Every month the guys at my friendly comics shop send me a box from Florida. There is no shop nearby and honestly I don't think I would have defected from Famous Faces & Funnies anyway. They know what I like, they pull all my regular titles and they never (and I mean never) have any trouble tracking down an obscure indy press title I'm interested in. They flat out rock, really, and they pretty much have me as a customer for life.
I'm a Batman girl, so there were two Bat titles (for all you Bat fans - Jason Todd is back from the dead?! WTF?), also Barbara Gordon and crew in Birds of Prey, (I think it is so cool that Batgirl was paralyzed by a bullet from the Joker but is still a vital and important character in the DC Universe. And Nightwing has the hots for her which makes perfect sense based on their long friendship.), and a whole bunch of JLA insanity that stems from Wonder Woman recently killing somebody in order to save Superman and the world. No shit - and she didn't just kill the guy, she snapped his neck! I know I'm not supposed to be all excited about gratuitous violence, but this was so perfect for the story and so perfect that she is the one who did it, well, it has totally rocked my world. Of course now Superman, WW and Batman all need some sort of capes and tights couples counseling and no one knows what is going on with the JLA and everyone is pissed, but hey - I like my superheroes all soap opera-y, I can't help it. I'm a Batman girl, remember? The darker and more depressed my heroes, the better!
I also received a new issue of Fables, and if you're not reading this title then you are really missing out. The Fourth Rail covers the series nicely this month, and it really is the most imaginiative and well written thing I've come across in ages. This month they introduced Sinbad! Sinbad for God's sake! This is the book that alot of writers are wishing they had written - it's the story that has been sitting there in front of us for ages and Bill Willingham is really having a great time writing it.
I've picked up Witchblade again as they seem to be less concerned with making Sara's breasts enormous and more into an actual story - go figure. So far, so good. I had two issues of Powers arrive this month and it is a mind blower as usual. The whole concept of outlawed superheroes is great and Bendis clearly loves this world he has created. It's another sure winner for me. For my inner goth there was the new Gloomcookie trade from the folks at Slave Labor. This is such a fun series, nicely creepy but also hysterical at times and the fantasy/horror overtones are excellent and smart. If you know anyone - anyone at all - who loves a little goth in their fairy tales (and really, it doesn't take much to love this series) then they will go head over heels for it. It is a monthly but I buy it in trades - and there are four out right now.
A few months ago I took a chance on a retelling of the Wizard op Oz with a new series called Dorothy of Oz. The cool thing is that this a photographed comic - not drawn, and while some purists might take issue with that, I'm always up for a new way to address the art form. It has consistently impressed me both with the story, which is a very modern and unique take on the classic, and with the art. This is a beautiful book and one of my favorite discoveries this year.
In other reading news, I haven't really mentioned Roger Kahn's Boys of Summer which came off of my To Be Read Pile. Kahn traveled with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the early 1950s and then twenty years later caught up with "his" team to see how everyone did after baseball. This was a steller team - Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella, Carl Erskine, etc. and Kahn clearly loved both the game and these guys - but he also saw them as men, not idols or heroes and he writes about them that way. This is also a book about growing up to be a writer and not a ballplayer and about getting along with your father. In fact, baseball is only part of the story, a bigger part almost is how to be a man or what it takes to be a man. It's already a baseball classic for good reason but really good stuff for any fan of great writing. I had a little bit of a shock last night though when the second part of the book opened with Kahn describing Woonsocket, RI. My father was born and raised in Woonsocket and my grandfather still lives in the house that he and my grandmother moved into when they got married. (Over 65 years in the same house, can you believe it?) They attended Holy Family church - my Memere was baptised there and buried there last year when she died at 90. I come from an old school French Canadian Catholic family, a family that lived in an old mill town that is hanging on, but barely. Reading about it in 1970, when it was in decline, was sad and amazing all at once. I wanted to pick up the phone and call my father so very badly.
He's been gone six years, but I still want to tell him about the book I'm reading. This whole death thing really really sucks.
Today the CD player was all about The Blind Boys of Alabama who sing the best combination of gospel and the blues you will ever hear and classic Tina Turner. There was also Counting Crows in there somewhere and we all sang to their version of Big Yellow Taxi. Joni Mitchell fans might hate me for that, but I can't help it - it's just such a catchy tune!
