April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers

Graphic novels/comics:

Baldock, Kirsten, writer, Fabio Moon, artist: Smoke and Guns
(shades of "writing a story based on what you love"--in this case, girls in fetishy outfits, lots of cigarette smoking by women young enough that they aren't showing any of the outer signs of the way cigarettes destroy your body, and lots of guns and gunfire. We do get to see some of the outer signs of how guns destroy your body, though. Whee? Well, Baldock and Moon clearly enjoyed themselves making this, and it's a fun romp if you don't mind all the male-oriented fanservice, casual violence, and the most over-the-top glamorization of smoking I've ever seen. Really, I think the only way you could make the smoking/sex thing more obvious would be if you created a line of cigarette-shaped dildos and sheaths...).

Eisner, Will, artist and adapter, Herman Melville, author: Moby Dick.

Sipe, Harold, story, Hector Casanova, art: Screamland (issues 2-5)
(ahhh, the high-concept comic. I kinda dig Dracula--Dracula in the closet to protect his movie career as a ladies man/sex icon is certainly a clever undercutting of the trope. None of the rest of it feels that inspired to me, but it's cute).

Masereel, Frans: Story Without Words: a novel in pictures, Passionate Journey: A Vision in Woodcuts, The City: A Vision in Woodcuts
(I dig the more precise, detailed style of The City to the rougher, thicker lines of the others, but all of it works pretty well. I do keep having to remind myself that this would have been more mind-blowing to an audience that had not grown up reading comics and graphic novels and wasn't already utterly familiar with wordless art sequences. To me, these are good pieces of work in a style I already know (and like less than genuine word/image fusions), but I know that once upon a time, this was revolutionary).

Swain, Carol: Foodboy
(eek).

Dupuy, Philippe: Haunted
(D&Q. The back says this is Dupuy's second solo effort away from fellow creator Charles Berberian, distinct from the tightly constructed narratives and urbane, elegant graphics of his projects with Berberian. Frankly, I'd think I'd rather see the tightly constructed narratives and urbane, elegant aesthetic of those projects; the loose, floppy, and rather pointless shorts that make up this book did not interest or impress me).

Rabagliati, Michel: Paul has a summer job
(Recommended! I loved this book hard. It's so lovely to read an graphic novel/memoir about someone who wasn't a wasted stoner asshole in his youth, even if he did go through a period of feeling frustrated and directionless. This is a beautiful, happy book about decent people something doing something good and enjoying it, and learning from it. A fun to read, well-illustrated account of what I baselessly assume is the author's experience of working as a counselor at a summer camp for underprivileged kids back in 1979, shortly after he'd dropped out of high school. These are either happy memories for Rabagliati or a really good fictional approximation of same, and he clearly enjoys relating them, but without any sense from the narrator of regret or wishing he could go back--it's enough to have had the experience and grown from it. I'm really impressed with Rabagliati, and will look for books by him in the future.

As I over the book again, I realize that it nowhere claims to be a memoir or non-fiction--I just assumed it was! I have edited my comments accordingly).

Graphic novels:

Talbot, Brian: The Tale of One Bad Rat.


Hernandez, Gilbert: Luba: Three Daughters
(I was initially freaked out by the big boobs, but eventually I realized that it was a deliberate choice of character designs, and the boob size is thematically meaningful. Stop laughing at me, you fucker, it is!

I've put off reading any of the Hernandez brothers' work because I knew it was going to be like jumping into the deep end of a pool: you shouldn't do it unless you're prepared to swim. Like swimming in the deep end, though, it's a lot of fun if you're ready. I look forward to more).


Richardson, Mike, and Rick Geary, authors, Rick Geary, artist: Cravan: Mystery Man of the the Twentieth Century
(Rick Geary work is fun even when there are no horrible murders!).

Eisner, Will: The Name of the Game.

Van Lente, Fred, author, Ryan Dunlavery, artist: Action Philosophers vol. 3
(I've nothing at all against popularizations of complicated subjects, but some of these feel uncomfortably pat. Maybe I just don't entirely agree with some of the characterizations of the persons under discussion).


Manga:

Otomo Katsuhiro: Akira vol. 2.

Graphic novels/comics:

Eisner, Will: The Will Eisner Reader
(this stuff never gets old).

Brennan, Michael: Electric Girl vol. 2
(Bugaloo! C'mon, someone had to say it. This was kinda only okay; I might have liked it better if I started with volume 1, but since the stories are all stand-alones, it seems like I shouldn't have to? It was sort of cute, occasionally rising to "mildly interesting"; the writing just passes muster; art's solid, cartoony, good stuff, but nothing earthshaking. I welcome the diversity of material in the field; I don't think I'd buy this for myself. On the plus side, it's always interesting to see superhero tropes handled outside of a superhero universe).

