Not Much to Say

Breaking with my three-day-weekend tradition & updating on Sunday (albeit late on Sunday). However, I am keeping my comments short.

306. The Talisman, Volume 1: The Road of Trials by Stephen King, Peter Straub, Robin Furth, & Tony Shasteen. I think I have read more graphic novel adaptations of King books than I have his actual novels. (Borrowed from Teena.)
     
307. Fantastic Four: World's Greatest by Mark Millar & Bryan Hitch. I think I need to stop reading Millar's comics. They just feel like he's pandering. (Checked out of the library.)
     
308. It's Only a Game by Charles Schulz & Jim Sasseville.
     
     The other comic strip Schulz created. (Library.)
     
309. Showcase Presents Batgirl by various. Fun comics from the 60s & 70s.
     
310. Scalped, vol. 6: The Gnawing by Jason Aaron & R.M. Guera.
     
     This just gets better and better. I do hope Aaron has an ending in mind and doesn't just drag on and on. (Library.)
     
311. Thor, vol. 3 by J. Michael Straczynski & Marko Djurdjevic. The end of Straczynski's run. (Library.)
     
312. Crogan's Vengeance by Chris Schweizer. Young adult comic about pirates. Seems fairly accurate. Very well done. (Library.)
     
313. High Soft Lisp by Gilbert Hernandez. Previously uncollected story about Fritz. (Library.)
     
314. Atomic Robo, Volume 3: Atomic Robo and the Shadow from Beyond Time by Brian Clevinger & Scott Wegener. Lovecraftian horror. Featuring Carl Sagan. (Library.)
     
315. 20th Century Boys, vol. 10: The Faceless Boy by Naoki Urasawa.
     
     Still amazing.
     
316. Invaders: The Eve of Destruction by Roger Stern, Steve Epting, et al. I wish more of Stern's comics were collected.
     
317. Fall of the Hulks: The Savage She-Hulks by Jeff Parker, Salva Espin, et al.

Movies later.

Mostly, But Not Entirely, Library Books

295. Superman: New Krypton, vol. 2 by various.
     
296. 
     Jack of Fables, vol. 7: The New Adventures of Jack & Jack by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, Russ Braun, et al. Decided I no longer needed to buy these series, but still interested in what happens. (Checked out of the library.)
     
297. Superman: New Krypton, vol. 3 by James Robinson, Greg Rucka, & Pete Woods. (Library.)
     
298. Thor, vol. 2 by J. Michael Straczynski, Olivier Coipel, & Marko Djurdjevic.
     
299. 
     Hellblazer: Pandemonium by Jamie Delano & Jock. Nice to see Delano working again on the character he defined. (Library.)
     
300. House of Mystery, vol. 2: The Space Between by Matthew Sturges, Luca Rossi, Jose Marzan Jr., et al. This is interesting me less & less. I'm not sure I'll be checking out the next volume. (Library.)
     
301. Punishermax: Kingpin by Jason Aaron & Steve Dillon. Following Garth Ennis's run on the Punisher has to be tough. But Aaron seems to be doing a fine job. (Library.)
     
302. Megatokyo, vol. 6 by Fred Gallagher. I enjoy this, but find it frustrating. Gallagher acknowledges that it has been three years since the last volume was published, but the book doesn't contain a character list or a plot summary. I think he thinks everybody reading the book is a huge fan & follows his web-comic closely enough that he doesn't need anything like that. That's a bad assumption. (Library.)
     
303. 
     Stephen King's The Stand: Soul Survivors by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa & Mike Perkins. The adaptation continues. (Borrowed from Teena.)
     
304. Incorruptible, vol. 1 by Mark Waid & Jean Diaz. The flip side of Waid's Irredeemable. In the latter, the world's mightiest superhero snaps and goes on a rampage. In this, one of said superhero's enemies goes straight. (Library.)
     
