Pluto, Vol. 7, by Naoki Urasawa
After last volume’s seeming-conclusion, I wasn’t sure this installment could retain the momentum that made the series so good. Wrong. Here, Urasawa delves deeper into the mysteries of the past and introduces an interesting flashback technique. Can’t wait for the conclusion – the mysteries’ unraveling promises to be more compelling than the fight.
Books: 11/52
How To Make Webcomics, by Scott Kurtz, Kris Straub, Dave Kellett, and Brad Guigar
I wasn’t sure this book would be that useful. I’ve been doing Split Lip for years and this book’s aimed more at newspaper-style humor strips than short horror comics. Well, I was wrong. My copy is now full of turned-down corners as reminders for great ideas I need to come back to.
Buy How To Make Webcomics at Amazon
Books: 10/52
The Unwritten, vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity
By Mike Carey and Peter Gross
“Stories are the only things worth dying for,” says a character in this meditation on the power of fiction. The main character, a Harry Potter stand-in, may not be a real boy, but a fictional-creation-made-real by his disappeared father. A large mystery world is established – and bears following into the next volume.
Buy The Unwritten, vol. 1 at Amazon
Books: 9/52
The Other, by Thomas Tryon
A subdued horror novel about identical twins – one good, one evil. The book’s terrific atmosphere asks if the twins’ moral divide is so clear. Then it rewrites what you think is happening in a way that must have been shocking then and, though it’s been done a bit since, is very effective.
Books:8/52
Tokyo Vice, by Jake Adelstein
This book tells an interesting story: an American becomes a truly rare thing – a reporter for the Yomiuri Shinbun, Japan’s leading newspaper. The book reveals Japan’s frustratingly chummy media and criminal justice cultures, but its progress bogs down until Adelstein’s passion – fighting human trafficking – appears in the last hundred or so pages.
Books:7/52
Garfield Minus Garfield, by Jim Davis
The concept feels gimmicky (the title tells it: remove the titular character from Garfield strips), but it plays out inspired. Removing the main character reveals the darkly funny and truly tortured life of Jon, Garfield’s owner. A fascinating study in what happens when a seemingly crucial element is removed from a work.
Buy Garfield Without Garfield at Amazon
Books:6/52
Born in the USA, by Geoffrey Himes
Creative types, prepare to be depressed: this book chronicles the 2ish years in which Springsteen wrote Nebraska (which is mostly the demos!), Born in the USA, and dozens of rare gems. The book details a truly remarkable period of creativity and makes a convincing case that this is The Boss’ best album.
Books:5/52
Shade the Changing Man Vol. 1: The American Scream, by Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo
As I recall, this series gets much better as it goes. This installment sees the creators finding their legs, determining what the series is going to be about (putatively: American myths and madness, but I recall it heading elsewhere). It’s slightly gawky, but appealing enough to propel me to the next book.
Buy Shade the Changing Man Vol. 1 at Amazon
Books:4/52
The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God & Other Stories, by Etgar Keret
Keret’s very short stories are long jokes, absurdist sketches, and mordant commentary on modern life, especially as it’s lived in Israel. I enjoyed this book well enough, but all of my favorite stories are elsewhere. These stories seem thin in places, but, overall, it’s a solid entry in his body of work.
Buy The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God & Other Stories at Amazon
Books: 3/52
Inbound Vol. 4, by The Boston Comics Roundtable
Exactly the kind of comic I’d like to see more of: an anthology of stories from Boston’s history, by writers and artists from Boston. As with any anthology, some stories are better than others, and the best stories’ shortness is frustrating (most stories are 4 pages), but I can get behind this.
Buy Inbound Vol. 4
Books: 2/52
Batman Year 100, by Paul Pope
This dystopian future Batman tale by the always-excellent Paul Pope comes straight from deep in the heart of the War on Terror. In this, Batman is the ultimate libertarian, whose very existence is a defense of privacy and civil liberties. An interesting spin on Batman, and of course the art is wonderful.
Books: 1/52
What I Read in 2009
This was my second year of attempting to read 52 books in 52 weeks. And, as in 2008, I met the overall goal.
In 2009, I read 71 books. This was down a bit from 2008, when I read 83, but that’s basically in line with my goal. I had planned to read fewer comics (and did; 41 in 2009 vs. 54 in 2008), which was likely to reduce the overall number of books.
