FAIR WEATHER and SIDESCROLLERS.

A sniveling brat doesn't make for a good story.

I’m conflicted about Joe Matt and Fair Weather did not tip me in his favor. I read Spent and wasn’t thrilled with it – it was just kind of pathetic. On the other hand, Poor Bastard was much more effective despite being patched together from the exact same content.

Fair Weather is the story of a single weekend in the author’s childhood. The author portrays himself as a sniveling brat, which is entirely believable having read two of his other autobiographical works. Over the course of this weekend, he has his comic book collection taken away by his mother, his father works on a booth for the fair, Joe dodges a much larger and meaner kid he cheated on comic book trades, and he has his heart broken over the promise of a first edition comic book that doesn’t turn out to be what he’d hoped. Yep. The constant seems to be little Joe’s cowardice and overall weirdness, and the only impressive aspect of the book is the author’s self-awareness and honesty.

Imagine a Judd Apatow movie as a graphic novel.

SideScrollers was exactly what Fair Weather was lacking. It’s the story of Brian, Brad and Matt and the events of a day, which involve vandalism, hiding from a jock-bully, saving Matt’s crush from said jock-bully, playing video games, and an epic battle of Good vs. Evil in feline form. The story is incredibly tight and compelling, and the dialogue is realistic and hilarious. The three main characters are lovable, Judd Apatow-esque slackers, although the plot also includes a Jay and Silent Bob-type duo, and the story couldn’t be more uneventful, just as it couldn’t be more entertaining.

This book is going to be one of the few I think I will actually be able to get my brother to read. Okay, I’ve got it: think Judd Apatow meets “Mallrats” meets Scott Pilgrim. Starring Michael Cera.

Bottom line, read SideScrollers. You won’t die if you don’t bother with Fair Weather.

LUNA and MAIL ORDER BRIDE.

An incidental transgender issue in a story of family dynamics.

I recently finished Julie Anne Peters’s Luna, which was another pick for the ESOL Book Club by one of my students. I must say, I am pretty darn proud of my book club; they are picking some amazing books – not a bad pick yet. This one was a National Book Award finalist as well as a Lambda finalist, and it’s pretty amazing.

Regan O’Neill is the sister of transgender Liam, A.K.A. Lia Marie, A.K.A. Luna. Their mother obsesses over her business to avoid dealing with her family while their father obsesses over having a baseball-playing son. Regan struggles in school, not only because she wasn’t blessed with Liam’s genius, but also because she is kept awake at all hours of the night while Liam uses her room to try out makeup, wigs, and women’s clothing.

All of that sounds a bit cliche, but the execution is fantastic. This is less the story of Liam and his struggle than it is the story of Regan and how she must relate not only to her brother, but the rest of her family. While the transgender issue certainly complicates things, this is a story of family dynamics in a seriously troubled family. And… I can’t stop obsessing over whether or not protagonist Regan O’Neill’s name is an homage to Regan McNeil, because that would make me happy.

Kyung pushes her limits... and finds her limitations.

Next I read Mark Kalesniko’s Mail Order Bride, which was fantastic. This is the story of Monty and Kyung – and eventually more the story of Kyung. Monty, a thirty-nine-year-old virgin and collector of toys and comics orders Korean Kyung to be his wife and work the cash register in his comic/game store because she is “obviously” better with the math. For the first half of the book, Monty can’t seem to remember that Kyung is Korean rather than Chinese and is quick to observe that it’s the “same thing.”

Kyung becomes fed up with Monty after realizing that he has no friends his own age, no spine, and worst of all a serious Asian fetish. Kyung then begins attending classes and hanging out with the art school crowd, which makes her all the more resentful of Monty, who expects a quiet, obedient “Chinese” wife. However, this all comes to a head when Kyung is let down by her friends and is forced to confront her husband on her own… or wait until Monty confronts her. The art is insanely detailed and cinematic, which I have difficulty recognizing at times – I’m not quite as good with judging the art as I am the story. But it was fantastic overall. Highly recommended.

NOT SIMPLE and a Judy Bloom classic.

... and extremely unsettling.

This was the first of these couple of books that I read. I picked it up on a whim because I had ten dollars in Borders Bucks to blow and I wanted a nice, big, hulking manga. This wasn’t hulking, but it was pretty solid. The story begins with an unbelievable chance meeting between Ian and the daughter of the woman he promised to meet three years after their initial encounter. What Ian doesn’t realize is that this is a set-up that plays out tragically before the girl can put a stop to it, as Ian’s friend Jim appears seemingly out of nowhere and watches.