305. The Trials of Roderick Spode "The Human Ant" by David Mamet. Odd little doodles & not much of a story. (Library.)

Just one movie this week:
Millennium Actress I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I have owned this DVD since before Teena & I moved in together, but it took the death of the director, Satoshi Kon, to get me to watch this beautiful, touching movie. I agree with Teena's assessment of the movie and just want to add that I don't think this could have been done live action. The transitions between movies, flashbacks, and reality are seamless. With live-action, they would have been jarring. R.I.P. Satoshi Kon.

Nothing But Library Books

As Teena and I get ready to move (at the end of September), we have packed up quite a bit, including most of my unread books. Therefore I will be reading a lot of library books in the next month & a half.

286. The Authority: The Lost Year, bk. 1 by Grant Morrison, Keith Giffen, et al. Superheroes. (Checked out of the library.)
     
287. X-Men: Nation X by Matt Fraction, Greg Land, Terry Dodson, et al. More superheroes. (Library.)
     
288. 
     Wonderland by Tommy Kovaks & Sonny Liew. Not an adaptation of the book, but the story of Mary Ann, the White Rabbit's housemaid. (Library.)
     
289. Booster Gold, vol. 3: Reality Lost by Dan Jurgens & Chuck Dixon. Still more superheroes. (Library.)
     
290. Other Lives by Peter Bagge. Graphic novel about how people present different faces to the world. (Library.)
     
291. Filthy Rich by Brian Azzarello & Victor Santos. Noir. (Library.)
     
292. 
     Atomic Robo, vol. 2: Atomic Robo and the Dogs of War by Brian Clevinger & Scott Wegener. I wasn't terribly impressed with the first volume: it just seemed like a Hellboy knock-off. But enough people like this that I gave it another chance, and I am glad I did. This story clicked with me, possibly because it was all one story. I am looking forward to reading further volumes. (Library.)
     
293. Arkham Asylum: Madness by Sam Kieth. No superheroes here, just Batman villains in a madhouse. (Library.)
     
294. The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher & Ardian Syaf. I bought a copy of this back before I was reading the Dresden Files novels. I thought the story was okay, but I wasn't impressed with the art, and I ended up selling my copy. Now that I am more familiar with the characters and world, I thought I'd give it another try. I'm still not impressed with the art.

Three movies this time around, including 2 in the theater.

• RiffTrax Live: Reefer Madness Very funny riffing on the '30s scare film. The crowd in the theater was annoying, but they shut up once the movie started.
  
• Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World Good adaptation of the graphic novels, although a fair amount had to be dropped. Also, both Teena and I found the final fight unsatisfying.
  
• Doctor Who: Warriors' Gate The last of the adventures in E-Space.

Light Week

281. 
     B.P.R.D., vol. 13: 1947 by Mike Mignola, Joshua Dysart, Gabriel Ba, & Fabio Moon. Another look into the B.P.R.D.'s past.
     
282. House of M: Wolverine, Iron Man, Hulk by various. Another collection from a superhero cross-over. (Checked out of the library.)
     
283. 
     Wednesday Comics by various. Some of the stories here (especially "Kamandi", "Strange Adventures", and "Metamorpho") are fantastic. Unfortunately, there are enough stories that are just okay ("Sgt. Rock" and "Batman") or awful ("Superman" and "Teen Titans") that I couldn't make myself buy a copy. (Library.)
     
284. Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher. Volume 8 of the Dresden Files. I'm definitely hooked. (Borrowed from Michael.)
     
285. Never As Bad As You Think by Kathryn & Stuart Immonen.

It says something about me that in a light week, I finished five books.
Now for movies:

• To Catch a Thief Hitchcock, Grant, & Kelly. Doesn't get much better than this.
  
• Doctor Who: Full Circle
  
• Doctor Who: State of Decay This is the story that got me hooked on Doctor Who when I saw it sometime in the 80s.

Vacation Week

269. Huntress: Cry for Blood by Greg Rucka & Rick Burchett. An exploration of the Huntress. Very well done.
     
270. Baby's First Mythos Lovecraftian alphabet book. Oddly, I cannot find it on the Powell's website even though I bought the book at their Burnside store.
     
