What I'm Currently Reading

I know I love finding out what people are reading, so I'm going to share my list of what I've recently finished and what I plan on reading over the next month or so. I hope it inspires you to read all of this stuff so I can have intelligent conversations with you instead of the normal small talk and chit chat that we call "conversation" but is actually just a facade to cover up your own insecurities and fears. Plus, you're pretty boring. Anyway, here's the list:

WHAT I JUST FINISHED:

Here They Come by Yannick Murphy. 30% great. It's supposedly a novel, but it's not. It's an extended short story with a nice prose style but little else. It's thin and underdeveloped and disappointing. Don't bother.

In Persuasion Nation by George Saunders. 80% great. You should read the whole collection anyway, because George Saunders is easily the best short story writer in the history of the universe. Or at least one of my top five favorites, anyway. Just read the book.

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. 45% great. The Lincoln chapter is worth the cover price. The Garfield stuff is somewhat interesting, but the McKinley section is dullsville (yes, I said dullsville because I am a beatnick all of a sudden, daddy-o). I really loved the Lincoln stuff though. Maybe you should just read that part, then return the book (perhaps use that thing they call a lie-berry).

Doom Patrol issues 19-63. 95% great. I'm writing about these issues in my Futurespective: Grant Morrison column at sequart.com. By the way, Sequart is sending me a contract this week so you just might see my book on the shelves in time for Christmas. (Ask Santa for it, because I ain't givin' you no free copy, sucker.)

Easy by Kerry Cohen Hoffman. 96% great. Kerry just moved to the Berkshires and I met her the other day. She'll be teaching some summer courses at Word Street and we're all definitely excited to have such an impressive writer join our crew. Her book, though, is excellent. It's marketed as a Young Adult novel, but I think it transcends that label without a doubt. You should read this book.

Solo issue 11, featuring the work of Sergio Aragones. 92% great. This series features a different comic book artist each month (actually, I think it's bi-monthly, but whatever), and collects new stories by just that one artist (hence, "Solo"). Previous issues have been fantastic, and this one is no exception. Sadly, the title has been cancelled, and it will end after issue 12. It's probably one of the consistently most entertaining and interesting comic books DC publishes, and they shouldn't cancel it. But sales suck, apparently, because people are idiots. So don't be an idiot. Buy it while it's still around.

On the video front, I also just finished the complete second season of Deadwood and the complete first season of The Venture Brothers. I HIGHLY recommend both. 95% great at least. Both series get better each episode and look so darn purty on my fancy TV. I like purty stuff.

WHAT'S IN MY TO-BE-READ PILE:

Atomik Aztex by Sesshu Foster. This was a Believer recommendation, and it's been compared to some other book I read that I'm totally blanking on, but anyway, something made me want to read it and the title is cool, so it must be good, right? I'll let you know.

Strong Opinions by Vladimir Nabokov. I'm actually about halfway done with this. It's a collection of interviews with Nabokov and it's no good to read in one sitting because some of the interviews are kinda similar. But spaced out, it's great, because Nabokov is a genius and probably the greatest novelist of the 20th century. No lie.

The Grove Centenary Editions of Samuel Beckett Boxed Set by Samuel Beckett, obviously. This is the four-volume hardcover collection that I am totally going to order as soon as I have some more money. I think I love the idea of the collection as much as I'm excited about the collection's contents, and it will probably take me a year to pace myself and read everything (I have trouble reading plays unless I'm preparing to teach them), but how can I resist such a nice set of books? I can't.

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. I finished half of this and then got caught up in end-of-the-school-year stuff that made me set it aside. I started it because I plan on systematically reading everything that Nabokov covers in his "Lectures on Literature" book. This is just the first title he lectures on. I think Bleak House is next. That's gonna take me a while.

Uncanny X-Men Omnibus by Claremont, Cockrum, and Byrne. This thing is huge. Like 900 pages of oversized X-Men reprints from the glory days. I have probably read these stories back in the late 80's when they were reprinted in the "Classic X-Men" series, but my memory of the stories is imperfect. I can't wait to start reading them again in this much nicer format.