From here we go back in time. Ian’s sister is released from jail and desperate to find her brother. Ian has been dragged to London with his alcoholic mother who uses child support on booze, not that his father wants him anyway. The story of Ian’s quest for a personal goal and to catch up with his sister is punctuated with startling revelations, not the least of which is Ian’s mother’s decision to prostitute her son for more money. By the end of the story, the coincidence that began the story  no longer seems difficult to believe in the context of Ian’s life. The art is simple, but the story more than makes up for that in my mind.

Like it or not, it's honest.

Next I finished the classic white suburban tween-girl story Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. which I never read when I was younger. As it turns out, this is another of the books that makes me question where the line is between YA fiction and regular literary fiction, much like Victor Martinez’s Parrot in the Oven. The book is brilliant and clever, but it’s about an eleven-year-old girl and is a very quick read.

Margaret Simon moves to a new town with her parents, away from her overbearing paternal grandmother and immediately takes up with a group of snarky girls who welcome her into their secret club. Over the course of the book, Margaret is obsessed with fitting in, choosing her religion, getting her period, filling out her bra, and Philip Leroy.

I’ve never understood the problem people have with books like this. Obviously there is the “poor suburban white kid!” argument – also think Catcher in the Rye or This Side of Paradise – but at what point did that become a problem? This book, like the others, is incredibly honest. What white New England teenager ever worried about world hunger? If there is a lack of depth in books like these, it’s because there is a characteristic lack of depth in privileged teenhood. These books are exactly what it was like to be me, and they are successful because they are true of so many people. Being a teenager, especially middle-class or upward, is about obsessing over trivial things. It’s about vanity. It’s about wanting to fit in or feeling that you’re different. I agree that our literary world would be incomplete without other types of stories, but, like it or not, white suburban teen literature is a part of the human story. The issue should not be with the content of the books, but rather with the way teens are raised anddon’tgetmestartedonthat. It was my human story, for example, and there is nothing wrong with that. The authors don’t raise and shape teenagers, society does.

Rant over. But I liked the book a lot.

CHOSEN by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast: The Sunday Salon.

What began as an exasperating book club selection by one of my students is quickly turning out to be my current favorite series of books – certainly better than Twilight. While Betrayed is still probably my favorite book of the series, Chosen is not far behind in suspense and action. The series paradoxically continues to be more intelligent than the Twilight series although narrated in cringe-inducing teenage English. But for all the gonnas and wannas and hellos and duhs, Chosen is another page-turner that amounts to a sum greater than its parts.

Zoey has now found herself somehow caught between human ex-boyfriend Heath with whom she has Imprinted, fledgling boyfriend Erik and adult vampyre poet Loren Blake. Perhaps a little too much time and attention is spent on trying to decide who to break up with and attempting and failing at various break-ups, which is a continuation of Betrayed, but the rest of the action takes off pretty quickly. Zoey’s now sort of undead best friend is being hidden in former-nemesis’s apartment until she can figure out how to help her, but even this falls by the wayside when current boyfriend Erik happens upon her having sex (or just finishing up) with Loren Blake.

This is where the Casts get crafty. I’ve always liked Zoey, more or less, but she becomes very irritating very quickly when she is unable to choose between the three guys. This doesn’t last long, though: it takes Zoey no time to learn her lesson after losing her virginity to Loren Blake. Within pages, Erik turns his back on Zoey and, in an admittedly predictable “twist,” we find that Loren Blake is in cahoots with the evil Neferet. By the end, I find myself on Zoey’s side again. Ultimately, however, what draws this book to a close is the answer to the question of whether or not Stevie Rae can ever regain her humanity.

As with the other two, as soon as I finished this book I hopped online to buy the next in the series: Untamed.

24 Hour Comics, Popgun and Chiggers.

The first title to be crossed off my reading list was 24 Hour Comics Day Highlights 2004. Participants across the country take on the enormous challenge of creating 24-page comics – which usually takes the combined efforts of different individuals for pencilling, inking, coloring, lettering, as well as the cover over the course of about A MONTH – and they must complete this challenge within 24 hours. When I picked up this book the other day, I expected it to be a collection of silliness just sort of slapped together, but in actuality there is nothing sloppy about it. These are some of the best shorts I’ve read; they’re simply unpolished. They rely more heavily on the story than the art, which makes sense, and that’s what I tend to go for anyway.

Next, I finished volume one of Popgun collection this morning. I’ve been working on this one for a while. I’d been seeing the Popgun collections all over the comic book stores and didn’t realize what they were until Jonathan showed me the volumes that he had sitting around. After flipping through his, I got the first two volumes for myself. In all honesty, and keeping in mind that I require a good story no matter how cool the art is, I actually like the 24 Hour Comics better. These shorts seem to average… maybe eight pages? And in an average of only eight pages to work with, the creators seemed far more concerned with art than they did story. Don’t misunderstand – as an art showcase this is very cool, but a good story does more for me personally.