271. 
     Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Box by Warren Ellis, Simone Bianchi, et al. Ellis bringing SF concepts (in this case: invasion from parallel worlds) to the X-Men.
     
272. 
     Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites by Evan Dorkin & Jill Thompson. This is a fantastic collection of a series of stories about a group of dogs (and a cat) who fight supernatural menaces to their homes & people. Thompson's beautiful watercolors do an amazing job of conveying the story. And the whole book is well-designed. I bought this for myself, but once Teena read it, she claimed it for herself. (Borrowed from Teena.)
     
273. 
     Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka & J.H. Williams. Lots of books with beautiful artwork this week, and this is one of them. Great story too.
     
274. Agents of Atlas: Marvel Boy by Jeff Parker, Feliz Ruiz, et al. New mini-series about a character from the 50s, with reprints of some of those 50s stories.
     
275. 
     Neil Young's Greendale by Joshua Dysart & Cliff Chiang. I am not familiar with the album that this graphic novel is based on, but maybe I should be. (Checked out of the library.)
     
276. Runaways, vol. 9: Dead Wrong by Terry Moore & Humberto Ramos. I avoided this for a while because I soured on Moore with the later issues of his Strangers in Paradise, but I've been enjoying Echo, so I picked this up. Pretty good.
     
277. Hotwire: Requiem for the Dead by Steve Pugh, from an idea by Warren Ellis. Science fiction exorcism.
     
278. Essential Defenders, vol. 1 by Steve Englehart, Sal Buscema, et al. Marvel's "non-team".
     
279. North World, vol. 3: Other Sagas by Lars Brown. More fantasy adventures.
     
280. Cthulhu Tales, vol. 4: The Darkness Beyond by various. Anthology of Lovecraftian stories.

Even though I was off work the entire week, I didn't watch much in the way of movies:

• Doctor Who: Survival The final Doctor Who story before the show went on "hiatus" for a long, long time. Not the best story to go out on.
  
• Inception Both Teena & I were really impressed by this. Hard to say much more without spoilers, so I'll leave it at that.
  
• Five Million Years to Earth (a.k.a. Quatermass and the Pit). There's something about British science fiction movies & television from the 60s and 70s. It just seems smarter than American SF from the same period. Maybe it's because it assumed its audience is made up of adults. And even when it is aimed at children (i.e. Doctor Who), it doesn't talk down to them. Anyway, this is a great story about an unusual find buried beneath London.

More Books

259. Chew, vol. 1: Taster's Choice by John Layman & Rob Guillory. This was pretty good, but I don't get all the praise I've seen for it online. (Checked out of the library.)
     
260. 
     Witchfinder, vol. 1: In the Service of Angels by Mike Mignola & Ben Stenbeck. Another Hellboy spin-off, this one set in Victorian times. As long as Mignola keeps writing these, I'll keep reading them.
     
261. Agents of Atlas: Turf Wars by Jeff Parker, Gabriel Hardman, et al. A great updating of characters from the 50s. This comic deserves to sell a lot more than it does, and I will be sad when the latest version finishes with issue 5.
     
262. One Model Nation by C. Allbriton Taylor, Jim Rugg, & Cary Porter. I would have enjoyed this more if I knew more about the Baader-Meinhoff gang and the German music scene in the 70s. (Library.)
     
263. Agents of Atlas vs. X-Men & the Avengers by Jeff Parker, Gabriel Hardman, et al. I picked this up at a signing even at the shop where I get my comics, and Parker signed this for me. Plus, he drew an awesome sketch of Gorilla-Man for me.
     
264. Spider-Man: Death and Dating by various. (Library.)
     
265. Unknown Soldier vol. 1: Haunted House by Joshua Dysart & Alberto Ponticelli. Good but depressing comic about the situation in Uganda. (Library.)
     
266. Star Drop by Mark Oakley. Oakley doesn't publish books very often, but when he does, they are worth the wait. This is a collection of a web comic about a galactic princess hiding on Earth. Sweet & fun.
     