Alpha Flight issues 1-25, by John Byrne. I read a book of interviews with comic book creator John Byrne a month or so ago. Byrne used to be my favorite artist when I was a kid, but as he became more of a crackpot and his style loosened up, I drifted away from his work. After reading that book, I recalled why I liked him in the old days. In his prime, he was as good as anyone. I began looking on Ebay for complete runs of his various titles, and I picked up a few things like "Generations" and "Jack Kirby's Fourth World," but I was really interested in completing my run of his Alpha Flight series (which featured the one and only Canadian super-team). Well, when I stopped in Fantasy Realms to buy my comics this week, respected owner James Arlemagne (hey James) pointed out his brand new dollar comic bins, and sure enough, he just happened to have all the issues I was missing (which was a heap of issues--but getting them for a buck each was cool, especially when the average comic book is $3.00 these days). So, yeah, I'll be reading these issues soon.

For future video action, I plan on a lot more TV shows on DVD this summer. I don't really have a huge pile of movies on the agenda, though I'm sure I own plenty that I haven't seen (Malick's "The New World" and Clooney's "Good Night and Good Luck" probably top the list--I'll see them some day). I would like to catch up on my Justice League viewing. I own Seasons One and Two and I want to watch those episodes in order, and Judy and I plan on finishing up (if possible) the second half of the Buffy and Angel seasons (actually, I don't think we're quite halfway yet--we're around Season Five for Buffy, I know that). Judy loves the Whedon shows, and I haven't seen all the episodes, so that's our big geek TV project for the summer (and maybe next summer by the looks of things).

That should keep me busy for a while.

And if you have any recommendations for what else needs to be addded to my list, let me know.

Ulric by Jeff Lemire

"Lost Dogs" creator Jeff Lemire sent me this crazy sketch after I praised his work on this blog (and e-mailed him with compliments). I guess the character's name is "Ulric" although I thought he was nameless in the graphic novel (maybe I just missed the part where his name was mentioned). Anyway, "Lost Dogs"=Good Stuff.

Drawn on a Scrap of Paper Tonight

Superhero Leg: Episode 2--The Showdown

Recommended: Lost Dogs

This is the best graphic novel I've read this year: "Lost Dogs" by Jeff Lemire (and I've read a lot of stuff this year--I like Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness a ton, but this is better). It's a haunting story about a man trying to do what's right. Just look at that cover. If that cover doesn't make you want to read the book then you won't understand the beauty of the book anyway, so don't bother. But if that cover looks intriguing, with its splashes of red and blocky composition, then you just might be cool enough to get what makes the book so special. Check out Jeff's website at www.ashtraypress.com to see more of his work (and a preview of his upcoming stuff).

Superhero Leg: Episode 1

MOME

I bought the first issue of MOME, the Fantagraphics comic anthology last summer at Comic-Con, and I enjoyed it, but I was a bit disappointed by it as well. I guess I was hoping to see an anthology with a lot of diverse work by different artists and each issue would be full of new and different creators. I was hoping for something like that Chris Ware McSweeney's issue, published every four months. Instead, MOME uses a regular group of artists who each produce one or two new things each quarter. So even though I liked the first issue, I wasn't excited about seeing just these same creators again and again. But I was wrong. After picking up issues #2 and #3 at the MoCCA fest last weekend, I realized that MOME is much more interesting and signficant than I originally thought. First of all, they have brought in a few new artists (like David B.) and the regular artists are producing some excellent work each time. It's such a nicely packaged book too. So, I've reversed my opinion. You should buyMOME. Regularly.

My new pledge

Okay--I forced you to look at my glorious moustache long enough. Now that the school year's winding down, I can update this thing more often, so you can look forward to AT LEAST two updates a week beginning THIS WEEK and running all summer if not forever...

I have so many things to discuss. Like the old photos I found at my aunt's house--I stole a few and I will be posting them with commentary to trace the development of my awesome hairstyles over the decades. Also, I just got back from MoCCA fest and that place was hoppin' with comic book goodness, so I'll have to take some time to wade through all of my purchases, but I'll soon be posting some "hey, kids, comics!" alerts and reviews and recommendations. Plus, if you're lucky, I'll even post some fancy new drawings that you may not have seen yet--MoCCA fest certainly inspired me to whip out the pens and brushes and get to work.

Until then, check out the brand new Word Street website--I'll be back in a day or two with new stuff here.

That's Right--You're Jealous

International Moustache Awareness Day: April 18, 2006. Admit it, you're jealous.