Lastly, this morning I read Hope Larson’s Chiggers, another one for the student book box. It’s the story of Abby at summer camp – Abby, who is having bad luck with friends and horrible luck with bunkmates. Abby’s best friend at camp, Rose, doesn’t have time for her now that she’s a camp assistant, Beth is just too cool for school, and Zoe’s a little bitchy herself. Abby is relieved when the bunkmate from hell, Deni, goes home with a wicked case of chiggers, but things get worse when she becomes indirectly responsible for the well-being of her new bunkmate, Shasta. Abby is willing to be her friend initially, regardless of the others’ distaste for Shasta, but all of this is complicated by Shasta’s too-cool personality and ultimate attempt to ruin Abby’s blossoming romance with Rose’s cousin, Teal. Though not likable, Shasta is an interesting and complex character and makes the whole book worth reading if nothing else.

Now I’m ready to finally start volume 3 of the House of Night series: Chosen!

SUPERMARKET by Brian Wood.

Just mix yakuza and acid.

I picked this book up fairly recently, started it last night because I left my Popgun at work, and I finished it this morning. I’m still not %100 on Brian Wood, though. Demo is one of the greatest graphic novels I’ve read, but I wasn’t big on volume 1 of The Couriers (I don’t usually judge on the first volume, but at the time I didn’t know there were others.) I thought this would be the tie-breaker, but it fell somewhere in the middle. Not that I didn’t like it, but it fell WAY short of Demo.

Pella Suzuki, heiress to a much larger fortune than she suspected, is the anti-Paris Hilton: she’s a vegan bargain-shopper voluntarily working a cash register. When she returns home to find her parents dead, her life unravels. She discovers that her mother was a porn star and her father was yakuza, and that they went into Witness Relocation when they were pregnant with Pella. Their past caught up with them and they were murdered, but not before setting up extensive plans for Pella’s then-hypothetical escape from the two groups.

The plot is over-simplified, as seems to be typical of any stand-alone graphic novel. Pella is saved by a hot yakuza, then his Swedish girlfriend, there’s a car chase and an anti-climactic ending. It’s readable, though, if for no other reason than that the story is not irritating, the premise is funny, Pella is likable, and the art is like a bad acid trip.

Very cool art by Kristian Donaldson – worth a read for that alone, probably.

The Quest: Maka-Maka.

Oh, Maka-Maka... I want you because I can't have you....

Jonathan and I have spent the last 48 hours questing for volume 1 of Maka-Maka and, at this point, I couldn’t even tell you why anymore. It was on my 50-page Amazon wishlist, sitting between Plutarch’s Lives and The Trial of Mary Queen of Scots: A Brief History with Documents - things I’d like to have, like to read… just as I’d like to live to be 500.

I don’t remember what began the conversation. Jonathan said something about having looked for Maka-Maka and I said that I wanted it, as well. Or maybe it was the other way around – I’m not sure. But we were on the same page: we both wanted Maka-Maka and neither of us had found it for less than $100.

The race was on.

We had both been on Amazon, and nothing. I went off to Alibris just a step behind Jonathan blasting off to some site I had never heard of. Shit. Not only was he still looking, he was looking in places I didn’t know existed.

Breathe.

I went to AbeBooks, or tried. The site wouldn’t load, so I refreshed. “Where are you looking now?” Jonathan wanted to know. “Oh, you know… one of those sites…” I refreshed again. And again. “We’ll find it eventually.”

I remembered seeing it at our local comic book store months and months ago. Would they still have it? Could they still have it? This slipped out while I was still on the phone with Jonathan. Shit. “I’ll go check the store after work tomorrow,” I added quickly. Ha. I had staked my claim on it.

I debated calling the store the next day from work, but this would do me no good. They don’t know my name, they only know that I’m the girl who shows up with Jonathan and buys armloads of comics once every couple of months. If I came to ask in person, maybe they would give me my regular discount, even on a rare book. But what if they didn’t realize it was rare and my phone call clued them in? Oh, I certainly couldn’t call about it now.

After staying after school with one of my students to help her with Geometry, I was rushing out to my car on my way to the comic book store to check on the book. I must call Jonathan just like normal. I would very casually mention that I was on my way to the comic book store, just in case. You never know. So I flip my phone open… and a text message is waiting for me.

Jonathan Luna: Called the store. No Maka-Maka :(

Dammit! Always a step ahead! They are crafty, those Luna Brothers.

So I get home and there’s an e-mail from Jonathan with a link to Biblio.com saying Maybe this is an option? YES! Maka-Maka for about $20!

I order it! I pay for it!

I receive an e-mail informing me that they don’t actually have it after all! They refund my money! Son of  a bitch.

