The best license plate ever.

Doing my bit to help restore the America I believe in:

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

--AZ-01: Rick Renzi

--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

--CA-04: John Doolittle

--CA-11: Richard Pombo

--CA-50: Brian Bilbray

--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

--CO-05: Doug Lamborn

--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell

--CT-04: Christopher Shays

--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

--FL-16: Joe Negron

--FL-22: Clay Shaw

--ID-01: Bill Sali

--IL-06: Peter Roskam

--IL-10: Mark Kirk

--IL-14: Dennis Hastert

--IN-02: Chris Chocola

--IN-08: John Hostettler

--IA-01: Mike Whalen

--KS-02: Jim Ryun

--KY-03: Anne Northup

--KY-04: Geoff Davis

--MD-Sen: Michael Steele

--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

--MN-06: Michele Bachmann

--MO-Sen: Jim Talent

--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

--NV-03: Jon Porter

--NH-02: Charlie Bass

--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

--NM-01: Heather Wilson

--NY-03: Peter King

--NY-20: John Sweeney

--NY-26: Tom Reynolds

--NY-29: Randy Kuhl

--NC-08: Robin Hayes

--NC-11: Charles Taylor

--OH-01: Steve Chabot

--OH-02: Jean Schmidt

--OH-15: Deborah Pryce

--OH-18: Joy Padgett

--PA-04: Melissa Hart

--PA-07: Curt Weldon

--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

--PA-10: Don Sherwood

--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

--TN-Sen: Bob Corker

--VA-Sen: George Allen

--VA-10: Frank Wolf

--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

--WA-08: Dave Reichert

Vote, just not for these people. Follow the links to see why.

Happy birthday to me. I turn 39 today.

What horrible Edward Gorey Death will you die?

You will be smothered under a rug. You're a little anti-social, and may want to start gaining new social skills by making prank phone calls.
Take this quiz!








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This entry should get me all caught up.

369. Fantastic Four: Books of Doom by Ed Brubaker and Pablo Raimondi. (Checked out of the library.)
     
370. Emma Frost, vol. 1: Higher Learning by Karl Bollers and Randy Green. (Library.)
     
371. Superman: For Tomorrow, vol. 2 by Brian Azzarello and Jim Lee. Azzarello's writing style is simply not suited to Superman. And I have to say that Lee's artwork doesn't grab me. It never has; and I just don't understand the affection a lot of people seem to have for it. (Library.)
     
372. Iron Empires, vol. 2: Sheva's War by Christopher Moeller. Apparently the Multnomah County library system only has one copy of the first volume of this series, and that is listed as missing. So I had to start with volume two. I quite liked this science fiction story that uses the same setting as the Burning Empires role playing game. (Library.)
     
373. Dragon Head, vol. 1 by Minetaro Mochizuki. Online controversy about this manga series (the publisher had decided to stop supplying it to stores and to only sell it directly; the online ruckus caused them to change their minds) got me to check this out. It's good, and I think I'll be picking up further volumes. (Library.)
     
374. The Avengers: Kang - Time and Time Again by various. (Library.)
     
375. Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan and niko Henrichon. This is very good. The only problem I have with it is the same one that all the reviews I've read have mentioned: we have difficulty with the idea that lions rape.
     
376. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man by Peter David, Mike Wieringo, and Roger Cruz. It's nice to see David back on Spider-Man. Now if only there would be a moritorium on editorially-mandated cross-overs and arbitrary changes. (Everybody knows the costume change will be undone by the time the third movie is released.)
     
377. The Beatrice Letters by Lemony Snicket. I'm really looking forward to The End, and this book provides some tantalizing hints about the mysteries of the Series of Unfortunate Events.
     
378. Free Comic Book Day Tokyopop Sneaks by various.
     
379. Fallen Angel, vol. 1: To Serve in Heaven by Peter David and J.K. Woodward.
     
380. The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion by Don Rosa.
     
381. Neil Gaiman by Steven P. Olson. This book is part of "The Library of Graphic Novelists." It looked interesting, but it was too expensive, so I didn't buy it. Then my local comic book store had a big sale, so I picked up a copy. I'm glad I didn't pay full price for this. It's okay, but it's clearly written for an audience of teenagers. This is intended for high school (or junior high) libraries. I'm really glad I didn't pick up any of the other books in the series.
     