Alexovich, Aaron: Kimmie66
(another Minx offering, for anyone keeping track. I enjoyed this. I don't really dig the Nick-cartoon-style art, but Alexovich knows how to work it. The writing is solid, sometimes clever, and he's got a lovely ear for narrative voice; it's a lot of fun to read the words he writes. It's a good book, and worth picking up, and a treatment of futuristic virtual reality, net society, net identity, and artificial intelligence that did not at any point make me want to shake the author until their head snapped back. That's always refreshing).

Baker, Kyle: I Die At Midnight
(Jesus fucking christ I love Kyle Baker. I'd propose to him, but I'm fairly certain he's happily married and has a lovely daughter and also it would be weird for him. But he's just that good. And he's so cool! He has a dazzling signature style; his comics look completely amazing and not like anyone else's, he's clever, he can put together a solid story, and the madcap hijinks! And the wry, in-passing social commentary! And the in media res character sketches that plunge you into a brilliant, colorful, energetic story! Have I mentioned that he's frequently hilarious? My preference in comics art is for clean-ish black and white art, but brilliant Kyle Baker may yet seduce me into color).

Gaiman, Neil, author, and Clive Barker, artist: Violent Cases
(cool to look at, cool to read, ultimately probably pointless. It was a disservice to zip through this at the library, although I feel I gleaned the essentials. I will say that it likely deserves its praise; it is awfully readable for a style that can easily descend into irritating meandering (this danger exists for art and writing both, and god help you if they don't gel), and that that narrator looks suspiciously like Neil Gaiman. And I would take this over any of Gaiman's prose novels).


Manga:

Tatsumi Yoshihiro: The Push Man and other stories
(I'm not sorry I read this, despite it being depressing in a nasty, profane sort of way, and with no sense of redeeming importance, but boy am I ever glad I borrowed it from the library instead of buying it for $20.

I think it's good comics, and an interesting example of the variety possible within the medium. But unlike Will Eisner, this stuff gets old).

Hirano Kohta: Hellsing vol. 1
(I can see the appeal. It's silly and way too violent, but against my better judgement, I will probably read more; I like the ridiculous characters).

Tanaka Masashi: Gon Swimmin'
(containing: Gon Becomes a Turtle, Gon in the Desert or something to that effect, and Gon and His Posse or something to that effect. The word "posse" was definitely in the title. I didn't have pencil and paper at the library, sorry.

Please don't think less of me for this, but OMG OMG OMG HOW CUTE AND AWESOME. This is my first-ever Gon book, but I assure you it will not be my last, because this is brilliant and hilarious. TINY CUTE T-REX. AND SOMETIMES HE HAS A POSSE OF ASSORTED FELINE PREDATORS. WHY NOT? HE'S GON. HE CAN DO THAT IF HE WANTS. And the art, oh wow, what amazing art!

When Chuck Norris goes to bed at night, he checks under his bed for TOPH. When Toph goes to bed at night, she checks under her bed for GON. And when she finds him there, they cuddle up and go to sleep like Gon snuggling with an emu in the desert, because they are essentially the same soul split into different bodies. And species. And families).

Bookblogging is a great way to procrastinate on finishing my Archives paper. FTW.

Novels/prose books:

Dodd, Christina: My Favorite Bride
(from the review blurbs on the back cover, I was hoping this would be better than it is. It's moderately entertaining, it's inoffensive, but I don't want to read romance novels that are just adequate; I want to read romance novels that are good. I'd go into detail about all the little details that keeps this stuck at "adequate," but it's not really worth it).


Graphic novels:

Dranger, Joanna Rubin: Miss Remarkable and Her Career
(It's, it's like someone put a tap into my brain. And I'm not even an overachiever. Damn).

Eisner, Will: A Contract With God
(the version or edition or printing that includes the other Dropsie Avenue stories. The Dropsie Avenue stories are new to me, but I'd read the Contract story before. It was worth reading again. In fact, I'm beginning to think it should be sort of a standard, to make Eisner your touchstone. Go off and read or write or draw comics for a year or three, then come back and read Eisner and realize what you've been missing that he figured out a long time ago.

Eisner draw the cohesive page before I was even ever born; he even explained it in the preface. Text/art/layout as a coherent whole, creating, forgive me, a visual synergy. He knew what he wanted to do, did it, published it, explained it. And it is good. Why hasn't the American comics industry learned from Eisner? They've had almost thirty years for this to sink in. How long is this going to take?).


Manga:

Ogawa: Tramps Like Us vol. 12
(hey, the plot's actually advancing. But am I ready, after a mere twelve volumes? And...cocaine poisoning? Oh fer crissakes. Was that necessary, Ogawa? Was it really? What is this ah, Bartleby shit?).

Takahashi: Musashi 9 vol. 1
(I've wanted to read this for a while, since it's early '90s, and manga from the '80s is generally so cool. Unfortunately, this isn't very good. But now I know, and knowing is half the battle).