The Public Library!

The coloring-the-woman image is striking. I'm picturing him sticking his tongue out as he does it, you know, like to the corner of his mouth, the way comic strip characters do when they're concentrating -- and beads of sweat on his forehead as he hunches over the drawing table, squinting through his Coke bottles.

Anyway, today I got Justice League: A New Beginning, some animated Batman thing and something else that's totally slipped my mind. Damn.
Anyway, I followed that JL series from issue #3 to not quite #50. So I had never read the first two issues in the collection, so that was extremely cool for me. But I'm most impressed at how well those issues hold up. When I read the FKNATJL mini last year, I kept thinking it was so 80s, esp. with Kevin Maguire's slightly Schnabel-esque style. BUt the original stuff (aside from a few of the women's hair-do's, I still can't believe they ever thought taking Black Canary out of fishnets was a good idea) still reads good, it's still funny now that I'm a grown up and I'm pretty sure that a lot of my current sense of humour finds its secret origin in those comics.

Hmm, maybe I'll do that, check on Ebay. I picked up the first two TNF, and they're wonderful, but I'm really trying to curb my spending, esp. on comics, lately.

LOEB: "So there's this new Supergirl, and, like, Superman's all on her because she's from Krypton SUPPOSEDLY, and Batman's all jealous like 'Hell no she's a freak!' so he contacts Wonder Woman to whisk her away to Amazonia or whatever, but then Darkseid wants some of that too, yeah? So he raids the place, kills that blue-helmet chick from Crisis, and takes her away."

ED: "OK, so what happens in the next issue?"

LOEB: "Next? Dude, that's the plot for the first THREE issues!"

Why I made Jeph Loeb sound like a Yale Repetory reject auditioning for the O.C., I dunno.

Anyway.

Went to the library last night and scored some Greg Rucka NOVELS. Turns out there's this huge section behind the Graphic Novel shelf that has books without pictures.

I also got:
Batman: As the Crow Flies - Wow. Dustin Nguyen is awesome. Now I have a much better idea of how much he brings to the Mahnke awesomeness (a lot).
Avengers: Supreme Power - I haven't had much luck getting into the Avengers, but what the fuck. It's free.
Scene of the Crime - Brubaker & Lark! Together again for the first time! Or something.

Borrowed Perez's "Gods & Monsters" Wonder Woman book, the latest Y trade (with THE EXPLANATION), Rucka's Superman "Unconventional Warfare" (which looked great, skimming it - seemed like they've done a good job modernizing the characters), a Way of the Rat trade (also looks great), the two Green Lantern & Green Arrow trades (the pointing, the pointing!), and a pile of others. All freeeeeeeeeeeee.

The Nguyen that inks Doug Mahnke is the one whose first name is "Tom", I believe.

Is "As the crow flies" good? It's like 20 bucks down here in argentina, and I wasn't planning to get it, but I've been interested in the few stuff I've seen from Dustin Nguyen, and I happen to have that money, which would sure be much more useful if spent in other, more important and truly needed stuff, but now I'm starting to feel this irrepressible urge to waste it in some generic Batman comic that will make me feel very guilty after I have bought it (i get this feeling, like, once or twice a year)

The Nguyen that inks Doug Mahnke is the one whose first name is "Tom", I believe.

You are correct, sir, and I am a giant asshole.
It's okay. The art is great, the story is so-so. I'm not sure where I stand on Winnick. I've read some really great stuff by him (the "Red Hood" business) and a lot of mediocre stuff (Green Arrow).

Btw, there's nothing like the guilt after you have bought an extremely expensive comic.

Ya know, the last time that I went to the library and got a stack of comic book books out, the librarian was all chatty with me about her experiences with "graphic novels" and how much she loved The Sandman! I never would have expected it from her, since she looked about 55. She was more impressed with my taste in reading material than I was, since I was mostly just checking out a bunch of kiddie comics stuff like Fushigi Yuugi and Astro Boy and shit! "Graphic novels"? WTF?!?

And I mean I'm trying to look past the racism.

A Contract With God, To The Heart Of The Storm, and that's about it really. Luckily for you, both are being published in one volume along with Dropsie Avenue (I think) as the launch title under his new 'real publisher' deal.

Gaz I thought of something else you should get from Kino the other day! but then I forgot it again. stay tuned!

The Dreamer reads like fucking Molesworth* wrote it! "and then JACQUES KIRBEE came to work for me he is pretty good but much shorter than me he thinks he's so tough but look at my muscles *hem hem* the comics in WALLY RENSIE's head are better than what all these other legends what I employ draw o I AM GRATE chiz chiz"

*ie not Willans

Goon: Heaps of Ruination
Finder: Talisman
Hellboy: Weird Tales 2
100 Bullets: Six Feet Under the Gun
Scott Pilgrim Vols. 1 & 2
Mary Jane: Circle of Friends

Over the weekend I got Birth of a Nation, Rose (the Bone prequel), the Goon vol. 1 & 2, and 100 Bullets vol. 3. Maddie got Cerebus: High Society, Epileptic, and some other stuff.

I'm extremely happy to have finally read BoaN and Goon, and 100 Bullets and Cerebus are perfect examples of "I would read it but don't want to spend twenty bucks to do it".

Also French nouvelle vague!
Alphaville & Le Samourai

And that new autechre. :(

w00t! I've been watching some public library Godard lately myself. The last public library comic I got out was probably Jimmy Corrigan, but that was a while ago. I wish my PL had Finder.