bookblogging

Graphic novels:

Tamaki, Mariko, words, Jillian Tamaki, drawings (so they are credited on the cover): Skim
(There's a lot to like about this sensitive, gorgeously drawn tale of depression, suicide, and the teenage exploration of sex, romance, and religion, but my single, absolute favorite thing is that Kim's pale, plump, oval face and smudgy black eyebrows make her look like she sprang straight from an old-style Japanese painting.

As I lack the vocabulary to properly discuss the art , I will settle for saying that it's fuckin' gorgeous, and Jillian Tamaki is a good cartoonist, and that the amazing harmony of text and image is a strong argument that collaboration is no barrier to excellence in narrative sequential art).


Crane IV, Walter S.: Sheba vols. 2-3
(Crane really know his stuff. These books are fun, but the biggest pleasure in them is the gimmick of mythological characters illustrated by someone with a deep understanding of the subjects involved).


Kinney, Jeff: Diary of a Wimpy Kid
(This has a lot in common with what I think of as being illustrated texts, where the words stand independently, and the illustrations are essentially decorative, but I feel that this qualifies as a graphic novel, as the words and pictures are regularly integrated, much of the story is conveyed via pictures, and the book could not have achieved the same effect with text alone.

Anyway, I can see why it's so popular! It's very funny, and the tone is perfect. I shall hunt down the sequels).


Manga:

Yokoyama Yuichi: New Engineering
(as David Welsh said, I miss the human trace.

I keep having to remind myself that books are not validated only by my personal desire to read them, and art is not validated only by my personal interest in its aims. It's just that my interest in comics is un-theoretical enough--I like to read lots of different kinds of comics, but I am not seeking the Hand of God, to steal from Hikaru no Go--that to me, this is only interesting insofar as someone pushing at the boundaries of what comics art can do may lead to cool innovations in comics art concerning the human trace).

woo woo!

I can only sit around my apartment reading library graphic novels so long before my butt starts to hurt and I go stir-crazy, so one of the ways I fill my copious free time this summer is by wandering around Boston (or Cambridge and Somerville) and window shopping and developing massive and disgusting blisters all over my feet. Harvard Square is particularly awesome for this sort of thing (although it often leads to me buying things like frozen yogurt or falafel sandwiches or books, which defeats the purpose of wandering around Boston as a cheap, calorie-burning form of entertainment).

I particularly like to hit up the Harvard Book Store, because they have a nice selection of used books and remainders in their basement. I've been there about four times before and never bought anything, but fifth time's the charm--this time, I found used copies of Secret Comics Japan, the old, large-size printing of Shirow's Dominion (it was marginally cheaper for half the price of the original printing than the full price for the new printing), and--this is the one that made me cackle with glee as I stepped out into the street, the proud new owner of it--a copy of Pineapple Army, which is story by some other guy, but art by Urasawa Naoki (I didn't even know it had ever been published in English)! I am one step closer to owning the complete works of Urasawa! Now I just need all of Happy, the rest of Monster, all of 20th Century Boys, all of Pluto, all of Master Keaton, and all of Yawara.

There was also a copy of an old Viz magazine with a Nishi Keiko story--I think it was called Promise?--translated and with an introduction by Matt Thorn, which I stupidly did not buy on the assumption that it would surely duplicate material in my recent acquisition of Love Song. Now that I'm home and have checked, I think it actually didn't. I'll read Love Song tonight and go check again tomorrow.