Catching Up.

Got two weeks' worth of books and even more movies to get through, so I'm keeping things short.

119. Essential Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man, vol. 1 by Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema, et al. Entertaining super-hero comics from the 70s.
120. Marvel Adventures Spider-Man: Sensational by Paul Tobin, Matteo Lolli, et al.
     
     More great all-ages comics.
121. Feynman by Jim Ottaviani & Leland Myrick.
     
     Biography of the physicist in comics form. Ottaviani has done some great non-fiction comics about science. This is another. (Checked out of the library.)
122. More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman.
     
     Hodgman's second book of fake trivia. (I have to admit I skipped the list of 700 mole-man names, but the rest of it was great.)
     
123. Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty by Mark Waid, Ron Garney, et al.
     
     In the 90s, Marvel published a second Captain America series. This book collects that series.
124. I Thought You Would Be Funnier by Shannon Wheeler.
     
     Single-panel cartoons from the creator of Too Much Coffee Man.
125. Showcase Presents: Young Love by various.
     
     Romance comics from the 60s. The gender politics are about what you'd expect (although they aren't too awful), but the art is fantastic. Always happy to see a non-super-hero volume of Showcase Presents.
126. Strikeforce Morituri, vol. 1 by Peter Gillis & Brent Anderson, with Whilce Portacio.
     
     This comic from the 80s holds up pretty well. The premise is that in the near future, an alien species is raiding Earth, and a process has been developed to give humans super-powers to fight the invaders. The catch is that the process will kill each subject within a year. (Library.)
127. DMZ, vol. 11: Free States Rising by Brian Wood & Riccardo Burichielli.
     
     Coming to a close. I suspect there will only be one more volume. (Library.)
128. Now We Are Sick: An Anthology of Nasty Verse edited by Neil Gaiman & Stephen Jones. Humorous, nasty poems.
129. Dar! A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary, vol. 2 by Erika Moen. I bought volume 1 from Moen at the Stumptown Comics Fest last year and really enjoyed it. So I bought volume 2 from her this year. Really enjoyed this volume too.
130. Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth Omnibus, vol. 1 by Jack Kirby.
     
     As influential as Kirby's Fourth World stories were, this may be the best thing he did for DC. Loud, brash & bombastic, everything that's great about Kirby. It's basically his take on Planet of the Apes, and it's a lot of fun. So happy DC finally put this out in a reasonably priced format.

Okay, now that I've gotten this far, I still don't feel like doing movies. Maybe next week I'll list movies and put off books.

No Post Today

I just didn't get around to it today. And now it's time to watch Mad Men.

Beautiful Day

It is gorgeous out there. Warm, too. I wish Teena weren't sick and I weren't fighting off whatever she has had for the past week. Anyway, here are some books.

113. Mark Twain's Autobiography 1910-2010 by Michael Kupperman.
     
     Nonsense about Mark Twain's adventures in the 20th century. (Checked out of the library.)
114. Chi's Sweet Home, vol. 1 by Konami Kanata.
     
     I heard this series described as "Yotsuba &! for cat-people", so I thought I'd take a look. It's cute, but it doesn't live up to that description. (Library.)
115. Joe the Barbarian by Grant Morrison & Sean Murphy.
     
     Fantastic book about a teenager having amazing adventures in a wonderland. Or maybe he's hallucinating as he slips into an insulin coma. Morrison at the height of his game. Beautiful art from Murphy.
116. Chimichanga by Eric Powell.
     
     Cute story about a little girl with a beard and her monster that hatched from an egg. (Library.)
117. The Compleat Terminal City by Dean Motter & Michael Lark.
     
     Retro-futurism at its best. Lots of puns and adventure. The only thing that keeps me from recommending this wholeheartedly is that several plots are left unresolved. This is less style-over-substance than Motter's Mister X series, but there is still some in evidence.
118. Jennifer Blood, vol. 1: Woman's Work Is Never Done by Garth Ennis, et al.
     
     Bloody vengeance (which could describe a hefty percentage of Ennis's work). (Library.)

Feeling tired, so I'm postponing movies another week.