Book in Progress

So I know I haven't updated this thing in weeks, but I've been busy. Busier than you, obviously, if you actually have time to read this junk. Anyway, I've had some requests (one request--from my brother) to link from here directly to my supergenius work in progress at Sequart.com. It's a weekly column now, but within a year or so, it will be a book on Grant Morrison. You'll see. And I may autograph your copy if you pay me enough.

So check out my Animal Man essay. Once you're there you can see links to all my previous posts. I suggest you read them in order, otherwise you will make the Earth rotate backwards thereby reversing time and saving Lois Lane and stuff.

750 Pages?

I've projected forward for the next year and a half to see how many weeks it would actually take to finish the Grant Morrison column I've started, assuming I spend a fair amount of time on each major project and assuming he only does about five more things in the upcoming year (that's probably about right--plus or minus a couple).


It would end up being about 75 columns. The ones I've completed so far have averaged about 10 pages each (3,000 words or so), which would make the entire project amount to approximately 750 pages. That's crazy, right? I can't possibly have that much to say about these comic books. Actually, I do. But who has time to write this stuff? What's the over/under on the day I quit this column? Think I can make it until the end?

High Concept

I was teaching a writing course at Word Street tonight, and I was talking about generating story ideas using public-domain literary/historical characters. Then I said, to illustrate what NOT to do, "You don't have to do something ridiculous like pit Ahab vs. Jack the Ripper in Central Park..." and then I caught myself and told them that was such an awesome idea that they couldn't have it because I was definitely writing that story myself. I'm not actually going to write that story, but you can imagine how awesome it would be. Then I thought about it some more on the way home and realized that you could act out your own version of the story in three simple steps: (1) Purchase Ahab and Jack the Ripper action figures from ebay;




(2) Go to Central Park;




and (3) Crush the puny whore-killer beneath the cybernetic peg-leg of the mighty Ahab! I've provided pictures to set the scene--you can do the rest.

Prepare to Have Your Mind Blown

Here it is: my Sequart column that will make you smarter!

ZENITH: PHASE ONE

And An Update on My Column

As I posted a few weeks ago, I have joined sequart.com as a columnist. Originally I had planned to write a bi-weekly column which provided an analysis of Grant Morrison's work from Zenith until now. If I spent one column on each major work, I would have caught up to Morrison by the middle of 2007. After re-reading Zenith, however, I found so much stuff to write about that I've had to revise those plans. Now I will post the Sequart column weekly, and I will take as many columns as I need to cover each work. I had to make this change (and Mike Phillips, my editor, agreed with me) because I couldn't possibly condense my analysis to only a few pages. So my Zenith analysis will take four columns, and I've written the first two already. Each column has ended up being about 10 pages long--so by the time I'm done with Zenith alone, I will have 40 pages of analysis. And it's good stuff, too! You'll see when you read it. You'll see that Morrison's work is dense with allusion and symbolism, and his themes are profound.

The first analysis column will go live on Monday (3/27), and from then on it will begin its weekly run for as long as I have stuff to write about (which will be years). Check it all out on Monday and let me know what you think about the column, about Grant Morrison, and about anything else on your mind.

Top 10 Superhero Cartoons

I'm in the mood for a nice, tasty Top 10 List. I'll throw this out there and you can tell me how wrong I am and reply with your own list (even though we all know I'm right pretty much all the time, but I'll humor you).

So here are the TOP 10 SUPERHERO CARTOON SHOWS OF ALL TIME:

10) The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
This is not really a superhero cartoon, true, but it's cowboys in space with laser blasters. To be honest, I remember liking this show quite a bit, but I haven't seen it in years. There's at least one DVD of this, but no full seasons or anything good, so I haven't bothered to pick it up. I do remember that some of the characters have mustaches, and therefore it is even better than Star Wars. Wouldn't Tarkin have been all the more menacing with a nice handlebar mustache?

9) Space Ghost
No, not Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast. That show may be funny, yes, but it features neither Jan, Jace, nor Blip. Not that I like those characters at all, but I do like Gary Owens, and I like when Spacey turns invisible and then blasts stuff with his wrist. That makes me happy.

