Catching Up

312. Death, Jr. by Gary Whitta & Ted Naifeh. Not too bad.
     
313. The Incredible Hercules: Against the World by Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, Khoi Pham, et al. I've been hearing good stuff about "The Incredible Hercules", and this volume supports what I've been hearing. (Checked out of the library.)
     
314. Judenhass by Dave Sim.
     
315. PvP, vol. 5: PvP Treks On by Scott Kurtz. (Library.)
     
316. Planet of the Capes by Larry Young & Brandon McKinney.
     
317. Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four, vol. 9: New York's Finest by Paul Tobin, David Hahn, & David Nakayama. More fun comics aimed at kids.
     
318. Cowa! by Akira Toriyama. Cute manga about the adventures of a boy monster who is half-vampire & half-werekoala.
     
319. Counter X, vol. 1 by Warren Ellis, Ian Edginton, Whilce Portacio, et al. There's some good writing here, with some interesting ideas, but the art is remarkably ugly, and the storytelling leaves a LOT to be desired. Also, this seems to be from the period when it was editorial policy to make the various X-titles inaccessible to new readers.
     
320. Usagi Yojimbo, vol. 22: Tomoe's Story by Stan Sakai. The latest volume in this excellent series.
     
321. Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil by Jeff Smith. Finally! A good updating of Captain Marvel, one that understands the original comics. (Library.)
     
322. 100 Bullets, vol. 6: Six Feet Under the Gun by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso. (Library.)
     
323. Magic Trixie by Jill Thompson. This is definitely a children's book, but it is enjoyable by adults as well. Beautiful artwork (as always) from Thompson, and a cute story about a Trixie's jealousy of the attention her baby sister receives.
     
324. The Order, vol. 2: California Dreaming by Matt Fraction & Barry Kitson, with Javier Saltares.
     
325. Girl Genius, book 7: Agatha Heterodyne and the Voice of the Castle by Kaja & Phil Foglio. I'm still loving this series.
     
326. Fallen Angel, vol. 5: Red Horse Riding by Peter David & J.K. Woodward. A bunch of story threads that have been building come to a head in this volume.

And with that, I am caught up with books. If I feel like it, after dinner I may post about movies that I've seen recently and/or the video games I've been playing. (But don't count on it.)

Still Catching Up

I go back to work tomorrow. (What was I thinking? Why didn't I just take six days off?) So I should take advantage of the extra time I have right now to update some more.

287. Freddie & Me: A Coming of Age (Bohemian) Rhapsody by Mike Dawson. I can't say this excited me. There just didn't seem to be much of a point to the story. There's more to autobiography than just recounting stuff that happened to you. (Checked out of the library.)
     
288. Welcome to Tranquility, vol. 2 by Gail Simone & Neil Googe. (Library.)
     
289. Conan, vol. 1: The Frost Giant's Daughter and Other Stories by Kurt Busiek & Cary Nord.
     
290. Superman: Escape from Bizarro World by Richard Donner, Geoff Johns, & Eric Powell. A pretty good story, padded out with older Bizarro stories so they could justify putting it out in hardback and charging $25. (Library.)
     
291. Kimmie66 by Aaron Alexovich.
     
292. True Story, Swear to God Archives, vol. 1 by Tom Beland. I recently discovered Beland's blog and learned that TSStG sells around 1,300 copies at best. Which just amazed me. This is a wonderful, wonderful comic; full of heart and with some great cartooning. I guess I shouldn't be surprised; the comics market isn't exactly overflowing with customers looking for true-life romance stories. And that's a shame. This comic is fantastic and deserves a much, much bigger audience.
     
293. The Question: The Five Books of Blood by Greg Rucka, et al. I'd feel better about this comic if there were any indication DC might be publishing a follow-up.
     
294. Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War by Geoff Johns, Dave Gibbons, et al. (Library.)
     
295. The Helmet of Fate by various. (Library.)
     
296. Punisher War Journal, vol. 2: Goin' Out West by Matt Fraction & Ariel Olivetti. (Library.)
     
297. Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan. (Library.)
     
298. A Gentleman's Game: A Queen & Country Novel by Greg Rucka. I hate book blurbs. "She's a spy who plays by only one rule: her own." Please. The blurbs on this novel make it sound like a James Bond-like story, instead of a reasonably realistic spy story that takes into account the political and psychological tolls of wetwork.
     
299. Queen & Country, vol. 8: Operation: Red Panda by Greg Rucka & Chris Samnee. And here's the fallout from A Gentleman's Game.
     
300. 100 Bullets, vol. 5: The Counterfifth Detective by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso. Some of the subtitles to this series don't make a lot of sense. What does "counterfifth" mean, anyway? Working the volume number into the subtitle is clever, when it makes sense. (Library.)
     
301. The Nocturnals: Carnival of Beasts by Dan Brereton, et al.
     
302. She-Hulk, vol. 4: Laws of Attraction by Dan Slott, et al. (Library.)
     
303. Hellboy, vol. 8: Darkness Calls by Mike Mignola & Duncan Fegredo. I really liked this volume. In it, Hellboy deals with the consequences of some of the choices he has made, including his refusal to accept the role of Beast of the Apocalypse (or Antichrist; I forget which he's supposed to be, possibly both). The art is fantastic, even if it feels weird saying that about a Hellboy story not drawn by Mignola.
     
304. Hikaru no Go, vol. 12: The Shinshodan Series by Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata.
     
305. Justice League of America, vol. 3: The Injustice League by Dwayne McDuffie, et al. (Library.)
     
306. Star Wars Legacy, vol. 3: Claws of the Dragon by John Ostrander & Jan Duursema. Ostrander is so much better than Lucas at depicting someone on the edge of falling to the dark side.
     
307. Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War, vol. 2 by various.
     
308. Manga Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet adapted by Richard Appignanesi & Sonia Leong. Maybe it's because I'm less familiar with Romeo & Juliet than I am with Hamlet, but this annoyed me less than the other Manga Shakespeare volume I read. I am still glad I bought it cheap on sale, though.
     
309. Green Lantern: Tales of the Sinestro Corps by various. (Library.)
     
310. Postage Stamp Funnies by Shannon Wheeler. This could have done with fewer poop jokes, but is otherwise pretty funny.
     
311. Pendragon Graphic Novel, bk. 1: The Merchant of Death by D.J. McHale & Carla Speed McNeil. I am completely unfamiliar with the Pendragon series of young adult novels, but I love Carla Speed McNeil's work, so I picked this up. It was a good choice. I doubt I'll be reading the originals, but if she adapts any more of the books, I'll definitely be getting them.

Well, that takes me up to where I would have been if I'd updated on Sunday, so I think that's enough for now.

Back at Last

Given that I'm 3 weeks behind, I'm not going to get caught up today. But I'm on vacation through Thursday, so I'll have a chance to update later in the week. (Just don't count on it.)

273. X-Factor Visionaries: Peter David, vol. 4 by Peter David, Jae Lee, Joe Quesada, et al. Comics in the 90s were remarkably ugly. And X-Men crossovers were impenetrable (not that they're much more comprehensible now).
     
274. Showcase Presents Superman Family, vol. 2 by various. More Silver Age wackiness.
     
275. Bleach, vol. 23: !Mala Suerte! by Tite Kubo. (That first exclamation point should be upside down, but I don't know how to do that.)
     
276. The American Way by John Ridley & Georges Jeanty. Superhero story set in the 60s and dealing with actual issues of the day. Most swear words in this comic were represented by symbols like: @#$%, so it came as a surprise when the n-word appeared in full. It was used in a context-appropriate way, but it was still a shock. (Checked out of the library.)
     
277. Penny Arcade, vol. 5: The Case of the Mummy's Gold by Jerry Holkins & Mike Krahulik. More comics about video games. (Borrowed from Teena.)
     
278. Jack of Fables, vol. 3: The Bad Prince by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, et al. More adventures, and some hints as to what's going on.
     
279. Dogs and Water by Anders Nilsen. (Library.)
     
280. The Death of Captain America, vol. 1: The Death of the Dream by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, & Mike Perkins. I feel I should have something to say about this, but I don't. Of course, the story's not over. Maybe then.
     
281. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, vol. 2: No Future for You by Brian K. Vaughan & Georges Jeanty. I like the idea of doing the "eighth season" as a series of story-arcs rather than trying to fit an "episode" into each issue.
     
282. The Museum Vaults: Excerpts from the Journal of an Expert by Marc-Antoine Mathieu. (Library.)
     
283. 100 Bullets, vol. 4: A Forgone Tomorrow by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso. Still enjoying this. (Library.)
     
284. From the Desk of Warren Ellis, vol. 2: 1998-1999. More discussion of comics.
     
285. The Discworld Graphic Novels: The Colour of Magic & The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett, Scott Rockwell, & Steven Ross. The early Discworld books aren't the best of the bunch, not by a long shot. These two books in particular are parodies of fantasy novels, rather than the commentary on society that the later books will be. Still, they can be funny.
     
286. Take Our Cat, Please by Darby Conley. Another Get Fuzzy collection.

That's enough for now. More later in the week (I hope).

This Is Getting to Be a Habit

Kinda muggy today, and I spent a lot of time playing Paper Mario this afternoon. So no update again this week.

Excuses, Excuses

It's not as hot as last week, but I've got a headache that just won't go away. Maybe later in the week. (But don't count on it.)

Too Darn Hot

It is much too warm today to spend any length of time in front of this computer. So no update this week.

Lots of Re-reading

262. Y: The Last Man, vol. 3: One Small Step by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, & Paul Chadwick.
     
263. Y: The Last Man, vol. 4: Safeword by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, & Goran Parlov.
     
264. Y: The Last Man, vol. 5: Ring of Truth by Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra.
     
265. Y: The Last Man, vol. 6: Girl on Girl by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, & Goran Sudzuka.
     
266. Y: The Last Man, vol. 7: Paper Dolls by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, & Goran Sudzuka.
     
267. Y: The Last Man, vol. 8: Kimono Dragons by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, & Goran Sudzuka.
     
268. Y: The Last Man, vol. 9: Motherland by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, & Goran Sudzuka. One of the things I hadn't caught when I read these books the first time around, but I caught on this re-reading, is that time passes for the characters at approximately the same rate that it did for people reading the individual issues. For instance, around issue 12, the characters were saying that it had been about a year since the plague that killed all the men, and towards the end of the series (issue 60), they said that it had been nearly five years. That's a nice touch.
     
269. Y: The Last Man, vol. 10: Whys & Wherefores by Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra. A good, solid ending to the series. One that I think is very satisfying. Re-reading the entire series before tackling the final volume was a good idea; there were lots of details I had forgotten.
     
270. Legion of Super-Heroes: 1050 Years of the Future by various. A nice sampling of LSH stories from the 50 years of their publishing history.
     
271. Lobster Johnson, vol. 1: The Iron Prometheus by Mike Mignola & Jason Armstrong. Another Hellboy spin-off. Two-fisted pulp action.
     
272. Fables, vol. 10: The Good Prince by Bill Willingham & Mark Buckingham, with Aaron Alexovich. Another great volume in this series.