So I just started reading The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby and even though I buy The Believer every month and see the column the book is based on when I flip through the latest issue before burying it under a pile of comics and/or clothes, having them all in one clump (and actually reading them) has naturally inspired me to do something similar in this space. Long time readers will no doubt remember similar attempts to focus this blog into something more than it really is, but I think it really could work this time. After all, everything in this blog that's not directly related to production of my comic could be framed as something I bought and my reaction to it. My only regret is that I didn't start this a few weeks earlier, when I was reading Lemony Snicket's The Grim Grotto and Import Tuner magazine.
Bought
Following Cerebus #2, Various
Astonishing X-Men #7, Joss Whedon, John Cassaday, Et Al
Green Lantern: Rebirth #3, Geoff Johns, Ethan Van Sciver, Et Al
Sleeper: Season Two #7, Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Et Al
The Goon #10, Eric Powell
JLA Classified #2, Grant Morrison, Ed McGuinness, Et Al
The Shaolin Cowboy #1, Geofrey Darrow
Wolverine #23, Mark Millar, John Romita Jr., Et Al
The Authority: Revolution, Ed Brubaker, Dustin Nguyen, Et Al
X-Men #165, Chris Claremont, Salvador Larroca, Et Al
The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season, (DVD) Various
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, (DVD) Various
Kingdom Hearts, (GBA) Various
The Believer, Issue 20, Various
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, Et Al
The Days Are Just Packed, Bill Watterson
There's Treasure Everywhere, Bill Watterson
It's A Magical World, Bill Watterson
Actually SRIW (Seen, Read, Interacted With)
Astonishing X-Men #7, Joss Whedon, John Cassaday, Et Al
Green Lantern: Rebirth #3, Geoff Johns, Ethan Van Sciver, Et Al
Sleeper: Season Two #7, Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Et Al
JLA Classified #2, Grant Morrison, Ed McGuinness, Et Al
The Shaolin Cowboy #1, Geofrey Darrow
Wolverine #23, Mark Millar, John Romita Jr., Et Al
The Authority: Revolution, Ed Brubaker, Dustin Nguyen, Et Al
X-Men #165, Chris Claremont, Salvador Larroca, Et Al
Some Of The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season, (DVD) Various
Some Of Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, (DVD) Various
Some Of Kingdom Hearts, Various
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, Et Al
Some Of Chrono Cross, (PS1) Various
Some Of Final Fantasy X-2, (PS2) Various
Some Of Kingdom Hearts: Chain Of Memories, (GBA) Various
Another Dose Of Arrested Development: Season One, (DVD) Mitchell Hurwitz, Michael Cera, Et Al
Some Of The Polysyllabic Spree, Nick Hornby
Shaun Of The Dead, (DVD) Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright, Et Al
Return Of The King: Extended Edition, (DVD) Peter Jackson, Et Al
Some Of The Lord Of The RIngs, JRR Tolkien
(I don't know how far back this goes, but hopefully future installments will be a bit less unweildy. These were the things that popped into my head.)
One of things I'm enjoying most about TPS is the paper trail Hornby follows in cataloguing the things he reads. It was the thing I was most looking forward to here. For example, you can see that I bought Kingdom Hearts but played KH: Chain Of Memories, FF X-2, and Chrono Cross. What happened was this. Some of you might remember my recent attempts at improving my video game driving acumen. This was continuing on apace until, for some reason still a bit mysterious to me, I recaught my always-at-least-dormant zeal for Square RPGs. I started back in on FF X-2 at first and returned immediately to getting into random battles and increasing my AP levels in order to learn new abilities. I will freely admit that this is the main reason I play RPGs and probably why I stick to Square. I honestly have no idea how most other RPGs are set up in terms of levelling (the only non-Square RPG I can think of that I've played was Knights Of The Old Republic and I didn't really enjoy it), but Square is set up, as far as my inclinations go, perfectly. Every one of their games that I've actually finished, I've finished resoundingly, trouncing the final boss, because I've spent upwards of twenty hours in one dungeon picking fights and getting new Spheres/Materia/Jobs. Most of the time I don't even use the stuff I've unlocked. I'm just as bad a collector in the virtual one as I am in the physical. Anyway, this led to me to a brief fling with Chrono Cross, a massive trade in of old and unused GBA games to fund the purchase of Kingdom Hearts: Chain Of Memories and after getting halway through that, a necessary purchase of its progenitor, because there was shit going on that I just knew I was missing. You can expect at least one Disney DVD purchase in the next installment of this "column" because Kingdom Hearts is great at both reminding you of what's so appealing about DIsney Animated Films and completely erasing any memory of their more annoying charateristics. (How could I have any desire to buy Aladdin, when "Whole New World" is in the film?)
