April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers

Novels/prose books:

Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events: Book the Second: The Reptile Room.

Stephenson, Neal: The Big U
(the wheels fell off somewhere in this book. It's still an enjoyable read, but I can see why he was reluctant to let it be brought back into print; god forbid someone should read this and imagine that this level of writing is what made Stephenson famous. Obviously, this is not as ambitious as one of the monster tomes, like Cryptonomicon, or the Baroque Cycle, but as a shorter work, it doesn't live up to the tighter, more focused plotting of Zodiac. Maybe I should excuse the lack of grounding as probably being intentional--it's very much about the university as a place that's insane and closed-off from the real world, higher education as a mental institution--but it was hard to connect to the book because of that).


Graphic novels:

Lemire, Jeff: Essex County vol. 3: The Country Nurse
(Top Shelf).

Campbell, Ross: Water Baby
(Minx. Wow, creepy. Campbell, doing that thing he does, so weirdly compelling and so well-illustrated).

Abel, Jessica, and Warren Pleece, artists (?), Gabe Soria, writer (?), Hialry Sycamore, colorist: Life Sucks
(First Second. Cute, but not exactly a work for the ages. I vastly prefer Abel's other work--La Perdida, Artbabe--which are better written, and frankly, much better illustrated as well. Abel's linework suffers from the coloring here).

Graphic novels/comics/cartoons:

McGruder, Aaron: The Boondocks: All the Rage
(technically a reread, since I read all these strips in the paper--well, most of them, anyway Well-worth the reading for the reprints of news articles and interviews with McGruder).

Castellucci, Cecil, author, and Jim Rugg, artist: The Plain Janes
(I feel that this has the makings of a decent book, but never quite hits the mark. I was pleased that the flat, cliched portrayal of the high school caste system picked up an inch or so of depth by the end of the book, but it's a lousy start, and the thing lacks nuance. I've heard there's a sequel to this coming out--perhaps it'll be better. I'd really rather read a sequel to Kimmie66 or The Re-gifters, or even Confessions of a Blabbermouth, though).

Dirge, Roman: Something at the Window is Scratching
(worth the price of admission, but ye gods, what an inane foreword. "Children's imaginations are so much bloodier and more grotesque than adult imaginations!" I am paraphrasing that, but nevertheless, way to over-generalize on the nature of children's brains, Mr. Vasquez).


Manga:

Usui Yoshito: Crayon Shin-chan vol. 2
(I don't know what prompted me to pick this up, since when I read volume 1 last year, I found the intensity of the toilet humor too off-putting to be funny. Maybe it's the kind of thing that you just get used to, because I enjoyed it more in this volume, and it's certainly not the material that changed.

The copy I read was the old ComicsOne version, not the rerelease by CMX, which come to think of it, is probably only up to vol. 1 anyway. Something I did not notice in vol. 1 that I did notice here: either the translation or the adaptation is awful. It's riddled with typos--I know all books have them, but this has noticeable typos in every chapter--the translator chose not to even try to tackle puns, and left them in Japanese, and the equivalents given for amounts of yen keep changing from chapter to chapter. I suspect that the variation reflects the normal fluctuation of the exchange rate, and that the translation of different chapters took place over time, but it's very jarring, and there's no translator's notes to clarify the discrepancies.

Individually, none of these things are deal-breakers, but cumulatively, they reflect a less-than-professional effort that is inappropriate in commercial work. You may recall I made a similar complaint about Netcomics and Pine Kiss. I'll cut a lot of slack over genuine translation issues, even the deliberate choice to emphasize literalism over smooth dialogue, but I take exception to cases where it's clear that the publisher isn't trying very hard).

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).