8) Spider Man and His Amazing Friends
You know how kids always confuse The Silver Surfer with Iceman? Well, this show taught me the difference between the two, and therefore it is not only entertaining, but highly educational. Plus, didn't their dorm room (or whatever) transform into a superhero HQ by walls spinning around and the desk flipping over? Did that really happen? If not, it should have. Remember that one episode where Dr. Doom get the power to change reality by making wishes? Neither do I, but that sounds like it could have been an episode, right?

7) Thundercats
Panthro had nunchuks. What else is there?

6) The Herculoids
This was a show I could only watch when I visited my Grandfather's house on Sundays--actually, that's true about Space Ghost too. We didn't get that Hanna-Barbera channel. But I do remember Gloop and Gleep, but I was baffled by their uselessness and their similarity to the Shmoo, who was seen in those days with Fred Flintstone on some horribly-conceived show. But the Herculoids? They have a Triceratops that shoots out energy blobs. Therefore, they rule.

5) Superman: The Animated Series
At one point in my life, possibly the other day, I would have argued that this mid-90s version of Superman was a better show than Batman: TAS. My theory was that it's easier to do Batman--he's got a better cast of characters and you don't have to do much to make him cool. Superman, on the other hand, has Luthor and Brainiac and that's about it for villains. And he's so perfect and dull, he's hard to do well. This series does it well. Largely because they take a Jack Kirby approach to the whole shebang. It's probably not as immortal as the Batman series, though. True.

4) Challenge of the Super-Friends
This is the one with The Legion of Doom. Obviously the comic book series Justice, the new JLU storyline, and the roster-tastic Secret Society of Super-Villains series all owe a debt to this cartoon. I have watched this show recently on DVD and it's still great. It's preposterous, the characters lack depth, and there is almost not attempt at internal continuity, but its still awesome. Wicked awesome.

3) Batman: The Animated Series
So yeah, I'll admit, it is better that Superman: TAS. It has more classic episodes, and it's more stylish. I'm not a fan of the pixie-revamp that went on in the Third (?) season, where everyone became pointy-looking and darker, but overall, this is obviously the right way to do superheroes. When the series is ten times better than the Batman comics of the time, it's clearly a work of genius.

2) Aqua Teen Hunger Force
I have Mooninites socks. That I wear.

1) Justice League Unlimited
This show gets the number one spot for three reasons: (1) it's ending soon, so I'm appreciating it all the more in its final weeks; (2) It's cool; (3) It features an insane amount of characters, famous and obscure and it makes me happy when I can name them all and tell my wife and children who's who and what their powers are. They don't listen to me, of course, but I make them listen. I make them listen. I make. Them. Listen.

21 Pages of Notes...

This Grant Morrison column is already kicking my butt. The first real post is due by the end of the week, it's supposed to be around 1,000 words, and it's supposed to cover Zenith in its entirety. Zenith is broken up into 4 Phases, and I've combed through Phases One and Two so far, found a ton of stuff worth writing about (21 pages of notes so far!) and I'm only halfway done (not even halfway really, since Phase Three is the longest section by far).

The reason I'm writing this column is to force myself to produce chapters which will then form a book about Grant Morrison. Since I see it as a book project, I'm going into the text deeply, but because the column is due every two weeks, and is supposed to be relatively short (I could easily write 10,000 words on Zenith, but would anyone want to read that much? Probably not. Would I have time to produce that much by the deadline? Definitely not).

By the way, the picture of the Zenith collection shows a swastika in the background because in Phase One, Zenith FIGHTS a resurrected Nazi villain. Plus, the swastika symbolizes something else in the context of the larger story, but you'll have to read my column at Sequart.com next Monday to find out what (if I have room to fit that explanation, that is).

My New Column!

So I am now a bi-weekly columnist at sequart.com which is a site devoted to the "serious study of comic books and graphic novels." I met the guys who run the site when I was at the NYCC, and they invited me to submit something to them. I decided to bring my Grant Morrison obsession to the fore and submit a regular column analyzing his major work. And they liked it, so now I'm officially a columnist.

The column is called Futurespective and you can read the first column here.

Check it out, let me know what you think.

From now on I will be charging $10 for you to take a photo with me because I'm so friggin' famous.

Recommendation: Nextwave

If you haven't already picked it up, go get Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen's "Nextwave," published by Marvel. Issue 2 is out now, but unless your retailer had the foresight to order this thing properly, it will be gone soon (and I'm sure issue 1 is long gone), because this book is the best comic out this week.

It's got a theme song--there's a link to it here: Nextwave preview!