Speaking of collecting, there were some great fucking books out this week. It might be fun in this and future installments to compare the list of comics I bought with the list of comics I read. (For those unwilling/able, I bought but didn't read Goon and Following Cerebus this week.) FC isn't really a comic, it's a magazine about Cerebus, but that's hardly an excuse. The Goon is probably the best book I'm buying but slow to read. Maybe it's because I have an inherent wariness to read a book about a weird city with stories that bend genre conventions. For some strange reason. Astonishing was the book I read while walking from the store back to work. I was just dying to read it. And it was out of control great. There was a sense that, at a few more crowded moments over the past couple of issues, Cassaday wasn't really doing his best work. A few scenes, like that bunch of people crashing through that wall last issue, seemed sketchier than usual. There are no such moments in the latest issue. Tight as a drum and thank God, because this is Joss' best written issue so far. Sure that S.W.O.R.D. exposition scene doesn't feel at all relevent (yet) but everything else was goddamned fabulous. And that page with Wolverine (you know the one I mean) was his funniest moment since What Th--?!? #2 brought us "Grepppps!" On the other hand, X-Men was just embarassing. The kind of book that, even though only you are reading it and thus only you can see how cheesy and cloying it is, you are embarassed to be seen with in public. Authority was a fine read, but its the kind of book I probably won't have much to say about it until it's finished (same goes for Sleeper). Wolverine is a book I'm pretty wild about these days. The art is fantastic and Millar is successfully recreating the stories behind every doodle I ever drew in High School. ("In this one, Daredevil is fighting Wolverine!") The Green Lantern book is only the latest Geoff Johns jernt I've picked up. I've become quite enamored with with the way he writes superhero stories. Don't ask me how or why. Superhero books have always been one of my more unexplainable pleasures. When they work for me, they work for me. There was a scary moment while reading Shaolin where I thought I might have outgrown my affinity for Geoff Darrow's work. Does this mean that my internal battle over whether or not to plunk down fifty bucks for the Matrix Boxset might be over? (Pros: Conceptual Artwork by Darrow/Skroce, West Commentary, new Matrix transfer. Cons: Nearly every second of Matrix Revolutions) I don't know for sure that I'm all the way over him. There were just a few moments in the book where it seemed he wasn't really working for me anymore. We'll have to see how this ends up after a few more issues. Morrison back on JLA was just incredibly fun to read, offering very little to discuss.
I'm kind of miffed that the people I know who I know have seen Shaun Of The Dead did not immediately ensure that I saw it immediately. I can see why they didn't, though. I hate, hate, hate scary movies. This is because, when it comes to movies, I am a complete and total pussy. I clench up in my seat, I cover my eyes and ears. I am liquid. So even I myself was pretty loathe to see this movie. Wrong move. It was so fantastic, so smartly clever (you know, clever but in a subtle way that doesn't annoy you), so perfectly attuned to my sensibilities that it went from unseen to instant personal classic in (according to the box) One Hour, 40 min. There was only one big jump (shower scene) and I even got a little thrill out of it (this often happens with good scary movies like Alien and never happens with shitty scary movies like Aliens). More importantly, though, it was just shit in my pants hilarious. I won't waste time recounting line after line of comedy (I'll save that for when Anchorman/Wake Up Ron Burgundy comes out next week), but the record bit was a particular standout.
That's it for this installment. If it's in the second list and I haven't talked about it, it was simply really excellent and I expected it to be really excellent so, really, what is there to talk about.
Ta ta for now.
Well, if you're gonna bite off of anyone, might as well bite off of Nick Hornsby...
Agree about Shaun of the Dead! I saw it with Liz and Alex in the theaters and then recently at their place on DVD...total genius! :)
Happy New Year! And you'll be hearing from me soon about the fabulous Talentless Hack logo you created - your services may be needed once again! (see that "Ben Signal" looming in the sky?)
Posted by: Teresa | December 28, 2004 at 04:08 PM