Further proof of my philistinism: this was written by a Nobel prize winner, I hated it. It read like a horror novel without the horror, the writing never captured my attention, the characters never came alive. And what was with the comma splicing? It was on purpose, but I don’t understand why.
Buy Blindness at Amazon.com
Book: 83/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Dec 30, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | 2 Comments »
A second tome by Larson intertwining Victorian murder and scientific/cultural developments. Not as engaging as
The Devil in the White City, due to the subjects (just as Marconi is less interesting to me than the White City/Olmstead, so was Crippen a less interesting murderer than Holmes) and formula. Still, an interesting book.
Buy Thunderstruck at Amazon.com
Book: 82/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Dec 28, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
Continuing Rick Geary’s series on history’s greatest crimes and murders. These are classics for anyone who enjoys historical true crime or non-fiction history, whether in prose or comics. The story here is familiar, of course, and though the execution isn’t flashy, Geary’s fantastic draftsmanship and quirky style and characters are a joy.
Buy The Lindbergh Child at Amazon.com
Book: 81/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Dec 28, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
Edited by Paul Karasik
A collection of comics from obscure titles of the 30s and 40s. Among the most bizarre and strange sci-fi/superhero comics I’ve read - brief, strange, with huge leaps of logic, but pure entertainment. Little prepared me for the gleeful madness and barely contained violence coming from the author that these stories demonstrate.
Buy I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets at Amazon.com
Book: 80/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Dec 27, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
Based on the true story about teenagers who murdered a friend in working-class Philadelphia in 2003. A remarkable debut – tautly written, drawn with technical excellence and depth, and showing a deep grasp of illustrating character through small strokes of language and art. It achieves something truly unusual in comics: being truly disturbing.
Buy Fishtown at Amazon.com
Book: 79/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Dec 26, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
Connected short stories following one character through 12 years of her life, with issue covering her life in a different city across North America. A well-executed book with solid writing and art. Conventional wisdom says this kind of comic doesn’t sell – I hope that’s wrong; I’d love to write something like this.
Buy Local at Amazon.com
Book: 78/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Dec 25, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
This one caught me a little off-guard or I would have mentioned it sooner, but, as of Wednesday, Dec. 17, I’m a professional comics writer.
My debut story, “It Must Have Been Something You Ate,” is one of the three stories in Boom Studio’s Cthulhu Tales #9. Cthulhu Tales is an anthology series that uses the characters, settings, and themes created by fellow Providence resident H.P. Lovecraft in his Cthulhu mythos stories. My story is a modern twist on this and involves a very strange kind of meat indeed.
The cover is drawn by all-around great guy and my future comics collaborator Shane Okaley.
Cthulhu Tales #9 can be bought online at the Boom site or in finer comics shops everywhere.
Dec 19, 2008 | Categories: Comics | Leave A Comment »
Eisner has a claim on the title “the father of the graphic novel” thanks to books like this, which examines the history of a New York building and four people whose lives entwined with it. This thoughtfully rendered book debuted in 1987, 15 years before the current boom in non-genre graphic novels.
Buy The Building at Amazon.com
Book: 77/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Dec 18, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
Umezu is a treasure – he’s been making comics for 40 years, created some of the greatest horror comics (he’s called the Stephen King of Japan), and is hilariously weird on the page and in life. This 500-page collection from the late 1960s has moments, but pales in comparison to his other works.
Buy Cat-Eyed Boy, Vol. 1 at Amazon.com
Book: 76/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Dec 16, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
I usually avoid wordless comics. They feel too flimsy, lacking serious characters or story. Not so
House. This wordless horror novel crushes you with hopelessness and the grim endings for three friends exploring an abandoned house. No comic has left me feeling so queasy, dark, and beaten up in a long time.
Buy House at Amazon.com
Book: 75/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Dec 14, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso
100 Bullets is perhaps the greatest crime series in comics history. Each installment is a marvel of betrayal, violence, sex and conspiracy. The mechanics are great, the art wonderful. The problem with this volume? I read it three weeks ago and barely remember what happened. Still, the upcoming conclusion should be excellent.
Buy 100 Bullets, Vol. 12: Dirty at Amazon.com
Book: 74/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Dec 12, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
by Dave Sim and Gerhard
Nearly 200 pages of comics about a day or so, ending on two of notes of remarkable visceral horror. Cerebus’s life’s work is perverted and scuttled, then, upon his death, he’s tricked one more time and denied heaven. Daring end, though Sim’s religious/philosophical musings are perhaps indicative of some kind of disorder.
Buy Cerebus Vol. 16 at Amazon.com
Book: 73/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Dec 10, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
Still looking for that perfect holiday gift? Well, have I got a deal for you! Two volumes of my horror comic, Split Lip, were published in Australia earlier this year. Unfortunately the economy forced the publisher out of business, but I’ve come into his remaining stock of the comics and am selling them.
There are two volumes, each weighing in at 100 pages of comics. These are fairly rare - only about 100 copies of each was printed, and I’ve got what I believe to be the only 15 copies of each in the United States - so, someday when I’m amazingly famous, these will put your kids through college. True fact.
I’m selling them at US$15 each, shipping including to the U.S. and Canada. It’s a great deal and if you want some horror comics all your own, I suggest you make with the buying.
Dec 06, 2008 | Categories: Comics | Leave A Comment »
A terrific short story collection about how we use work to mask our pain, but also the ways in which work creates that pain. Saunders’ characters – many work at some very strange historical theme parks – have both a mordant humor and feel lost in their own lives, making them interesting, but pathetic.
Buy Civilwarland in Bad Decline at Amazon.com
Book: 72/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Dec 05, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
Brubaker and Philips chronicle the quest for the truth about his brother’s death by a one-time criminal and solider, Tracy Lawless. Great comics in the true noir sensibility, full of double crosses, dangerous women, haunting guilt, and brutal histories. Any fan of film or detective noir would do well to read Criminal.
Buy Criminal Vol. 2 at Amazon.com
Book: 71/52
52/52: An ongoing project to read one book a week and document those books with reviews of 52 words each.
Dec 03, 2008 | Categories: 52 Books/52 Weeks | Leave A Comment »
