"A rapid fire accounting of readings"

Hi beautifuls, I am just going to mention quickly several recent and forgotten readings:

-Welcome to the NHK, a manga, originaly an all text book in Japanese, written by Tatsuhiko Takimoto, illustrated by Yoshitoshi Abe. I bought this one at the United Lirbrary Services, a warehouse type store that sells only to school libraries. Then I noticed the parental advisory on the cover and thought I should read it before lending out to the kids. I learned a lot about Japanese culture, some of which is disturbing. Loli-con is a fetish or infatuation with Lolita girls, done with manga. Hikikomori are people who don't leave their house, because they are having trouble with the pressures of modern life or are too afraid to come out. Otaku are people who love manga, or anime, or gaming so much that they are a sub-cult. The book is full of self-denial, self loathing, and angst, mainly from the one central character who is finding it hard to admit he is a hikikomori. The parental advisory comes from the loli-con inferences, but like so much manga, there are many ways to take the subtleties of the cultural references, and it is quite interesting. Reading manga for the first time can be tough if you are not up on the references, and honorifics, but it gets better. This book helped a lot.

The plot is a little thin in the manga version but worth a read. There are more to come in the series. You may want to save your reading for other manga or comics if it is that genre you seek.

Iron Man, Ultimates, written by Orson Scott Card. I liked 'Ender's Shadow'(not a comic) by Card so thought I'd check out this comic. Its pretty good but still just a comic.

I am reading The Colour of Heaven, by Kim Dong Hwa, part of a trilogy (Heaven, Water, Earth) about a girl and her mom in Korea. The images are beautiful, and add a certain grace to the story that is entrancing, and the story is heartfelt, all about love.

Bluesman, by Rob Vollmar & Pablo Callejo, is a strikingly beautiful book. It is a murder mystery/cop story, illustrated in a kind of 'comic noir' style that I find very compelling just for the art. They have a compilation out now which I am trying to buy. The one I read was book 3, which has a good story.

Same Difference and other stories, by Derek Kirk Kim is a graphic novel of some of his early writings. I liked it for its humour, poignantcy, and art. His drawings portray a lot of emotion but are not over the top as some manga artists can be, which often detracts from the story. Kim is of Korean ancestry, but American. The 12 short stories are funny and quirky.

Fables, by Bill Willingham with a plethora of artists, is a series of comic books set in modern times NY. The Fables, -Boy Blue, Red Riding Hood, The 3 Little Pigs etc., have been banished from Fableland by 'The Adversary' and now have taken refuge on earth. They face all the problems of modern life as well as battling beings from off planet. Fables is brilliant. I have read 2: Animal Farm and March of the Wooden Soldiers, and I plan to read them all because I love the cleverness of the writing.

Oishinbo: Ramen and Gyoza, by Tetsu Kariya, art by Akira Hanasaki is a graphic novel all about food. I love it for that alone but also because it is so funny. A young reporter travels around the city searching for the best ramen and gyoza. He is lazy but has a great mind for food, and his nemesis is his father who is a great chef. The reporter teaches his friends about food with sound theory, another reason I love it.


Burn, by Camilla D'Erico, who is from Vancouver, is the artist and Scott Sanders is the writer. I liked it a lot. It is a futuristic graphic novel about a boy who gets attacked by a robot. Robots are trying to take over the world, and have tohe ability to repair themselves, but in this case the robot takes the body of the boy, Burn and creates a cyborg. Burn then shares his brain with the robot as they struggle to learn what they have become as a new being.

Hellboy, by writer Mike Mignola and a host of artists is a fantastic and dark comic billed as a horror story. It is a lenghty series of over-priced books so don't buy them new unless they are 1/2 price. 'Wake the Devil' is the one I just read and its great. Mignola likes to fight the Nazis. The art is beatiful, dark but brightly coloured and the stories are exciting as Hellboy, the spawn of Satan, but a good guy, smashes stuff up, including the bad guys. Strangley this set did not make many people's 'best of the decade' comics, although it certainly should.

Cairo, by G. Willow Wilson, art by MK Perker, is a graphic novel about genies, politics, and crime. It is an action packed love story, a mix of myth and reality, drawn in black and white with intricate shading and beautiful layouts. The sequences are well done; Perker uses many different techniques to link the forms together which add positively to the visual aspect. I loved it.

One Bad Rat, by Bryan Talbot, is a story of a teen girl who is running away from her abusive father. It is one of the most well respected graphic novels ever, for its homage to Beatrice Potter, the girl's love of reading, the way Talbot lovingly tells the story with his images and for the way the heroine is able to confront her parents. It is a difficlut story becuase it speaks of pain, but untimately of survival.