Here are the lyrics, and if they don't make you want to read the comic, then you should just give up on trying to be cool:

It's like Shakespeare
But with lots more punching
It's like Goethe
But with lots more crushing
Like Titanic
But the boat's still floating
No it's not!
The motherfucking boat is exploding!
NEXTWAVE!
NEXTWAVE!

Dirk Anger
Is one crazy mamma-jamma
He leads HATE
Sitting around in his pretty pink pajamas
HATE was formed
By the Beyond Coporation
Purposely
To bring about catastrophic devastation!

NEXTWAVE!
NEXTWAVE!

Do you want a haircut?
The Beyond Corporation's gonna help you out
Do you need a toothbrush?
The Beyond Corporation's got an extra one
Do you have a step-son?
The Beyond Corporation's gonna rub him out
Do you see a monster?
Or a pirate?
Electric emu?
A giant sky-rat?
A midget Hitler?!
Or Pontius Pilate!

Don't call your mom or your doctor,
Just pick up the phone and call!

NEXTWAVE! Wooawoaah
NEXTWAVE!

Give us a NextWave rollcall!

MONICA!
Is gonna microwave your (whistle)
TABBY!
Is gonna steal all your stuff!
AARON!
Is going to organize your sock drawer!
ELSA!
Is gonna speak with an accent!
THE CAPTAIN!
His name is The Captain!

NEXTWAVE!
NEXTWAVE!
NEXTWAVE! Somebody please, please call...
NEXTWAVE!

For God's sake, somebody call NextWave...

END OF SONG

Issue 2 has Fin Fang Foom threatening to put the good guys in his pants.

It's funny and full of 'splosions (the issue, not his pants).

Trust me, you'd like it.

In Defense of "Surface"

I don't watch very much television. I used to watch basically nothing, except an occasional episode of The Simpsons and The Daily Show and then some Red Sox and Patriots games. But then we got DVR in the fall as part of a package deal and watching HD shows on our big tv is just too pleasurable to resist. So I started watching a bunch of shows last fall. It sucked up a lot of my life. And here's what I learned:

Surface was the best of the new hour-long shows. I watched all 15 episodes (okay so I missed one--that episode where they first go down in the homemade bathysphere--stupid DVR didn't record it), and it was good. Everyone else talks crap about the show, but unlike Invasion it doesn't suck, and unlike Threshold it actually finished a season (and Threshold was unwatchable after the really cool pilot anyway).

So I feel like I need to stand up for Surface since nobody else seems to be.

The stuff early in the season with Miles and his sister's hot friend. That's classic high school awkwardness. And his sister's development over the course of the 15 episodes has been believable and nice. You like to see bad guys turn good and vice versa.

And Lake Bell is a great protagonist. She's a terrible mother, she's attractive but not in a typical hollywood way, she is convincing as a scientist--unlike say Denise Richards in that horrible Bond movie where she was the nuclear physicist or whatever she was supposed to be, and her stubbornness leads her into trouble. She's the most interesting lead in any show this year.

The other dude--the crazy insurance guy--he's a great foil for her.

The three main characters not meeting until the final episode of the season. Also a genius move.

The CGI creatures? Not so genius. I hate CGI, and if that's the reason you can't watch the show I can sympathize, but at least they're trying to show you the creatures instead of teasing you for episode after episode.

I know it probably won't come back next year, but I will miss it. It was like a fun catch-the-Spielberg reference game every week, and my Mondays just won't be the same. I'll have to find something more productive to do, like write crap like this.

More Pages from the Sketchbook

These are a few things I've sketched over the past months. I like drawing squid. Why? Tentacles are fun, I guess. Does this look anything like a real squid? I have no idea since I didn't even bother to look up a reference on it. I really should do another Squidhunter story, though. He's the coolest character ever. Except for Ninja Wolf.





Here's another undersea sketch. I like the idea of a guy exploring the ocean depths in a big bulky armored diving suit. Who doesn't?









This is just me playing around with a brush pen. Looks like a Rat Creature out of Jeff Smith's comics, but it wasn't meant to be. It was just strokes of the brush that turned into a shape and I went with it. This fuzzy guy has nothing to do with undersea adventures, but if I put a bubble helmet on him, he'd be a cute sidekick for Squidhunter. It could be Squidhunter and Hooch.