What I'm Buying/Bought This Week, or "Comics Whore A#1 !"

Back a couple of days early due to a medical emergency on Shanell's mom's side of the family, cutting the stay to move Shanell in short. Kind of a bummer, really, but we were at least able to get Shanell moved in, the bed set up, found a bike...just didn't find a desk. Fortunately her roommate has a vehicle and should be able to transport something in the near future.

Well...this is quite the opposite of last week. I suppose this is just the kind of week I needed after last week's behemoth, and sometime before next Wednesday I have to go and buy textbooks (art history textbooks no less!), so maybe this is the end of the summer comics gravy train. God knows I could actually bother to read a lot of the stuff I've bought so far, instead of just looking forward to what is coming out next week.

Couple of different singles coming in this week, but the one I'm most looking forward to is FINAL CRISIS: SUPERMAN BEYOND #1 by Grant Morrison and Doug Mahnke (last time I checked). Honestly, Morrison has been pretty hit and miss with his current DC output. I guess what I'm hoping for here is something in the vein of ALL-STAR SUPERMAN and not...well, FINAL CRISIS #1 or #3....or the worst parts of his BATMAN run so far. But hey, he has Mahnke on art here (in 3D!), who did a pretty good job of communicating Morrison's script coherently and entertainingly in SEVEN SOLDIERS: FRANKENSTEIN, so I have some hope still.




FOUNDATION, by John Rozum and ; I loved MIDNIGHT, MASS, and hopefully DC will be publishing XOMBI in the near future now that they have Mosaic. I don't think I am expecting much from this, but I have a real soft spot for Rozum (I put him in the same camp as Dan Curtis Johnson...a writer who is sort of a third stringer comics writer who does some really solid, entertaining stuff when they do it). Honestly, if you stopped to ask me what this was even about, I couldn't tell you. This sadly might find itself very quickly on the giant pile of trades I have where it is all the more modern, self-contained stuff....FAKER, UMBRELLA ACADEMY...it is a pile of stuff that just keeps growing as it gets shouldered aside for my reading books out from the library, older, 'classic' archival material....we shall see.


MAGGIE THE MECHANIC, by Jaime Hernandez; like I said a few weeks ago, I don't even think I've ever read any Jaime's stuff, and have read almost all of Gilbert's stuff. I think the offbeat, stream of conscious, dream style of Gilbert has always (and might always) appeal to me more than Jaime, but his interview with Todd Hignite in IN THE STUDIO got me at least interested enough to try his Locas stuff.






ICE HAVEN, by Daniel Clowes; because apparently it is an improvement of the original EIGHTBALL #21. I haven't read this material for years, so I'm looking forward to the nicely designed book too. I might find all of this far more enlightening too, after reading more about the comic strips that Clowes was being inspired from when working on this (kind of like if I went and re-read Spiegelman's IN THE SHADOW OF THE TOWERS, now that I've actually read some of the Sunday newspaper material Spiegelman is referencing).

Outside the comic store, I have been up to my old Ebay hijinx. So what have I found? We've got sort of a Art Spiegelman theme going on...

JACK COLE & PLASTIC MAN, by Art Spiegelman and Chip Kidd; From the plastic cover to the low-quality/high quality scans of the material, this book is just absolutely beautiful and, in some ways, is probably one of the best ways to get the Jack Cole PLASTIC MAN experience without having to spend $50 on the DC ARCHIVES with their lavishly cleaned up production. This reminds me a lot of that PEANUTS: THE ART OF CHARLES SCHULZ book from a few years ago (also designed by Chip Kidd), with the brown and yellow original pages, contextualizing with the merchandise...a real nostalgia item that actually captures nostalgia perfectly.


COMPLETE CHESTER GOULD DICK TRACY Vol. 1, by Chester Gould; What hoops I had to run through to find a copy of this. Apparently there is a softcover edition coming out early next year, but I had the interest now. My purchasing this came from the panel examples in Brian Walkers THE COMICS: BEFORE 1945, and Art Spiegelman and Chris Ware both talking about Gould in IN THE STUDIO, and I've read about a third of it so far and absolutely love it. My enjoyment of it comes from basically reading almost every male character with the same James Cagney sneer. The situations and dialogue or so naive and sincere, I've had such a blast going through this. About every five pages I have to stop myself from leaping up and scanning in an individual panel. I keep getting the urge to kind of do a remix of the first DICK TRACY comic, to really play up the plotting of it...but that kind of misses the point of looking back at this material. Still, it would probably make for a pretty hilarious read....maybe....

-Jarrett