy, and short-sighted, not cackling maniacs.
     
110. Pocket Full of Rain & Other Stories by Jason. Early work from the Norwegian cartoonist. (Library.)
     
111. Godchild, vol. 1 by Kaori Yuki. I didn't care for this. Too gothy & it felt rather Mary-Jane-ish. (Library.)
     
112. Tiny Titans, vol. 1: Welcome to the Treehouse by Art Baltazar & Franco. Cute, cute versions of the Teen Titans. (Borrowed from Teena's classroom.)
     
113. Scott Pilgrim, vol. 5: Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe by Bryan Lee O'Malley. The latest volume of this fun series.
     
114. Marvel Adventures Avengers, vol. 9: The New Recruits by Paul Tobin, Ig Guara, et al.
     
115. Skrulls vs. Power Pack by Fred Van Lente & Cory Hamscher.
     
116. Alan Moore's The Courtyard by Alan Moore, Antony Johnston, & Jacen Burrows. New, color edition of the adaptation of a Lovecraftian story by Moore.
     
117. Conan: Book of Thoth by Kurt Busiek, Len Wein, & Kelley Jones. Back story for a major Conan villain. (Library.)
     
118. Vigilante: City Lights, Prairie Justice by James Robinson & Tony Salmons. Nice to see some of Robinson's older work being reprinted.
     
119. Wonder Woman: Who Is Wonder Woman? by Allan Heinberg, Terry & Rachel Dodson. I like Heinberg's comics writing, but he seems unable to meet a deadline. When this was originally published, issues were months late. It reads much better all together.
     
120. Cruel and Unusual by Jamie Delano, Tom Peyer, & John McCrea. Satirical look at the US prison system.
     
121. Cash and Carry by Tim Broderick. Thriller originally done as a web comic. I'm not sure I care for the art, but the story is good. (Library.)
     
122. DMZ, vol. 6: Blood in the Game by Brian Wood & Riccardo Burchielli. Still enjoying this quite a bit.
     
123. Streets of Glory by Garth Ennis & Mike Wolfer. Story about the fading days of the Old West.
     
124. Gargoyles: Clan-Building, vol. 1 by Greg Weisman, David Hedgecock, et al. New stories from the creator of the TV show.
     
125. Green Lantern: Wanted: Hal Jordan by Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, & Daniel Acuna. (Library.)
     
126. All-Star Superman, vol. 1 by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely. Had to re-read this because volume 2 just came out.
     
127. All-Star Superman, vol. 2 by Gran Morrison & Frank Quitely. Some of the absolute best Superman stories ever.
     
128. Silverfish by David Lapham. Crime story set in the 80s. (Library.)
     
129. Justice League of America, vol. 4: Sanctuary by Dwayne McDuffie, Alan Burnett, et al. (Library.)
     
130. Flight, vol. 2 by various. Great anthology. (Borrowed from Teena.)
     
131. Harley Quinn: Preludes & Knock-Knock Jokes by Karl Kesel, Terry & Rachel Dodson. Light-hearted stories about the Joker's girlfriend. (Library.)
     
132. The Mighty Avengers, vol. 3: Secret Invasion by Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, et al. Pretty good comics, but not much sign of the Avengers. (Library.)
     
133. Saga of the Swamp Thing, book 1 by Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, & John Totleben. New edition of Moore's run on Swamp Thing, including his first issue, which has never been reprinted before (because it was all about tying up plot threads from the previous writer).
     
134. Conan, vol. 3: The Tower of the Elephant and Other Stories by Kurt Busiek & Cary Nord. (Library.)
     
135. Narbonic, vol. 1 by Shaenon Garrity. The final volume collecting this web comic was recently published, so I decided to work my way through the previous volumes.

A few movies since last time:

• Guys and Dolls.
  
• Futurama: Bender's Game. Up until the fantasy sequence (3/4 of the way through the movie), this had been the best of the direct to DVD Futurama releases. Then it just fell apart. But the first hour or so is great.
  