The total breakdown of my 2009 reading was:
Graphic Novel: 41
Non-Fiction: 8
Novels: 12
Short Story Collections: 9
Business: 1
My other achieved goals included reading more short story collections (9 in 2009 vs. 4 in 2008) and more novels (12 in 2009 vs. 10 in 2008). I’d also planned to read 3 business books this year, but, as in 2008, read just 1.
My 2010 reading goals are:
- Keep the number of comics read about level
- Read double-digit non-fiction and short story collections
- Read two business books
I’ll check in in early 2011 with the results.
The Winter Men, by Brett Lewis and John Paul Leon
I feel bad disliking this book. Its tortured history - seven years in development; length changed from 8 issues to 4 to 5 plus a special – surely distorted Lewis/Leon’s intentions. Though loved by comics’ best critics, I disliked this book. I had difficulty understanding what was happening or why I should care.
Books: 72/52
I Have the Right to Destroy Myself, by Young-ha Kim
This is a weird book. It’s a Korean novel about a writer who gets people to hire him to help them commit suicide. Maybe. He might be an American Psycho-style unreliable narrator, too. I don’t have the cultural context to know if this is understated and smart, or just under-realized and odd.
Buy I Have the Right to Destroy Myself at Amazon
Books: 71/52
There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby, by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
This should be right up my alley: dark fairy tales and short stories with fantasy/fairy tale overtones. But it doesn’t work for me. Part of it may be the emphasis on allegory (not my thing, I’m finding); part may be the unrelentingly bleak Russian setting. Maybe not my thing, also, I guess.
Buy There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby at Amazon
Books: 70/52
Blankets, by Craig Thompson
A really interesting, richly realized memoir about growing up as a misfit and finding comfort and connection in a first love. In American comics, so much action is compressed that it’s refreshing to see an artist stretch a story that might be 50-100 pages into a 500-page memoir. An appealing, affecting work.
Books: 69/52
Pluto Vol. 6, by Naoki Urasawa
It’s hard to believe this isn’t the concluding volume; practically everything wraps up here. It could be the last book, but there are two to go. A common problem with Japanese comics is the drive to continue popular stories beyond what’s necessary. I hope that’s not the case with this great story.
Books: 68/52
The Ruins, by Scott Smith
This Americans-on-vacation horror novel is intense, queasy, non-stop. The villain, if you can say there is one, is impressively original. The novel could be a textbook for an ethics class: there are impossible choices for the characters every few pages and it’s hard to argue with the decision that dooms the characters.
Books: 67/52
Fires, by Nick Antosca
Conceptually, right up my alley: A novel about wildfires revealing the horrifying, hidden secrets of a quiet suburban neighborhood. It didn’t quite work for me, though. Too many metaphors, not enough plot, too much obsession with dysfunctional sex and tortured relationships. Though it dragged on, I’m curious to see where Antosca goes.
Books: 66/52
Lush Life, by Richard Price
A virtuoso, beautiful book about cops, crime, history, urban development, and the ghost kicked up by the old becoming new. Pure pleasure on every page, from Price’s rhythms of daily life and delicious dialogue. I was surprised, though, at how much the Brooklyn funeral revived my distaste for the NYC hipster scene.
Books: 65/52
20th Century Boys, Vol. 5, by Naoki Urasawa
I believe this series runs 20 volumes, though it’s hard to imagine how the plot could last that long. Still, Urasawa’s technique of cutting away just before major climaxes (as he does here, just before the battle the last four books seemed to be building towards) indicates that he’s got a plan.
Buy 20th Century Boys vol. 5 at Amazon
Books: 64/52
Columbine, by Dave Cullen
This magnificent book, which explodes most of the conventional wisdom about Columbine, made me think about how we filter disturbing events through our own experiences, and thus gravely misunderstand them. It also made me wonder if a psychopath like Eric Harris is human in the same way as the rest of us.
Books: 63/52
Pixu, by Gabriel Ba, Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos, Fabio Moon
I read this in singe issues, so the plot of this haunted apartment building tale held no surprises. Still, it was a worthwhile read: I’ve been thinking about pacing and structure in horror comics and this is a master class. So creepy, so surreal, and so formally intelligent, it merits repeated study.
Books: 62/52
Just One Look, by Harlan Coben
As I understand it, Coben is respected as a writer of smart, modern, tight crime thrillers. His novel of the same name was the basis of the film Tell No One, which was really good. This, however, was terrible. Bad writing, poor plot, cardboard characters. Nothing to see here; move it along.
Books: 61/52
