So what with travel, summer doings, and general heat-produced languor, books and other reading materials have fallen by the wayside, AS WELL THEY SHOULD. Life is for living! Out! out, gentle sirs, into the world to explore its manifold treasures and wonders!
But no, reading's the shit, and I've been doing a little of it. I'll climb back on that horse for reals soon, but for now I'm kind of dithering by the barn.
I just read volume 1 of East of West, and HOLY SHIT, YOU GUYS.
I think I've discovered with comics that if I'm not really into them, I shouldn't continue. Because there are some comics I'm really, really into, and enough of them exist that I don't have to make myself read Hawkeye. I am not saying Hawkeye is bad. It's probably great. But after trying that, Sex Criminals, and Bitch Planet, I've come to the conclusion that I am just not on board with that guy and his wife's writing. I feel the same, weirdly enough, about Locke & Key.
You know one of the weird things that bugged me about Locke & Key, the series about the house with all the mysterious keys that do things like turn you into a ghost? You can't tell how old anyone is from the way they're drawn. I didn't even realize that was a skill because so many people apparently have it, but whoever's drawing that series very much does not. So I was constantly like "Wait...he's supposed to be 15 and not 30? That's someone's mom? What?"
East of West sounds like a weird fever dream when I try to explain it, but basically, the Civil War went differently in their world. It's the not-so-distant future, and people are still kind of dressing like it's the Old West, but also they have robots and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are trying to end the world. Well. Actually Three Horsemen, because Death left for reasons made clear later. And Death rides a fun robot horse!
San Francisco is also instead called New Shanghai and you should just read it unless you don't like violence at all, in which case maybe stay away and play Katamari Damacy instead.
I'm also reading Alice + Freda Forever, which is a true story about 1890s lesbians, where one of them is MURDERY. Guess which one. Guess. Because it's not the one I'm happy about.
It's really short, and it's got illustrations, which is just fun, but I've been distracted by things, including The Walking Dead Compendium, which is maybe 2 million pages long, but saves having to get each volume from the library. I'm about halfway through and times. are. tough. Because zombies.
There is also the book Revolutionary Summer by Joseph Ellis, which is about the summer of 1776 in America. I'm kind of Not Great at American history, which is the worst as I am an American citizen, damnit, and I just don't need to know as much about England as I do. But we're so much newer! You start learning our history and too soon they want to talk to you about the Marshall Plan and Dwight Eisenhower and agghhh I don't care, it's too modern.
But. The founding of the country seems important, and I had brought no books to the airport in a silly attempt to save suitcase space, so this was purchased at Midway. And it is great and I'm learning all sorts of things, most of which involve the fact that we were seriously fucked and I don't understand how we beat the British.
SUMMERTIME.
 |
| Basically how I live life |
But no, reading's the shit, and I've been doing a little of it. I'll climb back on that horse for reals soon, but for now I'm kind of dithering by the barn.
I just read volume 1 of East of West, and HOLY SHIT, YOU GUYS.
I think I've discovered with comics that if I'm not really into them, I shouldn't continue. Because there are some comics I'm really, really into, and enough of them exist that I don't have to make myself read Hawkeye. I am not saying Hawkeye is bad. It's probably great. But after trying that, Sex Criminals, and Bitch Planet, I've come to the conclusion that I am just not on board with that guy and his wife's writing. I feel the same, weirdly enough, about Locke & Key.
You know one of the weird things that bugged me about Locke & Key, the series about the house with all the mysterious keys that do things like turn you into a ghost? You can't tell how old anyone is from the way they're drawn. I didn't even realize that was a skill because so many people apparently have it, but whoever's drawing that series very much does not. So I was constantly like "Wait...he's supposed to be 15 and not 30? That's someone's mom? What?"
East of West sounds like a weird fever dream when I try to explain it, but basically, the Civil War went differently in their world. It's the not-so-distant future, and people are still kind of dressing like it's the Old West, but also they have robots and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are trying to end the world. Well. Actually Three Horsemen, because Death left for reasons made clear later. And Death rides a fun robot horse!
 |
| Fun robot horse! |
San Francisco is also instead called New Shanghai and you should just read it unless you don't like violence at all, in which case maybe stay away and play Katamari Damacy instead.
 |
| Wheeeeeee |
I'm also reading Alice + Freda Forever, which is a true story about 1890s lesbians, where one of them is MURDERY. Guess which one. Guess. Because it's not the one I'm happy about.
It's really short, and it's got illustrations, which is just fun, but I've been distracted by things, including The Walking Dead Compendium, which is maybe 2 million pages long, but saves having to get each volume from the library. I'm about halfway through and times. are. tough. Because zombies.
There is also the book Revolutionary Summer by Joseph Ellis, which is about the summer of 1776 in America. I'm kind of Not Great at American history, which is the worst as I am an American citizen, damnit, and I just don't need to know as much about England as I do. But we're so much newer! You start learning our history and too soon they want to talk to you about the Marshall Plan and Dwight Eisenhower and agghhh I don't care, it's too modern.
But. The founding of the country seems important, and I had brought no books to the airport in a silly attempt to save suitcase space, so this was purchased at Midway. And it is great and I'm learning all sorts of things, most of which involve the fact that we were seriously fucked and I don't understand how we beat the British.
SUMMERTIME.
Comments
Post a Comment