Sunday, September 04, 2016

Incoming Books: August 29

A vacation is almost always a time for me to take at least one big book-shopping trip. And since this week didn't allow a side-trip to the Midtown Scholar in Harrisburg -- unlike the last two years, because of my older son's college class schedule -- I instead had a big comic-shopping trip earlier in the week. And this is what I got:

5,000 km Per Second by Manuele Fior -- I haven't heard a whole lot about this, but it's from Fantagraphics (who always do good stuff), it looks classy, and I've picked it up at least three times in different stores, which is a sign I should buy something.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaiman, Fabio Moon, and Gabriel Ba -- the original Gaiman story is quite good, and Moon and Ba are great comics-makers. I'm not sure if Gaiman scripted this, or if the Brazilian twins worked from his story and did the rest themselves -- and it doesn't really matter, honestly.

Comics Dementia by Gilbert Hernandez -- a collection of his weirder stories and experiments, from Love & Rockets going back to the late '80s. One of these days, I am actually going to re-read all of Love & Rockets, but I don't think I have quite everything yet. This will help for that.

Fatima: The Blood Spinners by Gilbert Hernandez -- Another quirky project from Hernandez, which I reviewed from digital copies a couple of years ago when it came out in book form.

Low Moon by Jason -- a collection of stories from the Norwegian cartoonist who, like Cher, chooses to go only by a single name. This was his first big collection of stories published here, and I think his first hardcover after a bunch of album-sized books. I reviewed this the first time I bought and read it, before the flood.

Chew, Vol. 6 by John Layman and Rob Guillory -- I'm pretty far behind on this series, which might even have ended at this point. I bought this in trade paperback, so I can get the rest of the series in hardcover, which I think will be easier. (But then my books won't match, which is horrible. Oh well.)

Abe Sapien, Vol. 7: The Secret Fire by Mignola, Allie, and a pile of artists -- more of the modern-day adventures of Hellboy's buddy the fishman post-apocalypse. I don't know if the BPRD books are ever going to stop smashing things and start picking up the pieces, but I'm still sticking with them in hopes that they will. (And some point, seeing ever-more people eaten by monsters loses its appeal.)

Hellboy and the BPRD: 1953 by Mignola, Roberson, and a different pile of artists -- and, from the other end of the Hellboy timeline, here's the second book of the days when Hellboy was young and mostly innocent and the world hadn't ended yet.

Saga of the Swamp Thing, Vol. 4 and 5 and 6 by Alan Moore and various artists but mostly John Totleben -- another series I'm going to re-read at some point, and much shorter than Love & Rockets. I've already got the first Moore trade paperback, so now I just have to find volumes two and three and I'm good to go.

From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell -- I'm still re-buying major things that I lost in the flood, even five years later, and this is one of them. I'm not planning to re-read it before it goes back up on the shelf, but I know I will want to read it again one day.

Doom Patrol, Vol. 5 and 6 by Grant Morrison, Richard Case, and some other folks -- Another series I'll re-read at some point, probably in tandem with Morrison's Animal Man series from the same time-frame.

Mister X: Razed by Dean Motter -- I liked the original series, way back when it came out from whatever that exploitative fly-by-night Canadian comics company was called. And I know that Motter has done various things with the world in the past few years, but I really have no idea how they fit together. So I just got this book when I saw it, which collects a 2014 story, and I can figure out that other stuff if I like this one.

Bucko by Jeff Parker and Erica Moen -- this is from the era in Moen's career after the long autobio webcomic and before the reviewing-sex-toys webcomic, I believe. (Webcomics careers can be really quirky, which is awesome.) This was also originally a webcomic, and it's a more conventional story-based thing, a murder mystery among hipsters. (And I have the vague sense that I've read it, or parts of it, but this blog has no record of it.) Oh, and Jeff Parker wrote it; Moen just did the pictures for this one.

iZombie, Vol. 2 and 3 and 4 by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred -- this ended quite some time ago, and even the very different TV show (which I never saw, or really wanted to) has been gone for a while. It's been two years since I reviewed the first volume, so it really is time for me to finish it up.

The Complete Peanuts, 1997 to 1998 by Charles M. Schulz -- nearly the end of one of the best newspaper strips of all time. I'm one book behind this one, but I will catch up, before too long.

Paper Girls, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang -- it got good reviews, Vaughan is quite good with beginnings, and it was only ten bucks. So why not?

And last is I Told You So, a collection of single-panel gag cartoons by a guy with the greatest last name in the world, Shannon Wheeler. It's been fun to see him reinvent himself as a New Yorker style cartoonist -- even though the New Yorker is about the last surviving outlet for that kind of cartoon.

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