382. A Distant Soil, vol. 1: The Gathering by Colleen Doran. Volume four of this series came out several months back. However, since it has been several years since volume three was published, I decided to reread the previous volumes before tackling the new one. It's taken me this long to get around to starting that project. Doran is a fantastic artist, and has great storytelling skills. And she draws lots of pretty, pretty people.
     
383. Essential X-Factor, vol. 1 by various. This started out as an example of editorially-mandated comics. Somebody wanted the original X-Men back together, even though one of them was dead. And we got a mediocre comic book with a stupid premise (if anti-mutant hysteria is on the rise, what would possess a group of mutants to think it would be good idea to pose as high-profile mutant hunters?). But once Louise Simonson took over the writing (especially once her husband Walt took over on the art), the comic got much better.
     
384. Spike vs. Dracula by Peter David, Joe Corroney, and Zach Howard. The story of why Spike hates Dracula.

There. Caught up. Five months of books listed in a week.

I won't have a chance to update this evening, since I will be attending the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, but if things go as planned, I should get caught up on my book list on Saturday morning.

I'm on a roll.

351. H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds adapted by Ian Edginton and D'Israeli. (Checked out of the library.)
     
352. Sloth by Gilbert Hernandez. Hernandez's work doesn't grab me as it once did. (I think his best work may be Blood of Palomar.) But he's still damn good.
     
353. Strange Killings: Necromancer by Warren Ellis & Mike Wolfer. Zombies.
     
354. Hellspawn: The Ashley Wood Collection by Brian Michael Bendis, Steve Niles, and Ashley Wood. There's some beautiful art here, but the storytelling is terrible. Don't draw or paint comics if you can't show the reader what's going on. (Library.)
     
355. Omega the Unknown Classic by Steve Gerber, Mary Skrenes, Jim Mooney, et al. It's amazing how wordy Gerber could be, especially considering that the title character doesn't speak in most of the comics collected here.
     
356. A Man without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. It's been years since I read any Vonnegut. I'd forgotten how good he is. (Library.)
     
357. Doom Patrol, vol. 4: Musclebound by Grant Morrison, Richard Case, et al. I say this every time, but I am so, so happy that these comics are being collected. I just hope the Flex Mentallo mini-series gets its own book or at least shows up in a future Doom Patrol volume.
     
358. Playback: A Graphic Novel by Raymond Chandler, adapted by Ted Benoit and Francois Ayroles. (Library.)
     
359. Batman: Face the Face by James Robinson, Don Kramer, and Leonard Kirk. Robinson's return to comics doesn't rank with his best work, but it's still pretty good.
     
360. Platinum Grit, Book One by Trudy Cooper, Danny Murphy, and Doug Bayne. Odd stuff.
     
361. Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 9 by Hiromu Arakawa. It wasn't until I read this & the previous volume that I realized that the anime series diverged from its source material. Still enjoying this, especially now that I don't know what's coming next.
     
362. Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne, vol. 3.
     
363. Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne, vol. 4. Based on his more recent work, I had forgotten how good Byrne used to be. These are really solid, entertaining superhero comics.
     
364. Dzur by Steven Brust. I hope there's not as large a gap between this & the next Taltos book as there was between this and the previous one. (Borrowed from Teena.)
     
365. Bleach, vol. 15: Beginning of the Death of Tomorrow by Tite Kubo. The Bleach anime series recently began airing on Adult Swim. While we were watching it, Teena asked if there was any explanation why the title was "Bleach." I had to tell her that after 15 volumes of the manga, I still had no idea.
     
366. Zombie Powder, vol. 1: The Man with the Black Hand by Tite Kubo.
     
367. Fantastic Four: The Life Fantastic by J. Michael Straczynski, Mike McKone, et al.
     
368. The Gremlins by Roald Dahl. Apparently this is Dahl's first book, and it's been out of print since WWII. I'm glad it's available again, but I have to say that Dahl got much better.