2018 books: 1 - 20

[the_siobhan]

I have now officially cleared off another entire shelf, this one just of comics and comic-related books.

There were actually more than 20 titles, there were a fair number I started reading and they just couldn't hold my interest.


    

A Distant Soil by Colleen Doran (Books I, II and IV) Two orphaned children with psychic abilities find out they are descended from an alien race. The aliens turn out to be space-Nazis who kidnap the children to use their powers. Wikipedia calls this a Space Opera, which I think is a pretty good title. The space-Nazis are almost comically evil, the heros are noble and true - no shit, Galahad is an actual character - and the characters spend more time on emoting than actioning.

Wikipedia also says this was a ground-breaking comic when it came out, in part because of it's depiction of same-sex relationships. I believe it, but it feels really dated now. In no small part because of the art work, all big 80s shoulder-pads and space mullets.

    

The Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman The was supposed to be a way for DC to feature all their "magical" characters. I call it "John Constantine and a bunch of other guys". (This is not a complaint. I really really like John Constantine.)

    

Mongrel: SOB by Ed Dunphy and Andrew M Kudelka I think I picked this up at C10. In the intro the creators say they want to return to werewolves being scary killers and that is definitely the focus of the comic. The story pretty much takes a back seat - there is a enough backstory that never gets explained to fill at least another full book. Personally I found the existence of werewolves less unrealistic than the idea that everybody knows each other because the local rich family sent their kids to public school.

    

Groom Lake by Chris Ryall and Ben Templesmith Aliens are real, a spaceship really did crash in the Nevada desert, and the American government is using their technology to build the "Manhattan 2" project out in the desert. I really liked this comic. It's all the typical tropes about conspiracy theories and black ops, souless government agents and good-hearted country boys. But they made it fun.

    

Panorama of Hell by Hideshi Hino Oh man, I hated this one so much. It's the English translation of what was apparently a ground-breaking manga. A painter who has been driven mad by a lifetime of torture and abuse paints pictures in his own blood, each one about an incident from the past. Each chapter tells the story behind one of his paintings, and if you've read one, you've read them all. Non-stop gore. Not my thing at all.

    

Too Much Coffee Man's Parade of Tirade by Shannon Wheeler Back in the mid-90s a lot of people were paying attention to the Seattle cultural scene for some reason. That's probably when I stumbled across Too Much Coffee Man, a superhero who's abilities include anxiety attacks and over-thinking everything. I don't think TMCM is dated so much as I've aged out of appreciating it.

    

Digger by Ursula Vernon (Book I) I love this comic. I first stumbled across Digger as a webcomic and I adored it so much I bought the first collection. Now that I've rediscovered it I've put the entire collection on my shortlist for the next time I have money to spend on myself. Digger is an entirely sensible down-to-earth wombat who hates magic and has no use for Gods. So when a magic spell takes over her tunnel and dumps her in the temple of a very kind Ganesh statue, she is not much pleased. Adventures ensue.

I think one of the things I love about her so much as a character is because she is 100% the opposite of the "chosen one" trope with dreams and special abilities. She is practical and she likes things predictable and she is more than a little impatient with just how weird everything is insisting on being.

Girl after my own heart.

    

Spy Boy by Peter David, Pop Mhan, and Norman Lee. A high-school kid discovers he is a sleeper agent for a spy agency. This is a parody of the spy genre - the two battling agencies are called S.H.I.R.T.S and S.K.I.N.S. It's cute, but it's not really my thing.

    

The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore (Book I) I think everybody is pretty clear on what this comic is about. I only have volume I which is about the main character getting out of the hospital and tracking down the cluster of survivors outside of Atlanta. Full confession, I have never seen the TV series. My interests run more towards how people rebuild after catastrophes, not so much about how they take advantage of the situation to prey on each other. Also, I'll be honest, I'm kinda bored of zombies.

    

The Hiding Place by Charlie Boatner and Steve Parkhouse A neglected child stumbles across a land where the last of each extinct species can live in peace. There are dodos here, but also mermaids and dragons. I have no idea where this came from. It's definitely a kid's book.

    

Justice Inc by Andy Helfer and Kyle Baker (Book I) A cold-war super-hero with the power of mimicry fighting for truth, justice, and the American Way. Eventually he figures out that the American Way ain't all it's cracked up to be. Apparently this is a precursor to a story called THE SHADOW.

    

Gilgamesh II by Jim Starlin and Steve Oliff (Book I-IV: complete) A re-telling of Gilgamesh where the king is an alien masquerading as human. Gilgamesh lands as a baby in the 60s, so the rest of the story takes place around the turn of the century. According to this everybody wears plastic clothes and we have cyborgs and flying cars. On the other hand, it claims corporations run everything so maybe not so wrong after all.

    

Way Out Strips by Carol Swain (Book I-III) Tragedy Strikes Press was a little indy comic label that was kicking around when I was in University. At the time I thought Swain's stuff was interesting because it was more like a series of sketches than a traditional narrative.

    

Nocturnal Emissions by Fiona Smyth (Book III) A comic book put out by a local Parkdale artist. I used to wear t-shirts with her art on it. All of her work is detailed, surreal, and populated by creatures from a fever dream.

    

Comet Man by Billy Mumy, Miguel Ferrer, and Kelley Jones Issues I-VI: complete A six-issue Marvel spin-off from the Fantastic Four. Man this is dated. It features: wife fridging inexplicably buff scientists abandoned children turned powerful and evil (this is like what, the third in as many weeks?) a Nazi doctor (To be fair, this was written at a time when being a Nazi was still considered a bad thing) I can see why Marvel never really did anything else with the character, this series was pretty grim.

    

Gotham By Gaslight by Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola. An AU where Batman was born 100 years earlier and Jack The Ripper comes to Gotham.

    

Kill Your Boyfriend by Grant Morrison and Philip Bond Bored teenager meets same, goes on killing spree. I think this is probably one of those comics that was super transgressive when it first came out and now it's just kinda done.

    

Naughty Bits by Roberta Gregory Speaking of transgressive, Gregory just seemed to be everywhere during a period when I was at University. The main character of this series is Bitchy Bitch, a woman who is just Done With Men's Shit. This particular issue goes back into her past as a teenager with conservative Christian parents who finds out she's pregnant. Like so many of these other comics, it feels really dated now. Not because of the subject matter itself, but just because the handling of it is so simple.

    

Ironlungfish Press by Dave Whelen Issue I I can find absolutely no reference to this anywhere online, which is not something that happens very often. The first issue is about a depressed dude who hates his life and runs into a weird guy who claims to be an angel at one of his roommate's parties. Things start happening and the implication is that weird guy might actually be who he says he is. The artwork is really neat. Action in the foreground is very detailed and shaded, while the background is very simple line art. It makes for an interesting feel.

    

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud A book about the "theory" of comics - told in comic-book format. I'm pretty sure I actually purchased this when it first came out. I also have vague memories of watching a documentary version in one of the local rep theatres.

With that done, I'm taking a break from purging. I might go back to the "read a bunch of good books and one bad one" formula I was following last year, my writing has been lagging and I really found that really encouraging.

Comments

[greylock]

Man. Comet Man. That takes me back.
I'm sure you've realised who wrote it, but if not....
I've never read it, but I still remember the ads for it. I think it was when they had a creator-owned line (Epic?)

You're not missing much from The Walking Dead TV series, but it sounds like it covers the first half of the first season.

I've not read Gotham By Gaslight since it came out. Watched the movie recently.

Steve Parkhouse is a legend.

Other than Gaiman's Books of Magic (which I gather was retconned before the ink was dry), and Justice Inc, I'm not familiar with any of the others.