Reading Wrap-Up, Pt. 1

I'm ambivalent about doing a Best Of 2007 list. As with every year, there are always some acclaimed books I haven't gotten round to reading yet, and even some I've only just noticed on other people's lists. That said, I have a pile of books I've read over the past few months that I have yet to review, since it invariably takes me longer to write a book review than I expect. So I thought this might be a good way to get some books off the list, even if they're not "properly" reviewed.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. I spent a good portion of today reading this, and it really is one of the best books I've read this year, and a fitting end to the LOEG books, if indeed that's what it is. I also watched the first disc of Penn & Teller's BULLSHIT series, and it occurred to me that there was an interesting contrast. B.S. exposes frauds and fallacies as diverse as psychics, aliens and the Mozart Effect, and the hucksters who take advantage of people's wanting to believe. On the other side, Moore's LOEG celebrates a similar need--the need for fiction and magic--but in a joyous way, a sincere way. Moore believes all these characters exist on some level, even if he can have a chuckle or two about believing it. I suppose some may be a little disappointed in this volume's relative lack of action, and indeed I found the mentions of past adventures with Mina and Allan whetted my appetite to see them, but I really liked how the book ends up as not only an LOEG sequel but a kind of sequel to Lost Girls as well, eroticizing fictional characters and worlds. Production-wise it's a treasure, and in terms of craft it's a master class for Moore and O'Neill, as they display amazing prowess at imitating a number of styles of fiction, nonfiction, illustration and graphic art. I did find the 3-D section at the end a little irritating. If I had any other criticism it would be that the youthful Allan Quatermain is boring and a bit emasculated in Moore's aim to make Mina the leader in the relationship. Really great book.

I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! by Fletcher Hanks, Edited by Paul Karasik. I must confess to not being as much a fan of this work as some others. As a critic, I know in my heart there is an urge to bring forgotten work from the past forward as some wonderful work of genius deserving of admiration and study. It's one thing to review an established great like Alan Moore and say of his latest work, yeah, he's still great, but another to say that this crazy cartoonist from the '40s who nobody cared about back then was really ahead of his time. I do think Hanks' work is interesting, primarily for his distinctive art style and the creative vengeance his heroes visit upon the villains, but it's also a kind of shtick, that vengeance. It's a lot like how people still fondly recall the Fleisher/Aparo Spectre stories, where he'd make a compass gigantic and then stab a bad guy with it. It's not that they're great work--it's kind of shock value. Hanks' weird energy makes for compelling reading even with the stilted writing, but it's not something you'd exactly recommend to non-comics readers.

Comic Art #9 Edited by Todd Hignite. There's too much good stuff in here to go into detail about, but I particularly liked the features on Jerry Moriarty, Abner Dean and Jesse Marsh. I haven't read the Kaz interview yet. The Ivan Brunetti pamphlet has started very well, but I haven't read further because I'm thinking of actually following it like a class.

Swamp Preacher by David Sandlin. I'm just kind of turned off by the intentional ugliness and sloppiness of it. That may be intentional--you don't come up with a persistent green-and-sickly-pink color scheme by accident--but it just makes it hard for me to get into it.

Silverfish by David Lapham. Lapham writes a good crime story, still, and while this is a bit more sensational and simplistic than Stray Bullets, it's still encouraging.

Martha Washington Dies by Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons. I really shouldn't have gotten this. I should have known by its presence that Dark Horse was going to be doing an omnibus of the entire Martha Washington saga and had probably commissioned this as a suitable epilogue, and just waited for that collection, which apparently is coming in the new year. It's not a story, more of a little speech, followed by a little unused material from 1987, which undoubtedly will find its way into the collection as well. Nice Gibbons work, but I'm disappointed I fell for this bit of greed.

Joseph by Nicolas Robel. Nice looking little story but it left me fairly cold. Fiction, including comics, is rife with stories of the boy who didn't fit in, and to my mind, if you're not going to even attempt something on the order of Chris Ware, why bother? I'm not saying it has to be as good--not at all--but Robel's effort here is kind of sloppy--typical dreams/fantasties--and the one interesting idea about his toys talking among themselves, acknowledging their existence being due to Joseph's imagination--isn't developed much. I guess I'd leave it as a mildly promising debut.

Batman and Son by Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert. The first time I've liked Kubert's work, and some solid work from Morrison. What I like about him is even with fairly conventional plots he can't help putting in fun touches, such as the dinosaur in formaldehyde suspended from a ceiling at a cocktail party, or the multiple Man-Bats. The idea of Batman fathering a child growing up wring under Talia al-Ghul is a good one and going well so far. The John Van Fleet-illustrated Joker text story isn't entirely successful, but it's just one issue. The second serial is interesting due to Bruce Wayne seeming to really like a woman and getting laid, though I'm sure this is about the thousandth Batman story where he really ought to heal up but instead rushes out to stop the bad guy. Yeah, yeah. yeah.

Groo: 25th Anniversary Special by Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier. A real treat--a solid stand-alone issue as good as any Groo issue, with a few laughs and the usual Evanier social commentary, this time about how doctors would rather profit than cure illness for good. There's also a Little Groo story that could be a little sad if it didn't have some comeuppance in it, and a fun rhyming alphabet piece that serves as an entertaining intro to Groo's world, much better than a handbook. Evanier offers some reminiscences and debunks some rumors about Groo and who does what, and we're out. I haven't read any Groo stuff for years but I was very happy reading this, and now in the mood to read more.

Next Time: More Comics, and some non-comics reading (i.e. actual books)