I had a friend ask me a few days back for recommendations of works of historical fiction by more-or-less modern authors. I happen to be quite ready for this question, since I enjoy knowing things, and I find well-written historical fiction one of the easiest ways to absorb the details of history. Fiction, by definition, is made up, but fiction… Read more →
Category: Books
The natural reward of taking time to do anything well
“Demanding a significant investment of time and energy on the part of the consumer, it [the book] has always fit somewhat awkwardly into the world of mass entertainment.” You know, it seems like every one of these “end of publishing” articles has a couple of nuggets in it. Like Englehart’s noticing that the book is a much less easily consumed… Read more →
We are not beginners, we will not be fooled
“Books are not Hollywood, to the general astonishment of agents and corporate suits. They are intimate, unpredictable agents of delicious rebellion.” I’m not sure I buy the thesis in Osborne’s piece, but I really would like the believe I live in the world that this quote from it describes. Read more →
Yeah, that’s actually quite creepy
You know, I don’t think I ever really realized just how creepy the whole button-eyes thing in Coraline is until just now. I whipped that up with the tool at the page for the forthcoming Coraline movie. Sarah’s going to love that pic when she sees it. (I bought Coraline for myself when it came out, but Sarah and I… Read more →
It doesn’t matter if it’s good, it’s still genius.
So, we know that I like Revelations, especially some of the bits at the end, and especially including God’s no-modifications open license. We also know that I like Hal Duncan, and especially when he’s being his most over-the-top flagrantly intellectual. You might not know that I have a sentimental affection for historical surrealists and Burroughs, and thus, by extension for… Read more →
Aside
Speaking of a geek hierarchy…
Boys And Their Toys
As I’ve mentioned quite a few times here, I buy a significant number of comics. One thing I have almost entirely managed to avoid, though, is the purchase of dolls. Every month there are literally hundreds of “action figures” and “statues” solicited in the Diamond Previews catalogue, and mostly I sneer at them–yes, I know, there’s something sad about the… Read more →
Aside
So, it seems my post about getting the swank edition of From Hell, has caught the attention of Eddie Campbell himself, and he tells some of the story of how that edition came to be. Another great side effect of this is that a couple of the other owners of the swank edition put up links to scans of the paintings in their copies.
Painfully limited
I’ve made no secret of the fact that Eddie Campbell is one of my favourite comic creators—not to mention one of the top five living people I’d want to spend a night drinking and talking BS with—and that I think Alan Moore is probably the best comic writer to have yet lived. So it’s probably not surprising that I’m a… Read more →
Book==Great, Publication==Confusing.
A few years back I made this statement on the blog: I have read everything Graham Joyce has ever published, and none of them have been less than excellent. Well, in the intervening years, a few more books have been published, but the statement remains true. In fact, if anything it’s more true for the book I just read… although… Read more →
Persistent Remnants
So, irony–I spent ten consecutive days in all day meetings in Boston, and what are the things that are the important concrete results of the trip for me (as opposed to my employers)? A signed book, and a signed CD. Important persistent result number one, is this: Amanda, as she apparently always does, stayed after the show to sign things.… Read more →
Anticipation
I may have made my generally negative feelings on adaptations of certain works to the big screen known in the past. This occurred to me at the Bond flick tonight, both in the context of the movie (which was fine on its own, and is best not considered in relation to the story it’s named for) and in the context… Read more →
Aside
So, if someone told me I would enjoy reading a short fiction piece entitled Talking To God, I would be skeptical. If they told me it was found on a site entitled “The Ragged Trousered Philosopher“, I might be more inclined to believe them. And I would have been right to do so. Good piece. And I intend to explore the site more fully. (And, to look into the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists as well–the snippets of that at the site, about the Causes of Poverty, are quite interesting.)
Aside
You may also remember my pleasant surprise at how much I enjoyed Titan’s first collection of Nemi strips. I’ve been reading the strips online fairly religiously since. The second collection of strips also showed up today, and I’m quite looking forward to going through it to see which, if any, of the strips collected in this volume will be new to me. Apparently the ones in Metro are a sanitized subset of what’s in the collections. There’s a preview of 24 strips from the collection (use the cursor keys to navigate the set) at Titan’s site.
Aside
You may recall me marvelling at some of the images from Berni Wrightson’s Frankenstein portfolio. Well, today I picked up Dark Horse’s new big, beautiful hardcover edition of Frankenstein that’s lavishly illustrated with Wrightson’s images. It is a thing of beauty, and a steal at a $30 retail. There’s a preview online that gives you a sense of both the illustrations and the text design/layout.