Another Sunday, Another Post

106. Love and Rockets: New Stories #4 by Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez.
     
     Another fantastic volume. Jaime's "Love Bunglers" is particularly amazing.
107. Spider-Man, Chapter One by John Byrne.
     
     Re-telling the first Spider-Man stories because why not? (Checked out of the library.)
108. Showcase Presents: Batman, vol. 1 by various.
     
     These stories aren't bad, but I wish, when deciding where to start collecting Batman stories for these volumes, DC had gone back to wacky sci-fi 50s Batman.
109. Dotter of Her Father's Eyes by Mary M. Talbot & Bryan Talbot.
     
     Impressive mix of memoir and biography of Lucia Joyce (James' daughter). The more of Bryan Talbot's art I see, the more impressed I am by his talent. Mary Talbot hadn't written for comics previously, but she and her husband use the medium extremely well here. A beautiful book. (Library.)
110. John Constantine, Hellblazer: Phantom Pains by Peter Milligan, Giuseppe Camunodi, Stefano Laudini, et al.
     
     Latest collection of this horror comic.
111. Chase by J.H. Williams III, Dan Curtis Johnson, et al.
     
     Another hefty collection of a 90s comic that I didn't read at the time but have heard good things about. I quite liked this and wish I had bought the issues when they were coming out because the series ended too soon. (Of course, one additional customer probably wouldn't have saved it.) The story is about Cameron Chase, an ordinary (or is she?) woman working for the government in a world of super-heroes. Williams produces some beautiful art (as usual).
112. Hellboy, vol. 12: The Storm and the Fury by Mike Mignola & Duncan Fegredo.
     
     The latest Hellboy collection. This brings to a head a lot of long-running plot threads. Satisfying, although I was happy to learn that, despite appearances, more Hellboy is coming.

Only one, not very good, movie this week, so I'll hold off on posting about that.

Breaking 100

100. Princess Knight, pt. 2 by Osamu Tezuka.
     
     I really enjoyed this, although I admit that the gender politics are rather problematic. But they're not too bad considering that this was created in Japan in the 50s. The ending is odd, because several new characters and plot twists show up late enough that their resolution feels rushed. But overall, I liked this story of a princess born with a boy's heart a lot. Tezuka basically invented Shojo manga with this story.
101. Jim Henson's Tale of Sand by Jim Henson, Jerry Juhl, & Ramon K. Perez.
     
     Beautiful artwork on this adaptation of an unmade screenplay Henson & Juhl worked on before the Muppets really took off. This is good, but didn't really grab me. It is very strange, which often is a plus for me, but in this case the strangeness didn't speak to me. (Checked out of the library.)
102. Annotated Sandman, vol. 1 by Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg, Leslie Klinger, et al.
     
     Not overly impressed with this. The annotations did not offer much in the way of insights into the story. There wasn't anything significant that I didn't already know, and occasionally the annotations about the details of the DC universe were incomplete or just plain wrong. (Library.)
103. Hitman, vol. 5: Tommy's Heroes by Garth Ennis & John McCrea.
     
     Nominally a super-hero comic, this bears little resemblance to most super-hero titles. The title character is, in fact, a hitman, although he only accepts contracts on bad guys. Great stuff, if often overly violent and over the top. And this collection contains Ennis's love-letter to Superman and the dream of America.
104. Northlanders, vol. 6: Thor's Daughter and Other Stories by Brian Wood, Simon Gane, et al.
     
     More viking stories. (Library.)
105. The Stuff of Legend, bk. 3 - A Jester's Tale by Mike Raicht, Brian Smith & Charles Paul Wilson III.
     
     For some reason, this volume didn't hold me as much as previous ones. It might be because I read it in fits & starts rather than straight through. It might be because I expected the story to be further along than it turned out to be. Still enjoyed it and looking forward to the next volume, though.

And now, movies:

• Mystery Science Theater 3000: Last of the Wild HorsesThe latest MST3K set is out!
• The Hunger Games. A really good and faithful job of adapting the book. The often shaky camera work sometimes bothered me, but that may have been exacerbated by the fact that we were sitting in the front row.
• MST3K: Code Name: Diamond HeadPilot for a Quinn Martin TV show that never got picket up.
• MST3K: Code Name: King DinosaurI am so lucky Teena also loves watching bad movies with snarky commentary.
• RiffTrax: Hand-Crafted Artisanal Shorts. There are some deeply weird educational shorts out there.
• RiffTrax: The Crater Lake Monster. An atrocious film from the 70s made bearable by some hilarious jokes.

