Incognegro

Thursday, May 29, 2008

An excellent read from Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece. The story about a black journalist that passes for white, going undercover in the deep south mid-1900s under the penname Incognegro. The story has him investigating a murder that his brother has been accused of but didn't commit. Fast-paced read, in fact...

It was lacking some quieter moments - the whole thing just seemed to move and move and move. That's not necessarily a bad thing but it was such a powerful story that I would have loved a couple of moments of reflection; especially considering Warren Pleece's fantastic artwork. But beyond that little nitpick I'd have to say this was a great piece.

Buy Incognegro.
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Summer Reading
Read So Far:
Incognegro
The Men Who Stare at Goats
War Fix
The Yiddish Policeman's Union
Shortcomings
Cairo
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Up Next:
Lives of the Popes
The Left Bank Gang

Labels: review

posted by Jason at 7:23 PM 0 Comments

The Men Who Stare At Goats & War Fix

Summer reading continues...

I finished two books yesterday. The Men Who Stare At Goats was funny 50% of the time and frightening the other 50%. It's the (supposedly) true story about a US military division that's been around since the 70s exploring different avenues of psychological warfare. One of the programs believed men could be trained to be super soldiers; the fifth level of that program try to teach people how to stop a goats heart by simply staring at it. Apparently only one person ever got to that level. The rest of the book is equally odd - subliminal messages and psychic spying and the program's ties to fuck-ups like the Koresh Branch Davidians and Heaven's Gate. On the whole it was an entertaining read but sometimes the story seemed to lack cohesion. Other than that it's a fantastic summer read.

Buy The Men Who Stare At Goats

War Fix was gorgeous but I think it was the result of an inexperienced comic writer with an inexperienced comic artist. Layouts were confusing and the writing sometimes seemed detached from the incredible visuals. I got to read a sample of the follow-up book and that's looking much better already.

Buy War Fix

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Summer Reading
Read So Far:
The Men Who Stare at Goats
War Fix
The Yiddish Policeman's Union
Shortcomings
Cairo
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Up Next:
Incognegro
(I need to make a library run - out of books)

Labels: review

posted by Jason at 7:35 AM 0 Comments

The Yiddish Policemen's Union

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Well, it's summer time. During the summer is when I do the bulk of my reading, averaging around 2 books a week (including graphic novels). I usually track what I'm reading on Good Reads but I think I'll do it on this blog as well as well, just to get some stuff posted. Of course, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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I finished The Yiddish Policemen's Union yesterday. It was a fantastic book but I think it suffers from being Chabon's follow-up to Kavalier & Clay, one of my all-time favorite books. It seems like a lot of the themes from Kavalier & Clay were reexplored in a new environment and genre. It was still fanciful and heart-wrenching and clever as all hell, it just felt like it went back to the well a couple of times. Does that mean it's a bad book? Of course not. If this book was written by anyone else I think I would have been praising it to no end. I guess I just wanted a little but more.

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Read This Summer:
The Yiddish Policeman's Union
Cairo
Shortcomings
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Currently Reading:
The Men Who Stare At Goats
War Fix

Labels: review

posted by Jason at 10:27 AM 0 Comments

It's Eisner Voting Time

Monday, May 19, 2008

Comics professionals should head over to http://www.eisnervote.com and vote for this year’s Eisner recipients. I’m not going to beat around the bush – my book Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened has been nominated for Best Anthology and any votes that can be thrown my way would be appreciated. I really don’t want folks to blindly vote for the book, however – I want you to know what it’s about, see if it’s your thing, and, if so, give it a vote. Therefore I’m reposting all of the reviews and features with artwork or full-stories from the book. Give it a look if you have the time, pick up the book at your local comic shop, bookstore, or library if you feel so inclined, and then make up your mind.

1 – The first page of every story in Postcards
2 – Publisher’s Weekly preview of Stuart Moore and Michael Gaydos’ Tic-Tac-Bang-Bang
3 – Comic Book Resources’ preview of Tom Beland’s Time

And in case you wanted to see some of our bigger reviews, head on over to USA Today, Daily Candy, Ain’t it Cool News, Bookslut , Washington Post, and the 2007 Kirkus Reviews’ Graphic Spotlight.

And then go vote in the Eisner’s. Even if you don’t vote for Postcards there are a still a lot of nominees that deserve your love.

Labels: news