• Watchmen. I've got mixed feelings about this. It looks fantastic, and does a good job adapting the central plot from the graphic novel (although I've got some problems with the changes to the end). But by leaving out the minor characters (which I know had to be done; the movie is plenty long as it is), the film misses the heart of the story. It's not quite all surface & no substance, but it's close.

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

My excuse for not updating today was going to be that I spent the afternoon & early evening seeing Watchmen, but that fell through. So it just comes down to laziness on my part.

Catch-up Time

87. Cromartie High School, vol. 6 by Eiji Nonaka. Silliness (Checked out of the library.)
    
88. The Comics Cavalcade Archives, vol. 1 by various. Reprints of Golden Age comics. A really mixed bag, but the Wonder Woman stories were fun, especially the one where she (in her secret identity of Diana Prince), suspects a group of men are German spies (possibly because of their outrageous accents), so she tricks them into revealing themselves by saying "Heil Hitler!" They all automatically return the salute and then capture her. (She gets tied up an awful lot in these old stories.)
    
89. Hulk Visionaries: Peter David, vol. 6 by Peter David, Dale Keown, & Bill Jaaska. This is where David's run on The Hulk really comes into it's own. It has the first issues with all of Banner/The Hulk's personalities integrated into one.
    
90. Hulk: Heart of the Atom by various. Collection of stories spun out of the one issue of The Hulk that Harlan Ellison wrote. (Library.)
    
91. Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul by various. Pretty good Batman crossover event. (Library.)
    
92. Black Jack, vol. 3 by Osamu Tezuka. This volume contains the absolutely insane story where Black Jack operates on himself in the Australian outback while dingoes close in.
    
93. Graphic Classics, vol. 14: Gothic Classics by various. Comics adaptations of various gothic stories. The best are "Northanger Abbey" and "At the Gate". Library.
    
94. Jimmy Olsen Adventures, vol. 1 by Jack Kirby. Kirby's special brand of madness brought to Superman's pal.
    
95. Showcase Presents Superman, vol. 4 by various. More Silver Age wackiness, including a story where Superman deliberately exposes himself to red kryptonite so he can grow an ant's head. I love the Silver Age.
    
96. Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons. I decided I needed to reread this one last time before the movie comes out. I know the advance word has been positive, but I just can't help thinking that Snyder hasn't looked past the surface, and that the movie is going to be all style & no substance.
    
97. Conan, vol. 2: The God in the Bowl and Other Stories by Kurt Busiek & Cary Nord. (Library.)
    
98. Monster, vol. 18: Scenery for a Doomsday by Naoki Urasawa. The conclusion of this suspenseful series. (Library.)
    
99. Incredible Hercules: Secret Invasion by Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, & Rafa Sandoval. (Library.)
    
100. Flight, vol. 1 by various. (Borrowed from Teena.)
     
101. The War at Ellsmere by Faith Erin Hicks. I quite enjoyed this story about a new student at a boarding school. (Library.)
     
102. Cromartie High School, vol. 7 by Eiji Nonaka. After seven volumes, I find the joke is wearing thin, but that may be because I read too many volumes too close together. (Library.)
     
103. Punisher War Journal, vol. 4: Jigsaw by Matt Fraction, Rick Remender, & Howard Chaykin. (Library.)
     
104. World of Warcraft, bk. 1 by Walter Simonson & Ludo Lullabi. Checked out because Simonson write it. Not his best work, but not his worst, either. However, I have to say that the art did not work for me. (Library.)
     
105. Rosario + Vampire, vol. 3: Trolls by Akihisa Ikeda. (Library.)
     
106. Speak of the Devil by Gilbert Hernandez. This just didn't really work for me. (Library.)

Only one movie since my last real update:

• Mystery Science Theater 3000: Final Justice. Joe Don Baker as a Texas lawman hunting a Mafioso in Malta.