Today I find out that Jonathan has, in the meantime, successfully ordered the book from AbeBooks. Blast! The volume 2 that he ordered came in today and… it’s porn. He tries to make me feel better. Now that we know that it’s essentially porn, am I that upset about not being able to find it? Maybe not.

I’m playing it off. The porn as well as the loss.

I return to Amazon again today to write off my Maka-Maka… but wait! Five used from $300 and ONE NEW FOR $19.95??? Nuh-uh. But do I want manga porn? Well, no, I’m not in it for manga porn, but… it looked so good when I first saw the description, which mentioned nothing about porn. It’s critically-acclaimed! And, come on, it’s rare!

So I ordered it. I may be looking at another apologetic e-mail in the near future, informing me that they were actually lying about the availability of my book, but for now I’m excited. Not particularly excited for manga porn. Not excited that I won, because I didn’t. Excited that it’s rare.

And maybe even a little excited that I’m still unsure whether or not I will actually receive it.

These have been waiting….

This has been a rough week. I planned too much over the weekend and had to write three exams, causing me to have slept two hours before going to work Monday morning. This has officially fucked my sleeping for the rest of the week, so thank Jesus right now that you are not taking the classes I teach – unless you are, in which case how did you find my blog???

These are links I’ve found over the last… while. But I haven’t gotten a chance to post recently. So here they are, now that they’re old news:

First and foremost, I just minutes ago encountered Chelsea I Want My Flannel Back, and it’s badass. Tune in for embittered odes to exes – or at least to the stuff they took with them. (Currently racking my brain for the stuff I miss…)

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Jonathan sent me this post about an encounter with The Sword from The Factual Opinion. Doll that he is, he felt the need to preface it by saying, “I don’t usually point out good stuff about our work, I don’t like to sound like I’m bragging, but I thought you’d like this.”

An animated Michael Cera?

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My brother found these first official images of the upcoming Scott Pilgrim movie for me. I’m pumped about the movie, even if I’m still unsure of my feelings on Michael Cera, who I usually love, as the title character.

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10 supposedly sexy books of 2009.

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Gen X Classics from Hipster Book Club, including Douglas Coupland, who I never got. When I read him. Whenever that was.

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11 Most Painfully Obvious Newspaper Articles Ever. Because it can’t all be great literature.

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Why you should read a book you think you’ll hate in 2010: it’s how I got into graphic novels, which are slowly taking over my house.

More reasons found here.

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Is Tolstoy the greatest writer of all time? The Guardian asks “today’s novelists” what they think. And they say yes. Why am I posting this?

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2009: the Year in Manga, featuring the much-loved – by me, anyway – A Drifting Life.

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And with that, I shall return to grading research papers. God help me…

Recent acquisitions.

Over the past three days I received three shipments from my beloved Amazon (I know, but I’m on a teacher’s salary, so give me a break), and the day before that I visited my favorite comic book store. These are the books I recently purchased and am currently salivating over:

Sunday (Big Planet Comics)

The Push Man and other stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi

Escapo by Paul Pope

Love and Rockets, No. 1: New Stories by Gilbert Hernandez

Popgun Volume 2

Monday

Preacher: Vol. 7 by Garth Ennis

Preacher: Vol. 8 by Garth Ennis

Preacher: Vol. 9 by Garth Ennis

Inventory: 16 Films Featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls, 10 Great Songs Nearly Ruined by Saxophone, and 100 More Obsessively Specific Pop-Culture Lists by A.V. Club

Tuesday

Chosen by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

Wednesday

Yukiko's Spinach by Frederic Boilet

Popgun Volume 1

Locas: the Maggie and Hopey Stories by Jaime Hernandez

**DROOL**

Best comic book covers and more: links.

My personal favorite cover of the decade.

The New Yorker’s article on the new Romeo and Juliet further explains Twilight’s Shakespearean qualities. The question is, am I laughing because we’re comparing Twilight with Shakespeare or am I laughing because it’s obvious?

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At The Guardian there is this cool little picture map of pretty much everything literary that ever happened in the last decade, complete with links to the stories.

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The National Post’s Best Books of the Decade, complete with Canadian novels, graphic novels and even Canadian graphic novel Scott Pilgrim.

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The 50 best comic book covers of 2009… although they forgot issue 21 of The Sword. Duh.

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The outlook for comics over the next year – note that Jonathan is quoted at the very end of the article. As he put it, “I get the last word!”

“We can’t just keep preaching only to the ever-shrinking fanbase that shows up at their local comic shops,” said Ron Marz, who writes Witchbladeand Angelus for Top Cow. “Those loyal readers are great, they’re the backbone that keeps the direct market running. But they’re not enough to grow the business. We have to reach out and find new readers, and I think in order to do that, the industry has to present a much wider range of material.”

I wonder if this is an effort to reach those new readers? Oh, dear.