April Fool's Day

No jokes, just some books.

90. Essential Captain America, vol. 6 by various. The first third of this book is by Jack Kirby and is great. The rest of it isn't at the same level, but is still pretty good.
91. The Grave Doug Freshley by Josh Hechinger & mpMann.
    
    Supernatural western. Not bad. (Checked out of the library.)
92. Resurrection Man, vol. 1 by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning & Butch Guice.
    
    I've heard good things about this 90s comic about a guy who, whenever he dies, is resurrected with a new super-power. The things I heard about it are justified. (Library.)
93. Mass Effect, vol. 1: Redemption by Mac Walters, John Jackson Miller & Omar Francia.
    
    While I love the video game series (at least up until the last 5 minutes or so), I would not have picked this up if the games' main writer weren't involved. It's pretty good.
94. Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale by Joss & Zack Whedon & Chris Samnee.
    
    The back story to Shepherd Book. The story skips backwards every few pages, but it still coherent. Beautiful art, too. (Library.)
95. Stephen King's The Stand: The Night Has Come by Roberto Agguirre-Scasa & Mike Perkins.
    
    Final volume of the comic adaptation of King's epic novel. (Borrowed from Teena.)
96. I, Zombie, vol. 3: Six Feet Under and Rising by Chris Roberson & Michael Allred.
    
    Another great volume. Lots of cool new monsters. I can't wait to see where this is going.
97. Explorer: The Mystery Boxes edited by Kazu Kibuishi.
    
    Another great all-ages anthology from Kibuishi & friends. (Borrowed from Teena.)
98. Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer by Van Jensen & Dusty Higgins.
    
    On the one hand, this is a great premise. On the other, it ends up taking itself too seriously. There are angst-ridden moments where Pinocchio remembers Geppetto and his death at the hands of vampires. Come on! This is a comic about a wooden puppet who slays vampires with stakes snapped off his ever-growing nose. Have some fun with it. The best part of this book is the recap of Carlo Collodi's original novel. (Library.)
99. Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, vol. 2: "Trapped on Treasure Island" by Floyd Gottfredson.
    
    The comics collected here are great. Lots of fun and adventure. Unfortunately, as products of the 30s, they are sometimes racist. There's no getting around that. I just try to remember that times were different then and concentrate on the other parts.

I'm going to put off movies until later. I'm taking tomorrow off work, so I may put up an entry then. No guarantees, though.

Not Many Books

85. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
    
    Teena recommended this to me when she read it, but I kept putting it off. Then I realized the movie was coming soon, so I started it. My reading was interrupted by having my appendix removed, but I got back to it and finished it this week. I enjoyed this and am looking forward to seeing the movie soon. (Borrowed from Teena.)
86. Irredeemable, vol. 8 by Mark Waid, Peter Krause, et al.
    
    Still enjoying this series. But I am glad that Waid has a finish-point in mind. This is a story that should definitely come to an end and not drag on forever. (Checked out of the library.)
87. Fear Itself by Matt Fraction & Stuart Immonen.
    
    The latest Marvel cross-over. Okay, as these things go. (Library.)
88. Secret Avengers: Fear Itself by Nick Spencer, Scot Eaton, et al.
    
    Tie-in to the latest Marvel cross-over. (Library.)
89. Sweet Tooth, vol. 4: Endangered Species by Jeff Lemire.
    
    This series just keeps getting better.

And now: several weeks' worth of movies and the like

• Attack the BlockGreat British science fiction movie. The accents are occasionally hard to make out, and the protagonists start out unsympathetic, but it really comes together. I really liked this an heartily recommend it.
• The Venture Bros.: Season OneWatched this while recuperating. The episode that starts with an extensive quote from "Space Oddity" is the one that moved this series into one of my favorites.

And that's it. A medical emergency kind of preempted most of our movie plans.