267. Showcase Presents: Dial H for Hero by Dave Wood & Jim Mooney. Entertaining but not-very-good comics about a teenager who has an alien artifact that transforms him into a different superhero every time he spells out H-E-R-O on the dial.
     
268. 
     Gotham Central, bk. 3: On the Freak Beat by Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark, et al. Police procedural set in Gotham City. Great stuff. Glad it's getting reprinted in a nice format (that includes all the issues).

Just a couple of movies this week:

• Special: Specioprin Hydrochloride (Rx) A man participates in a clinical trial for a new anti-depressant and begins to think he has super-powers. This is good (albeit depressing) up until the end. I just don't like the ending. Neither did Teena.
  
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: Jack Frost Russo-Finnish production of a folk tale. It is somehow reassuring that other countries also produce terrible movies for children.

Lots of Books (many of them from the library)

240. Captain America: Theater of War by Paul Jenkins, et al. (Checked out of the library.)
     
241. Children of the Sea, vol. 2 by Daisuke Igarashi. Slow-paced, but beautiful manga about two boys who were raised by a pod of dugongs. (Library.)
     
242. Girl Genius book9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm by Phil and Kaja Foglio. This is good as always, but it does sometimes feel like the story has stalled.
     
243. Black Widow: Deadly Origin by Paul Cornell, Tom Raney, & John Paul Leon. (Library.)
     
244. 
     DMZ, vol. 8: Hearts and Minds by Brian Wood, Riccardo Burchilli, & Ryan Kelly. Still great, even though the main character has become extremely unlikeable.
     
245. 
     Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour, vol. 6 by Bryan Lee O'Malley. Great and satisfying conclusion to the series. I hope the upcoming movie lives up to its source material.
     
246. Avengers/X-Men: Utopia by Matt Fraction, et al. (Library.)
     
247. Wolverine Weapon X, vol 1: Adamantium Men Premiere by Jason Aaron & Ron Garney. (Library.)
     
248. The 120 Days of Simon: A Graphic Odyssey Through Sweden by Simon Gardenfors. A Swedish cartoonist and rapper spends four months couch surfing. I have to say he comes across as a bit of a jackass in this, but that may be deliberate. (Library.)
     
249. Gotham City Sirens: Union by Paul Dini, Guillem March, et al. The story is good, but the art is very cheesecake-y, and not in a good way. (Library.)
     
250. Power Girl: A New Beginning by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, & Amanda Conner. Now, Amanda Conner does a good job of cheesecake art. Plus, she does great facial expressions and background details. (Library.)
     
251. 
     Starman Omnibus, vol. 4 by James Robinson, Tony Harris, et al. This contains several issues that had not been previously reprinted, including the crossover with Hellboy.
     
252. Theo and the Blue Note by Peter Kuper. Kid's book about jazz. (Library.)
     
253. Tiny Titans: Adventures in Awesomeness by Art Baltazar and Franco. More kid's comics. (Library.)
     
254. 
     FreakAngels, vol. 4 by Warren Ellis & Paul Duffield. The latest collection of Ellis's webcomic.
     
255. X-Men First Class: Finals by Jeff Parker, Amilcar Pinna & Roger Cruz. I got this signed by Parker on Saturday, when he appeared at Cosmic Monkey Comics. He is one of my favorite current comics writers.
     
256. 
     B.P.R.D., vol. 12: War on Frogs by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, Guy Davis, et al. Collection of one-shots about the B.P.R.D.'s fight against the frog monsters.
     
257. Irredeemable, vol. 3 by Mark Waid, Peter Krause, & Diego Barreto. (Library.)
     
258. The Night Owls by Peter & Bobby Timony. The adventures of a 1920s detective agency that specializes in dealing with the supernatural.

And even with all that, I had time to watch some things:

• Munchhausen Gorgeous, extravagant German film from 1943 that contains absolutely no reference to the war.
  
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: Lost Continent
  
• Trek in the Park: Space Seed. Live re-creation of a classic Star Trek episode. This was a blast, made better by bumping into gretchin and Sven.
  
• MST3K: Beast of Yucca Flats