I've made a resolution

I've made a resolution. I'm not allowed to buy any books until I've read 20 of the books that I've got on my shelves waiting to be read. The book backlog is a mix of comics, philosophy, memoirs, and novels, with a few short story anthologies thrown in for fun. I'm going to post mini reviews here, so as to keep myself (relatively) honest.

First up is Essential Captain Marvel. So far it's pretty awesome. Jet-belts! Wrist-blasters! Breathing potions! Carol Freaking Danvers, oh yes! Second up will likely be Kierkegaard's Purity of Heart, because I've been dying to read it, but haven't had the attention span for some time.

Other books chillin on my shelves:

Blankets (Craig Thompson), Counterrevoultion and Revolt (Marcuse), Wittgenstein's Poker, Persepolis 2 (Marjane Satrapi), Waltz With Bashir (Ari Folman and David Polonsky), Oryx and Crake (Atwood) , Late Nights on Air (Elizabeth Hay), All That Matters (Wayson Choy), Madame Bovary (Flaubert, yeah seriously, I ashamed not to have read it), The Original Accident (Paul Virilio), Graphic Witness (George A Walker), The Politics of Aesthetics (Ranciere), Hatred of Democracy (also Ranciere), My Best Stories (Alice Munroe), Say, You're One of Them (Uwem Akpam), 911 Emergency Relief, The Life of Charlotte Bronte (Elizabeth Gaskell), Lysistrata (Aristophanes), AND IT GOES ON.

Aside from the first two, I'm not going to impose a reading order, because I don't want to turn this project into a Project, if you get me.



I'm also going to try to get back into the habit of reviewing comics. As of now, the queue looks like this: Creepy, Daytripper, Choker, Fade To Black and American Vampire. I actually managed to make it through a superhero comic this month (GODDAMN EVENT COMICS GODDAMN), but I wasn't thrilled enough to be bothered writing about it. For the curious, it was Herculues: Fall of an Avenger. Big Two comics: not doing it for me right now, ladies and gentlebeings.

Creepy #2

The triumphant return of the venerable horror anthology is... not so triumphant. I picked up issue two on one of my grazing trips to the comic store. It's how I discovered Scalped and innumerable favourites, so the grazing method of comics buying is nothing to sneeze at. Anyway, I picked up Creepy, then I went home, drew a bath and settled in to read and relax.

Creepy is presided over by Uncle Creepy, who is basically the Cryptkeeper (please don't tell me I have to explain who he is). So that should give you an idea of the flavour of horror contained therein. It's pretty light-hearted, as horror goes, even with gross-out stories like a man-eating car. Light-hearted horror is great, in principle, but in Creepy it's just... not working as of yet. We're only on issue two, so it's possible that the editors and writers just haven't hit their stride yet. Horror comedy works best not when it relies on lololgross, but when it draws on a deep well of schadenfreude-motherfucker-oh-yes, or as a way to release some tension. Things are tense, our hero is in mortal danger, everything go sideways, the scene flips, and all of a sudden that nervous tension that's been gripping you tight is released in surprised laughter. It shouldn't be billboard-obvious silliness: "HEY GUIZE, I FED MY ARM TO THE CAR!" That way lies Rob Zombie's oeuvre. I mean, part of the problem here is a serious paucity of anything like depth in several of the stories - shit ain't scary or funny if I don't care about the characters, or about the gauntlet they're running.

The standout story of this issue is The Curse, (story by Dan Braun, art by Jason Shawn Alexander), mostly because of the art. The story itself is lackluster and at times obvious, but I'm really digging the stark, sketchy but stylized, black and white work by Alexander. It's kinetic and expressive, and admirably economical. The issue is rounded out by two morality tales, a simple gross out story, and a bizarre, Twilight Zone/Tales From the Crypt opener. Classic Creepy at its best was simultaneously scary, and gleefully silly. This relaunch has yet to be either. Still, venerable horror anthology - I have my hopes.